STRUCTURAL ECONOMICS: THE SERMONS
When I consider all the rules and regulations being used ineffectively to maintain and guide the economy, it occurs to me that Alfred marshall's comment that the two most important influences in life were economics and religion may in some ways overlap in influence and impact.
Rules to set bounds on economic activity abound in every codex of law ever made by any society.
The basics often include something similar to that offerred up by Jesus.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
If there is a single statement in the New testament that captures both the spirit of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and the goal of the teachings it is the above statement.
Reluctance to see this "golden rule" as sound economic policy of the highest level springs from the need to have unfetterred access to society's resources. The tendency to take as much from society as possible and rationalize it as some entitlement founded on some philosophical justification that is unconstrained by responsibilities to other members of society goes against the "golden rule" and any similar rule that can be found in any socially rooted philosophy or religion.
By some myth or other such as the myth of the market that states that some invisible hand will guide the market to that state of pefection called equilibrium at all levels of the economy at all times and because of the existence of this invisible handed benefactor all other influences need to be restrained from involvement.
This leaves wide open and unconstrained the "priviledge" of acquisition attached to the myth of market master builder and guider. It sounds very much like the wizard of Oz in his feeble omnipotence that stands up to challenge in the realm of fear but not to reason.
