by Robert Lalor

Created on: May 05, 2010

There is a great line in a Terry Pratchett book where the people of a city stumble upon creatures both capable and willing to do all their work for them and not only that but also free of charge.  Most people are elated at the idea of not having to work such long hours, but not the economist.  He looks shocked and declares that if all these creatures did all our jobs for us we would all be unemployed and hence not be able to feed ourselves.  Here I see the greatest flaw of the economic mind; the idea that it is the money not the goods that are important.

Economics is one of the few things that believes it can justify itself when it says that trinkets are more important than those things essential to our survival.  I can go down to a shop and buy a loaf of bread for about 80p.  It shall feed me, give me nutrition and most importantly it will go a long way in ensuring that I'll be able to wake up tomorrow morning safe in the knowledge that I haven't starved to death and that my life will be prolonged for at least one more day.  Alternatively I could go down to the jewellers and buy a gold ring for £200.  This might inflate my sense of self importance, but it shall give me no comfort if I cannot afford to buy any food having spent all my money.  It is a mere trinket.  It has no fundamental use other than to make me feel good about the fact that I've been so successful that I can waste my money on something I neither need nor really want.  Let's face it buying a car for £100,000 neither makes sense nor gives much benefit, but it does allow you to shout out to everyone that you've been so successful that you are able to blow a massive sum of money on what is the motorised progression of the horse.  So our first lesson in economics is that trinkets are far more important than things we need.  A most important lesson I'm sure you will agree.

But although I'm mocking, and possibly even ridiculing, I do have a serious point here.  Economics tells us that to be successful we must achieve growth and both work as hard as we can and as productively as we can.  We must spend and we must make, and when we spend and make, we should make the most expensive things and buy the most expensive things.  But in reality all we need to do each day is to make sure we have shelter, food and in reality not much else.  An economist may see the value in bankers, advertisers, and even trinket makers,

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