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Posted: January 14, 2025
Economics has replaced religion as the explanation for the world’s inequalities and tragedies. If you've questioned why we can’t solve social problems like homelessness, poverty, or climate change, you've heard dismissive answers like this: Because the markets wouldn’t allow it. Because it’s not profitable. Because it would be bad for the economy.
These answers make our social problems seem natural and inevitable. The media, bankers, politicians, and economists repeat them every day. They make us seem ridiculous, childish, or naive, for even asking or caring. However, these answers don’t explain anything. That’s because we (the workers of the world) don’t really understand what they mean. What is a market, and why would they block our progress? Why must we prioritize profit above everything else? What does ‘bad for the economy’ mean when a gain for the bosses is almost always a loss for workers? Rather than explaining, these answers shut down discussion about how to actually solve our most pressing social problems.
Imagine a curious peasant from the Middle Ages. They ask a priest “why is there starvation, slavery, and suffering in the world?” The priest would reply: “Because the starving deserve punishment. Because God divides us into slaves and masters. Because you must suffer on Earth to reach heaven.” Again, these answers make the problems seem natural and inevitable.
However, history has shown us that the opposite is true. Starvation has been reduced by advanced farming techniques, fertilizer innovations, and income redistribution. Slavery has been combatted by slave resistance, mass political action, and progressive legislation. Suffering still exists, but we are becoming more capable at preventing or detecting its causes, like hunger, disease, or natural disasters, with the right amount of popular political will.
The curious peasant was right to question the existence of these social problems. The priest’s answers didn’t explain why these problems existed. He just dismissed the peasant’s concerns. At the same time, the priest’s answers reinforce the social order that he benefits from. They blunt the peasant’s healthy curiosity, and ability to improve his society. Early European scientists like Galileo had to fight the Vatican's power in pursuit of scientific truth. These brave thinkers freed European minds from the dogma imposed by centuries of the Church’s domination. This is not to cast out all of religion, just the aspects used by powerful earthly classes (monarchs, clergy, and aristocrats) to subjugate and oppress the masses.
In that spirit, as curious Canadian workers, we need to fight the junk economics used to justify modern social inequalities. They are not natural and inevitable, but structural and deliberate. We need to understand how and why the Canadian capitalist class (and its international counterparts) uses junk economics. We are being misled into supporting a status quo that protects the political and economic power of a few rich elites. Instead, we need to practice socialist economics, and pursue a socialist economy.
To do so, we must first contrast between junk economics and socialist economics. Junk economics is what TV, social media, and newspapers tell us about the economy. We're taught it in high school and even most universities, but it’s mostly capitalist propaganda with a thin layer of economic language on top. The economic and political elite use it to justify the status quo from which they benefit. They use it to eliminate thought and discussion about better economic alternatives. While economic decisions are made for economic reasons, these reasons are rarely the ones we're told. Junk economics is what sparks our bullshit detector every time a millionaire banker tells us there isn’t enough money for healthcare or housing. We inherently feel that we’re being lied to, but aren’t able to explain why. The first step towards a socialist economy is to protect our minds from the illusions and confusion that only benefit our bosses, and their bosses, who perpetuate them (the illusions/confusion).
Doing this requires separating junk economic fictions from scientific economic facts. This involves studying and building economic systems that meet the material needs of every human being on earth. Societies that feed, house, cloth, and nourish. We must unlearn our acceptance of the problems that we know are unacceptable. Then, we need a popular understanding of thinkers who have championed the science of economics. Their work has never been taught to us. And it never will be. It’s time to lose our faith in junk economics together.
This project will be an exploration of the liberatory economic possibilities of socialism. You don’t need any prior background in economics to engage with it. I don’t have an academic economics background either. The aim is to hone our abilities to think differently about the economy, rather than nail down or rebut every single detail or theory. So bring your curiosity, a desire to fight for an equitable and peaceful world, and let’s understand how economics is weaponized against us. We have already hinted at some of the key lessons that will be expanded on in this project:
We. Must. Study. History. Like junk economics, the dead history we’re taught in high school numbs us with lists of disconnected dates. As today’s curious peasants, we must bring to life the great tides of history, and the masses of people who lived, worked, and played within them.
Dominant classes will teach the dominated anything, even outright falsehoods, to ensure their domination. The education we need must be taken, because it will never be given. The ruling class’ greatest fear is every single worker unleashing their academic and political potential.
We can’t let cynicism kill our curiosity. Junk economics keeps our bullshit detectors in overdrive, but settling for an ‘everything’s bullshit’ attitude is just as harmful. Seeking economic truth is hard work, but it’s our only option.
In our next post, we will explore what an economy actually is, including important factors and outcomes for socialist economics. Building a socialist economy begins with diagnosing the roots of current economic problems, and setting forward a path that we will fight for.
If you're interested in these ideas, don't hesitate to reach out. This project is a conversation, not a lecture, so all good faith feedback is encouraged, especially from trained economists.