30 April

'The economy' is about 100 years old. It was invented from a single number. Today it's common to replace the idea of society with the economy. We've seen that clearly all through the pandemic, where the economy was even seen as needing to be 'balanced' against our health, and much anxiety about needing to 'open up the economy again'. You can't open a set of numbers, madness. It's a measure of national income, nothing more, and if we prioritise it it means we're prioritising income and those who have the most of it. Which is why the well-heeled were so keen to replace 'society' with the 'economy'. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/02/28/283477546/the-invention-of-the-economy