Production - Economics and Ecology: United for a Sustainable World - page 69

finding that their roles as strict price-seekers in the mass market (such as
the modern, big-box discount store) are increasingly unsatisfying and dis-
tasteful, even given the welcome low prices, as they struggle to meet basic
needs in an economy that is failing them. A desire to repersonalize the link
between consumer and producer underlies the rising popularity of local
food movements and Saturday markets. Included is the desire to minimize
the requirements of transportation and distribution and the wasteful energy
expenditures that accompany them, and to restore an element of community
into the act of meeting basic, material necessities.
The Goal Has Been Unlimited Production
These observations raise an important point. Notice that the emphasis for
production theory in the evolution of economic thought has shifted subtly
away from a focus on the individual meeting his or her life's requirements,
and has shifted toward the producer or business. Diminished is the atten-
tion given to the need to support the person , and increasingly the focus is
on keeping the business viable. Obtaining the goods and services needed
for survival, or even a comfortable life, for the individual or family receives
decreased attention. Maintaining an acceptable, and preferably growing,
volume of sales for the producing entity becomes the center of attention.
Thus, economic health is seen as keeping business viable, as opposed
to primacy on ensuring that individuals and families are well supported.
The economic problem has shifted from supporting individuals to supporting
businesses . As an example, in the current near-disastrous economic climate,
marked by palpable human sacrifice and suffering, the political pressures
in Congress seem to focus on incentives for business (lower interest rates,
capital gains tax cuts, and so on), rather than on bolstering human welfare
through such direct measures as extending unemployment benefits. Raising
production in support of businesses apparently enhances political capital
more than does bolstering the affordability of available goods and services
in the support of families.
To be sure, the realization is still tacitly present, and occasionally acknowl-
edged, that the seminal reason for businesses to exist is to produce for con-
sumers. Humans have wants and needs, and this is the reason an economy
exists. Productive enterprises, using whatever technological means are avail-
able and appropriate, need be seen simply as a mechanism or delivery vehi-
cle for accomplishing material well-being.
Somewhere along the way, however, the emphasis shifted. Profit, for
instance, was initially the reward for satisfying human necessities and some
wants. If a producer (in earlier times, perhaps, merely another human being
in the role as an artisan or craftsman) provided something seen by others to