Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? by Katrine Marcal

Author:Katrine Marcal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books

CHAPTER TEN

In which we see that you aren’t selfish just because you want more money

Nancy Folbre, a feminist professor of economics, often tells this tale:

Once there were a number of goddesses who decided to hold a competition, a sort of Olympics for the countries of the world. This wasn’t an ordinary race with a fixed distance where whoever reaches the finish line first wins a medal. It was a competition to see which society could move its members forward as a whole. The starting shot was fired and nation number one quickly took the lead.

This nation encouraged each of its citizens to run as best they could, as fast as they could towards an unknown finish line – and they assumed that the track couldn’t be too long. They started running very fast and soon children and the elderly lagged behind. None of the other runners stopped to help them. They were overjoyed with how fast they were running and couldn’t spare the time. But as the race continued, even they began to tire. By and by, almost all of the runners were ailing and injured – and there was nobody else to take their place.

Nation number two had a different strategy. This society sent all of its young men forth and told the women to take up the rear. The women would carry the children and take care of the elderly. This meant that the men could run incredibly quickly. The women were close by and could help them when they grew tired. This appeared at first to be an excellent system. Soon, it was plagued by conflict. The women felt that their efforts were at least as important as the men’s. If they hadn’t had to carry the children, they could have run just as fast, they reasoned. The men refused to take their point. And what had seemed like a winning strategy lost momentum. Ever more energy was spent on conflicts, negotiations and fights.

Now the attention shifted to nation number three. This one had been moving relatively slowly. But when the goddesses looked in its direction they saw that this country moved at a much steadier pace than the others. Here participants were expected to both run and take care of those less able. Men and women were equally encouraged to take the lead and everyone took turns taking care of the children and the infirm. Both speed and contribution to the whole were valued, and this shared responsibility created solidarity among the people. Clearly this nation won the contest. It’s a rather sweet story.

Every society must in some way create a structure for how to care for other people, otherwise neither the economy nor anything else will work. ‘How do you get your dinner?’ is the fundamental question of economics, and even if Adam Smith wrote that the answer was self-interest, his mother had made sure food was on the table every night and cared for him when he had a fever.

Without care children can’t grow, the sick won’t get healthy, Adam Smith can’t write and the old can’t live.

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