Friday, July 1, 2022

John Lounsbury's diagram


From Lounsbury's Book Review of The New Economics, A Manifesto by Steve Keen

The "more correct" view, on the right, shows the economy at the center of things.

That's it, yeah.

I'd put it into words like this:

If the economy is not sustainable, the society cannot be sustained.
If the society is not sustainable, the environment cannot be sustained.

But I want to change the word "society" to "civilization". Because civilization follows the economy up, and civilization follows the economy down.


1 comment:

The Arthurian said...

for reference

In Carroll Quigley's The Evolution of Civilization
on page 64 (or 63 of 425 in the PDF)
Quigley shows a diagram like Lounsbury's "b": three concentric circles.

At the center Quigley has "Humans";
the next larger circle has "Culture";
and the biggest circle has "Natural environment".