Values and value are fuzzy ideas, don’t you agree?
I see the issue of “values” as relating to aims that we believe are right, moral, and ethical. Free market theory is essentially built upon a quasi-scientific (psychological) foundation. In trying to be objective it posits an amoral mechanism in which all values considerations are subordinate to the aim to profit. The economic theory is founded in Spencer’s “survival of the fittest” bastardization of Darwin. Profit is the measure by which we recognize the “fittest”. But our actions are in fact, guided by our values. We are not, by nature, amoral. We should rightly ask if the dogma of amoral market forces actually makes us act in amoral ways, when we would not do so otherwise? There is a good deal of evidence that this is more accurate than the quasi-scientific view.
This point regarding free market theory—that it is not values based—is very important. In accepting the free market dogma, we become subject to a tyranny of profit. This belief actually limits freedom because it posits forces that are external to our values which act to constrain our aims and actions, or more accurately, damn those aims and actions that do not conform to the assumptions of free-market theory. This is really no different than the medieval doctrine that declared that tyrannical lords ruled by “Divine Right” (God’s will).
“Value” must be understood in terms of “values”. In other words, given our values, what is it that we want to accomplish? What future are we trying to create? Once we come to terms with what we want to accomplish, the term value can be defined in terms of how well we do at moving forward in a manner that realizes our aims while minimizing the negative systemic impacts of our interventions. This becomes the challenge of optimization.
We can try reducing human values by asking what is it that most human beings actually hold as valuable? The bottom line might it be to live well, avoid misery, have fun, procreate, and be as free from fear as possible. In terms of systems theory and the problems of optimization, how might an individual best realize that aim? By beating down his neighbors and living in an armed fortress, with sickness and misery all around him? Some seem to think so.
Culture and society do not, and could not, exist in terms of arbitrary, every man for himself, values or psychology. This is where free-market psychological theory breaks down as an absurdity. The very existence of nations, tribes, communities,companies, and families is built upon shared “values” and collaborative action to create “value”. The myth of amoral markets serves those with vested interests in the same very effective manner as did “Devine Right” for feudal lords of yore. Free market dogma is starting to become downright dangerous for the human enterprise as a whole.
