Common Ground: The Real Wealth of Nations

September 2007

The Real Wealth of Nations

Creating a Caring Economics

By Riane Eisler

Much of my life has been a quest. This quest started in my childhood, when my parents and I fled my native Vienna from the Nazis. It continued in the slums of Havana, where we found refuge, and later in the United States, where I grew up. It was a quest for answers to a basic question: Why, when we humans have such a great capacity for caring, consciousness and creativity, has our world seen so much cruelty, insensitivity and destructiveness?

In the course of my quest I looked for answers in many areas, from psychology, history and anthropology to education, economics and politics. And again and again I came back to economics.

I saw that in our inextricably interconnected world none of us has a secure future so long as hunger, extreme poverty and violence continue unabated. I saw that present economic systems are despoiling and depleting our beautiful Earth. I saw that there is something fundamentally wrong with economic rules and practices that fail to adequately value the most essential human work: the work of caring for ourselves, others and our Mother Earth.

An economics based on caring may seem unrealistic to some people. Actually, it’s much more realistic than the old economic models, which strangely ignore some of the most basic facts about human existence — beginning with the crucial importance of caring and caregiving for all economic activities.

Consider that without caring and caregiving none of us would be here. There would be no households, no workforce, no economy, nothing.

To move forward, we must include the full spectrum of economic relations — from how humans relate to our natural habitat to intrahousehold economic interactions. This requires a complete and accurate map that includes all economic sectors.

This new economic map begins with the household as the core inner sector. This sector is the real heart of economic productivity, as it makes possible economic activity in all other sectors. Its most important product is people — a product of paramount importance in the postindustrial economy where “high-quality human capital” is a business mantra.

But no attention is given in conventional economics to what is needed to produce high-quality human capital: caring and caregiving.

Nor is that all. Not only is the work of caregiving given little support in economic policy when it’s done in the home, but work that entails caregiving is paid substandard wages in the market economy.

In the U.S., people think nothing of paying plumbers, the people to whom we entrust our pipes, $50 to $60 per hour. But childcare workers, the people to whom we entrust our children, get an average of $10 an hour according to the U.S. Department of Labor. And we demand that plumbers have training, but not that all childcare workers have training.

This isn’t logical. It’s pathological. But to change it, we have to look beyond areas traditionally taken into account in economic analyses.

Our beliefs about what is or is not valuable are largely unconscious. They have been profoundly affected by assumptions we inherited from times when anything associated with the female half of humanity — such as caring and caregiving — was devalued. If we look at our current fiscal priorities, we see that policymakers always seem to find money for stereotypically “masculine” control and violence — for prisons, weapons, wars. But we’re told there’s no money for caring and caregiving — for “feminine” activities, such as caring for children and people’s health, for nonviolence and peace.

I want to say that when I speak of caring and caregiving as “women’s work” I’m only echoing conventional beliefs we inherited from times when gender roles were much more rigid. The goal is an economic and social system that supports caring and cargiving in ways that put food on the table and a roof over people’s heads — one that no longer bars women from areas traditionally reserved for men and no longer views caring and caregiving as fit only for women or effeminate men.

The reality is that caring pays — not only in human terms but in strictly economic terms. Nordic nations such as Finland, Norway, and Sweden (where women are approximately 40 percent of national legislators) have found that investing in caring policies — from universal healthcare and childcare and education for caregiving to family stipends for caregiving and generous paid parental leave — is an investment in a higher general quality of life, a happier population and a more efficient, innovative economy. In 2003-04 and 2005-06, Finland was even ahead of the much richer and powerful U.S. in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness ratings.

Businesses are also finding that concern for the welfare of employees and their families translates into increased competence, creativity and better business relations. In short, a caring orientation is good for people and business.

We also cannot solve our environmental problems by just trying to introduce less polluting technologies or changing consumption patterns. Even if we succeed in these efforts, which is doubtful without going deeper, new crises will erupt unless we make more fundamental changes.

In our time, when high technology guided by values such as conquest, exploitation and domination threaten our survival, we need economic inventions driven by an ethos of caring. We need a caring revolution.

Riane Eisler’s new book is The Real Wealth of Nations. Her earlier books include the international bestseller, The Chalice and The Blade. She is President of the Center for Partnership Studies and co-founder of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence. For more information, see rianeeisler.com.

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