Students of economics learn very early on in their studies that the fundamental problem in economics is the issue with scarce resources and unlimited wants. As such, economists deal with the optimum allocation of resources in society to ensure the efficient use of these resources. One way of achieving this efficient usage of resources is through the market mechanism, whereby supply and demand find an equilibrium point at a given price.

The market mechanism is now seen as a panacea for most economic problems, and as the Maltese saying goes, “is-suq isuq” (the market is the driver). In the meantime, we have created a cruel and unkind economy, where, again according to the saying, the rule of the jungle applies. The free market has created more inequality and in order to reverse this inequality, we need to break the myth of the free market.

One of the more famous quotations from A Christmas Carol of Charles Dickens is where Ebenezer Scrooge says: “If they would rather die, they had better do it and decrease the surplus population.” One cannot get much more cruel and unkind than that.

In his very first apostolic exhortation, Pope Francis wrote that around the world today, the powerful “feed upon the powerless” and too many people are treated as “consumer goods to be used and then discarded”.

In this same document, he writes: “The worship of the ancient golden calf... has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”

We have created a cruel and unkind economy, where the rule of the jungle applies

He increases the dose by writing, “today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills”.

Economic well-being has become synonymous with well-being in general and the metric for this is the gross domestic product, which ignores social, educational, environmental and other issues, all related to the human person.

The well-being of a human person goes beyond one’s ability to produce and to consume and needs to encompass the holistic dimension of a well-lived life. Linked to this is the concept of wellness. We need to be able to live a healthy lifestyle, both from a physical perspective as well as from a mental perspective.

However, we need a gentler and kinder economy to achieve this. There are a number of points to consider, but I will deal with just two.

Several months ago, I wrote about the ‘economy of communion’, espoused by Chiara Lubich, the foundress of the Focolare Movement. The ‘economy of communion’ encourages businesses to consider themselves as an integral part of the communities they operate in.

In concrete terms, this means that businesses, after putting aside funds to make the business sustainable, commit themselves to give part of their profits to those in need and to promote the culture of giving. Promoting solidarity and the common good is one way of creating a gentler and kinder economy.

The second point is about negative economic externalities. A negative externality is a cost that is suffered by a third party (society in general as well as individuals) as a consequence of an economic activity.

Giving a practical example, a negative externality of building development is air pollution and the destruction of our countryside. As long as we allow negative economic externalities to occur, where the few benefit at the expense of the many, we cannot have a gentle and kind economy.

I strongly believe that the human person needs to be at the centre of a country’s economic policies and the economy is there to serve humanity, and not the other way round. We are today at a crossroads as we emerge from the crisis caused by the coronavirus. We need to choose the direction that helps us to create a gentler and kinder economy.