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Global Issues: Harmful economic systems 2010—the major
barrier to people's welfare and development

The standard economic model of how things work is that people produce and exchange goods.  Governments exist to provide “government goods”— things that people cannot provide for themselves, such as national defense. Thus the standard economic view is that activities are essentially productive. While this view has made for a thriving profession of economics,  it is not a correct view of reality. The principal difficulty is that there is economic activity that is unproductive and harmful (from the point of view of those being harmed), and that this is a key feature of the economic organization of  societies. What follows is a brief analytical description of these societies.  

Many societies are run on this basic set of principals.  Take and maintain control of the government.  Use powers of the government to obtain income. Key elements of this process are described in four sections:

• Obtaining income
• Keeping people oppressed/preventing revolution
• Avoiding overthrow
• Restricting entry

This special section exists to provide an analytical framework to understand the situation and events in many countries, which, considered separately, may be confusing.

Harmful economic systems 2009  Harmful economic systems 2008

Harmful economic systems 2007  Harmful economic systems 2006 

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