Leopards. Always hungry for springboks. (Photo credit: Colin Watts)
A classic (and compelling) argument in favor of privileging economics as an organizing principle for society is that efficient economic transactions are non zero-sum: that is, both parties come out ahead. They don’t necessarily benefit equally- but both gain more value than they feel they've given up. This is a near-magical creation of value out of thin air! Yay economics! There’s a devil in the details, though, which is: increased income inequality reduces the efficiency of economies. That is, where there is huge disparity in the economic power of parties to economic transactions, there’s less total value created, and the benefit of those transaction tend to skew more towards the richer party. This is not efficient from the standpoint of macroeconomics (for more on this check out Thomas Piketty). And because (as we’ve noted above) money buys happiness for the poor but not for the rich, this inefficiency is even more glaring from the standpoint of well-being. This observation deeply influences Happitalist philosophy.
P.S. If you are wondering why the leopard and the springbok, listen to Episode 5.
Springboks. Never psyched when leopards are around. (Photo credit: Cameron Oxley)