I’ve heard from a very wise friend that something she hadn’t previously considered, which she read in my “tiny house” article, was that the housing market requires most people to be in debt. It’s been a strangely positive experience to come to the concept of “economics” through living my life as a poet, novelist and medical journalist, because it allows me to critique things that might otherwise go unnoticed. Another very wise friend told me that her husband went to university to study economics, was told on day one that the entire model is built on a concept of infinite growth, and he quit to become a gardener. No wonder we’re friends.
The first book of economics I read was The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The point of this beautifully written, small book (a long essay, really) is that different concepts of “economies” exist – we needn’t be beholden to the neoliberal, western, cut-throat, strangle-your-dreams economy that many of us feel mired, indeed trapped, within – and she describes something from her Potawatomi heritage called the gift economy. She speaks of reciprocity and abundance, rather than grasping and scarcity. The revolutionary thing about Kimmerer’s writing is that it’s gentle, assured, and as a reader I’m left with no doubt that she’s correct.
