Based on Economics: The World as One Economy, 14 Lectures by Rudolf Steiner (1922)

Compiled by Meg Freeling

The following ideas are offered as entry points into the picture of the world as one economy presented by Rudolf Steiner in 1922 to university economics students.  Steiner emphasized that the fundamental shift we are experiencing from nation-state economies to a humanity-wide, world economy requires some corresponding shifts in our thinking:

A.      FROM definition-based thinking TO descriptive thinking that looks at each phenomenon objectively through imaginative pictures and multiple perspectives;

B.     FROM thinking that things are “finished” and at rest, TO actually perceiving and tracking the living transformations of things in motion;

C.     FROM holding only two variables in mind at a time, TO holding at least three moving things in the mind simultaneously; 

D.     FROM thinking there will always be some place “out there” we can export or import things to as a way to re-establish economic balances, TO recognizing that, in a single world economy, we have to begin trusting to some fundamental internal separations to keep our single, shared economy alive.

Here are Seven Ideas on which to begin practicing these thinking skills.  They need to be tested in life.

1.      Rather than Supply and Demand, Supply and Supply  becomes the new descriptor of a basic economic transaction.  EACH party supplies something, to get another that they need or want more.

2.      In every economic transaction, a surplus is always released on BOTH sides.  This surplus belongs to all of humanity as wealth-in-common, the common wealth.  It is a gift, the result of grace.

3.      Economic life is best understood as a field of karmic relationships, rather than an unconscious movement of market forces.  There is no “invisible hand” moving things around – only more or less conscious decisions being made by people who value one thing more than another at any given moment, and make transactions accordingly.

4.      There is no one thing called “money” -- only three kinds of money depending on which phase of the cycle the medium of exchange is currently in.  The three kinds of money are (a) purchase money, (b) loan money and (c) gift money.  Accurate accounting can reveal these variations.

5.      Money is nothing more nor less than a living bookkeeping.  As a mirror that reflects emerging, changing and disappearing values, money is born, grows old, and dies. Young money is best used for long-term business loans, and old money for gifts.  Once given, old money can be reborn.

6.      True price is the key to bringing health to economic life.  True price happens when each person receives for their product or service the resources it will take to cover their needs until the next like product or service is completed.  It is future-oriented.  It requires an understanding of each person’s situation – as seen through their accounts.

In the associative economy, economic associations become the social unit through which people make agreements with each other to regulate production, paying attention to the just needs of their fellows.  Based on transparent accounts and mutual reviews, each agreement must spring from the free initiative of the individuals concerned, and the economic association must effectively convey the services of each to the community.