Productivism: Productivism Unveiled, Navigating Economic Ideologies for a Brighter Future

By Fouad Sabry

What is Productivism

It is the notion that "more production is necessarily good" and that the objective of human organization is to achieve measurable levels of growth and productivity. Productivism is also known as growthism. The primary focus of criticisms of productivism is on the constraints on expansion that are imposed by a finite world. These criticisms also extend to considerations of human procreation, the work ethic, and even the generation of alternative energy technologies.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Productivism

Chapter 2: Free market

Chapter 3: Libertarian socialism

Chapter 4: Socialism

Chapter 5: Market economy

Chapter 6: Economic growth

Chapter 7: Index of economics articles

Chapter 8: Anarchist economics

Chapter 9: Heterodox economics

Chapter 10: Small Is Beautiful

Chapter 11: Criticism of Marxism

Chapter 12: Economic ideology

Chapter 13: Degrowth

Chapter 14: Types of socialism

Chapter 15: Eco-socialism

Chapter 16: Socialist mode of production

Chapter 17: Marxian economics

Chapter 18: Market socialism

Chapter 19: Socialist economics

Chapter 20: To each according to his contribution

Chapter 21: Utilitarianism

(II) Answering the public top questions about productivism.

(III) Real world examples for the usage of productivism in many fields.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Productivism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jan 31, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Productivism

Productivism or growthism is the belief that productivity and growth are the raison d'être of human organization (e.g., work) and that more production is necessarily good. Critiques of productivism center on the limits to growth posed by a finite planet and extend to discussions of human reproduction, the work ethic, and alternative energy production.

Most countries and economies are productivist in nature, despite the fact that productivism is frequently viewed negatively as a problem in politics and economics. While critics of productivism and its political-economic variants, notably capitalism and socialism, challenge the notions of conventional political economy and argue for an economic policy more compatible with humanity, economists and political scientists frequently dismiss these views as utopian, arguing that there is no conflict between the worker and citizen roles. In other words, conventional economics, specifically macroeconomics, already accounts for the connection between productivity and the freedom to enjoy that productivity.

According to Anthony Giddens, productivism is defined as:

an ethos in which work, as employment for pay, has been clearly separated from other spheres of existence.

Moreover, he states:

[work] determines whether or not people feel valuable or socially valued.

Although productivism can be considered derogatory because it is unacceptable to many individuals and ideologies it describes, these same individuals and ideologies frequently use terms like productivity, growth, economic sense, and common sense without argument, assuming the primacy of industry.

Productivists reject the concept of uneconomic growth, according to proponents of conventional neoclassical economics. That is, the productivist believes all growth is good, whereas the critic of productivism believes it can be more like a disease, measurably growing but interfering with life processes, and that it is up to the electorate, worker, and purchaser to value their free time and decide whether to use it for production or consumption.

Amartya Sen, 1999 Nobel Laureate in Economics, is a prominent academic critic of productivism. His development as freedom theory is one of several human development theories that assert the growth of individual capital—that is, talent, creativity, and personal ingenuity—is more important than the growth of many other measurable quantities, such as the production of goods for commodity markets.

In his 1975 essays, the British economist E. F. Schumacher made the following observation::

In a world of finite resources, it is impossible for consumption to increase indefinitely.

and:

I am pleased when my child grows older. As I age, less so!

{End Chapter 1}

Chapter 2: Free market

In economics, a free market is a market in which buyers and sellers interact freely and prices for goods and services are set according to the level of supply and demand. According to the models, these markets function perfectly well without the involvement of the state or any other authoritative body. The free market ideal is contrasted by its supporters with the regulated market, in which taxes and regulations are used to influence supply and demand. Prices in a perfect free market economy are determined only by the competing bids and offers of sellers and buyers.

In disciplines like political economy, new institutional economics, economic sociology, and political science, researchers compare and contrast the ideas of a free market and a coordinated market. All of these disciplines stress the need for rule-making institutions beyond the simple forces of supply and demand in today's market systems, which allow supply and demand to regulate production and distribution. While modern usage and pop culture tend to associate free markets with capitalism, free markets have actually been integral parts of some varieties of market socialism.

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and run by business entities for the purpose of making a profit.

Adam Smith and other classical economists define a free market as one without governmental intervention or corporate monopolies. According to them, this means that free market forces should be used to drive down or eliminate economic rents, or profits earned due to imperfect competition.

According to standard economic theory, the returns on land and other natural resources are economic rents whose supply is perfectly inelastic and thus cannot be taxed. Those who agree with him are often referred to as Georgists, geoists, or geolibertarians.

Léon Walras, a neoclassical economist who contributed to the development of the general equilibrium theory, shared a similar viewpoint.

He insisted that free competition was impossible apart from state ownership of land and resources.

Additionally, If the government owned more of the economy's resources and businesses, income taxes could be scrapped.

The laissez-faire principle advocates for a free market economy free from interference from the government in the form of discriminatory taxes, subsidies, tariffs, regulations, or monopolies. According to Friedrich Hayek's The Pure Theory of Capital, the point is to keep the information that can only be found in a price.

Since the 19th century, various forms of market-based socialism have existed. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Benjamin Tucker, and the Ricardian socialists were early and influential advocates of free markets within the socialist movement. According to these economists, capitalism's exploitative conditions preclude the possibility of truly free markets and voluntary exchange. Worker cooperatives, such as the mutualist system proposed by Proudhon, and state-owned enterprises, both operating in unregulated and open markets, were among the proposals made. Capital good prices are set according to marginal cost pricing in these socialist models, in contrast to other market socialist models (such as the Lange model) in which publicly owned enterprises are coordinated by varying degrees of economic