The Economics of Love: How a Meaningful and Mindful Life Can Promote Allocative Efficiency and Happiness

This chapter introduces the transcendental law of love for one’s neighbor as a paradigm for economics before describing how this new economic model could be applied to enhance well-being. If there was an understanding that the purpose of life was not purely to make money, but to contribute to the common good, we would no longer need competition to force us to offer good products at good prices. We would simply do that by ourselves without anymarket pressure being necessary. That is to say, if people led a more meaningful and mindful life, a life in which they felt they were making a special contribution to the good of all through the use of their specific talents, we would achieve economic efficiency and, in addition, increase the ‘gross national happiness’. This way, we could construct a veritable economy of neighborly love. An economy in which the wish to best serve one another, not market competition, is the principal driver behind the production of good products at good prices.Without stress and fear for economic survival, production would be efficient. People would be happy because they would feel that they made a special contribution to the well-being of all, and in so doing, provided their lives with greater meaning. We outline how such a paradigm shift could be promoted through a monetary reform and through an unconditional basic income.