Whether considered boring, irrelevant or impossible to understand, economics and economists are held in poor regard by most people. However, a knowledge of how to create wealth is essential if we want to enjoy abundance. We need to be able to understand the claims made by politicians and policymakers so we can challenge them when necessary if wealth creation is to remain possible in the future. We all want abundance yet the subject of how this is best achieved is distorted into incomprehensibility by most politicians and the mainstream media within the Matrix.

In this episode of “Living outside the Matrix” Dr mark Thornton helps bring some clarity to a subject shrouded in jargon and obfuscation. He illustrates the differences between mainstream (Keynesian) economics and the Austrian school. I submit that the Austrian school is right on the money. It is the economics of peace, freedom and abundance, and therefore is not to be found within the Matrix of mind control. In most western nations these days just like in the film ‘The Matrix’ you are like a human economic battery, economically exploited for your sweat equity.

A Definition of Economics

Curiously, economics is a concept that has defied a universally accepted definition. One of the earliest and most influential economists Adam Smith, in his classic “The wealth of nations” (1776) defined what was then known as ‘political economy’ as “an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations”. Alfred Marshall in his textbook Principles of Economics (1890) defines it as “…a study of man in the ordinary business of life. It enquires into how he gets his income and how he uses it. Thus, it is on the one side, the study of wealth and on the other and more important side, a part of the study of man.”

These days it is most often defined as “a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.” But for reasons we shall explore, it isn’t really a science in the strict sense of the word because it is a study of human behaviour driven by choices that are not falsifiable. They cannot be nailed down – as it were – because human choices and preferences always individual and subjective according to personal circumstances.

I define economics as “The study of principles of human behaviour concerning the exchange of values (goods, services and money), and the socio-political conditions required for the creation of wealth.”

Economics of the Matrix

Mainstream economics within the Matrix is generally referred to as ‘Keynesian’. John Maynard Keynes (1883 – 1946) was a British economist from Kings College, Cambridge and considered the most influential economists of the 20th century. He gave his name to mainstream  macroeconomic theory.

This school of economic thought advocates much of what modern governments do and it provides a cloak of credibility and justification for the collectivists and socialists who wish to ‘re-distribute’ wealth, and claim to want to eradicate poverty while ignoring the facts of how to create wealth. Indeed, advocating policies that make wealth creation less likely, as opposed to more likely. Welcome to the Matrix. As always, some thought and consideration is necessary to think our way through the maze of misinformation ...