Editorial May 26, 2003 Issue

Contagion and the mental economy

Editor

Some observers say that the key to our economic future lies in consumer behavior. Will we buy, or stick with what we have? Good question, but we would rather see people defined in terms of what they produce instead of how much they consume. A nit unworthy of picking? We mean it as a nudge—toward thinking differently, and spiritually, about who we are.

The future of national economies and the global economy truly is in the hands of each citizen. The significance of each of us as God's useful and worthy creation is primal truth. So none of us could be insignificant to the nature of the whole. Consequently, our economic present and future lie in the summed outlook, values, and morale of individuals.

Today it's increasingly accepted that one's thinking can affect everything from the spin of an electron to job satisfaction to physical health. The ebb and flow of an economy mirrors the collective mental state of the people participating in that economic system. Not only is each thought significant to the whole, but the actual well-being of an entire economy is also affected by each change in thought, motive, and behavior. In this connection, the deceptive practices of some stock analysts and major US brokerage houses—analysts touting stocks in which they had no faith, in order to benefit the brokers who paid handsomely for intentionally flawed advice to investors—flash on many people's moral radar screens.

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