I think it is helpful to start out with a very broad sense of history. So a quick view of history..

Life is sex and food, food to support the sex.
Most of the stuff we have is to attract and keep sex partners: house, car, clothes, books, travel are to impress sexual partners. Home is where we are and neither of us can leave. We participate in the economy to maintain this relationship.

In its chaos and trial and error nature also gave us mind.

That is our three color pallet. Sex Food Mind

Mind is a problem because it often wants to cut its links to sex and food and go it alone into meditation, art, science.

Greeks gave us philosophy, politics and economics. Fateful

Aristotle and Plato picked up on the common Greek word, economia, household management, which meant how to manage an estate

Both discussed how a well run estate should produce a surplus and the question was, what to do with it. Leisure for politics and philosophy was the answer. Merely buying stuff was to be avoided. (for TINA advocates, this is a clear example of a different economy.)

That culture moved into early Christianity. The link was “god’s home for man” made it possible for the early Christian community to talk of economy, using the word economia, and equating it with the Christian community and the monastaries. The ideal of well run producing a surplus continued, but transformed into meditation to reach god. Since god was infinite the task was infinite and the idea of growth became an important part of the identity of the Christian community. Again the admonition was to not spend the surplus on stuff, but on tme to meditate and pray.

Hunter gatherers and nomads lived off of the kill, hunting, or the herd. Capital comes from latin, cap, for head, as in a new head of cattle. Source of increasing wealth. Greece and Rome were somewhat like Texas cattle ranches.

The nomia in eco-nomics comes from early Greek meaning equal distribution. Thus trying to maintain the sharing ethic and culture of the hunters.

A law is created when the natural has a tendency needing to be controlled. Hence *nomia*, equal distribution, was the law to prevent unequal distribution.

The hunters’ kill became the sacrifice in later culture, again the sacrifice shared (see Homer for many examples).

With the coming of more humans, war and control became more important, leading to struggles over hierarchy, the strong taking the spoils.

And here we are. And needing to rethink it.