#Ethics and Markets

[omegaphilosophia]

The Philosophy of Economism

Economism is the belief—or critique—that economic value and logic are the dominant or sole lens through which society is understood and governed. In philosophical terms, it represents a reductionist worldview, one that interprets complex human, social, and moral phenomena through the narrow criteria of economic efficiency, markets, and material gain.

Core Philosophy

Economism isn’t usually a self-declared philosophy, but rather a critique of how economic thinking has overreached into areas like education, health, ethics, and governance. It implies that:

Human behavior is reduced to rational self-interest and utility maximization.

Value is equated with price. Things that can’t be priced are undervalued or ignored.

Market logic is assumed to be superior to other forms of social organization (e.g., community, tradition, ethics).

Social issues are framed as economic problems solvable by market-based solutions.

Historical Context

Classical and Neoclassical Economics: Early economic thought was rooted in moral philosophy (e.g., Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments), but over time, economics evolved into a highly quantitative, detached discipline.

20th Century Rise: As neoliberal policies gained traction in the late 20th century, economism became embedded in public policy, management, and education.

Critics: Thinkers like Karl Polanyi, Amartya Sen, Michael Sandel, and Martha Nussbaum argue that economism distorts human values and undermines democracy, empathy, and community.

Key Characteristics

Quantification of value: What can’t be measured is dismissed.

Efficiency over ethics: Decisions are made based on cost-benefit analysis rather than justice or meaning.

Instrumental thinking: People and institutions are judged by their productivity or economic utility.

Policy by GDP: Governments prioritize economic growth as the primary measure of success.

Ethical & Philosophical Implications

Dehumanization: People become “human capital,” students become “investments,” and relationships become “transactions.”

Loss of moral vocabulary: Markets can’t fully account for dignity, fairness, or love—yet these are core to human life.

Inequality and exclusion: Economism often overlooks how systemic inequalities affect access to markets and opportunities.

Questions It Raises

Can economic models adequately capture human complexity?

What is lost when we value people primarily as economic agents?

Should moral, cultural, or ecological goods be protected from market logic?

Alternatives to Economism

Human Development Approach (Amartya Sen & Martha Nussbaum): Focuses on capabilities, not just income.

Degrowth and Post-Growth Economics: Challenges the centrality of GDP and growth as goals.

Ethical Economics: Reintroduces moral reasoning into economic analysis.

Ecological Economics: Integrates environmental limits into economic thinking.

Summary

The philosophy of economism reflects a world increasingly driven by market-centric thinking, where economic logic overshadows moral, social, and cultural values. While economics offers powerful tools, economism warns of the danger in letting it become the only tool—especially in a world of plural values and human needs.

[fuumiku]

It was Maid Day today yesterday a week ago so I got struck by inspiration to draw the worsties, and it ran away from me into a whole AU where they’re coworkers at a maid cafe. She’s a med student & this is just a part time job, and this is his depression job while he gets his life back together. He needs something he can be workaholic about to forget what it’s like having a personal life and personal issues. He’s actually the accountant, but the new hire janitor (Izutsumi) doesn’t show up for half her shifts and is a sloppy worker, so he gets the extra work of doing her job on top of his because he’s undervalued and overworked. Of course, janitors also have an uniform to keep the aesthetic cohesion as they go about cleaning the place, of course.

Senshi’s the part time cook you only see slivers off, he’s kind and warm when you do see him and have a chat but most shifts he’s in and out the kitchen without a trace. Laios and Falin are regulars because Falin and Marcille are besties & in the same med school, Laios accompanies Falin as she visits her friend at work and gets hooked on the food. Chilchuck has to remind Marcille to work instead of chatting with Falin for an hour, and next thing he knows she’s distracting him from work too. That’s it that’s the AU. Inspired by this idol AU fanart a bit <3

This was not meant to be birthday gift but well…… Happy bday Chil!!!

Read from left to right

[cuubism]

hey guys now that utah is banning fluoride in drinking water does anyone wanna partner with me to become an instagram health influencer selling "anti cavity serum" for 900% markup?

[bitchesgetriches]

Season 4, Episode 1: “Index Funds Include Unethical Companies. Can I Still Invest in Them, or Does That Make Me a Monster?”

Did we just help you out? Join our Patreon!

[despazito]

i'm afraid folks will have to come to terms with the fact that doodles are here to stay and that there should be a focus on getting breeders to produce the soundest doodles possible instead of trying to shut the whole thing down which is just an exercise in futility

[wherenightmaresroost]

the problem with ai isn't that it's ai it's

evil companies pushing ai to devalue labor and creative products.

misconceptions about how ai works, leading to people attributing it an intelligence and sentience it does not have, which feeds into

misinformation, the decrease in effort needed to create disinformation, and the sudden increase of skill needed to spot falsified info. 3a. this includes content creators using ai to flood searches with low-quality articles and inaccurate photos, people not being transparent when they use ai for their images, and things that make it harder to do casual research online

lower threshold for doing hard work that polishes skill, leading to over-reliance on a very flawed tool.

the tool itself isn't the problem. it just exacerbates things that were already problems before.

[estrogenated-future]

In Estrogenated Future, LLC. Wigan, the pey wet may or may not be laced with estradiol, with cyproterone, with progesterone, or with other Experimental Substances!, but is regardless as good as gravy.

Note: In accordance with the information accessibility standards of Estrogenated Future, LLC., the above in-joke will now be explained: In 2020, YouTube user JOE posted "We ate a Wigan kebab - the weirdest meal in the north?", a video of him trying various offerings at a local restaurant in Wigan, in the UK. One of the things he orders is a smack sandwich with pea juice on it, regionally referred to as "smack barm pey wet". Joe, seemingly not parsing the northern accent, asks what pea wet is, to which the proprietor replies, incredulous, "What's pey wet? In Wigan, it's as good as gravy."

This phrase was adopted among tumblr users, and underwent memetic mutation to make the explicit reference to pey wet optional. "In Wigan, it's as good as gravy" is the central phrase of the current iteration of the meme, and has seen a number of brilliant and unexpected variations.

In short: What's "What's pea wet, mate?"? On Tumblr, it's as good as gravy!

[barksbog]

i know i don't talk much about my pets (who aren't leon) here but after keeping reptiles and amphibians for a decade i might finally get into breeding them and i'm so excited!!

[fagmundo]

Sorry what does the ethically sourced thing in your bio mean?

i am proud to say my blog is

[syntheticcharmva]

So like... did you do the voice for pianosaurus in poppy playtime chapter 4?

Huh?? Oh, no. no offense to anyone who likes it, (and this might shoot me in the foot later, but eh) Not a big fan of the company behind it, I think they do some icky stuff I'd rather stay away from as much as possible (Nfts, those are a big ew from me. .)

OH! I do want to clarify, I mean the heads of the company, the business decision makers. not the people working on actually making the game. props to all the Voice cast, and the crew behind the actual creation, on making a game that definitely resonates with people, just not my thing.

[dadvans]

s6 rewatch

the back half of season 6 is so underappreciated. you have: cursed pompeii bracelet, a ghost keeps calling 9-1-1 dispatch until chimney buys its house, buck dies for 3 minutes and experiences an it's a wonderful life coma dream where bobby is a pill popping manic pixie nightmare (best version of bobby only second to s5 treasure hunt bobby who has strategic treasure maps of los angeles), buck gets temporary superpowers where he can do quick math so he and eddie go scam a poker game...

like every episode is really yakkity sax shark jumping played so sincerely, and i love it. my favorite version of this show is when it's both heartfelt and also the storytelling equivalent of a scooby doo gang running from monsters musical interlude

[leresq]

I'm more and more annoyed by the trend movie marketing has made of 'movie has a sinister corporation that is clearly not good but the marketing makes it feel like it's all just cool fun.' We are not supposed to like InGen? We are not supposed to like Jurassic Park/World the organisation? It is horribly unethical from both a human and animal perspective to create these creatures and keep them the ways JP/W does, yet all marketing material is telling kids 'wow aren't dinosaurs cool, this is cool, we should make this'

Yes dinosaurs are cool kids can like dinosaurs but this is like if Portal toys had Aperture Science being all fun and approachable. What happens then is kids think Aperture Science is cool and good to emulate. That's how we get to people who think that playing with genetics to make 'dire wolves' is nothing but a fun experiment.

[panicinthestudio]

They Didn't Make Dire Wolves, They Made Something…Else, April 8, 2025

TL;DW: 1. Dire wolves are probably not that closely related to gray wolves, though Colossal says that's not true, they haven't produced anything to back that up. 2. Dire wolf-like animals will never be ecologically important to our current world because they ecosystems they existed inside of do not exist anymore. 3. Collossal's goal isn't de-extinction, is creating new species to fill in niches left behind by extinct species, which is an idea worthy of debate! But it's not what you think of when you hear "de-extinction." 4. There's lots of really cool science here, which does include maybe kinda creating the frist large mammalian synthetic species.

Fixing my Direwolf Mistake, April 11, 2025

This has been an interesting journey...there is obviously something to like about de-extinction hype, which is that we're talking about the biodiversity crisis, which is absolutely great, because usually we do not! Is lying about making direwolves worth that? I dunno, maybe! Probably even!!

[phovaries]

thinking about the vibes of parisian twink dan x mystery museum man phil

currently writing an AU where private investigator phil and writer dan are unknowingly trapped in the same time loop together but don’t realize it until like a month in.

And they have to work together to not only figure out how the loop started, but also why they’re connected, and how they’re going to get out of it. All the while trying not to lose their minds at the real life implications of time loops being real.

(and they fall in loveeeeee ehehehe 🙂‍↕️🤭)

[alwaysbewoke]

[scottandrewhutchins]

FACT: All Homelessness Is Caused by the Greed of Capitalists