The Economy

A main topic of popular discussion these days is 'The Economy', usually specifically regarding its 'bad' shape. This kind of talk suggests that first, there is a unitary phenomenon corresponding to the term 'The Economy', and second, that the judgement of 'badness' is the product of a methodical evaluative procedure based on unequivocal criteria. But what this 'The Economy' is is not made in the least bit clear by these discussions of it. It is said to have its 'leading indicators', such as Unemployment rates, the Dow Jones Average, the National Deficit, Interest Rates, the Exchange Value of the Dollar, the Rate of Inflation, Sales of Homes, etc., each of which have their own evaluative criteria, but what unifies them is unclear. Some Economists seem to have mathematical formulae that homogenize all these data, but, again, if these equations are more than quantificational abstractions, they would have some unambiguous referent. In Formaterialism, every entity, every event, is a System, and the soundness of a System is measured by its degree of Evolvement, i. e. its rate of growth, with a minimum degree being mere maintainance. So, according to Formaterialism, the lack of any definitive phenomenon answering to the term 'The Economy' means that no such System actually exists, which might go a long way to explaining why 'it' seems to be in such 'bad' shape. That while 'The Economy' is said to have been 'growing' in the 90s, a significant portion of the American citizenry was not benefitting from the trend, only underscores its fictitiousness.