Economic Value In Divine Economy Theory.

Before I begin I have to comment on the degree of importance currently placed on empirical economics and those who are convinced that it has merit. The mantra of these empirical economists: "If only the computers were faster and the bits of data were more precise!" For example, in the Boston Globe the following statement appeared: "Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is pushing the "factor model" program -- so named because it reduces everything from home sales to mining capacity into a few weighted averages for making predictions."

It is no wonder why there is a big void in economic understanding for most people.

At the center of the divine economy theory is the human being, not some automaton. The human reality at the core has all its potentialities. Primary among these is the spiritual reality understood universally as "created in His Image." That 'image' granted to every human being is manifested as the appearance of the attributes of God, such as beauty, trust, power, and love, to name a few.

Just like a moth cannot help but be attracted to light, every human being acts purposefully in ways that express some form of these attributes. Likewise, every human being is attracted by the appearance of these attributes in others, and in things. This attraction is another way of describing the idea that humans know what is valuable to them.

Ultimately everything that has value satisifies a need that somehow brings one of the attributes of God closer. Such an understanding is useful for all: those entrepreneurs seeking to discover what people value, those producers seeking the best ways to produce what people value, and those 'consumers' who benefit from the knowledge that the things we value are simply evidences that we are on a spiritual quest, true to our human reality.

Back to economic value. The object does not contain value. Therefore data cannot document value. For example, a car has value because it satisfies our quest for attributes that further our journey. It is also unlikely that the attributes that I seek in the car are exactly the same as that of another person. Each of our journeys is unique.

This is why subjectivism not empiricism is the correct methodology for economics. Despite what has been done up to now in economic science it is time to reorient. We have now entered a new era in economic science and the divine economy theory is the launching pad!