The Economics Of... Love
Love is often marketed as romantic infatuation or partnership, but in truth there are many forms of love that humans experience towards a variety of subjects in our lives. According to the ancient Greeks, there are eight main types of love: agape, storge, philia, eros, ludus, pragma, philautia, and mania. Three of these that are most relevant for our purpose of observing the economic interactions of the greater population are agape (unconditional love of humanity), storge (familiar love), and philia (love of belonging or friendship). Three measurable examples of each that illustrate how love impacts our universal decision making are public service, the nuclear family, and community involvement.
Public service in the form of government employment is a professional commitment often based in agape for one’s nation, otherwise known as patriotism. Psychology Today identifies that agape love “[…] helps to build and maintain the psychological, social, and, indeed, environmental fabric […]” of society, which can take form of altruistic policymaking. Public authority operates within the public sector, which is separate from the corporate subjects of typical market analysis. Corporations and individuals alike are consistently dependent, however, on the decisions of those acting in the public sector; an example is the Social Security Administration whose total income in 2019 was just over $1 trillion. The direct economic benefits paid out by Social Security and payroll taxes in 2018 impacted 176 million workers, which is one expression of universal charity our public sector has coordinated for the betterment of its citizens. There are infinite examples of government-directed welfare programs, but the national efforts towards environmental conservation, via the Environmental Protection Agency, is one of the purest forms of global agape. Cap-and-trade programs and emission taxes are part of a “market-oriented climate policy” that deters private sector pollution for minimization of atmospheric concentration (EPA). Individuals working in the public sector at an agency of the federal government such as the EPA are often impassioned to solve global problems such as climate change out of love for humanity.
The nuclear family is a prime example and source of storge love, which can include biological, adoptive, and in-law relatives alike. The 2018 Volunteering in American report from the Corporation for National and Community Service claims that 43.1% of adults in the U.S. performed acts in support of friends and family in a 12-month period, suggesting a rise in “informal volunteering.” Acting within a family structure seems to encourage expressions of love as “[p]arents volunteer at rates nearly 48 percent higher than non-parents and working mothers give more time than any other demographic, with a volunteer rate of 46.7 percent” (CNCS). According to the conclusions in Home Investments in Children by Arleen Leibowitz from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the main sources of income determination for children is their parent’s education/IQ level and family income. This creates an economic model exclusive to the nuclear family unit where these inputs affect the quality of time and goods provided through parenthood that produce home and post-school investment in children. Leibowitz writes this model recursively as Y=f3(I1, I2, I3, IQ), where I1= home investment, I2= schooling investment, and I3= postschool investment.
Community involvement, specifically in the form of local clubs and activities, is vitally important to our connection with humanity and social health. Philia emphasizes how relating to one another promotes authentic openness and insight for the improvement of one another’s character (Psychology Today). World Bank acknowledges that community participation has both economic benefits, such as resource mobilization/distribution, and economic costs, such as loss of cooperative efficiency. Inefficiencies aside, the CNCS’s 2018 report “[…] found that 77.34 million adults (30.3 percent) volunteered through an organization last year. Altogether, Americans volunteered nearly 6.9 billion hours, worth an estimated $167 billion in economic value […].” Adults who volunteer their labor are twice as likely to also donate financially, nearly 80% donating to charity compared to 40% of non-volunteers (CNCS).
While many languages and cultures refer to love as the romantic or familial connection among individuals, the Greek distinction among intentions and subjects that can be assigned to human affection allows for a deeper understanding of our interactions. One of the Latin words for love is charity, which in English we understand to be a form of giving and sacrifice for the benefit of others regardless of connection. Observation of our markets cannot be limited to the monetary exchange of good and services; we must also interpret motivations beyond optimizing resources to include love for humanity and our planet to build effective economic models.
""[...]77.34 million adults (30.3 percent) volunteered through an organization last year. Altogether, Americans volunteered nearly 6.9 billion hours, worth an estimated $167 billion in economic value[…].” " -- The Corporation for National and Community Service
Works Cited
Bamberger, Michael. “The Role of Community Particip Ation in Development Planning and Project Management.” World Bank, 1986, documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/605351468739506877/pdf/multi-page.pdf.
Burton, Neel. “These Are the 7 Types of Love.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 25 June 2016, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201606/these-are-the-7-types-love.
“Economics of Climate Change.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 6 Sept. 2019, www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/economics-climate-change.
Leibowtiz, Arleen. “Home Investments In Children.” National Bureau of Economic Research, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1974, www.nber.org/chapters/c2974.pdf.
“Social Security Administration.” Summary: Actuarial Status of the Social Security Trust Funds, Apr. 2019, www.ssa.gov/policy/trust-funds-summary.html.
“Volunteering in U.S. Hits Record High; Worth $167 Billion.” Corporation for National and Community Service, 13 Nov. 2018, www.nationalservice.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/volunteering-us-hits-record-high-worth-167-billion.