My reading tonight started with 3 books on economics and one on early Christian morals. (Morality, Money, Duflo, Pluto) In Morality, Meeks quotes MacMullen on the dependence relations that kept Roman society together. At the top, the competition was fierce and lethal at times. Yet people in general, even slaves, could feel some degree of security in these relationships.
Pluto describes the very opposite: the life of the high-powered CEO whose life-span, at least at work, is short, as in “nasty, brutish and….” The views of man in so many economic theory seem conjured up by tenured professors who imagine themselves bravely striking out should the university see fit to abolish his chair or department. Such resources as he would have are not available to the average person and Duflo shows how people don’t move just because the jobs go away.
IOW, nowhere are we truly safe in dignity.