In search of good

Economics isn't just about profit; it can be a valuable tool for integral human development.

I don't believe economics is a dismal science. It can be violent and ruthless, or "generative," yes. It depends greatly on the perspective it takes.
We've often heard how important it would be to change its "paradigm." A big word, which essentially means "overall vision." Here's the point: we need to change our vision of the economy if we want to build the future. It's time to create signs of this, without the arrogant grunts that have been rising from the White House since January 2025.

In these leaden months of war, horrors, and the arms race, I've become even more convinced that a new perspective can come from the "civil economy," which some Italian economists are meritoriously highlighting; they include, among others, Stefano Zamagni, Luigino Bruni, and Leonardo Becchetti. It's a uniquely Italian perspective, first theorized by Antonio Genovesi (photo), who began his lectures at the University of Naples in November 1754. The scholar from Salerno, in the fertile Neapolitan Enlightenment environment, established several central principles.

The purpose of economics in society? To achieve the common good through the integral development of humanity, which is growth, but also good social relations and the cultivation of spirituality in a secular sense (culture, religion).
The political economy, which was about to explode with the Industrial Revolution across the Channel, saw things quite differently: its ultimate goal, argued its greatest theoretician, Adam Smith, is the total good, growth at all costs with the maximization of profit. Both agree with the value of the market, but with a fundamental difference: the anthropological assumption: homo homini lupus (as the philosopher Hobbes repeated) for political economy, one man is a wolf to another, so you must growl, be wary, and defend yourself; homo homini natura amicus, according to Genovesi, or "every man is by nature a friend to another."

Rooted in all this is the rejection of the idea of ​​homo oeconomicus, self-centered in accumulating wealth, and the belief that, in addition to the state and the market, a third pillar, civil society, is necessary to ensure the community's fair and just evolution. Closing the circle is Genovesi's extraordinary insight: "It is a law of the universe that we cannot make our own happiness without making that of others." Here lies the distinction between the "generative economy" (a blend of creativity and the desire to improve the living conditions of others) and the "extractive economy" (the selfishness of shifting problems onto the younger generations).

There is an absolute urgency to change the approach. Some signs are clear: environmental and social unsustainability; the race to the bottom of production costs that penalize poor countries and low-skilled workers; the poverty of the meaning of life, with the increase in "deaths of despair" (as Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton would say).
We must study and commit ourselves in our own small way: starting with condominium meetings, the workplace, and associations; learning to interpret the facts with this perspective. Shall we try? They would truly be very disarming actions.

Francesco Antonioli
NP December 2025