I’m talking with someone at Demos about some questions I have about Topos’ framework, so I’m going to hold off any more posts in the series and go back to wrestling with my own framework. The latest: after reading Promoting Broad Prosperity, having a really helpful conversation with a friend, and banging my head against the wall, I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that the Game/Rules/Players metaphor just isn’t going to work.
The biggest problem with the Game metaphor is that it feels too light and frothy. As my friend pointed out, it’s the opposite of how a lot of folks experience the economy. Life isn’t a game. There’s no reset button, and losing can have big consequences. For folks who are struggling to get by and who are seeking stability and security, a game sounds too much like what they don’t like about our economy today.
The only folks who do experience economy is a game are people with a lot of power. Win or lose, hedge fund traders and CEOs get big bonuses, while everybody else wonders if their job, health insurance, or retirement savings will be still there for them tomorrow.
“Players” has similar problems. When many folks think of players, they’re likely to think of powerful people for whom the economy is just a game, with average folks playing the role of helpless pawns.
But if the Game metaphor doesn’t work, there’s a lot I learned from trying it out. Here’s what I want to make sure I include in the next version of my framework:
1) The Economy Isn’t “Natural.” what I like most about the Game/Rules metaphor is that it gets us out of the Robert Kuttner government as “alongside markets problem. Rules aren’t “alongside,” they are inherently, inextricably part of the game.
2) The Economy Isn’t Controllable. Although we can shape parts of the economy, there are real limits to what we can do and how much influence we can have.
3) The Political Economy is Dynamic. Because actors can change the economy’s rules, you can’t simply focus on policy. You also have to focus on the actors. The Wall Street meltdown is Exhibit A. If we don’t change the current balance of power, even if we miraculously manage to put good policies in place, the minute the policies are passed, Wall Street will undermine them; that’s how we got here in the first place. That’s also why Topos’ pipes metaphor and Dean Baker’s rivers metaphor don’t really work for me: they don’t evoke the system’s dynamism.
4) No Black Boxes. Unlike free market fairy tales, you can’t just make one change, like increasing the cost of CO2 emissions, and expect the economy will magically solve a problem like the climate crisis. You’ve got to get your hands dirty and get into the nuts & bolts of how people and organizations actually think and behave, including understanding the micro-worlds in which they live (i.e., behavioral economics, organizational development).
And from wrestling with Topos, I want to add:
5) Start with Values — and Get to the Point Quickly. For example, the Middle-Class Is No Accident.
6) More Grounded Metaphors with Stronger Emotional Resonance. Metaphors that aren’t light, like Game.
On to the next metaphor!
