The last book I read by Tim Jackson, Post Growth, saw him stepping back from what you might expect from an economist and taking a more narrative driven, philosophical approach. This latest goes even further along that road, presenting a case for care in a book that roams across history, poetry, philosophy, mythology and science.
The core argument here is that prosperity is best understood in terms of health rather than wealth. Therefore the purpose of the economy should be care, not growth. That’s not a call for more spending in a ‘care sector’, more that “the economy should always and everywhere be about care.”
Care might be most readily associated with the caring professions, and the book does indeed argue for living wages for nurses and carers, and spends a lot of time on better health outcomes, including preventative health. But that’s only one dimension of what we care about as humans. We care about animals. We care about our homes and our possessions. We care about football teams, about beauty, and places and heritage. (The word ‘curator’ comes from the same Latin word as care.) Taking this open definition on board, a care economy would include mental health, self esteem, a sense of belonging and purpose.
The current economy works against these things. Competition and hierarchy undermine wellbeing. Care in a captalist system puts profit ahead of human needs at every step of the way. And as you’d expect from the author of Prosperity Without Growth, there’s a sharp contrast between a care economy and a growth economy. Care doesn’t always need more. Sometimes it does, but only until a point of balance – something a commitment to growth will always rush past. Growth can fix deficiency, but always tips over into excess, which is antithetical to care.
Much of what Jackson describes in the book has been set out before by feminist economics, which he acknowledges. Traditionally care has been delegated to women while institutions that control health and commerce are dominated by men, so there’s no care economy without tackling patriarchy. Jackson draws on a wide variety of women writers in exploring this, including historical figures and current theorists, “with a little help from Taylor Swift, Daphne du Maurier and Barbie.”
As that list suggests, Jackson goes out of his way to come at the issue of economics indirectly, smuggling in his points through stories from history and personal anecdotes. There are long diversions, such as the one on the benefits of cold water swimming, which resolve elegantly into a key point. There are other tangents that, to my mind, don’t land as successfully. An extended section on the inquest into the sinking of the SS Mohegan in 1898 has the author himself asking “what does it matter? What does it possibly matter now?” I could have done without the answer to the unnecessary question “does the moon care about us?”
If you were expecting something with more economics and more policy, then The Care Economy might be a frustrating read. Jackson has written those sorts of books in the past and if he has chosen to do it differently here, there’s a reason. Two come to mind. One is that Jackson is honestly wrestling with the concepts in the book, not presenting them as a fait-accompli. We are invited into the process of thinking, as well as the ideas themselves. There’s a degree of vulnerability in Jackon’s writing here, a sense of intellectual struggle, that is rare and refreshing among white male economists.
A second reason is that it’s easy to consume a book, extract its policy recommendations and move on. This is, quite deliberately, a book that won’t let you do that. You can’t skim-read it. You need to give it time. Slow down. Think about it. Ask more questions, and put the pieces together for yourself. And so while I was frequently exasperated with The Care Economy, that’s in large part because it shone a light on my own tendency to read things too fast. I read to the end and I’m glad I did. It takes the path less travelled. It’s a book written with craft and, appropriately, with care.
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