A Major Problem That Economics Has Avoided All Along

ECONOMICS, 9 Feb 2026

Takayuki Nakamura – TRANSCEND Media Service

The “Overly Important Perspective” Lost in a Society that Evaluates Its ​​People Solely on Their Productivity

1 Feb 2026 – This article is an excerpt and edited version of Now is the Time to Rethink Economics, by Takayuki Nakamura (Published as a book of the Kodansha Gendai Shinsho series, published by Kodansha, on 22 January 2026, Tokyo, Japan).  The author, one of the leading economic thinkers, questions the conventional economic values, including the value that the increase of GDP brings about happiness to people and the value on the work ethics, such as “He who does not work should not eat”,  ​​which have dominated people. As such, the author tackles one of the “big problems” of the era without economic growth.

Beyond the Connection of Productive Contributors

When economic values ​​(production = value) are thoroughly implemented, or equivalently, when evaluating people based on work ethic becomes habitual, only productive contributors are considered full members of the civil society. While full members recognize each other, non-productive contributors are not recognized as full members of the society; they are, in other words, second-class citizens. In this production-focused economic vision of the society, “need” only emerges in very limited situations, and only passively: providing food, clothing, and shelter for those who cannot earn a living—if only reluctantly, because they will die if we don’t.

• [What things have an economic and non-economic value?]
• [Capitalism and Disability: Economic Justice]
• [From Bias to Barriers: The Harsh Reality of People with Disabilities in The Workplace]

“Necessity” is a concept that inherently undergoes social scrutiny. In other words, if we consider your position as a citizen, we, as fellow citizens, should judge that your “need” is reasonable. However, the sociality and mutual evaluation relationships that emerge when examining this “need” do not exist in the civil society made up of contributors to production. Instead, contributors to production are connected among themselves through mutual evaluation of their contributions to production.
Contributors to production recognize each other among themselves, and reluctantly allocate resources to providing food, clothing, and shelter for the poor as an unavoidable “need.” Currently, “need” is unfairly confined to this narrow category. However, true “needs” that we, as fellow citizens, believe should be met are not limited to food, clothing, and shelter for the poor.

• [What Does It Mean When Someone Says Law of the Jungle]
• [A Global Look at the Connections Between Happiness, Income, and Meaning]

For example, let’s say a family member falls ill with an incurable, mysterious illness. You’ve tried everything you could think of and consulted various experts, but you still can’t figure out how to deal with the problem. There is a desperate cry for “need”: how to care for them, whether there is a cure. As a citizen, I would like to respond if possible. Here, we see a connection (i.e. broad civil society) that recognizes the “need” of fellow living beings, distinct from the connections between contributors to production (i.e. narrow civil society).

• [Productivity and disability: The need to modify work standards]

As the example of incurable diseases shows, urgent “need” is not limited to cases where a person is unable to earn enough to cover their basic needs. Even contributors to production who are able to cover their basic needs with their own earnings may have urgent “needs.” For example, a woman may be experiencing discrimination in the workplace. Consider a woman who has been working at a company for five years since graduating from university. She worked in her initial department for three years before being transferred. Hoping to maximize her abilities, she requested a department where she could gain better experience, but this did not happen. Her previous boss believed that “women are at risk of quitting their jobs, so we can’t hand them important positions.” She strongly desires to avoid such discrimination and to be evaluated fairly and fairly. This is also an urgent “need.” Indeed, as a fellow citizen, I think that we would like to live without such discrimination. If possible, we would like to respond to her voice of “need.”

The “need” I discuss in this book [i.e. Now Is the Time to Rethink Economics] requires this broad definition. Because it is not due to poverty (lack of food, clothing, and shelter), it cannot be solved by receiving money. What they are seeking is care and treatment for incurable illnesses, not money to compensate for their hardships. They are seeking fair evaluation at work, not compensation for the pain they have suffered due to discriminatory treatment.

In fact, poverty cannot be completely solved with money. In most cases, poor people are unable to work and earn an income for some reason. Because they cannot earn an income, they need money to buy the necessities of life in order to survive. However, money alone will not satisfy all their needs. What people with difficult circumstances truly want is understanding of their circumstances. If they can work with consideration, then they should be considered. If consideration does not make them fully qualified workers, then they desire to have a place in their society, even if they are not part of the productive workforce. They desire to be respected as free and equal members of the society, not treated as a burden.

• [Understanding Poverty Economics]
• [A society’s values and beliefs matter for its economy]
• [Defining dignity at the intersection of disability: a scoping review]

A Generous Heart That Accepts Differences

Even if we limit ourselves to the “needs” of non-productive contributors—food, clothing, and shelter—meeting those needs is not easy. This is because the values ​​that separate productive contributors from non-productive contributors—economic values ​​that posit value in production—remain unshakable and unshakable.

• [Value beyond Economics → Term]
• [Beyond GDP: Economics and Happiness]

Let’s take the severely mentally disabled as a typical example of a non-productive contributor.*   In the society that values ​​people based on their contributions to production, able-bodied people (productive contributors) are full members of the society. Work is a virtue, and without contributing to production, one cannot feel a sense of social participation. Whether explicitly stated or not, the perception of disabled people who cannot become productive contributors as worthless, an expensive burden, persists in the thinking of productive contributors.

*  If the word “disabled person” is used to mean that a person has a “disability,” it becomes a discriminatory term. If it is used to mean that “disability” is a part of society that makes it difficult for that person to be active, it is not a discriminatory name-calling, but rather a term that raises society’s awareness of the problem. I am aware that this meaning is not widely understood, but I will use the word “disabled person” with the hope that it will be used in this sense.

• [There’s No Economic Justice Without Disability Justice]
• [Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Disability]
• [A Report on the right of persons with disabilities to work, by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations]

And as long as this remains the case, there will be no place for severely mentally disabled people to live well. Without a place to live well, they will appear to be wasting their time (or causing trouble). Ordinary people who observe them will find no meaning or value in their lives. In this way, the original belief—that the lives of people with disabilities have no value—is reaffirmed and reinforced. Exclusion only breeds more exclusion. How can we escape this rigid structure?

• [Disability Inclusion Overview]
• [Disability as a Source of Competitive Advantage]

It is important to create a system in which people with disabilities express their “needs” and their society responds—this method is described in Chapter 6 of Now Is the Time to Rethink Economics —so that people can see, “Ah, people with disabilities are also trying their best to live.” In this case, we must naturally acknowledge that people with disabilities, who are non-contributors to production, and the general public, who are contributors to production, live on different levels of value. It is a generosity that accepts that even though they may not be providing a certain level of service on a commercial basis, they appear to be enjoying their work and living good lives. It is precisely because we do not compete on the same level of productivity, and because it is natural that we are different, that we can accept each other.

• [Ableism]
• [How Capitalism Contributes to Ableism]
• [Why You Think Ableism is Normal and Why It Definitely Isn’t | by Arié Moyal | Coping with Capitalism]

However, if there are many people who are forced to compete on the level of productivity and are exhausted, there will be no room for generosity. In reality, there are many people who are contributors to production but who are hurt in a competitive society. Non-regular workers who are poorly treated in terms of wages and working conditions, women who face discrimination in employment and in the workplace, salaried workers who are overwhelmed by quotas and excessive workloads, etc. It is their “needs” that must be made clear and responded to by the society. It is important that they are reasonably fulfilled, that is, that they are free from unfair treatment, unfair discrimination, and unfair imposition of authority, and that they have a sense that their work is being fairly evaluated. Only then can we respect the lives of non-production contributors as people who live on a different level from a competitive society.

• [Happiness and Law: An Introduction]
• [What it costs the global economy to exclude people with disabilities]
• [Giving Women Jobs ‘Smartest, Fastest’ Way to Grow Economy, Commission Told]

The Contemporary Society Is Shackled by Competition and Incentives.

However, the society is unable to effectively listen to the needs of people who are hurting in the competitive world. Their voices, which claim they should be rewarded for their efforts in contributing to “production = value,” do not lead to calls for society to change in a way that rewards them more, but rather to a desire not to pamper those who do not contribute to “production = value.”

• [Theories of Value]
• [Character Values and Capitalism]

For example, imagine a person working in a brutal workplace where a boss calls subordinates with poor sales performance trash and publicly scolds them as “salary thieves” and “a burden to the sales department.” He is desperately trying not to fall into the trash category. Would he claim that the company’s structure and working methods are wrong and need to be changed? Instead, wouldn’t he also say that those trash have no value and think that he is valuable because he is not trash?

• [Labor theory of value]
• [Profit-making vs human value: Philosophy’s contribution]

This way of thinking is justified by a work ethic such as “He who does not work, shall not eat” and the easy-to-understand slogan that hard work should be rewarded. I worked hard, so I should be rewarded. Those losers didn’t work hard, so they shouldn’t be rewarded. But “rewarding those who work hard” does not necessarily mean fair evaluation. On the contrary, labeling some people as “not working hard” leads to unfair treatment, unfair discrimination, and unjust imposition of power.

The voices of need from people hurt by the competitive society — their desperate calls for our efforts to be fairly rewarded — are not heard. Far from being heard, they end up supporting the strengthening of a framework of ruthless competition. This is our current world, a world so entangled in competition and incentives that it has lost all true fairness and kindness.

• [Rethinking Competition: A Fresh Perspective on Its Role in Society – Fifteen Eighty Four]

Toward a Society That Heeds “Needs”

We, those who were born in developed countries, live in wealthy societies, in the sense of a large GDP. Despite this, however, we cannot say we are happy or fulfilled. This is likely because many people have “needs” that go unmet and are forced to live without even expressing them.

The poor and non-productive contributors are ranked lower on the “production = value” scale and must “beg” other productive contributors for the bare necessities of life. They struggle to receive the bare necessities, and have no desire for freedom, equality, or respect.

• [Thoughts on Capitalism from a Disability Perspective]
• [Editorial: Care home massacre trial failed to tackle roots of prejudice in Japan society]

Meanwhile, productive contributors face fierce competition based on the “production = value” scale, striving to prove they are not inferior. In reality, they desire stable employment and income, risk protection, and fair evaluation. However, rather than striving for the social system in which these “needs” are met, they strive to find inferior people around them and prove themselves not inferior. They continue to denigrate the poor and non-productive contributors as inferior. There is no room for them to even speak of true “needs.”

• [Competition (economics)]
• [Understanding Happiness Economics: Impact on Satisfaction and Economy]
• [Socioeconomic determinants of happiness: Empirical evidence from developed and developing countries]

How did we get to this point? Perhaps it’s because we’ve become so immersed in the idea that “production = value” and have taken the easygoing view that various problems can be solved through economic growth, without directly addressing the “needs” people face. Aiming for economic growth and not addressing “needs” are both distinctive features of economic thinking. This book [i.e. Now Is the Time to Rethink Economics] confronts the concept of “need,” which economics has avoided, and aims to create a truly prosperous society by listening to its urgent voice.

• [Gross National Well-being]
• [Happiness, Well-being and Human Development]
• [Many argue that a country’s success is best measured by the happiness and well-being of its citizens, while others believe that economic growth and stability are the primary indicators]

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Notes:

1. Those hyperlinks in some of the paragraphs and those with brackets [ ], with the italic letters under some of the paragraphs were added by the translator for the convenience and references for the reader.
2. The views and/or opinions in those hyperlinks added by the translator do not necessarily reflect those of his. In addition, it is either impossible or unavailable for him to verify the genuineness of the information in those links. He does not take any responsibility for the contents in those relevant links at all.
3. The views and/or opinions expressed in the above-mentioned article are those of Takayuki Nakamura, the original author. His views and/or opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Transcend Media Service (TMS) or those of the translator. Therefore, the reader is kindly requested to understand, interpret or judge those views and/or opinions at his or her own responsibility.
4. The original article in Japanese was published more than a few days or a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, the situations and/or conditions mentioned in the article might have been changed. This also means that the author’s argument expressed and/or the information provided in the article might have become inadequate or less or least adequate, obsolete, out of date or no longer valid by the time the TMS reader reads the same article in English.

Profile of the original author:  Takayuki Nakamura, Ph.D.:  Born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, in 1973. Graduated from the Faculty of Economics at Kyoto University and completed the doctoral program at the same university’s graduate school, receiving a Ph.D. in Economics. He is currently a professor at the Faculty of Economics at Aoyama Gakuin University, specializing in the history of economics. His books include A First History of Economic Thought (Kodansha Gendai Shinsho) and Harrod’s Thought and Dynamic Economics (Nippon Hyoronsha), and his thesis is Keynesians and Liberal Market People 1980-1989 (Nobel Prize in Economics, edited by Nei Masahiro, published as a book of the Kodansha Sensho Metier series).

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Translation:  Satoshi Ashikaga -Google Translate

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Original in Japanese: 経済学がずっと避けてきた「大問題」…生産性だけで人を評価する社会が失った「あまりに大切な視点」

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 9 Feb 2026.

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