Economics and the Worth Question

BY NICOLE LAU

Subtitle: The Political Economy of Worth

Introduction: Economics and the Worth Question

Economics is the study of value—how societies produce, distribute, and consume resources. But beneath every economic system is a deeper question: What is valuable? And more specifically, who is valuable?

This series explores the political economy of worth: how economic systems shape locus, how worth becomes an economic concept (value, utility, price), and how locus theory offers a radical critique of capitalism and a vision for post-capitalist futures grounded in inherent worth.

We have already examined capitalism's role in producing external locus (Series 9). Now we go deeper: into labor, consumerism, inequality, and the possibility of economic systems that cultivate internal locus rather than destroy it.

How Economic Systems Shape Locus

Economic systems are not neutral. They are not just mechanisms for allocating resources—they are systems of value that shape how people understand their own worth. Every economic structure embeds assumptions about what makes people valuable, and those assumptions become internalized as locus patterns.

In feudal economies, worth was tied to birth and land ownership. You were valuable if you were born into nobility. This created a rigid external locus: your worth was determined by your position in a fixed hierarchy, not by anything you could control or change.

In capitalist economies, worth is tied to productivity and market value. You are valuable if you produce, if you earn, if you contribute to economic growth. This creates a different external locus: your worth is conditional on your economic performance, constantly under evaluation, always requiring proof.

In gift economies and commons-based systems, worth is tied to relationships and reciprocity. You are valuable because you are part of the community, because you give and receive, because you belong. This creates conditions for internal locus: worth is relational and inherent, not conditional on individual achievement.

The economic system you live in shapes your locus. It teaches you where worth comes from, what makes you valuable, and whether that value is inherent or conditional. This is not just ideology—it is material. The structure of the economy determines how you survive, and survival strategies shape psychological patterns.

Worth as Economic Concept (Value, Utility, Price)

Economics has its own language of worth: value, utility, price. These concepts reveal how economic systems conceptualize human worth—and how they externalize it.

Value: In economics, value is what something is worth in exchange. Labor has value because it can be exchanged for wages. Goods have value because they can be sold. But what about human beings? Do people have value, or only their labor? Capitalism answers: people have value insofar as they produce value. This is external locus encoded in economic theory.

Utility: Utility is the satisfaction or benefit derived from consuming a good or service. In neoclassical economics, people are rational actors maximizing utility. But this reduces human worth to consumption capacity. You are valuable if you can consume, if you have purchasing power, if you contribute to demand. This is another form of external locus: worth tied to economic participation.

Price: Price is the monetary value assigned to goods, services, and labor. In labor markets, your wage is the price of your work. But when everything has a price, worth becomes quantifiable and comparable. You are worth $15/hour or $150/hour. Your value is a number. This is the ultimate externalization: worth as market price.

These economic concepts are not just technical—they are ontological. They define what it means to be valuable in a market society. And they systematically produce external locus by tying worth to exchange value, consumption capacity, and market price.

Locus Theory as Economic Critique

Locus theory offers a radical critique of capitalism: it reveals that the economic system is not just exploitative or unequal—it is psychologically pathogenic. It systematically produces external locus, which creates unnecessary suffering at mass scale.

Traditional Marxist critique focuses on exploitation: capitalism extracts surplus value from workers, creating class inequality. This is true and important. But locus theory adds a psychological dimension: capitalism also extracts inherent worth from people, replacing it with conditional worth tied to productivity. This is not just economic exploitation—it is psychological violence.

Traditional liberal economics assumes that markets are efficient and that individual choice maximizes welfare. But locus theory reveals that markets create conditions for external locus: constant comparison, scarcity mindset, worth tied to purchasing power. This does not maximize welfare—it maximizes anxiety, insecurity, and suffering.

Locus theory is not anti-economics—it is a call for economics grounded in inherent worth. What would an economic system look like if it started from the premise that all people are inherently valuable, regardless of productivity, consumption, or market price? What policies, structures, and practices would cultivate internal locus rather than destroy it?

The Scope of This Series

This series explores the political economy of worth across five dimensions:

Labor and Worth: How wage labor creates external locus, how unemployment collapses worth, and how Universal Basic Income could support internal locus by decoupling survival from productivity.

Consumerism and Commodification: How advertising trains people to buy identity and worth, how consumerism externalizes value into possessions, and how minimalism is an internal locus practice.

Inequality and Worth: How economic inequality creates external locus through comparison and scarcity, how poverty shatters inherent worth, and how economic justice is a prerequisite for collective internal locus.

Post-Capitalist Futures: What would an internal locus economy look like? Exploring degrowth, care economies, and commons-based systems as alternatives to capitalism's external locus production.

Conclusion: Economics Is Not Neutral

Economics is not just about money, markets, and resources. It is about worth. Every economic system embeds assumptions about what makes people valuable, and those assumptions shape locus patterns at individual and collective levels.

Capitalism produces external locus by tying worth to productivity, consumption, and market price. It treats people as resources, labor as commodity, and worth as conditional on economic performance. This is not accidental—it is structural.

If we want to reduce unnecessary suffering, we must ask: What economic systems would cultivate internal locus? What would it mean to organize economies around the principle that all people are inherently valuable, regardless of their economic utility?

This is not just a psychological question—it is a political and economic question. And it is the question this series explores.

In the next article, we examine labor: how wage work creates external locus, and what Universal Basic Income could mean for the liberation of worth from productivity.

Next: Labor and Worth: You Are What You Produce

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