WOKEnomics

I usually have a dedication for this kind of stuff but if i aggregated the amount of economic hate crimes that people have been subjected to, we would be here for a while. So in lieu of that, i will say that this is inspired by Adam Smith. This was his original idea. They hateWashed it with slavery.

It has been a few years since the term “woke” hit popular lexicon. It seems to be a contentious word with those of a certain political inclinaiton. however a proper understanding of its origin serves to help us correct its actual meaning. In addition, it is time that “WOKE” took form as an economic framework that is the effective correction of how religious zealots have used the philosophy of Adam Smiths Capitalism in the Wealth of Nations.

The academic term “woke” was added to the english dictionary in 2017. Its meaning is effectively to be socially aware. political elites and LLMs have semantically shifted the meaning of the term to serve their own needs in specific cultural paradigms. However ‘woke’ continues to mean being socially aware.

While the full history of the dictionary meaning can be traced in the link above, it is effectively a term that, like many incredible additions to economics, comes from the black civil rights movements. the term was previously affiliated with being awake.

It is prolifically used to describe the works of The Nation of Islam as established by Elijah Muhammad. Elijah Muhammad is a black civil rights leader, who recognized that in the acceptance of their slave names black americans were not considering what had been taken from their own proud history.

He begins the conversation at a time when black youth is heavily criminalized by police structures that originated to capture the slaves and return them to their owners.

Here is where we begin to see an incredible transformation in not only black youth, but many people who were also dealing with the idealistic and moral challenges they faced while being drafted to fight in Vietnam. A war that many african americans did not agree with on moral grounds.

it is Mohammad Ali- who famously and very publicly changes his name to indicate that he is now an emancipated black man. His implications being that he is an economically emancipated free man.

Ali faced significant backlash at changing his name. however many sports journalists, most of whom were white, gave him the space to explain what his name meant to him. he stood up to black and white people alike because his fundamental point was not that he was muslim, or that he had somehow become a disciple of the Nation of Islam, but that through the Nation of Islam he learned how to self actualize. In adopting a name he gave himself he indicated to his own self, and then the larger world that i am baptized free.

The Nation of Islam was not only infiltrated by US Law Enforcement and militarized through their actions to control the spread of the teaching so Elijah Mohammad could be silenced. The economic emancipation of black Americans has been a state that many in the old KKK groups feared.

The most transformed personality is revealed by the impeccable Alex Hayley who penned one of 3 biographies about him, Malcolm X. Malcolm X was largely in and out of prisons until he meets the Nation of Islam. Through the connection with his own community he finds a sense of stability. Malcolm X eventually elects to not have a last name at all. Indicating an acceptance of his lost heritage.

It is an incredible book written by Alex Hayley who penned his own families ancestral history in the world altering book that then became a television series, Roots. The journey of Kunta Kinte, is perhaps the most haunting and brilliantly brutal narrative of how a free man was forced into slavery but never became one in his heart.

It is the Nation of Islam that begins to “wake up” the descendants of slaves to their own identity.

The influence echoed in the communities across America and gave rise to many community organizations. The Nation of Islam, while itself religious is more appropriately defined as a civil rights struggle to define ones own identity. It rippled through the entire civil rights theology of the time and had many influences that lead to the empowered rise of Black Wall Street.

During the #BLM movement, the initial knife that woke many of us up was the death of George Floyd. But the impassioned speech of Kimberly Jones humbles and destroys ones own ignorance as one realizes the magnitude of injustice that took place on every attempt black people made to empower themselves. Unlike the jewish community that was also persecuted when they came the USA after being liberated from concentration camps, black people did not get even the humanity of being left alone.

It is after the 3rd minute that you cannot do anything but listen as you are ripped apart by how knowledgeable she is, and she wears a shirt that says “i cant breath” she screams into the abyss of your own ineptitude and compels you to scream back.

it when she says “how can you win” that the words of Ta-Nehisi Coates rip through your heart. “They are lucky, that what black people are looking for is equality and not revenge”.

In the only performance i have ever seen where the wrong man won the fight, it is his dying words that bleed the heart of all of us:

“Death is better than bondage”

It is this fundamental waking up from the ignorance of our own selves and recognizing that we, as people, as individuals become enslaved to so many social contracts that do not deserve our loyalty.

it is for this reason that Adam Smith argues that any mercantile system that is based on oppression will not be an efficient allocator of wealth. Laying the foundation for WOKEnomics. Defined as below.

WOKE: Working Our Knowledge Economy

W= Working= the definition of productivity.

Productivity is a measurement of the effectiveness of work. It is measured by a triple bottom line for each economic unit. Each economic unit, contributing member of society, must achieve the triple bottom line individually so that they can both excel personally, but also contribute the their maximum potential. Thereby optimizing the overall wealth produced in the economy at large.

Triple Bottom Line: Social, economic and environmental sustainability. As defined by the originating school Net Impact, which is borrowing from the works of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. The oringal inspiration for Adam Smith.

Our= i.we.us

There is no nation state designation in the definition of “Our”. For economic prosperity the only definition of relevance us “Our”. It is here that we see what makes us, us. Do we combine on values of shared knowledge and growth or division and hate. The group that defines “Them” has not woken up to understand who “I” is. they cannot value themselves as an economic unit, therefore they cannot contribute to the economy at all.

Knowledge: Ability to apply intelligence for the production of goods and services that help people.

It is important to understand that “knowledge” is not the same as “credentials”. The certification of a mechanic only pays the certifying authority, but if you have worked and grown up on a farm, you are a mechanic by training and need. the certification does not imply the gaining of a skill. in similar fashion academics do not imply knowledge gained. they imply certificate earned. until that knowledge can add value to other economic units, it is meaningless.

Economy: the simple exchange of goods and services that add value to individual economic units.

It seems odd that during covid many spoke to the “economy” suffering without realizing that economics as a field is a mathematical construct used to, poorly, define human beings. an “economy” is people working.

GDP growth is not an economy it is a monetary indicator that defines a very specific thing known as the Gross Domestic Product. It has nothing to do with the economy. At best it is defining how the products we are building are being produced.

The ONLY indicators that can be combined independently to give a temperature on the economy are:

• average income per socio economic group
• inflation
• unemployment rate
• rate of people no longer looking for a job
• disparities in income in the same job based on socio economic demographics.

beyond these numbers, the world is for the billionaire club. where few actually want to play.