A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

scientific superseding of the deification of natural events, rain, irrigation
of rivers, crops, and, on the whole, the security provided by the environment.
Here lies the importance of recovering sumak kawsay offered
to us by Andean cultures: transmitting to all our continent the Andean
awakening to the rescue and protection of environment and the concept
of the rights of nature which deeply reaches the contours of political
economy.
Sumak kawsay, or the principle defined by Quechua thinking as “living
well”, as opposed to the idea of “living better”, focuses on the ethics
of a life pattern forged around the practical value of the work product
over exchange value, distinctive of the conversion of the work product
into merchandise. The question we have to think about is that of clarifying
how to redesign economy on the basis of practical value, how to reduce
the market to desirable and controllable dimensions in a specific
society without its losing effectiveness, and which would be the communicating
vessels that would link their action to a society organized
macroeconomically and having human needs in mind. Market effectiveness
can also be practiced to the benefit of the common good of society,
and in the international solidarity market we can find one of the key instruments
for compensating the Common Good on an international and
potentially planetary level.
Economic growth indicators (GDP, per capita GDP) which have always
been presented to us as being decisive to diagnose and quantify pro -
gress, are referred to economic dynamics which rest on the production
of exchange values. Let us not say that this invalidates them, but I do
say that they are inadequate to define a concept of well-being centered
on the principle of “living well” as opposed to that of “living better.”
For that reason, it is valid to assert that in ideal conditions, it would be
necessary to talk about encouraging growth dynamics in the most depressed
societies, and of restricting them in opulent societies. In the
case of the former, by fostering a variable pattern to ensure that “living
well” can be carried out in terms directed to the optimization of society´s
productive potential, with regulated intervention of foreign capital and
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