Is There a Humane Economy?

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"I don't know of a good way of balancing the goods of building up local communities that have their own integrity with the goods of being openness to the stranger, right? And they're two kinds of go s, and they're both madder and they can come into conflict. I'm not unsympathetic to te people that are worried about what's happening to local communities as a result of free trade," she said. "Let's not just do this in terms of economic costs and benefits, cause there's a lot more involved."

Author, economist, and theologian Mary Hirschfeld of Villanova University talks about her book, Aquinas and the Market, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Hirschfeld looks at the nature of our economic activity as buyers and sellers and whether our pursuit of economic growth and material well-being comes at a cost. She encourages a skeptical stance about the ability of more stuff to produce true happiness and/or satisfaction. The conversation includes a critique of economic theory and the aspect of human satisfaction outside the domain of economists.