One-world Economy

Rudolf Steiner and Today’s One-World Economy

A story told in many parts

35 podcasts recorded for the Adam Center for Social Development, Tiv'on Israel in June 2024. 

Christopher Houghton Budd writes:

In this series of monologue interviews, I have tried to answer as effectively as possible the questions put to me by Omri either directly or by briefings. Effectively in this case means in a way that transposes Rudolf Steiner’s contribution to economics ­– both its theoretical and its practical aspects – into the English mind. This is a strange and by no means easy thing to do, because, on the one hand, the English mind is not a central European one: it has been trained on the worldwide oceans which are its true habitat, its island home being something of a geographical and historical illusion. On the other hand, it is a mind saturated with, if not the source of, the very economic practice and understanding that Steiner is critiquing.

That mind, by habit, wants things defined, put in boxes and explained away. It is a mind that does not, as first choice, want to investigate itself or be investigated. Laissez-faire, laissez-penser; mais ne réfléchissez pas. But it can follow a narrative. It can characterise. So that has been my method: indeed, that is Steiner’s proposed method for economists – to characterise and not define, to observe and perceive and not predetermine what is before one. To provide as much of a story as possible in relatively brief chapters that describe rather than state as best one can what Steiner had in mind, and then contextualise these ideas for an English-speaking world with its many long-standing conventions and institutions. Not to mention its habitual and often intense referencing to ‘what the government thinks’ – the very opposite of the individual agency to which Steiner’s contribution is addressed.

The logic of this endeavour is reflected in the titles, which derive not from the general themes I was asked to address but from the content as it unfolded. The original idea was to lead the listener/viewer through Rudolf Steiner’s fourteen lectures on economics given in 1922, but those lectures are a slog and would not, in my view, have had the same content, format or delivery had they been given to an English audience in London, instead of a German-speaking one near Basel.

As the narratives of these podcasts unfolded in a stream of conscious kind of way, on occasion verbal images arose, which I then sketched on the black paper sheets behind me, so that many of the videos have images behind me to which I then refer, often quite extensively. In their sequencing, we have endeavoured to maintain the order in which the images appeared, even if in some cases the spoken content does not follow suit. In those instances, preference has been given to the thematic sequence.

Our hope is that each chapter can be taken on a stand-alone basis. And yet, taken together, they provide a comprehensive overview of the huge spectrum of Steiner’s challenge, which simply mirrors the equally huge range of problems humanity faces today regardless of what language one speaks. This survey’s essential aim and message is to displace a dreary landscape of subsistent, regulated existence with a ‘sunnier’ outlining of a practical, fulfilling future predicated on individual agency, linked economically, however, to serving the entire human family, not only oneself.

The chapters may also have a cumulative effect, in that many of the topics covered are reiterated and cross-referenced. Who knows, it may also be that the way I have treated the material may result via osmosis in an experience of how the English mind can lead itself out of the very vale of tears so lamented by the likes of William Blake, into which it also led us? For this is England’s karmic duty and potential – not only to have led us into a mere cul-de-sac on the presumption that is also our destination. One cannot, of course, reverse out of such a dead-end in history or wish one were not in it, but one can think away its otherwise impenetrable conclusion and come out the other side.

One last observation. 35 chapters over 10+ hours. Is a daunting prospect, especially if one has become accustomed to surfing-based and indeed surface learning, reliant on texts written for short attention spans, and being told what is and how to understand it, rather than discover life’s realities for oneself. To meet such habits half-way, as it were, the overall progression of the material is relieved by shifts in emphasis illustrated by the changes in the background sketches. These break the overall project into five sections: chapters 1–5, 6–8, 9–19, 20–29 and 30–35 – see the attached list of contents. An index of the many topics now shown in this list would have been nice, but proved impractical to achieve. On the other hand, this document includes the images for those who wish to look at them alongside their enjoyment of the podcasts.

All courage!

Both as an entrepreneur and an academic, Houghton Budd, has spent a life-time interpreting Rudolf Steiner’s contributions to economics. For over 50 years, he has studied Steiner’s ideas, both in terms of their theoretical merit and their relevance to practical life – even now, nearly 100 years after his death. 

Houghton Budd has given many workshops all over the world, testing his understanding of Steiner in different cultures and languages. His research has led him into many schools of economic thought, resulting in him writing and editing over 40 books and nearly 300 editions of a journal on ‘associative economics’ (https://aebookstore.com/publications/associative-economics-journals), as Steiner’s work is generally called. 

Alongside his mainstream work, Houghton Budd is also a founder-member and the convenor of the Economics Conference of the Goetheanum (https://economics.goetheanum.org/home) , a worldwide community of researchers in ‘associative economics’.