The ‘ugliness’ of economic efficiency: technology, species-being, and global poverty

In this paper, I argue that contemporary philosophical approaches to the problem of global poverty overlook a critical issue in terms of causality: the actual labor in which the poorest people of the world engage. More specifically, I challenge the current economic system’s maniacal worship of economic efficiency in production and the way in which this goal is pursued through the implementation of labor-saving technology. Although it is considered economically efficient to save as much as possible on labor costs by using new technologies, I argue (with reference to Karl Marx’s concept of our human nature as ‘species-being’) that we are not being efficient on human terms. Instead, we are ‘wasting’ human beings by forcing them into poverty and denying them the opportunity to labor meaningfully. Given such results, I argue that we must revisit the role that economic efficiency and labor-saving technology should have in the productive process. To do so, I incorporate the work of economist and philosopher E.F. Schumacher and his focus on providing ‘good work’ through intermediate technology. This is a level of technology that is not wasteful in production but requires an appropriate amount of actual human labor. By altering our conception of efficiency to one that is ‘human’ and utilizing technology only insofar as it enhances the character of labor, there will be more opportunities for the poorest people of the world to labor in a way that not only helps them avoid poverty but also allows them to feel humanly productive.