Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics Quotes

“La niña de once años que todas las mañanas recorre quince kilómetros en busca de leña para su familia desempeña un papel enorme en el desarrollo económico de su país. A pesar de ellos, su trabajo no es reconocido. La chica es invisible en las estadísticas económicas. En la magnitud del PIB, por la cual medimos la actividad económica de un país, ella no cuenta. Su actividad no se considera importante para la economía o para el crecimiento económico. Parir niños, criarlos, cultivar el huerto, hacerles la comida a los hermanos, ordeñar la vaca de la familia, coserles la ropa o cuidar de Adam Smith para que él pudiera escribir “La riqueza de las naciones”; nada de esto se considera “trabajo productivo” en los modelos económicos estándar. Fuera del alcance de la mano invisible se encuentra el sexo invisible.”
― Katrine Marçal, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics

“Whether women work in the care sector because the wages are low or whether wages are low because women work there is a question that cannot be answered. But we know that a big reason for economic inequality is that women to a much greater extent work with care.”
― Katrine Marçal, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics

“Extreme inequality and financial crisis usually coincide. But the elite who cause it usually come out OK. And they are usually man.”
― Katrine Marçal, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics

“Actually, the idea of economic man is an efficient way of excluding women. We have historically allocated women certain activities and said that she must do them because she is a woman. Then we create an economic theory that states that these activities have no economic meaning.”
― Katrine Marçal, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics

“When we turn the body into human capital, the political consequences of the body disappear. Hands that are raised, legs that move, fingers that point, floors that are mopped, mouths that are fed. Our economy is built on bodies.

If the body was taken seriously as a starting point for the economy, it would have far-reaching consequences. A society organized around the shared needs of human bodies would be a very different society from the one we know now.

Hunger, cold, sickness, lack of healthcare, and lack of food would be central economic concerns. Not like today: unfortunate by-products of the one and only system.

Our economic theories refuse to accept the reality of the body and flee as far from it as they can. That people are born small and die fragile, and that skin cut with a sharp object will bleed no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter what you earn, and no matter where you live. What we have in common starts with the body. We shiver when we are cold, sweat when we run, cry out when we come, and cry out when we give birth. It's through the body that we can reach other people. So, economic man eradicates it. Pretends it doesn't exist. We observe it from the outside as if we were foreign capital.

And we are alone.”
― Katrine Marçal, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics

“According to the economic models, she’s unproductive, not working, economically inactive.”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story About Women and Economics

“Why are you unhappy? wrote the poet Wei Wu Wei. Because 99.9% Of everything you think, And of everything you do, Is for yourself— And there isn’t one”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics

“Adam Smith got his dinner because his mother made sure it was on the table every evening.”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story About Women and Economics

“Economics should help us rise above fear and greed. It should not exploit these feelings. Economic science should be about how one turns a social vision into a modern economic system. It should be a tool to create opportunities for human and social development. Not just address our fears as they are expressed as demand in the market. It should be devoted to concrete questions that are important for humanity. Not to abstract analyses of hypothetical choices. It should see people as reasonable beings. Not as wagons hooked to the consequences of an unavoidable, coercive rationality. It should see people as embedded in society. Not as individuals whose core never changes and who float in a vacuum at an arm’s length from each other. It should see relationships as fundamental for us to even be able to individuate ourselves. Not as something that can be reduced to competition, profit, loss, buying low, selling high and calculating who won. It should see a person as someone who acts according to her bonds with others. Not just out of self-interest and the denial of all context and power relationships. It should not see self-interest and altruism as opposites – because it should no longer view the surrounding world as something that is in opposition to one’s self.”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics

“Economics today creates appetites instead of solutions. The western world swells with obesity while others starve. The rich wander about like gods in their own nightmares. Or go skiing in the desert. You don’t even have to be particularly rich to do that. Those who once were starving now have access to chips, Coca-Cola, trans fats and refined sugars, but they are still disenfranchized. It is said that when Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought about western civilization, he answered that yes, it would be a good idea. The bank man’s bonuses and the oligarch’s billions are natural phenomena. Someone has to pull away from the masses – or else we’ll all become poorer. After the crash Icelandic banks lost 100 billion dollars. The country’s GDP had only ever amounted to thirteen billion dollars in total. An island with chronic inflation, a small currency and no natural resources to speak of: fish and warm water. Its economy was a third of Luxembourg’s. Well, they should be grateful they were allowed to take part in the financial party. Just like ugly girls should be grateful. Enjoy, swallow and don’t complain when it’s over. Economists can pull the same explanations from their hats every time. Dream worlds of total social exclusion and endless consumerism grow where they can be left in peace, at a safe distance from the poverty and environmental destruction they spread around themselves. Alternative universes for privileged human life forms. The stock market rises and the stock market falls. Countries devalue and currencies ripple. The market’s movements are monitored minute by minute. Some people always walk in threadbare shoes. And you arrange your preferences to avoid meeting them. It’s no longer possible to see further into the future than one desire at a time. History has ended and individual freedom has taken over. There is no alternative.”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics

“Is the economy fair? Does economics increase the quality of life? Does the economy waste human capacity? Does the economy create enough security? Does the economy waste the world’s resources? Does the economy create enough opportunities for meaningful work? None of those questions can be asked within today’s dominant economic doctrines.”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics

“Neoliberalism doesn’t want to do away with politics – neoliberalism wants to put politics at the service of the market. Neoliberals don’t think that the economy should be left in peace, but rather they are for the economy being guided, supported and protected through the spreading of social norms that facilitate competition and rational behaviour. Neoliberal economic theory isn’t built on keeping the hands of politics off the market, it’s built on keeping the hands of politics busy with satisfying the needs of the market. It’s not true that neoliberalism doesn’t want to pursue monetary, fiscal, family or criminal policies. It is rather that monetary, fiscal, family and criminal policies should all be used to procure what the market needs.”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics

“Cuando Adam Smith se sentaba a cenar, pensaba que si tenía la comida en la mesa no era porque les cayera bien al carnicero y al panadero, sino porque estos perseguían sus propios intereses por medio del comercio. Era, por tanto, el interés propio el que le servía la cena. Sin embargo, ¿era así realmente? ¿Quién le preparaba, a la hora de la verdad, ese filete a Adam Smith? Adam Smith nunca se casó. El padre de la ciencia económica vivió la mayor parte de su vida con su madre,[13] que se encargaba de la casa mientras un primo gestionaba sus finanzas. Cuando Smith ocupó el puesto de director de aduanas en Edimburgo, su madre se mudó a vivir con él. Toda su vida se dedicó a cuidar de su hijo; a la hora de responder a la pregunta de cómo llegamos a tener nuestra comida en la mesa, ella es la parte que Adam Smith pasó por alto. En la época en la que Adam Smith escribió sus teorías, para que el carnicero, el panadero y el cervecero pudieran ir a trabajar, era condición sine qua non que sus esposas, madres o hermanas dedicaran hora tras hora y día tras día al cuidado de los niños, la limpieza del hogar, preparar la comida, lavar la ropa, servir de paño de lágrimas y discutir con los vecinos. Se mire por donde se mire, el mercado se basa siempre en otro tipo de economía. Una economía que rara vez tenemos en cuenta. La”
― Katrine Marçal, ¿Quién le hacía la cena a Adam Smith?: Una historia de las mujeres y la economía

“Canada’s national statistical agency tried to measure the value of unpaid work. Between 30.6 and 41.4% of the GDP, they concluded. The first number is calculated on the basis of how much it would cost to replace unpaid work with paid. The other is based on how much a person would earn if they were earning a wage while they were doing housework. Whatever the method – the sum is enormous.”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics

“He didn’t get his dinner only because the tradesmen served their own self-interests through trade. Adam Smith got his dinner because his mother made sure it was on the table every evening.”
― Katrine Marçal, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics

“The job market is still largely defined by the idea that humans are bodiless, sexless, profit-seeking individuals without family or context. The woman can choose between being one of these, or being their opposite: the invisible and self-sacrifidng one who is needed to balance the equation.”
― Katrine Marçal, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics

“Él es la razón. Ella, la emoción. Él es la mente. Ella, el cuerpo. Él es independiente. Ella, dependiente. Él es activo. Ella, pasiva. Él es egoísta. Ella, sacrificada. Él es duro. Ella, tierna. Él es calculador. Ella, impredecible. Él es racional. Ella, irracional. Él está aislado del todo. Ella, atada al todo.”
― Katrine Kielos, ¿Quién le hacía la cena a Adam Smith?: Una historia de las mujeres y la economía

“Mientras, por un lado, el lenguaje humano es usado para describir el mercado, por otro, el lenguaje del mercado se usa cada vez más para describir a la gente.”
― Katrine Kielos, ¿Quién le hacía la cena a Adam Smith?: Una historia de las mujeres y la economía

“El comportamiento económico es, en muchos aspectos, emocional, no racional. Y también colectivo, no individual.”
― Katrine Kielos, ¿Quién le hacía la cena a Adam Smith?: Una historia de las mujeres y la economía

“El comportamiento económico es emocional y colectivo, no individual y racional.”
― Katrine Kielos, ¿Quién le hacía la cena a Adam Smith?: Una historia de las mujeres y la economía

“Decir que se es libre es solo otra forma de expresar que no se tiene nada que perder.”
― Katrine Kielos, ¿Quién le hacía la cena a Adam Smith?: Una historia de las mujeres y la economía

“Con solo que invirtiéramos bien nuestros recursos, estos se multiplicarían. Gracias al interés compuesto,”
― Katrine Kielos, ¿Quién le hacía la cena a Adam Smith?: Una historia de las mujeres y la economía

“Las libras robadas por Francis Drake aumentaron de valor porque la reina”
― Katrine Kielos, ¿Quién le hacía la cena a Adam Smith?: Una historia de las mujeres y la economía

“halagüeñas.”
― Katrine Kielos, ¿Quién le hacía la cena a Adam Smith?: Una historia de las mujeres y la economía

“El feminismo y la economía siempre han tenido mucho que ver. Virginia Woolf quería una habitación propia, y eso cuesta dinero.”
― Katrine Kielos, ¿Quién le hacía la cena a Adam Smith?: Una historia de las mujeres y la economía

“Feminism has always been about economics. Virginia Woolf wanted a room of her own, and that costs money.”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics

“Economists sometimes joke that if a man marries his housekeeper, the GDP of the country declines. If, on the other hand, he sends his mother to an old-age home, it increases again. In addition to the joke saying a lot about the perception of gender roles among economists, it also shows how the same kind of work can be counted or not counted as part of the GDP.”
― Katrine Marçal, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics

“Economic theories don’t help us understand either what our day-to-day choices mean for the whole and for society or what they’ll mean for the future that we will leave behind us one day, no matter how much we pretend that our actions are isolated impulses in a void. Economists should help us understand who we are by creating tools and methods for organizing a society with room for the entire human experience. Together with others, as part of the whole, the only unit through which we become intelligible. Intelligible to ourselves, to others and, for that matter, even to mathematical formulas.”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics

“The logic of the market is excellent when deciding which sort of lipstick should be produced, for whom it should be produced, in which colours it should be produced and what it should cost. But American satirist H. L. Mencken’s observation that on noticing that roses smell better than cabbage, you can’t conclude that they will make better soup can also be applied to the logic of the market. Just because it works well in some areas doesn’t mean it should be applied to all areas. Unfortunately, applying the logic of the market to everything has largely become the project of economists in recent decades. What we call economic theory is the formal version of the dominant world view in our society. The greatest story of our time: who we are, why we are here and the reason we do what we do.”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics

“When we turn the body into human capital, the political consequences of the body disappear. Hands that are raised, legs that move, fingers that point, floors that are mopped, mouths that are fed. Our economy is built on bodies. If the body was taken seriously as a starting point for the economy, it would have far-reaching consequences. A society organized around the shared needs of human bodies would be a very different society from the one we know now. Hunger, cold, sickness, lack of healthcare and lack of food would be central economic concerns. Not like today: unfortunate by-products of the one and only system. Our economic theories refuse to accept the reality of the body and flee as far from it as they can. That people are born small and die fragile, and that skin cut with a sharp object will bleed no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter what you earn and no matter where you live. What we have in common starts with the body. We shiver when we are cold, sweat when we run, cry out when we come and cry out when we give birth. It’s through the body that we can reach other people. So, economic man eradicates it. Pretends it doesn’t exist. We observe it from the outside as if it were foreign capital. And we are alone.”
― Katrine Kielos, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics