How reproduction became central to governing the economy and how this manifests in daily lives of women

How reproduction became central to governing the economy

My book is called the Economization of life, and it explores reproduction and population control through the lens of the economy, capitalism, fiscal policies, and GDP. It introduces us to John Maynard Keynes. Keynes is a Cambridge economist who helped to bring macroeconomy into the world through his 1936 text The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money text. The Keynesian revolution is believed to have brought the invention of new terminology and units of analysis in economics. His stance on microeconomic would help govern capitalism and ensure that it maximises employment and wealth while minimising crashes and suffering. The aim of the economy is to use fiscal policies to control inflation, bring down unemployment and stimulate investment and Keynes theory plans against poverty and prepares for war and uses state spent money to build infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and immigration. 

Keynes considered eugenics to be within the scope of macroeconomics, and for this reason he supported birth control and population control measures over pro-natalist policies. The main argument is that economic prosperity is linked to decreased population growth. Therefore, economists and policy makers created family planning organisations and agencies such as the United States agency for international development (USAID) to ensure that people “choose wisely in their decisions to have families. These policies are abstract and pure mathematical symbols on how to increase GDP, however these policies manifest themselves in the lives of women, poor communities, and communities of colour. These are the aspects that I want to cover in the podcast because it is important to highlight the uses and aims of the economy, such as to improve the standard of life of all citizens in a nation. But to whose expense is tis improved standard of living? The methods used to ensure a rise in “Averted births and that certain people are not able to reproduce is an aspect that I would like to explore in the podcast as well as how reproduction became central to governing the economy.

In his 1936 text, the general theory of employment, interest and money Keynes states how the economy not only tabulates the wealth of nations, but it also predicts correlations, tendencies, forces and rates such as when interest rates go up, investment goes down, when employment drops, output also falls. According to Keynes another correlation is that increased prosperity is linked to a decrease in population growth. He even criticised the immunisation policies that were happening in India where people were dying of a plague but to him, a plague simply meant increased waged and prosperity for the generations that followed. “Lives let unsaved lead to economic prosperity”. Population is increasingly becoming an issue and a determinant to the economy which is why in governments such as the President Eisenhower administration, General William Draper stated that it was not sufficient defence against the Soviets to simply supply arms and military training to front line nations, but he called for population control on the swelling poor populations who threatened to undermine the expansion of capitalism. This is why the USAID was created because poverty was a breeding ground for communism, and we need to control the types of people we allow to reproduce. 

Averted births is a term that refers to those who are better not born and better to have never lived. It emerged in the US in the 1960s and it looked towards a future where specific individuals do not exist. The term and concept of averted life is very abstract and mathematical to economists and politicians however it unfortunately manifests itself violently in the lives of women. Women who are most likely poor, or brown must do abortions, voluntary or sometimes coerced sterilization, daily birth control pills that tie them to pharma circuits as well as the insertion of devices into their intimate flesh. Some of them even undergo experimental technology that is tested on them at family planning field sites. 

My book mainly looks at reproduction and population and how through an economic perspective and how this affects GDP, capitalism, and employment rates. However, controlling reproduction for the alleged betterment of the economy influences the daily lives of women which I would like to highlight this in the podcast.