What is an economy?

According to Wikipedia, an economy is an area of the production, distribution, or trade, and consumption of goods and services by different agents in a given geographical location. This came up because I just listened to the NPR story about the recent surge in black lung disease in Appalachia. It seems that the number of cases of advance black lung disease has hugely increased in the past several years even as coal production has dropped. The story ends with a coal miner saying "...if I had it to do over I would do it again, if that's what it took to provide for my family as long as I have."

 That got me thinking of economics on a meta-level: why *do* people work and often choose jobs which endanger their lives. From the coal miner's statement, it's clear that he works because he and his family need to survive. But there's an inherent contradiction in that a job that endangers his life does not support his survival. And that means the standard definition of economy is seriously incomplete. A much better definition would be a self-organizing, self-sustaining social entity that facilitates the production and exchange of surplus goods and services to promote the survival and wellbeing of all participants.

True economies take into account public heath issues and would not support the production, exchange and profiting from goods which harm public health. True economies would not support the production, exchange and profiting from goods which endanger nations of individuals. True economies would not support the production, exchange and profiting from goods which endanger the health of their workers, their children or their near and distant neighbors. True economies would not would not support the production, exchange and profiting from goods which destroy the life sustaining ecosystem of the planet.

Most of what the modern world calls 'economy' are not economies but more accurately defined kleptocracies which enable a small elite group to concentrate power. The innate consequence of the corruptive capacity of power ensures the elite will further concentrate their power, wealth and influence at the expense of workers and environment. Kleptocracies ensure economies are neither self-sustaining nor promote the survival and wellbeing of all participants.