The Psychology of Economic Actualism


Non-Fiction - Relationships
Kindle Edition
Reviewed on 10/01/2015
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    Book Review

Reviewed by Roy T. James for Readers' Favorite

The Psychology of Economic Actualism by David Billings is an analysis of economic actualism, how nominal records deviate from actual reality. This deviation has enormous psychological implications. Mentioning that the plethora of social norms are primarily intended to chastise us, as our society does not consider man as a social being by nature (remember, humans have to be taught to behave!), the author examines the impact of this in economic affairs. This, in effect, results in a nominal need for every actual as well as perceived need. His dissertation, accounting for the ‘state of the art’ as far as social transactions go, and incorporating theories such as ‘the hierarchy of human needs,’ is a comprehensive study of this topic.

David Billings, through The Psychology of Economic Actualism, proposes the idea that over many years of life with nominal needs, desires etc, our society has come to possess certain nominal values in addition to actual values, for all social entities including the economic ones. This dichotomy is presented in this book, illustrating with examples drawn from our rituals, social customs, business etiquette, appropriate language usage, laws, and our consumption patterns. This is more of an abstract discussion on the topic of actualism, and scope exists for a rather more quantitative analysis of these relationships. I found this topic new and challenging; and a few practical or empirical examples would have been of great help, especially since it is a novel approach to our needs and desires.