Claim. Economic activity in the ideal society is the unity of a spiritual process (the flow of heart, love, and gratitude) and a material process (the circulation of commodities), with the commodity itself being a united being of spirit and matter where love dwells.
Elaboration. Lee applies Unification Thought’s sungsang and hyungsang ontology to economics: every being is a united being of inner Sungsang and outer Hyungsang, so the commodity — a being in the economic sphere — is likewise a unity of spirit and matter (A. Principle of Mutual Existence). Production, exchange, distribution, and consumption are not merely the material transfer of goods; they are simultaneously the circulation of heart, love, gratitude, and sincere intent. This is a significant departure from conventional economics, which brackets the affective dimension as externality or sentiment.
The practical consequence Lee draws is that the future global economy will be a single integrated system in which regional bloc economies are organically and harmoniously united. Within it, local special industries fitted to particular regions will be harmonized with non-local universal industries — again derived from the universal-image/individual-image dual structure of every being. Enterprises will aim at contributing to the welfare of all humankind rather than narrow entrepreneurial interest, with the overall result being the multiplication of beneficial goods.
Lee adds a specific futurological prediction: the food problem (raised by Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population and the Club of Rome’s 1970s warnings) will be solved through the development of the marine industry, particularly aquaculture. The grounding for this is Divine Principle symbolism: the ocean symbolizes a woman, and woman’s important mission is fertility and production. This is a striking move — a concrete technological-economic prediction derived not from agricultural science but from sex-symbolic theology.
The whole construction will look opaque to secular economists, but the philosophical claim is consistent: if matter and spirit are dual aspects of every created being, then no economic activity can be analyzed purely materially without distorting it. Critics typically engage on whether the love-content of commodities is empirically distinguishable or merely a normative overlay.
See also. mutual-existence-joint-ownership-grounded-in-true-love, sungsang-hyungsang-are-homogeneous-not-heterogeneous, private-ownership-justified-by-individual-image-and-purpose-for-whole