A Natural Economic Guidance

Economics is such a subject which can’t grasp a long way of comprehension without proper
understanding the surroundings in which it is studied. The more it can analyze the cause & effect, the
more it becomes reliable. As it deals with the phenomenon of micro & macro level environment, it can’t
but address several other aspects which are not directly in accordance with economy.
It will surely be a great fallacy if someone tries to define & resolve economic notions by utilizing
the mathematical tools only. The first & foremost objective of economics is to understand the economic
state of individual and/or mass. But psychologists tell us that human being is the only animal in the face
of the earth whose behavioral pattern is the most complex one. Eminent personality Dr. Akbar Ali Khan
indicates this in this way1:

“Most of the time people are rational, again most of the time they don’t bother any logic.
Everyone has some paradox complexities in him. Most of the time they don’t even know that.
They try to draw a conclusion based on few experiences. Again there are many who never
change their minds in which they have faith although a chunk of logics & evidences are
presented against that.”

The solicitude of economics is nothing but the understanding economic-life of human being. As I
mentioned earlier that this economic activities are influenced by so many other things rather than the
economic notions only. Swert Mill2 gave an idea of dealing with economics in 19 th century. Mill realized
that economics can’t explain the whole entity of human beings. According to him, to analyze the
economic explanation, segmented definitions are enough. This segmented definitions of human economic
activities are agitated by overall environmental factors. This particular way of judging has been addressed
by eminent economist Dr. Mahbub Ullah3 in the preface of one of his book:

“I believe that the worthless trying of presenting economics in the shade of science has ruined
its ambrosia to a great extent. I do believe that in case of discussing economic dealings, there
come history, sociology & philosophy as obligatory factors.”

So it is clear from the above discussion that its not possible to confine the economic activities of
human beings within different assumptions & equations. History can be repeated through out the
generations. So an event occurred in the past can be a resolution or some kind of guideline for handling
the problem. On the other hand, sociology & philosophy do a mammoth job in keeping symphony among
the working forces in an economy. Sociology & philosophy are more in accordance with the morality of
the people rather than the laws & regulations of the country.

The discussion-elements of “sociology & philosophy” are generated from some values. Our
social mannerism, hospitability, altruism affect our way of living as well as our economic outcomes. You
can address these values as ‘natural economic guidance’. These are exercised by the countrymen learning
from his or her environment. These values differ country to country, society to society & family to
family. Say for example, if I am being reared in such a family, where family members don’t have respect
for each other, then it’s quite certain that third parties will not get proper treatment form me in this
respect. People of this subcontinent region has a reputation of having well ‘family compactness’. Human
being is called ‘social animal’. Why? Because they share, they respect & they care about one another. But
this sharing & caring for others doesn’t require any ‘cost-benefit analysis’. You never grant a single Taka
to a beggar expecting to receive some benefits from him in the future. At the same time there are some
vicious ‘human beings(!)’ who don’t even care of their own parents; keep aside the altruism for others. So
it can be deduced that the more you are self-concerned, the more the greed persist in you, the more you
are parsimonious, the more you are selfish & the less is your self-sacrifice, the less your altruism for
others. All are inter correlated. Today I am going to focus on effect of ‘altruism’ only here.
Once I heard a quotation: “foolish learns from his own mistakes but wise learns from the
mistakes of others”. Have you ever pondered why suicide rate is enormously higher in all the developed
countries? What are those scarcities, which seduce a bulk number of young, energetic people to die? Do
you know that Japan is in the top position of the list? Have you ever thought about what will be the
economic consequences of this destruction of huge working force in the long run? Do you know that
study shows this depression arises from their family & social life volatility? Do you know that in those
developed countries(!), people are living in such a society, where they don’t even know their neighbours?
No passionate sharing & caring. Boy friends & girl friends can share only a part of life, not the generic
form of life. Human life is not confined only in that circle. There are so many things behind the horizon!
This is the reason why I have named those values as ‘natural economic guidance’. These factors are
natural & fits the living-style of human being. If you want to do otherwise, you will just be perished. And
history confirms that those who goes against nature, nature punishes them. Sometime this punishment is
so severe that eternal-generations are suffered for the committed sins of their forefathers.
 A study was conducted in USA to analyze the concept of ‘homo economicus (economic man)’
and there it was found that students of economics are much more selfish than those of who don’t study
economics. They are more concerned about their self interest like the ‘economic man’ 4. Dr. Akbar Ali
Khan says5:

“…...it is proved that students from economics seldom believe other people. So their assistance
with others is limited. They are selfish like economic man. But those who have not studied
economics are less selfish.”

Haven’t you studied economics? Are you selfish? Theoretically, you are! At this stage, we have
come to know that the more a person is self-centered, the less the value of altruism in him, the less he
cares for others, the more his contribution of producing dejection for upcoming generations, the more his
contribution to social & economic distress in the long run. See! How much is your present state
responsible for future consequences?

One may not be able to comprehend this situation in the first time. But things will be distilled to
him if he applies ‘law of large number’ here. Think about a society where all are selfish. What will there
be then? There will certainly be ‘free-riding problem’. Will there be any social harmony? (forget about
law; as I said birth of morality is not from laws). What will happen in the long run if social harmony
break down? Try to get in to the midst!

We are hankering after self economic development. In attaining so, we made ourselves so busy
that our family lives are being ruined unconsciously. We are so busy that we don’t have time to think of
others. We are so busy that we are loosing these norms & values gradually. Only economic growth won’t
be able to bring peace in the society as you see USA is far behind listed from Bangladesh in the peace
index, published recently. Isn’t it the high time to realize the fact? Isn’t it the high time to learn from
others’ mistakes? Isn’t it the high time to be wise? Think today as if there were no tomorrow!
1
Pararthoparatar Arthaniti, Akbar Ali Khan, University Press Limited, p.no.155
2
Pershky, Joseph, “Retrospectives: The Ethnology of Homo Economicus”, The journal of Economics Perspective, Spring
1995, vol.9, No.2,p.no. 221-232
3
Arthaniti: Chalti Prasanga, Mahbub Ullah, Adorn Publication.
4
Frank, Robert L., et al., “Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooreration”, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring
1993, vol.7, No,2, p.no. 159-171
5
Pararthoparatar Arthaniti, Akbar Ali Khan, University Press Limited, p.no.158