and if we are, what can we do about it?
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Ever since the global financial crisis, economists have realised that we have a problem. Economics! The way we think about it, study it, write about it, has a problem baked into the very heart of it. This was revealed dramatically by the global financial crisis of a decade ago and is increasingly obvious when we look at climate change and the world of problems that we are going to need to solve to live sustainably on this planet.
What is that problem? It is us!
Economics is a study of human behaviour, and particularly how that human behaviour translates into economic activity – making things, selling things, buying things, consuming things. To study it, you need to have a model of how humans behave.
Economists have a model, it’s called “Rational Economic Man”. So, what are the characteristics of this Rational Economic Man? He (and it is usually a he), knows everything, has no emotions and makes every decision in order to maximise his own benefit. Solitary, calculating and insatiable.
To be fair to the early economists who created him, they needed a simple model to help them with their theories and couldn’t take into account the full complexity of human motivations, and they knew that it was only a model and not reality. Unfortunately, over time, that insight got lost. Instead of this being a very imperfect example of how people could behave, it became an example of how people should behave.
One reason for this was that the model was supported by experiments in human behaviour. Those experiments were done by academics working at universities in the western world, the US, the UK, Europe and Australia. For convenience, they were mostly done on university undergraduates in those countries, which means that over 90% of behavioural studies were done on people that represent roughly 10% of the world’s population. It wouldn’t be too bad, if those 10% of people behaved in the same way as the other 90%. But they don’t.
One reason for this is that those 10% are “WEIRD” – that is they live in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic. Now, there is nothing wrong with being in a WEIRD society, but the few studies done on people not living in WEIRD societies show that they behave very differently. They also show that those from WEIRD societies have more tendency to behave like Rational Economic Man, though even then the model is not perfect.
And yet, our economic system is based on him, which is why it is so unsatisfying to us and is destroying the world because it often leads to the wrong economic policies being made. So what are the ways in which the model fails?
Firstly, we are not solitary. We are all connected to each other. Superficially we know that we are connected to others in our family and kinship groups through bonds of love and duty. We are connected to our wider communities, schools, workplaces and even to our nations as well. But there is a wider connection on a deeper level. The idea of ourselves as individual actors that can operate in isolation to the rest of the world is an illusion and one that leads to many problems, such as loneliness, mental ill health and the challenge of caring for an elderly population, particularly in the West. But how can we feel that connection to others and see through the illusion of isolation?
Secondly, we are not rationally calculating, and neither should we desire to be so. We have many ways to make decisions using our heads, our hearts and our gut. We take into account many factors, some consciously and some unconsciously. We have judgement and intuition which enable us to handle uncertainty and a complicated world. We have the capacity for wisdom, but how can we tap into it?
Thirdly, our wants are not satiable, although it is sometimes hard to understand that. It is easy to fall into the trap of wanting more and thinking that it will somehow satisfy us. Our overconsumption is killing the planet as we take more and more of its resources to create objects that will lead to problems of pollution and waste management when they are discarded. But how can we learn to be satisfied without consumption?
There is an answer to all three questions and that is to get our Inner Awakening. Through a technique called Sahaja Yoga we can tap into a source of power within us. This is the power that connects us to others and removes that illusion of separation. It gives us wisdom and guides us as we make decisions. And it enables us to be at peace and truly satisfied with what we have.
For all that the technique is powerful, it is also simple, and always completely free. So why not give it a go and see how you could transform yourself and ultimately the world.
Click here for more details.
ClareW