Globalisation: Pros & Cons - KU Luarasi Pros & Cons Prabhu Guptara [email protected]. Please...

104
Globalisation: Pros & Cons Prabhu Guptara [email protected]

Transcript of Globalisation: Pros & Cons - KU Luarasi Pros & Cons Prabhu Guptara [email protected]. Please...

Globalisation:Pros & Cons

Prabhu Guptara

[email protected]

Please note

• The intention of my presentation is to provoke you to think!!!

Initial considerations

Dominance of “doublespeak” and “buzzwords” today

Should lead us to suspicion of *all* words that are undefined

There needs to be at least some joint understanding of key words before plunging into any discussion!

3

Joseph and ecological/ economic cycles

A potted history of Capitalism:• In ancient times, markets were not so important, but were, in principle, in the

control of the merchant class: “merchant capitalism”• Starting with the Protestant Reformation and the industrial revolution, we have

the rise of “technological capitalism” (capital plus technology)• From the Victorian era, the worst excesses of “capitalist markets” led to the rise

of “regulated capitalism” • Some countries even went in the direction of “state-controlled markets”

(Russia, … North Korea, Albania)• Since Chinese liberalisation starting in 1972, China has gone in the direction o f

“state-sponsored, state-owned and state-controlled capitalism”• From the 1980s, “regulated markets” started being “de-regulated”, giving rise

to “globalising markets” (the previous attempt at this was end-19th century)• Since 2007 or so, as nationalisms return, we have entered the era of

“deglobalising capitalism”.

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 5

Globalization

Increasing

world integration

of

capital,

Production,

and

markets

Measuring Globalisation/ Deglobalisation

The four main economic flows:

• Goods and services, e.g. exports plus imports as a proportion of national income, or per head of population.

• Labour/people, e.g., net migration rates; inward or outward migration flows, weighted by population (and resultant remittances in per cent of GDP)

• Capital, e.g. inward or outward direct investment as a proportion of national income or per head of population

• Technology.

Other measures of (de) globalization:

•Average tariffs

•Border restrictions on labour

•Restrictions on foreign direct investment, and/or

•Restrictions on outward direct investment.

Don’t markets need to be seen in their context?

• How important is the market to a society?

• What role does technology play?

• How do we deal with market manipulation, oligopolies and monopolies?

• What do we do to ensure stable and fair markets?

• How do we deal with the consequences of market processes (environmental, economic, social, political)?

Can the market ever be “completely free”? Even the jungle isn’t “completely free”!

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So, what do I mean by a “free market”

• Enables the rise of talent from any background:• Infrastructure• Public education

• Has free competition within minimum necessary rules: • Environment• Health• Safety• Currency stability• Equal application of the law to all• Care for the physically, emotionally or mentally disadvantaged• Differential expectations and punishments.

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 10

Three key ways the Market isn’t free

•Perverse Subsidies•Cronyism•Debasing the currency

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“Perverse Subsidies”:Demonstrably & significantly damaging

- economically

- environmentally

- socially

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Subsidies: perverse?

• Divert resources from higher priorities (education, environment, health, infrastructure)

• Encourage or enable environmental degradation due to over-exploitation of natural resources, loss of landscape, pollution…

• Benefit the few at the expense of the many

• Leave consumer behaviour increasingly out of touch with reality

• Lower global demand (& therefore market prices) for certain kinds of products

• Reduce pressure on businesses to become more efficient

• Undermine investment decisions.

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 13

Why are cuts in perverse subsidies opposed?

• Disadvantages those who will lose the subsidies• increases unemployment• Lessens domestic competitiveness• Reduces trading opportunities as costs rise for customersand • threatens voter support for the party in power.

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But are those only excuses?

Subsidies go to groups that support a party that gets into power

- as a “reward” for having put the party in power

This vicious cycle subverts leaders’ responsibility for the rest of society

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Perverse Subsidies

• $5.3 Trillion a year ($10m every minute) for fossil fuels alone

• The six most “perversely subsidised” sectors : agriculture, fossil fuels, road transportation, water, fisheries and forestry

• The USA accounts for “only” 21 percent of perverse subsidies globally

• OECD countries account for two thirds of all subsidies!

• https://theintercept.com/2016/04/29/banks-assert-constitutional-right-to-billions-in-subsidies

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 16

The good news is…

• Current economic conditions and political fashions are inclining governments to reduce expenditure

• Unilateral commitments have been made by several countries (Bangladesh, New Zealand, Russia…)

• Multilateral commitments are now being made more often and more comprehensively – e.g. the MDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals…

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 17

Three key ways the Market isn’t free

•Perverse Subsidies •Cronyism•Debasing the currency

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Cronyism: what is it?

• Unfair practice by a powerful person (such as a politician or company CEO) of giving jobs and other favours to friends rather than to the best qualified person

• Fewer opportunities for the majority of the population

• Impeded motivation

• Inefficiencies in investment

• Lowers the value that you get for the price you pay in the market

• Poorer qualifications, on the part of anyone responsible, lead to poorer quality of public projects

• Reduced choice and competition in the marketplace.

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 19

Facts?• “Cronyism is a way of life for many business and political leaders,

including plenty on the conservative side, despite (their) claims of valuing economic liberty” - Samuel Gregg, 24 May 2016 HTTP://WWW.CRISISMAGAZINE.COM/2016/CRONY-CAPITALISM-INEFFICIENT-UNJUST-AND-CORRUPTING

• In one of the most transparent and efficient countries in the world, the USA, the 2016 annual report of its Government Accountability Office (GAO), released on April 13, pointed out that, in its first five annual reports (2011-2015), it presented over 200 areas and 544 actions for Congress or executive branch agencies to reduce, eliminate, or better manage fragmentation, which could result in savings of “tens of billions of dollars”.

• For the Pentagon alone, the GAO made 152 major proposals for policy changes and improvements to avoid waste from duplication: “The Defense Department has so far implemented only 37.5 percent of these”, said the GAO.

• http://www.gao.gov/duplication/action_tracker/all_areas

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 20

Three key ways the Market isn’t free

•Perverse Subsidies •Cronyism•Debasing the currency

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Debasement = lowering the value • Well researched historically in connection with e.g. gold or silver

coins: a coin was “debased” if the quantity of gold, silver, copper or nickel was reduced from what it was supposed to have, resulting in a mismatch between its stated value and its real value

• Reduction of the silver or gold content of a coin meant that a government could make more coins out of the same amount of gold/ silver

• The resulting over-supply of coin, while the amount of actual goods and services in a country remains relatively static, results in inflation

• The purchasing power of the inhabitants’ currency is reduced, while the government pay off its debts in the debased currency.

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 22

Why debase a currency?An easy way to profit at the expense of inhabitants!

Nowadays, since at best mere paper is involved (increasingly often, only digits on a computer screen), infinite debasement is possible,

provided businesses and citizenry don’t revolt

And the inhabitants are “pacified” by double-speak such as “rise in the value of your house” (when in fact it means a drop in the purchasing

power of the currency).

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 23

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 24

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 25

Moral, ethical, psychological and spiritual connections?

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 26

Michael Hout & Claude S. Fischer, “Explaining Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference: Political Backlash and Generational Succession, 1987-2012” Sociological Science, October 13, 2014

Three key ways the Market isn’t free

•Perverse Subsidies •Cronyism•Debasing the currency

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 27

My Leading Question: What is wrong?

Democracy and capitalism have brought us such a long way!

Why then do they produce so much unfairness and inequality?

Why so much moral failure?

Why so many crises?

And why do we seem to be retreating from our social & environmental goals?

My Leading Question: What is wrong?

Democracy and capitalism have brought us such a long way!

Why then do they produce so much unfairness and inequality?

Why so much moral failure?

Why so many crises?

And why do we seem to be retreating from our social & environmental goals?

Vishal Mangalwadi

But *IS* it “democracy & capitalism that have brought us such a long way”?

My Leading Question: What is wrong?

Democracy and capitalism have brought us such a long way!

Why then do they produce so much unfairness and inequality?

Why so much moral failure?

Why so many crises?

And why do we seem to be retreating from our social & environmental goals?

DOES capitalism produce unfairness & inequality? • Please note: this is NOT an argument for Marxism or Socialism!

• Depends on your definition of “capitalism”

• But we certainly need to reform capitalism as it is currently practiced around the world, where the results are precisely these as documented e.g. in:• David Graeber’s 5000 Years of Debt

• Irving Fisher’s Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions (1933 - Internet)

• Yves Smith’s Econned

• John Lanchester’s Whoops!

• Gillian Tett, Fool’s Gold

My Leading Question: What is wrong?

Democracy and capitalism have brought us such a long way!

Why then do they produce so much unfairness and inequality?

Why so much moral failure?

Why so many crises?

And why do we seem to be retreating from our social & environmental goals?

Warren Buffet

“Look for three things in a person: intelligence, energy, and integrity. If they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother”

Malfeasance, Fraud, Buck-passing…

• Enron, WorldCom, 3Com, Arthur Andersen, Tyco, WasteManagement, HealthSouth, FreddieMac, AIG, Lehmann Brothers…

• Deepwater Horizon oil spill

• Merck’s Vioxx

• Exxon-Valdez oil disaster

• Ford Explorers with Firestone tires prone to fatal rollovers

• Aventis (now Sanofi-Aventis) Starlink genetically modified corn “only approved for use as animal feed” but in human food!!! Recalls & factory shutdowns for companies like ConAgra & Kraft…

Malfeasance, Fraud, Buck-passing…

• Bernie Madoff

• Satyam

• American Home Products (now Wyeth) popular diet combo Fen-Phenactually caused fatal heart problems - $21 billion

• Union Carbide’s 1984 gas leak in an Indian pesticide factory: for many years the worst chemical accident on record. Roughly 4,000 died within days, and authorities estimate the long-term death toll at 15,000, with hundreds of thousands more stricken with health problems. The catastrophe cost Union Carbide (bought by Dow Chemical nine years ago) $470 million in restitution payments to the Indian government, but the cost to its reputation was much higher. The anniversary of the leak is still marked by vigils and protests

Major corporate collapses and scandals

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_corporate_collapses_and_scandals

• 15th c: Medici Bank

• 18th c: The Mississippi Company, & The South Sea Bubble

• 19th c: Gurney, & Krupp

• 20th c: DanatBank 1931, Allied Crude 1963, Herstatt Bank 1974, Carrian 1983, Texaco 1987, Qintex 1989, Lincoln S&L 1989, LTCM 1998, Polly Peck 1990, BCCI 1991, Nordbanken 1991, Barings Bank 1995, Bre-X 1997

Major corporate collapses and scandals

• 21st c: Equitable 2000, HIH 2001, Pacific G&E 2001, OneTel 2001, WorldCom2001, Enron 2001, Chiquitas 2001, Kmart 2002, Adelphia 2002, Arthur Andersen 2002, Parmalat 2003, MG Rover 2005, Bayou Hedge Fund 2005, Refco 2005, Bear Stearns 2008, Northern Rock 2008, Lehmann Brothers 2008, AIG 2008, Washington Mutual 2008, RBS 2008, ABN-Amro 2008, Nortel 2009, AIB 2009, Arcandor 2009, Schlecker 2012, Dynergy 2012, Banco Espirito Santo 2014

• Joel Bakan: The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power

What is the *value* of a leader’s integrity? Can it be quantified?

• Dr. Fred Kiel did just that in his book, Return On Character (published by Harvard Business Review Press in April 2015)

• Over a seven-year period, Kiel collected data on 84 CEOs and compared employee ratings of their behaviour to company performance

• Employee engagement was 26% higher in organizations led by high-integrity CEOs

• High-integrity CEOs had a multi-year return of 9.4%, while low integrity CEOs had a yield of just 1.9%.

The Moral State of the Financial Services Industry

•26% have seen wrongdoing themselves

•24% think unethical conduct necessary to get on in the industry(!)

•16 % ready to commit fraud

• Financial Services Survey July2012 http://www.labaton.com/en/about/press/Labaton-Sucharow-announces-results-of-financial-services-professional-survey.cfm

Bernanke: More executives should have faced prosecution for 2008 crisis

• Reporting a story in USA Today, Sun Oct 4, 2015:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/04/us-bernanke-financialcrisis-idUSKCN0RY0X420151004

My Leading Question: What is wrong?

Democracy and capitalism have brought us such a long way!

Why then do they produce so much unfairness and inequality?

Why so much moral failure?

Why so many crises?

And why do we seem to be retreating from our social & environmental goals?

Globalization: a more accurate definition?

• Increasing world integration of capital, production and markets, driven by the logic of corporate profitability

•Profit above equity, justice, environment, community and nation?

The Demographic Challenge in Asia and EuropeData from the CIA, 2014

2.07

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2

2.2

Singapore Hong Kong Japan Italy Germany Switzerland China Self-sustainingpopulation

Number of children per adult woman (TFR)

U.S. Labour Force Participation Rate (16yrs+)- U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics as on 9 Nov 2014

The challenges ahead

• Global financial stability?

• The environmental crisis?

• China?

• India?

• Russia and the Middle East?

• Other “emerging markets”?

• USA: continuing spiritual and moral decline with consequent social, political and economic decline?

• The limits of Europeanisation?

For The Free Market to survive Q-BRAIN:

• Eliminate perverse subsidies, cronyism & currency debasement

• Establish a “global level playing field”:• Abolish tax havens• Close tax loopholes• Set corporate tax at a realistic level• Restore taxes for the richest part of the population• Embed “workfare” rather than “welfare”• (I have proposed a more comprehensive set of reforms– let

me know if you’d like to see them)

State of Europe Forum, Amsterdam, 9 May 2016 49

Some System-Solutions

• Fight the High Priests of Liquidity (demand Sound Money)

• Discourage lending/ borrowing (encourage investment in the real economy)

• Discourage High Frequency Trading (support a Financial Transaction Tax)

• Fight the culture of Rights (encourage a culture of responsibility)

• Fight the culture of Greed (nurture a culture of giving)

• Fight the global culture of Fear (nurturing true optimism)

• Fight the culture of Speed (encourage a culture of thoughtfulness)

• Change Company Law to enable two classes of shares: Long Term & Short Term

• Change Company Law to enable responsible behaviour (managements should not have to struggle against the demands created by current corporate law)

DEglobalisation: “globalization retreating”

The process of diminishing interdependence and integration between nations: Trade declines, governments create tariffs and other protectionist measures, investment lessens, cultural & personal links between countries shrink or are even attacked.

Though it seems difficult to believe, there have been long periods of history when trade and investment between countries did decline – e.g. 1914-1950s

In contrast to the periods 1850–1914 and 1950s–2007, when it was globalization that increased.

Why deglobalization?•Weakness of international governance structures?

•A general trend of reducing trust between people, between people and leaders, and between people and institutions?

• The impact of the crisis?

• Increasing environmental threats, & economic and social inequalities?

Deglobalisation starts:

•United States of America, where the Bush and Obama administration instituted the Buy American Provision* of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as part of a massive stimulus package, which was designed to favour American-made goods over traded goods (*any public building or public works project funded by the new stimulus package would use only iron, steel and other manufactured goods produced in the United States)

•But don’t blame the USA alone!

Deglobalisation (continued)

• The EU provided new subsidies to protect its own agricultural sectors

• Most governments paid lip service to a globally coordinated response for addressing the current economic crisis, but each of them put in place separate stimulus programs for their own national markets

• Export-oriented growth stalled – and that had been the driver of economic growth for many economies

• The Doha Round of trade negotiations under the World Trade Organization was completed under the usual slogan of advancing trade liberalization as a means of countering the global downturn

• But will we really return to a world dependent on free-spending American consumers, when so many there are bankrupt, unemployed & on low wages?

Status today:

Policymakers generally continue to:

- emphasise free trade,

- give primacy to private enterprise, and

- think of a minimal role for the state.

What about the critics of market fundamentalism?

Establishment critics, such as Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, are involved in endless debates over merely:

- how large stimulus programs should be,

- whether or not the state should be interventionist,

- whether, once companies and banks have been “stabilized”, they should be returned to the private sector.

Others, such as Stiglitz, continue to promote the economic benefits of globalization, considering the “collateral damage to society” as merely sad but incidental and inevitable.

Risks of deglobalization:

•Slower long-term growth•Greater gap between poorer and richer countries•More protectionism/ less cooperation, and• Increased risk of international conflict.

Bretton Woods vs Today• The benefits of the Bretton Woods institutions were meant to extend

beyond prevention of Great Depressions, to preventing Great Wars!

• De-globalisation influences Foreign Direct Investment, lending, development aid, migration, etc., also threatens the institutions that underpin the liberal peace

• We need strict adherence to procedures, in WTO and other multilateral organisations, that aim at increasing global stability, by punishing those who violate the principles on which freedoms are based (but China?)

• Free trade, for example, cannot be an end in itself - it can only be justified if it is a means to a more human life for most of the world.

So, in the present crisis, does the world trade system offer adequate protection to small and

medium-sized countries?• Is it a first line of defence against increasing bilateralism, protectionism

and power politics?

• Does it provide a good institutional and economic background against which trade and investment can grow, and conflicts be resolved?

Deglobalization: The double whammy of the current oil price shock

• Benefitting net importers of energy, but also,

• Harming exporters, especially those overly reliant on hydrocarbons.

• Will the geopolitical impact be a diminution of US interest in the Middle East?

• Will that lead to China and India, among other energy importers, being tempted to take a more proactive role in Asia?

• What if China, for example, begins to throw its weight beyond its “backyard” (and what is that?)

Has globalization been discredited by the current global downturn?

•The worst economic situation since the Great Depression 70 years ago.

•Global poverty and inequality increasing, while most poor countries experience little or no economic growth

•Deglobalization has become “the transmission belt (not of prosperity but instead) of economic crisis and collapse”

What can be done

• Use trade quotas and tariffs to protect local economies from destruction by corporate commodities subsidized by artificially low taxes, prices, and currencies

• Substitute reliance on exports, by reliance on vibrant communities/ national markets, through equitable income and land redistribution which produces local financial resources for investment

• Use subsidies, tariffs, and trade to influence whether and when to introduce robots and other advanced manufacturing/ industrial technologies

• De-emphasise growth, emphasize improvement in the quality of life

• Encourage development and diffusion of environmentally-friendly technology.

What can be done (Continued)• Increase the scope of democratic (as against government or

technocratic) decision-making to cover all vital questions – e.g. which industries to develop/ phase out, what proportion of the government budget to devote to which sector….

• Institutionalize the monitoring and supervision of the private sector and the state by civil society

• Enable the development of a mixed economy, excluding transnational corporations, but including community cooperatives, private enterprises, and state enterprises

• Replace centralized global institutions like the IMF and the World Bank which emphasize free trade and capital mobility, with regional financial institutions built on principles of cooperation.

Why move beyond narrow economic efficiency?

• Why should the key criterion be the reduction of unit cost? What about the cost of the resulting social and ecological destabilization?

• Why should we have a system that produces a nightmare even for accountants?

• Why should economics not strengthen social solidarity by subordinating the operations of the market to the values of equity, justice, and community?

• Instead of having society driven by the economy, could de-globalization re-embed the economy in society?

Social Challengesto the Global Order

• Demography• Community deficit• Migration

(c) Relational Research, 2014

Disengaged Investors

(c) Relational Research, 2014

Disembodied welfare

Political Challengesto the Global Order

• Disengaged voters

• Identity politics

• Size of multinationals

(c) Relational Research, 2014

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00% 100.00%

UK

Netherlands

France

Average

Germany

Spain

Italy

Election turnout % in the 2014 European elections

The need for a revolution in thinking

Relational Research © 2013

A New Framework

Understanding of:

• Personal identity

• Work

• Poverty

• Development

• Technology

• Business

• Government

Relational ThinkingAn Economic Strategy

• From debt to equity

• Engaged shareholders

• Relational companies

• Relational Ratings Agency

(c) Relational Research, 2014

Relational Companies

• From debt to equity in corporate finance (through the tax system)

• Measurement of stakeholder relationships

• Relational Ratings Agency

• Relational Capital Reporting

Relational Finance

• Ethical basis of return to capital?

• Equity vs. debt

• Engaged investors

• Effective accountability

A New Slogan

• No investment without involvement

• No profit without participation

• No reward without responsibility

Responsible Government

• Money supply• Regulation• Foreign Affairs

Relational Welfare

• Rootedness

• Co-location of relatives

• Family Associations

The Coming“Age of Relationships”

(c) Relational Research, 2014

Any movement, to be successful, must touch you intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally…

and get you to act!

• Comprehensible

• Comprehensive

• Inspiring

• Persuasive (Strategy or overall plan)

• “Actionable”: tells you what you can contribute to the movement today

The Relational Thinking Network: a network of SECTORAL networks!

• Schools

• Companies

• Consultants

• Scientists

• Technologists

• Politicians

• Administrators

• Lawyers

• ….

The Relational Thinking Network: a network of Regional networks!

• UK

• South Africa

• Singapore

• Hong Kong

• Australia

• USA

• (Switzerland)

• …………………….

Some Websites

• http://Relationalthinking.net

• www.relationshipsfoundation.org

• www.relationalresearch.org

• www.relational-analytics.org

• www.relationalschools.org

Globalisation

Prabhu Guptara

[email protected]

Additional slides

Politics always trumps Economics

• For economic renewal in the USA, political renewal is essential

• But political renewal cannot take place without cultural renewal

• For cultural renewal, Relational Thinking has much to offer everyone –whether people on the Left or Right, or Uncommitted Citizens

Economic Development of Albania - 1• Widespread social and political transformations during the Communist era,

though at the cost of isolation from the non-Communist world.

• In 1947, Albania's first railway line was completed, the second eight months later. By 1955, illiteracy had been eliminated among Albania's adult population, and there was unprecedented progress in education and health.

• New land reform laws were passed granting ownership of the land to those who actually worked the land. Agriculture became co-operative, with production increasing enough to make Albania agriculturally self-sufficient.

• Albania also became industrialized, resulting in rapid economic growth: the average annual growth rate of Albania's national income was 29% higher than the world average and 56% higher than the European average.

• Communist Albania did not allow taxes on individuals; instead, taxes were imposed on cooperatives and other organizations.

• From 1991, the hallmarks have been Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation, especially in energy and transportation

• Scores high in the Human Development Index – e.g. providing universal health care, and free primary and secondary education

• Now an upper-middle income economy dominated by the service sector (followed by industry and agriculture)

• Member of the United Nations, NATO, OSCE, Council of Europe, WTO, and an official candidate for membership of the EU.

Economic Development of Albania - 2

So, what Challenges for Albania, to reach the next level?

•Beyond “Political Football”?

•Substantially remove corruption?

•Establish an independent judiciary?

•Embed a Culture of Entrepreneurship?

A Culture of Entrepreneurship - 1

• Enables the rise of talent from any background, regardless of beliefs:• Infrastructure• Public education• Freedom of expression, of the press, of assembly…

A Culture of Entrepreneurship - 2

• Has free competition within minimum necessary rules: • Environment• Health• Safety• Currency stability• Equal application of the law to all• Care for the physically, emotionally or mentally disadvantaged• Differential expectations and punishments.

The Economics of Justice (not Capitalist or Socialist, not Islamic, Vedantist or Humanist)

• Rule of Law, not of the Elite

• Entrepreneurship, not merely Capital

• Merit, not merely Connections

• Work rather than handouts (except where those are inescapably necessary)

• Responsibility not self-Indulgence

What is “just” is *not* commonsense

• Should taxation be progressive or equal?

• Should punishments be progressive or equal?

• Is VAT or Sales Tax the modern equivalent of a tax on straw and grain, which is denounced in the Bible?

• What about a wealth tax?

• Should there be equal payment for the same work done by men and by women (indeed should women be allowed to work at all?)

• Is work something that should be done only by the lower castes?

The four most important questions

•What is the purpose for which my life was created by God?

•What sort of character ought I to develop – and to encourage in others?

•What is a good lifestyle – what should determine my choices?

•What is a good society - and how to nurture it?