Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.
Institutional economics asserts that an institution is an augmentation of an individual, so is a state, republic, or independent country. This tacit postulation guides us to the affirmation that the existence of any state is dependent upon the citizens comprising it.
While a state, government, or republic cannot, will not, exist without its subjects, individuals can exist without any form of governance, as nature has already bestowed on them sufficient faculties that guarantee their existence.
As the economy totters, debates rage and questions are asked, we have to be awakened to the revelation that ahead of us stretches our future, as a nation and as individuals, like a road leading into the distance.
Along that road are ambitions we wish to accomplish and desires we wish to gratify. To bring our ambitions and desires to fulfilment, we must all be successful socioeconomically.
Our future prosperity as a nation depends upon the personal financial prosperity of each of us as individuals. In his book, An Inquiry into The Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith wrote,
“The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it; and a state which postpones the interests of their expansion and elevation to a little more of administrative skill, or of that semblance of it which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes – will find that with few men no great things can be accomplished; and that the perfection of machinery to which it has sacrificed everything will in the end avail it nothing, for want of vital power which, in order that the machine might work more smoothly, it has preferred to banish.”
The 'system' denies no one, not a nation, not an individual, the right to own wealth. But it does not, and cannot promise something for nothing, because the way to wealth is irrevocably controlled by the laws of economics, which neither recognises nor tolerates for long, getting without giving.
Each of us must realise that the thinking that has brought us this far has created problems that this thinking cannot solve. And that, the decisions taken in respect to the future determine the present actual historical significance.
All Kenyan citizens desire to live in a flourishing society guided by a government bureaucrat, according to principles of economics, who is trustworthy, honest, enlightened, and completely focused on promoting the general good of society.
No two economists define economics exactly the same way, but they do concord on economic failure. Therefore, it can be pointed out that economics is the art of providing for all the wants with prudence.
To do this, the government ought to be guided by ethics, jurisprudence, and economics as essential components of a system of social science leading to social order. The result is economic prosperity. Nevertheless, let’s not forget economic truths, while of great importance, and trump them for policy purposes by societal context.
Economist. [email protected]
