The Economics of Jesus

‘Tis the season to commemorate the birth of our Lord and Saviour.

Jesus the Nazarene has shaped the global culture for the 2,000 years that have followed his time. He occupies two of the biggest holidays on the Gregorian calendar (which is the global standard) as well as the Julian calendar; our annual cycles are counted with reference to the year of his death, not forgetting the several people named after him, his mother, father (the author here inclusive), and his apostles. His teachings have inspired western philosophy and Judaeo-Christian theology. However, within these teachings, what parallels can we draw with modern economics?

At the conclusion of one sermon, he provides a free meal to 5,000 people attending his sermon, literally rewarding people for consuming his service (who said bribe?). Like with most of his teachings, there’s an application to the provision of public goods. This particular case raises a “free rider” problem; one can assume there were some people in attendance who, for one reason or another, didn’t pay keen attention during the sermon and yet participated actively during mealtime (I do not think the guy who proposed “we want food” would score above the median mark on an end-of-sermon exercise). The apostles (civil servants or bureaucrats in this case) are not motivated enough (they were not on a salary) to screen out such individuals, and it’s also an arduous task given they are faced with a pool of 5,000 people. Although, they do have an incentive to accept kitu kidogo to help one skip through the queue.

Turning water into wine/alcohol is the kind of innovation that Nile Breweries would pay hand and limb to acquire. For one, if it remained in the anointed hands of the messiah, it would run them out of business considering that Jesus is not offering his alcohol for sale (no one has turned down free alcohol since). Even if the government imposed a tax on Jesus’ brew, people would willingly pay it because it would still be considerably cheaper than the "Stuart" from Nile Breweries.

Nile Special "Stuart"

A proponent of community/corporate social responsibility, Jesus lived by the ethos of feeding the hungry, healing the sick and caring for the poor.

Is your Pastor feeding the hungry?

He’s probably "the hungry" (and angry when speaking into that microphone). But why do you keep feeding him?

Ceteris Paribus.

References
* The Gospel According to St. Matthew, 14:13-21: Feeding the Five Thousand
* The Gospel According to St. John, 2:1-11: The Wedding at Cana

  

On Rain, Rwomushana and Malthus

“We have destroyed nature, and now it is destroying us back. That is how the World reaches equilibrium.”

- Charles Rwomushana

The recent spate of rainfall in Uganda is the most devastating in recent history. The death toll keeps rising (at 36 as of 10th December), both in the western and eastern parts of the country, and the property destroyed worth millions.
 

On Tuesday night, it was the topic for discussion on NBS’ Barometer. The panellists included Irene (a representative of the Uganda Red Cross), Hon. Simewo Nsubuga, Michael Lubega from the Meteorology Department at Makerere, as well as social commentators Charles Rwomushana and Aisha Kabanda.

A key takeaway came from Rwomushana’s interpretation of our current climate predicament. As per his submission, Lubega’s (or the Meteorology department’s) equipment cannot predict this kind of weather [although the Meteorology department had delivered a report, dated 4^th September, warning the general public of what we are experiencing now]. He suggested however that it was due to the persistent destruction of the natural environment. Uganda’s forest cover has reduced greatly over the last decade, to less than 40% of what it was. The recent weather conditions, and its subsequent destruction of property and lives, is the wrath of mother nature.

His assessment is akin to Rev. Thomas Malthus postulates from over two centuries ago. Malthus pointed out that population grows at a geometric rate, whereas food production (a measure of welfare in a way) only grows at an arithmetic rate; in summary increase in food production is not sufficient to support the high growth of population. Two kinds of checks would bring the population within the bounds of the available resources; the benevolent preventive checks like lower birth rate and celibacy, and the aggressive positive checks, that encompass hunger, famine, pestilence and war, basically translating into misery. 

Rwomushana agrees with the aggressive positive checks, considering that the recorded death toll from the third quarter rains translates into misery – recompense for our disregard for the environment.

“The superior power of population cannot be checked without producing misery or vice.”

Malthus, 1798, An Essay on the Principles of Population.

What can we do

Perhaps it’s time we actually paid closer attention to the ramblings of the weathermen. The private citizens can read it for their personal planning and vigilance. Because the politicians will not be reading it anytime soon.

Ceteris Paribus.

References

* Try to read the weather report, it’s released on a quarterly basis.

* Malthus, Thomas (1798). An Essay on the Principles of Population. Penguin Classics.