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