Economic justice and our development

 `Salimon Begum, 76-year-old widow and mother of nine from Gaibandha district is struggling to survive. For more than six decades she has been struggling in the same pattern though the magnitude of her distress varied over the period. She does not know her ultimate fate. She knows only death can save her. She is marginalised due to economic pauperisation.
At the very early stage of her life she was weaving dream for a better future and also sacrificing sweat for economic emancipation but at the end of the day her output is a big zero. One basic question is haunting her entire life, how many hours a person needs to work a day to get a square meal to survive in the world. Salimon Begum is not the only person. Millions of Salimon have no answer.
So their basic question is - where does their surplus go? For whom do they sacrifice their entire life? Is it inevitable or it is the outcome of bad policy implementation.
Most often marginal people are excluded from the initiatives taken by government. Frequently international bodies, civil society, think tanks and our government beat the drums of their own success and measure development through some elite or elegant indicators and with their very sophisticated 'theories' they can convince the required donor agencies but not people like Salimon.
Yes, we have achieved some growth but not development. Development brings positive changes to the lives of all strata of people, not only a handful of persons in the society. So we expect more inclusive development rather than development of a few in the society by utilising the power of the state machinery or by political identity.
We expect justice - economic justice - not only policy implementation but also distributive justice of production and surplus. Each and every individual has the right to be included in economic functions actively and to get the appropriate portion of his or her production.
Within the system of economic justice as defined by Louis Kelso and Mortimer Adler, there are three essential and interdependent principles: The Principle of Participation, The Principle of Distribution, and The Principle of Harmony.
We have to consolidate all the principles to ensure economic justice. If any of these principles is weakened or missing, the system (of economic justice) will collapse. The principle of harmony can ensure sustainable growth which is very essential. These should be carefully considered and applied according to the context and situation, as welfare economics is not easily, if at all possibly, applied to real markets.
Discrimination of economic distribution, lack of proper allocation of resources is spreading, which leads to social unrest and finally can interrupt the sound growth of an economy. It is a challenge, challenge against development. Economic injustice can accelerate social disparity and this discrimination pauperises the largest portion of marginal people and makes them more marginal. So what about social safety net and other initiatives taken by the government and other local and international developing agencies? Here lies the matter of policy integration and collective efforts by all the development partners.
Our main endowments are vast human resource base, rich agricultural land, relatively abundant water, substantial reserves of natural gas and coal, major seaports at Chittagong and Mongla, and its central strategic location at the crossroads of the two large burgeoning economic hub groups of SAARC and ASEAN. Our economic achievement in the last couple of decades cannot be ignored. In some aspects, compared to our neighbouring countries and other developing countries our economic achievements are pretty good, even exemplary. Today, the performance of any country is judged by the growth achieved by the concerned country.  But in spite of these our major concern is aggregate development, especially sustainable growth which leads overall development.
Some facts and figures illustrate this progress. The economy of Bangladesh is a market-based economy which is growing rapidly. Its per capita income in 2011 was estimated to be $1,000 (adjusted by GDP per capita). According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bangladesh ranked as the 44th largest economy in the world in 2012 in PPP terms and 54th largest in nominal terms, among the Next Eleven (N-11) of Goldman Sachs and D-8 economies, with a gross domestic product of $306 billion in PPP terms and $115.6 billion in nominal terms. The economy has grown at the rate of 6 to 7 per cent per annum over the past few years. All the facts reveal progress by the country, but there is hardly any participation of the marginal people.
More than half of our GDP is generated by the service sector; while nearly half of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector. Other goods produced are textiles, jute, fish, vegetables, fruit, leather and leather goods, ceramics, readymade goods. This is not really social justice - it is materialism. And certainly it is not generosity. That is why development economics hinges on attaining as much higher economic growth rate as possible by every country. By this, economists tend to mean the growth in the gross  domestic product (GDP), or the market value of what a country produces (including services).In theory, rising GDP creates employment  and investment opportunities; and as income grows, both citizens and government are increasingly able to set aside funds for things that go to make a good life.
True justice and common good do not require equality in the sense of economic sameness. Arthur Brooks, a social researcher who is now president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), has shown that what truly promotes human happiness is not unearned income but rather a system that frees and encourages earned success - a system, in other words, that does not multiply disincentives to achievement, does not suffocate ambition.
Proper uses of land and appropriate agro based raw materials for our industries' backward linkage can help us add more value in our entire business chain. If we can expand our portion in the value addition process and can distribute it properly then it will bring about a positive result to reduce disputes among stakeholders. Transportation, communication, water distribution, and energy infrastructure are rapidly developing. Bangladesh is limited in its reserves of oil, but recently there has been huge development in gas and coal mining. The service sector has expanded rapidly during the last two decades and the country's industrial base remains very positive. The land is devoted mainly to rice and jute cultivation as well as fruits and other produce, although wheat production has increased in recent years; the country is largely self-sufficient in rice production. Bangladesh's growth of its agricultural industries is due to its fertile deltaic land that depends on its six seasons and multiple harvests.
Quality of life depends on various physical and social conditions, such as the environment in which a person lives. Finally it represents living standard. Despite high GDP growth, the other features shows that the economy still faces a number of challenges. Soaring prices, added pressure of fuel subsidies, a decline in the contribution of banking sources, and the collapse of capital markets are some examples.
There is often a debate between or among the different groups whether we should be optimistic or not regarding our economic achievements, we get a mixed reaction. But of course some indicators are in favour of our economic growth. I can put myself in a position where all sort  of economic policy focus on growth bypassing development, which added some value of  life and improving overall living standard. That is we are ignoring development, which results the violation of economic justice. Thousands of NGOs are working in Bangladesh. In spite of their hidden agenda their main focus is our socio-economic development. Considering their number and volume of functions we could expect more development. But because of the huge overlapping activities most often funds have been used in improper ways. Even sometime it is thought their main focus is not to reduce poverty but to reproduce poverty
Most often common people think that the life they are leading is their fate. They do not think this is the outcome of maladjusted policy taken by policy makers. Though they are trying to get rid of that but at the end they are being transformed from one form of poverty or distress to another form. Most often they are not included in long term policies. Another very important issue which is turning all into fiasco that is lack of policy continuation. Shifting of political power shifts economic policies. That is why mass people have to pay enormous price.
Psychology of young investors and new graduates of the country is much more mysterious. If you would like to induce them in constructive value addition process they may not be motivated. They would like to gain huge profit in a shortcut way. Because of this malpractice our industries are not growing in a stable manner and will not sustain for upcoming competitive world. Most often market performs not a rational way and this irrationality comes from the famous 'herd instinct' of investors. Most the investors would like to gain massive amount of money within a very short period, but they do not realise that they are the prey of long structured syndicates. One very visible factor is regulatory failure of "regulatory" bodies. Financial injustice, which leads to economic injustice, is also the output of intentional failure of our institutions. In some cases inefficiency of allocations is a major impediment of distributive justice rather than resource distribution.
Discrimination is increasing across the globe as well as in Bangladesh simultaneously. We can present a volume of data to prove this but our aim is not to prove it through quantitative analysis, but by observing the overall living standard of mass people you will get an acute feature. It apparently seems in several indicators that there is a bit of development in the life of people but you can ask the basic question - are we stealing our future and consuming presently. This is why the trend of present economic growth will not sustain. This is one type of major economic injustice for the next generation. So when we draw up a new economic policy we need to consider whether the new development will sustain or not. If the growth does not sustain then because of that we will have to pay an enormous price.
Political instability has strangled our economic growth for a long period. So political consensus is a must to set goals for our economy where protagonist is the mass people. When policymakers shout about growth and flaunt their successes then we can hear the cries of the destitute people and can predict some of the future perils awaiting us. So sometimes some unplanned growth can bring about a serious jeopardy in our long-term macroeconomic growth.
Alan Greenspan, the former US Federal Reserve chairman, has dogmatically adhered to the idea that free markets can take care of themselves. The idea that economic actors are rational and act in their own self-interest underpins free-market philosophy. But when the world's most influential regulator acknowledges failure to understand the future danger, it is a matter of concern for us. Drawing up a transitional work programme to address an economy with management challenges and operatonalising the transitional work programme, by revisiting public finance targets for the upcoming fiscal year is challenging. To overcome this change we need integrated long-term and inclusive economic policies that ensure by participation of the marginal people.
The objective of this article is not to find the basic economic problem of Bangladesh but to find the way out by ensuring distributive efficiency. Bangladesh may still be affected by the economic downturn, as a country whose economy relies on trade, remittances, foreign aid and foreign direct investment. The government retaliated with major fiscal measures, however, addressing high inflation and ensuring food security. One notion is important for government that production is not enough. We have to ensure distributive justice, efficiency in allocating resources. So this is the high time adopt inclusive and sound economic policies for sustainable economic development.
.........................................................
The author is a Faculty Member, School of Business, State University of Bangladesh.
E-mail : [email protected]