why corruption impoverishes; a parable.

 Why corruption impoverishes; a parable. by: Prof. Abdi Ali Jama.

Let us use a short parable to illustrate how corruption erodes the economy and well being of society. Suppose 5 neighboring families agreed between them to share dinner every day with each family bringing along it a designated dish. First family prepares meat, the second: dessert, the third:  sauce: the fourth:  vegetables and fruits and the fifth: rice.  According to their agreement, they had to get together to dine at one of the five houses each day. The neighboring families had been enjoying a delicious multi-faceted dinner for quite some time as each family duly brings along it the designated dish until the first family started not to bring anything to the table, but still wash hands to dine with the group. Nobody blamed the family for not bringing the meat. After sometime, another family also did the same; no more dessert. All five now share what have been contributed by only three households; a sauced rice with no meat plus some fruits and vegetables with no dessert.

Now, the group felt that everybody of them is less satisfied and overall wellbeing significantly deteriorated. However, no body blamed the two families who failed to contribute. Moreover, the bitter fact is that men and women from defaulting families are aptly voracious(greedy) while individuals from non defaulters tend to be rather abstemious(eat less).  After a while, two more households followed suit; neither sauce nor vegetables and fruits as well.  All five families are now bound to share what was forwarded by one single family: dry rice.  Eventually, it became obvious that this would no longer work because majority of the people have become parasites. This is what happens when some people behave in such a manner that they would not produce anything valuable to the society while they insist on taking a lion’s share of what has been produced by citizens of a country or rather GNP.

Corruption being by definition using power or resource entrusted for personal gain or favor, this would imply giving advantage to yourself or someone you favor over others. At an economic level, in normal situations, an individual gets paid for the contribution he or his own resource made to the production of goods and services that usually satisfy human needs. Whenever you misappropriate or favor someone by giving him or her benefit for no commensurate effort, this would lower GDP of the country.  The opposite is true; that is, whenever you give someone an equivalent money or reward for what he did contribute with his or her own work or resource, this would automatically add to GNP.

The moral of the story of the five families should now be clear: every single person of us must work and do something valuable to the society so that he or she would receive a commensurate reward—money or non-money form. I said: “every single  person of us”; That is, every citizen that have the ability to work; children and elders excluded. In this regard, two policies are vital; putting unemployed people back to work and exterminating corruption elements in the system.

Corruption is also detrimental to the economy; in the sense that it would discourage any activity that could increase GNP of the country in the long run; for instance, if you are someone in authority or entrusted with power or resource but corrupt, you would likely to use the power at your disposal, for example, for hiring someone you favor who is less qualified compared to others who you are not in favor for. In this situation, you are-- knowingly or unknowingly--  sending a message of discouragement to the disadvantaged and any other citizen that would qualify himself or herself to climb up career ladder in order to reach that position. This would result in pervasive ignorance and low education, which would further lower GNP,  knowing the fact that any economy or country whose human resource are happened to be less qualified, less skilled and less educated would end up with lower GNP and hence get far poorer. 

Human resource is the engine of the economy, indeed. isn't it?

Specialization, monetization and corrupt government institutions of a country would enable some people to illegally access resources—money or non money—without contributing any thing. But this could not happen in ancient times when self-sufficiency prevailed; that is, prehistoric times when each family had to produce for themselves everything they needed; no government institutions nor trade existed except for some barter transactions. However, despite having the aforementioned side-effects, the advantages of specialization and monetization are inordinately greater than their disadvantages. Therefore, the only solution is to uproot and combat corruption that might be revolving in government institutions of a certain country.

Prof: Abdi Ali Jama

Abdirrahman99@hotmail.com

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