The economics of Goodness

Goodness, the quality of being morally good, adds significant value to the individual and society. For the individual, value emanates from leading a stress-free life and for the rest, the multiplicative effects of goodness, as it propagates through society is likely higher than any other known phenomenon. Goodness, thus, dominates any innovation, religion and technology, included.

The value of goodness can be computed locally using basic economic principles but at the macro level, it gets complex. As 8 billion spin around in an interconnected soup on an irrelevant speck in the universe, it is clear that space-time is afforded in micro-packets to the individual but for society, it is certainly different. Society can gain significantly from an individual’s goodness as it multiplies cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The demonstration of goodness by an individual creates local ripples and history tells us that such ripples propagate across space and time.

The state of being good could come from knowledge but more likely by mere observation. The former is afforded only for a few, perhaps as little as a few dozen humans in the history of time but the latter is universally available to those willing to look. It does require turning stones over and not falling prey to the status-quo. There are indications that as many as a quarter of world’s population may have already attained this remarkable state.

However, most of the value generated by goodness in society is destroyed by as little as 0.1% of the population, mentally challenged and politically powerful, some of them “leaders,” of large populations, countries and companies. It is an enigma and that will likely pave the path toward the destruction of Homo sapiens.

Goodness is not easy, and the opposite is common. And unfortunately, the rich and powerful claim the latter.