Societies should take care of their own just like companies do

People on a Deck

Why do the best companies in the world, I mean some of the biggest, the most competitive, the most productive and the most innovative always claim that their best feat is the human resource they have (with this I mean their employees)? Microsoft, Nestle, Coca Cola all commonly claim that their people are the ones who make a difference and it is true. They trust their people, their motivation and their capabilities, so they invest by giving them capital (technology, machines, benefits). They pamper them and invest in their people. They know that if they are happy and have enough resources to get by in life and, as a plus, have intrinsic motivation (like working in their field and in what they like) they will produce more than they are paid.

Countries should act alike. It doesn't matter whether a country generates resources from finite resources (mining or oil) or from an absolute advantage (like the Panama Canal). Only how their people work matters. If they are taken care of, pampered, have intrinsic motivation and perceive that justice prevails and fairness is a social norm, then that country will have a great human resource and all the capital invested will produce revenues in excess. And for companies and countries alike the opposite is also true: injustice, corruption, distrust, low intrinsic motivation, money becomes the end just to get by through life and work is just a 40 hour a week checklist and not a challenge, then both will fail. At this point other countries or companies will get their market share, especially in competitive markets. Then a country will only survive because of their absolute advantages and the case for Ecuador is: oil, bananas, shrimp and cocoa.

Group favoritism is very, very important in the development of a country, this means that if people are motivated, they see fairness in the system they work or live in and they start trusting each other, then a country will become the best living and working country, like Scandinavian, just as a good company becomes a winner.

Why can't a country as a whole think and act as a big company, where they take care of their human resource, show them justice, show them flexibility, show them freedom with responsibility, show them to work in groups, etc and of course pay all of their people enough so they can get by? Universal Basic Income would do the magic. If all are paid, all will be able to work, create, innovate in the area they are good at, where they are passionate about their work, and in the end, the country as a whole will become great. By this idea, I do not mean that there are a lot of points to tie and explain and mitigate with an implementation of Basic Income. My point aims at the fact that people reciprocate, and if they are well taken care of, they will produce, even in spite of the non social or free-rider fractions on a society or company.

The threats to this of course start at corruption, which shows good payback for a few, shows social injustice and system manipulation which deteriorate any type of reciprocity and intrinsic motivation.

A nice final thought is the following. Why do companies in house act in a paternalist way (just like inside a family nucleus) with their employees (although they do demand a lot from people work wise) but in a bigger group like a country all companies and independent people have to act in such a harsh capitalist way? A company is both an individual group and another individual in a country of companies? What if both groups, the smaller and the bigger acted the same way? The only difference I see is that in a country you cannot fire somebody for not being productive (jail and punishments exist for that matter) but for the rest, they are both the same thing.

Humanity evolved with one trait that prevents us from working this way in a natural way: our trust to group mates is very picky, we usually trust among small groups or we can trust somebody from a broader group (like a country mate) only if that membership is the closest link we have to someone when we are surrounded by an outstanding majority of foreigners. Like when we meet a country mate in a far far away country!

This is why we need to think of Universal Basic Income, about trust, about corruption not with our guts, but with our guts being guided by a rational mind.

#cooperation #ingroupfavoritism #economicevolution #development #universalbasicincome #Ecuador