The final part of the book review session by the YAFO Institute with Bruce Koerber, the author of Divine Economy Model took place on the 7th of October 2023. The event dubbed, “An Encounter with Divine Economy Model – Final Part” focused on the last two chapters (3 & 4) of the book and discussed how principles of the divine economy model could influence trade, international cooperation and overall well-being of citizens.
The event started with the purpose of gathering from Nathaniel Dwamena, President of YAFO Institute, followed by a quick recap of chapters 1 & 2 of our previous encounter by our special guest, Bruce Koerber, author, Divine Economy Model.
Chapter 3: Envisioning Your Path
Bruce gave a summary of this chapter by saying that, the source of value is the appearance of the names of attributes to God or virtues because we have the merging of Science and Religion. He continued to say that, when you think about the virtues which is where the values come from, virtues can’t be separated from religion because religion basically teaches people the virtues of the names of attributes to God.
In understanding, Science and Religion are inseparable and ethics is the science of the end chosen. So in the realm of economics, we are looking at the means to attain the ends. Once you get into ethics, it’s how people choose the ends but we already know now that the ends they are choosing is something attractive to them.
This chapter basically takes us beyond what was the boundary of economics into the area of ethical economics which is basically looking at ethics and it turns out that ethics are basically given to us by the manifestations of God. He added that, we learn how to live properly from that source.
He continued that, microeconomics talks about the source of value coming from the names of attributes to God, which kind of merge science and religion, we need to go further and look at ethics, then we also have to recognize the power of religion in human civilization. So ethics and economics are really worked out together and explored together if you want to move further in your understanding of what economics is and that is basically what chapter 3 is about.
The moderator, Akwasi Gyamfi then asked Bruce to throw more light on diagram 3h: cyclical nature of the ethics of the divine economy. In summary, Bruce started by saying that the diagram represents the cycle of knowledge and action; you act, you gain knowledge, and with the knowledge gained, you act and that forms a cycle. Thus a proverbial fountain of knowledge that is driving all humans.
At the microeconomic level, the cycle which is the appearance of the virtues that attract attention is produced and then manifests itself in either a service, project, or product. So you discover what people want with the virtues of that product and then you produce it. He added that, it is likened to entrepreneurs who go to the market to find what people want and produce it.
In Ghana, cocoa farmers are strictly not to sell their produce outside except through the government’s COCOBOD and they have done everything possible to their advantage but when it comes to progress, there is a big gap. With regards to this, the moderator, Akwasi Gyamfi asked Bruce which economic system is causing that problem.
Bruce gave a brief explanation to this by saying that, Science is the victim of the same problem that religion has been a victim of and the science of economics is being minimized, destroyed, and corrupted by what is referred to in the divine economy theory as ego-driven interventionism. In other words, the idea of interventionism is kind of absurd if you really look at what it implies because the divine economy theory basically says that, the power of equilibrium takes care of everything.
He added that, if things are out of order, the power of equilibrium brings order too and that is how it works. It is not a man-made thing but it’s part of human creation. But interventionists have a different understanding and what they think is they can make it better by their limited understanding. They don’t know the effect of what they are doing, what kind of effect comes on other people or all of humanity. They have a little focus group, attention and they think in their limited understanding, with what they propose is going to make things better or better for them – it’s ego.
In solving this issue, he said the solution must be a bottom-up approach. It has to start with individuals recognizing their sovereignty and individuals recognizing the sovereignty of what they produce, the sovereignty of what they seek, and when this happens, interventionism is prevented.
There is a misconception that those who are creating and producing value are actually taking all the wealth from our society so with regards to this, Nathaniel Dwamena, the president of YAFO Institute asked, how do we overcome that misconception as entrepreneurs?
Bruce responded by stating that, entrepreneurship is not that easy and it’s the most powerful thing in the economy. Once you know the beauty of seeking after truth, you will never want to go back so this shouldn’t break the entrepreneur completely. He ended by saying that someone might not want what you do but you do not need to quit.
Chapter 4: Seeing How You Fit In
Chapter 4, the final chapter of the book talks about “Seeing How You Fit In”. From Bruce’s summary of this chapter, it turns out that law is being neglected when you look at economic science – the importance of law, and the effect of law.
Basically, what this chapter does is pose the perspective of how liberty and justice are basically kept in balance by economic equilibrium. Economic equilibrium is what keeps the macro/microeconomic world, ethical economic world, and economic justice world working. He continued that, without understanding economic equilibrium, as this divine economy and all its encompassing power, you cannot delve into economic justice. So basically, one of the main points of this chapter is that poor laws yield poor order, good laws yield good order and divine laws yield divine order.
Akwasi Gyamfi, the moderator asked about the rotten laws and rotten order regarding some of the taxation laws in Ghana and how we can maneuver these things in order to see how best we fit in.
In a response from Bruce, he stated that the people who are making the laws are basically ignorant of what they are doing for two reasons;
One is that they don’t understand the divine economy basically because Divine Economy Theory is basically pure economic science. They are also ignorant because they are not affected by the laws enacted. They are in the elite class and when they enact the laws, it doesn’t affect them and they can do whatever they want. When they increase the taxes for instance, they get the taxes so they are not affected by it. This makes them ignorant at all levels understanding economics and the effects of their bad laws.
The solution Bruce gave to this is that there are a lot of ways people react to bad laws. It’s either they don’t obey them or they put their heads together and somehow convince the law makers that those laws are bad. He continued that if you legislate laws then they are bad laws. He added that, observing the natural sciences and taking the law of gravity into consideration, no human made that law [law of gravity] but rather discovered it and that is the way the world works. The truth was investigated, tested, learned and they ended up discovering the law of gravity. Nobody made gravity a law rather it was discovered and that is not different from the science of economics. He concluded on this by saying that, the laws that are pertained to the economy are existing and, therefore, they need to be discovered and not legislated; so, if someone legislates a law that affects the economy, that is a bad law.
In the latter part of the discussion, it referred readers to a quote from Ludwig von Mises, “What matters is not whether a doctrine is new, but whether it is sound.” The chapter ended with these four action steps;
- Be observant of the connection between rotten laws and rotten order.
- Regard contracts as covenants.
- Implant the model visualizations in this book in your mind so you can better apply economics in your life.
- Appreciate the potency of economic equilibrium. Trust in its power to bring about reciprocity, harmony, and balance to the world.
Bruce ended with these last words, “I hope that Africans will appreciate the Divine Economy Model and more and more people get to know about it.”
We ended the session with the closing remarks from Nathaniel Dwamena, the president of YAFO Institute, and one of his notable comments, “Let us not be weary to use our God-given talents to solve our society’s problems with an entrepreneurial mindset.”
This final part of the encounter with the Divine Economy Model has been interesting and we hope you join us for our next encounters with Bruce as he has other interesting books like Predictive Economics of which we hope to engage him in the future.
Article by
Joshua Larweh Tetteh
Joshua is the Programs Manager at YAFO Institute. He works along with the other executives to plan, organize, and carry out activities in accordance with the organization’s goal and vision.
