Book Review: THE MYTH OF ECONOMY

'THE MYTH OF ECONOMY - WHAT NATURE CAN TEACH US THAT HARVARD DOES NOT' by Dr. Rajkumar Chetty, MD FRCPath, begins with an interesting question. "When it comes to economy, You have hardly any say in it as a common man. Do you? Here, I am going to explore the nature of our economy and look for things we are doing wrong and what we can do about it." Naturally, I read the book with attention, which is about the enormous similarities between the way our economy runs in the society and the way life systems conduct the needs of the body(energy economy). And what we can learn here, to fix the problems before it is too late.

It begins by analysing the economic model, and finds that what we have devised for ourselves is plain wrong and unfair. It is a bad design. It helps some lucky ones while ignoring the interests of the majority. It is evil in that respect. What does not work for the majority cannot be considered a good idea. The world economic model is not democratic, it is evil and wrong.

Next chapter is about the similarities between the economies, life systems maintain to control its resources, and that the society nutures, in handling the same. How our metabolism is a great equalizer, which always stores the surplus energy for a rainy day. How our fat cells (Adipocytes) act as our bank of food energy. Surplus is stored here, which we know, when not used, causes more harm than good. Hence our body promotes its regular use. Instead of this, when it comes to managing our society, why big economies are introducing instability, the author wonders. 

The way we presently deal with such situations are discussed in the few following chapters. How we ensure a desirable standard of living, and the evolution of financial entities like, banks, currency, etc. 

The next and last chapter is about the theme of the book. How to put into practice, the easy systems, the life adopts for its maintenance, in controlling the economies of our society. Since there is a lot of similarity between the way natural life systems conduct their economy and the way we do it in our monetary economy, there hardly should be a difficulty, the book finds. The author then goes on to make many suggestions, all of which looks sensible, to say the least. For example, energy economics of a life system is based on socialistic principles. Nothing in a life system is owned by any single organ or a group of cells. Ownership is a nonexistent phenomenon in life systems. Once we introduce such ideas into the human society, we will be freed of much of the squabbles, fights, or wars.

I liked the book. It smells of freshness, vision and ingenuity, as well as being a thorough study. Supporting reasons are shown for the proposed changes, wherever necessary. However, as author says, a system like this can put a stop to our attempts to maximize self-centred gains even if it means suppression or oppression of others, only when we assume that we have succeeded in making excess of wealth, unattractive or harmful. I was looking for a few, firm suggestions in this regard, to aid my imagination run riot!. Alas, I couldn't find any.