Human capital, Human Behavior and Human Ideas

Why every individual - not just nature's resources - matters in economics

Wednesday, November 20, 2019 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM KST
Mason Korea (119 Songdomunhwa-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, Korea), #G106

For an economy to thrive, each person’s individual talents must be taken into account: from the skilled workers, subway drivers, street cleaners, to businessmen and women, government officials and policy makers, teachers and professors, and inventors of new ideas. The problem is then the development of such human capital to its potential, cooperation between people- where they can benefit from the knowledge of others-and, turn their ideas into economics of the future. This future does not grow on trees, but is organized, like a system, an economic system. However not any system: such emphasis of the human potential cannot be achieved with a materialistic ideology attempting to meet minimal needs of the poor,  but instead requires an ethic that can maximize the potential of every individual, working together based on rules of human dignity and private property. Markets are therefore the poor’s best friend, as they can, as individuals, all contribute at will. This talk will discuss three important strategic issues which may also be useful inputs to nations, like South Korea, who are moving from an “export driven industrialization” approach by products to “Industry 4.0”, where the human capital formation and its economic use by creative individuals are the at the heart of the economic system.