Human development and economic systems: a unitary approach

Abstract

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the success of the US economy at the end of the second millennium do not necessarily mean the end of socialism. In fact both capitalism and socialism are beneficial for a unitary human development, which consists of both material and spiritual development. Capitalism, with its emphasis on self‐interest and individual freedom, has been crucial to material development. But socialism, with its preference for other‐interest and collective necessity, is conducive to spiritual development. Thus, what is needed for further development of the human race is a unitary economics that synergizes capitalism and scoialism.

Sustainable human resource strategy

“…In this context, the author would like to introduce “unitary economics” as suggested by Sun et al (2001): “it tries to unify capitalism and socialism so as to provide a social environment most conducive to a balanced development of both the material and spiritual aspects of human life. In this way, unitary human beings capable of attaining optimal individual happiness and social welfare can be created” (p. 557).…”

“…We may not pay less for crime prevention, at least immediately, but if violent crime totals continue to fall, we will reap many benefits, economic and otherwise (Flanigan, 1997). Further, Sun et al (2001) also believe that, when the expenditure on law and order decreases because of the reduced crime rate resulting from the unitary economics approach, the tax burden for the rich would reduce rather than increase.…”

“…The author believes that it will have an unsustainable impact on the company as well as the community if it is not done for mutual benefit and is not painting a negative picture about downsizing and retrenchment, but attempting to highlight that it should benefit companies with least effect on the community. That is, economic reality of the companies and economic welfare of human society are the two sides of a coin and proper balance of the two is important (Sun et al , 2001).…”

“…This approach is based on the employee's long‐term benefit to the company rather than retrenchment, which is the unsustainable use of HR with short‐term perspective of “payroll costs”. To achieve this aim, a theoretical basis for the development of sustainable HR strategies using externality of retrenchment and the unitary economics (Sun et al , 2001) is provided in the initial section of this paper. Subsequently, a theoretical model to explain the sustainable and unsustainable effect (externalities) of retrenchment is discussed.…”

Corruption from the Islamic perspective

“…There are proposals in non‐Muslim societies in line with such Islamic teachings. For instance, there are suggestions to unify both capitalism and socialism (unitary economics) in order to achieve both a moderate level of material satisfaction from the consumption of goods/services and spiritual awareness to restrain self‐interest (Sun et al , 2001). Dobel (1978, p. 972), in turn, suggests that education should “… inculcate loyalty towards fellow citizens and create an initial willingness to sacrifice self‐interest to the common welfare.”…”