In a video of Jayant Bhandari at a Hans Hoppe conference—Property and Freedom Society (2024)—titled “Understanding India.” To summarize, he mentioned a number of cultural ideologies and mindsets he experienced in India which were totally different to what he experienced when he first came to the Western world. The contrast was so great that he had a culture shock when he came to the West and he did not know how to react. When listening to the video, however, I kept thinking, “Surely, he is talking about Africa! He must mean Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, right?” I double-checked the title of the video to verify that he was, in fact, talking about India. What struck me, particularly as an African, was how many similarities there seemed to be between the cultural ideologies and thinking of the two regions. Here is a summary of some of the traits:

Greed can also be explained in such economies. With the government having used money printing and legislation to take the saved resources from the citizens, most citizens are left to grapple for the remaining resources in the economy. When a human becomes desperate, he may be further tempted to engage in greed, backstabbing, betrayals, and even other social vices such as violence and crime as witnessed in nations like Venezuela.

Another major lesson is that inflation tends to lead to high time preference. Civilizations that have endured and developed, such as the US, thrived because of periods of low time preference, saving, and investment in capital goods. This leads to long-term growth and development. However, in a high inflation environment, no one is concerned about the future. They cannot be. How do you plan for the future when you don’t know how high prices will be? How can you build long-term capital for the future? Unfortunately, this short-term thinking spills over into other areas. Everyone is in a hurry so no one wants to take the time to build long-term relationships. These I believe are valid reasons to blame the monetary system.

The basic libertarian principle espoused by Frederic Bastiat in The Law is that every man has natural rights from God that no one can take away—life, liberty, and property. However, one aspect of the natural right of liberty is self-determination—the right of a group of people to live on their own terms and relate only with people they want to relate with. Thus, for example, a libertarian or free markets enthusiast may believe that free trade, no war on drugs, and no borders would lead to economic development in a community, but, if the overwhelming belief of a community is strictly against drugs/alcohol (such as a Christian community), open borders, or free trade with foreigners, then the liberty demands that such people be left alone to determine their own system of laws, policies, and economic structure. In other words, the culture or ideology of people matters. What is seen as virtue and exalted, as well as what is seen as shameful and criticized, goes a long way to determining the economic and social development of the community or nation.