Unmanned economy

I chose this nonsensical title deliberately. Can there be an unmanned economy? According to our inflation-fighting team, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, the Central Bank, and some economists in the financial markets who support them, an unmanned economy is apparently possible.

As you know, inflation data was released on Tuesday, December 3. Market economists and the Central Bank expected the monthly inflation rate to be below 2 percent according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK). However, it came in at 2.24 percent. 

However, financial markets always create their own excuses. They interpret data according to their own expectations and believe in them. The following interpretation was made in the money markets regarding the inflation rate, which came in higher than expected: 

“Sir, inflation is above expectations at 2.24 percent, but the reason for such high inflation is the increase in unprocessed food product prices (fresh vegetables and fruits) and the high increase in housing rents. The Central Bank had already explained this in its previous meetings… It said that the monetary policies we implement do not have an effect on unprocessed food products and housing rents. That is a matter for longer-term government policies. We have done our part. The disinflation program we are implementing is working like clockwork. Inflation is falling. If we exclude food, rent, and energy prices, the November inflation is not 2.24 percent, but 1.5 percent, the lowest level since 2021…”

Whose back does inflation break?

Those with low and fixed incomes…

What are the most important items in the expenditures of these segments?

Nutrition, rent…

To say that food and housing rent should not be included in inflation is to say that there should be no people in the economy. It is to boast about being the 20th largest economy in the world while regressing to the Stone Age, to the Cave Era in the twenty-first century.

The definition of economics is the art of meeting the unlimited desires of people with limited resources. Economics includes people and human behavior (instinctive and conscious).

The instinct to satisfy hunger and find shelter exists not only for humans but for all living things. Both humans and animals socialized and began to live together for safer shelter and easier feeding. They established tribal life. Over a long process, they moved from tribes to state organization. The fact that we have to remind those who govern our state and their supporters that the primary reasons behind the establishment of states are the instincts for safe shelter and nutrition shows the misery we have been dragged into very clearly.

Now let's come to people's unlimited needs… You have solved the housing problem, you have solved the nutrition problem. Better food, better housing, first a second-hand car, then perhaps a latest-model car… A one-week vacation in a pension in an undiscovered coastal town, then five-star holiday villages on the other side of the world, lighting cigars with 100-dollar bills…

The scenes of money launderers who look like beauty experts emerging from shantytowns, screaming “energyyy” and throwing stacks of cash, the high-segment sports cars they drive, their jets, are examples showing where unlimited needs can go.

Human desires (needs) are unlimited, but needs also have a hierarchy within themselves. In 1943, American psychologist Abraham Maslow defined the categories and hierarchy of human needs, making a significant contribution not only to psychology and sociology but also to political-economic preferences.

According to Maslow, human needs form a sequence among themselves, and each category of need corresponds to a level of personality development. An individual cannot move to a higher-level need category, and thus a higher level of personality development, without fully satisfying the needs in a category. According to Maslow, human needs are gathered in 5 hierarchical categories. 

1. Physiological needs (breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, healthy metabolism, excretion)

2. Safety needs (security of body, employment, resources, morality, family, health, and property)

3. Belongingness, love, and affection needs (friendship, family, sexual intimacy)

4. Esteem needs (self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect for others, being respected by others)

5. Self-actualization needs (being virtuous, creative, sincere, problem-solving, unprejudiced, and accepting of facts)

Unless the needs in a certain category are fully met, the person does not perceive the needs of a higher-level category; they do not have such needs. For example, a person who can feed themselves daily but is not in safety, and who constantly perceives themselves under a potential threat, does not have a need like reading books to develop their worldview.

So, where are people in Turkey in this hierarchy?

The hierarchy says, first nutrition, shelter, and survival…

People in Turkey are hungry. Children go to school hungry. As for public order, society is in a state of madness. Newspapers and televisions are full of blood-curdling news every day. You told people, “Have at least three children. Three is not enough, have four, five children. God provides the sustenance for the children born.” You left the children hungry. You let babies die in hospitals for the sake of money. People have become unable to have children due to financial difficulties. People cannot find shelter.

And while you are calculating inflation, you ignore the human needs that are at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.  

Inflation is falling if we don't count food prices and housing rents…