Dr Muhammad Yunus’ s Address In MIT :What Is The Way
: Dr Tunus told MIT students, “You represent the future of the world. The choices that you will make for yourself will decide the fate of mankind. This is how it has always been. Sometimes we are aware of it, most of the time we are not. I hope you'll remain aware of it and make an effort to be remembered not simply as a creative generation but as a socially-conscious creative generation. Try it.” “Conventional businesses are based on the theoretical framework provided by the designers of capitalist economic system. In this framework 'business' has to be a profit-maximizing entity. The more aggressively a business pursues it, the better the system functions æ we are told. The bigger the profit, the more successful the business is; the more happy investors are. In my work it never occurred to me that I should maximize profit. My entire struggle was to take each of my enterprises to a level where it could at least be self-sustaining. I defined the mission of my businesses in a different way than that of the traditional businesses.” This narrow interpretation has done us great damage. All business people around the world have been imitating this one-dimensional theoretical businessman as precisely as they can to make sure they get the most from the capitalist system. If you are a businessman you have to wear profit-maximizing glasses all the time. As a result, only thing you see in the world are the profit enhancing opportunities. Important problems that we face in the world cannot be addressed because profit-maximizing eyes cannot see them”. Poverty is not created by the poor. It is created by the system. Poverty is an artificial imposition on people. Once you fall outside the system, it works against you. It makes it very difficult to return to the system.”Professor Yunus also challenged that there will be no poverty in Bangladesh after 2030. We think that there is much to consider over in what Dr Yunus has said.We agree it is possible to eradicate poverty from Bangladesh by 2030 or from other countries, though we would not talk in terms of challenge. However , as Dr Yunus has himself said partly , we do not think poverty can be removed if corporate capitalism which is profit hungry, social darwinist with no concern in its literature for poor and deprived can remove poverty. For that we would require a different market and free enterprise system with sense of justice and social welfare orientation and some interventions by the state authorities Scholars can call it moral economics or capitalism with a human face or Islamic economics or reformed socialism or free market with justice or any other name but it should not be totally reckless positivist and value-less capitalism. -----
