“Because I decided so”

This is the answer to the questions of the previous KEFs: “why the reforms will not work out” (available in Russian) and “why we don’t need economists” (available in Russian) – the answer and the responsibility which are shared.  And, there is nothing or nobody to hide behind, including oneself – no room for buck passing, humility or “pamiarkounast” (bel. “tolerance”).  Escaping a challenge is also a way of responding to it.  This is the position after taking which even economy starts developing irrationally and more by the rules of unconscious behavior.  This is the position when “expert economists” become “theorists” and prisoners to respective “theories” – beliefs, habits and stereotypes.  Thus, economic decision-making becomes preconditioned by the seemingly monolithic cultural matrix, and economy itself becomes a behavioral and static exercise. 

 

The comment above is taken from the essay in the book “Because we think so: decoding Belarus’s behavioural economy”/K.V. Rudy [et al]; edited by K.V. Rudy; Minsk, Zviazda, 2017.