Though our economists have been advocating the government to ease socio-economic jeopardies caused by the recurring crises, they lack the knowledge of survival economics — the study and application of smart strategies to ensure a pragmatic survival threshold.

The recent ruthless floods in Pakistan have devastated the human and livestock capital and ruined agriculture, health and housing. It necessitates survival economists to devise strategies for saving lives and maintaining infrastructure, a work beyond conventional economists.

Pakistan’s government had been repulsing the pandemic well, but the economic pains of the poor population with one of the lowest per capita incomes are still on the go. Newer variants of the pandemic have pestered the world. It could be wise to sightsee the avenues of survival economics: food inflation, taxation, survival financing, employment creation and strategic management to reverse the crisis.

Poverty itself is a crisis and its eradication comes under the strategic acumen of survival economists. In light of the World Bank estimations, more than two million people in Pakistan entered the ‘below the poverty line’ sphere during and after Covid-19. The current floods have further aggravated the situation. Taking the masses out of intense resource deficiency could hardly be realised without going the extra mile and readdressing microeconomic theories.

Survival economists could design the way forward to ensure a fair price mechanism using relevant economic ideologies

Economic forecasting for a probable emergency ahead is the lifeblood of economic policy making. Unfortunately, the revered economists in Pakistan only foresee the impact of economic disruptions on corporates and ignore the common man’s effort to earn necessary bread and butter during tough times. Paying heed to a separate domain of survival economics, therefore, seems to be a requirement.

Except for offering nominal financial support to the deserving ones, the government has done nearly nothing for the subsistence of the victims. This dependency model in itself is very unsustainable. The Australian government introduced Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment Plan for those who had been highly affected by the plague or had no work opportunities during quarantine.

Price ping, a phenomenon of the government’s failure to control prices, has been causing formless variations in prices of survival commodities — food, healthcare facilities, subsistence items — across the country. In August 2021, the government of Punjab, with the help of the Punjab Information Technology Board, launched a price control and monitoring system that records complaints against the actors of hoarding and profiteering, but the outcome is lacking.

Survival economists could design the way forward to ensure a fair price mechanism using relevant economic ideologies. Survival economists are supposed to attend to food inflation during a crisis. High food inflation during Covid-19 seems to be contrary to the maxims of survival economics.

We have beheld no survival financing for small and medium enterprises and salaried persons from more than 15,000 branches of banks and finance companies operating in the country. The Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Pakistan do what is good for the national exchequer and not what is important for the masses during the period of misfortune.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of the US encourages banks to stand by the Covid-19 hit customers by waiving annual fees for debit and credit cards, abandoning late payment charges and renouncing minimum balance requirements.

There should be a framework that prevents employers from firing during a crisis. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 22m personnel lost their jobs in different countries in 2020-2022. Pakistan is no exception.

Around 20,000 children lost their lives in Kashmir Earthquake in 2005, whereas 140,000 were injured. More than 500,000 households became victims. Buildings were demolished and the socio-economic fabric shattered in the region. Pakistan received a great deal of fund-based and non-fund-based foreign assistance to rehabilitate calamity-hit areas.

Unfortunately, a British newspaper alleged that Pakistan officials embezzled relief funds from the United Kingdom. If the survival economists were there, the funds could be utilised optimally. Unfortunately, our politicians adopt a collusive style because our economic policymakers have no clear stance to follow in the long run. National Disaster Management Authority could take the services of survival economists and crisis management specialists.

Nations instigate wars for their defence but forget how to survive after the war. The aftermath of World War II was a trial for the economic think tanks to fix damages caused on infrastructural, economic, social, and intellectual fronts. It took years for the world to get back to its feet. The maxims of survival economics played their role. Today, European countries have stable economies.

Though wars squeezed industrial development and capital stock, America interestingly created 17m new jobs during the war to protect the economic liberty of the common man. Nothing was left in Japan, but contemporary Japan has become an economic example.

Similarly, the world has seen the deadliest floods, hurricanes and pandemics. Every time people pass through hard times and suffer a great deal of economic loss. We try to repair things according to the usual economic models. This is where survival economists could lead from the front by engaging some social scientists. Educating the population to promote savings could ensure preparedness for some probable crises in future.

Economies are strengthened for the good of human beings. Therefore, technocrats must guide the government regarding how to move forward during adverse circumstances.

The writer is a socio-economic analyst. He can be reached at waheedurrehmanbabar@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, October 3rd, 2022