UNLIMITED

AQ: Australian Quarterly

Glasses without dollar signs:   Social business as a path to world peace

“Human beings are not born to work for anybody else,” Muhammad Yunus tells me, words tumbling out in a near stream-of-consciousness.

“For millions of years that we were on the planet, we never worked for anybody,” he says, his eyes sparkling. “We are go-getters. We are farmers. We are hunters. We lived in caves and we found our own food, we didn’t send job applications.”

Professor Muhammad Yunus is a man that genuinely cares about human beings and their experience of living. He believes we are all born entrepreneurs, not mere workers and certainly not just ‘consumers.’ He believes that our modern economic system misunderstands human nature—sells it short—and that this is the cause of many of the problems facing our economic system. And he believes that every person should have access to credit as a fundamental human right.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bangladeshi economist who pioneered the concept of microcredit, describes himself as “fundamentally optimistic about the future.” And sitting down with Professor Yunus at the 2018 Rotary International Presidential Peace Conference, it is immediately evidentIt’s a powerful combination of beliefs, which are explored in depth in his latest book

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from AQ: Australian Quarterly

AQ: Australian Quarterly3 min read
A Word
Cost of living pressures are dominating the media, as well as preoccupying the government as it tried to feather its (and our) nests before the upcoming election. While the government tinkers and ekes out tax savings to butter up the public, the stru
AQ: Australian Quarterly4 min read
Good Policy is Not a Zero-Sum Game: Minister Mark Butler
Now the current Minister for Health and Aged Care, he is responsible for one of the federal budget’s largest expenditures, regularly making decisions on issues that directly affect the wellbeing of all Australians. In his current and former portfolio
AQ: Australian Quarterly8 min read
When is Enough, Enough?
It is hard to write about a subject that is as typically dry and tedious as economics in a way that is consistently engaging. One writer who managed to do that, as indicative of the opening quote, was Harvard economist, diplomat, and presidential adv

Related Books & Audiobooks