Deferential equilibrium is a term used by Hirofumi Uzawa, a theoretical economist, to describe the unabated emission of carbon dioxide of countries even though countries knows for certainty that it is harmful and the main cause of the accelerated effect of the global warming. It describes the knowledge of undesirability of the act, and yet countries acting as individuals continue doing it as a matter of being compensated of the satisfaction associated with the discomfort of emitting carbon dioxide off into the air.
I wish to underscore that what contributed to the problem of not finding the right solution to the global warming is the behavioral tendency to put aside values upon moments of comfort and benefits.
Economists are known for the concepts of supply, demand and equilibrium just like lawyers are known for their “Your Honor”, hard hat for engineers, and the stethoscope for doctors. And this one term we readily, the equilibrium is a pursuit achieving balance, no excess, no shortage. Equilibrium is equal value.
Last Friday, I to attended to two events. In the morning I joined the Regional Advisory Council Meeting of the Police Internal Affairs Service. Congressman Jericho Nograles chairs the Council and is assisted by Police Brigadier General Jose Carumba, the Regional Director of RIAS 11. The Council is composed of individuals coming from the legal, academe, business, youth, LGU, national government agencies. In the meeting we found out the very low incidence of the violations of the Regional Police, making it statistically insignificant relative to the whole police population of the region. However, the Council believes there is the need to reduce even smaller this incidence. This can be done through values formation, and there is no other solution except values formation towards nurturing of values.
In the afternoon, I sat as technical expert on the scientific studies conducted by the University of Mindanao. Of the deluge of researches conducted by the institution ranging from life sciences to social sciences, my attention was caught by the idea presented by my good friend Devson Porras, a faculty of Accounting Education. As I listened to him, he was very clear in his desire to determine the values subscribed to by the Auditors. I asked, “do we have problems with our auditors?” to which he narrated in length and here I encapsulized as “we do not need to see problems at the end, we can see them at the beginning, by understanding how they value things and what are their value set. And if we see good values, then there won’t be alarming problems in the end, the reverse will happen if values are not practiced.” And I totally agree with him.
By Saturday, I chanced upon my professor in development economics back when I was doing my Master’s, Dr. Rem Antipolo. Though working for a year already in the government, he was still congratulating me for my not-so-new job. Then he reminded me of the most important value that I should never forget — integrity.
He was telling me that my academic training, competencies and skills set should be equilibrated by integrity and propriety. These values are the bells of the inner cathedral that sets the alarm or increases happiness in the performance of public service. Listen to your values, always look at your North Star, in all circumstance it must not be altered nor hinted. Values should illumine.
Values are never differentiable. This means that the demonstration of values cannot be contingent and dependent on situations; values must be constant no matter how uncomfortable the situations are.
Now, the Uzawa deferential equilibrium occurs, in the lens of the behavioral science, when values are compromised, set aside to enjoy comfort or to continue current stream of benefits. But again, let me emphasize, values are never differentiable; it cannot be seen at the first instance, and then gone in the second instance. It is observed as a whole, a constant and never divisible into smaller pieces.
Integrity cannot be divided into parts nor into many smaller parts, it is a constant whose derivative is equal to zero; unchanging at any given point.
