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Neoclassical economics assumes rational, utility-maximising agents. In layman’s terms, you, I and everyone are agents and we always make decisions to maximise our earning potential, says Peter Kelly…

The big news in comedy at the moment is that Saudi Arabia has just organised a star-studded comedy festival.

The biggest names in comedy from Britain and America have been invited for large sums of money to Riyadh. Jimmy Carr, Jack Whitehall, Dave Chappell, Bill Burr and Kevin Hart were all there, to name a few.

There has been some criticism of acts going to Saudi Arabia to perform. Interestedly, many of the acts have not posted on their social media that they were performing there. There is no mention, as far as I can see, on Carr’s Instagram page or website about his performance in Riyadh.

Hypocritical for choosing to perform in Riyadh

Other acts have been called out for being hypocritical for choosing to perform in Riyadh due to the fact that they have in recent years spoken out in their strong belief in free speech.

Saudi Arabia is not known for its tolerance for free speech. Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist living in America and writing for the Washington Post. He was critical of the Saudi regime and it is widely accepted that the Saudi Government had him killed when he went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018.

This form of anti-free speech policy clearly didn’t trigger any of the comedians’ strong belief in the sanctity of free speech. Some comedy fans in the west are finding it hard to square the fact that their free speech heroes are willing to do the Riyadh comedy festival.

Apparently, all the acts had to sign an agreement that they wouldn’t talk about certain topics. Mainly, they would not talk about the religion of the country or criticise how the country is run or the leadership of the country.

Saudi Arabia is undergoing a large transformation. It has already paid out large sums of money for sports events, music and other forms of entertainment, so it can’t have been too much of a surprise that they would also fund a comedy festival.

Comedians who spent years declaring their belief in free speech

I also don’t find it surprising that comedians who have spent years declaring their belief in free speech would do such a show because at the heart of all this is a much bigger belief – that the religion of the west is not Christianity. It’s economics. Neoclassical economics to be more precise.

Government policy is based much more on neoclassical economics than it is on Christianity. Neoclassical economics assumes rational, utility-maximising agents. In layman’s terms, you and I and everyone are agents and we all always make decisions to maximise our earning potential.

The system rewards people who believe this and live this and punishes those who don’t. The comedians going to Riyadh may believe in free speech but their belief in profit-maximising overrules that belief.

Saudi Arabia is maybe known as an Islamic state but it is trying to transition to a neoclassical economic state. The big icons of this religion are people such as Tony Blair. Blair famously converted to Catholicism and led the Labour Party. His approach to wealth accumulation since leaving office shows a stronger belief in neoclassical economics than Catholicism or trade unionism.

David Beckham was a famously clean-cut professional footballer. Roy Keane talks in his biography about how the drinking culture shifted when Beckham and co came along. He currently fronts billboards on the London Underground for Stella Artois. Why? neoclassical economics.

Donald Trump has used his second presidency to enrich himself like no American president before him. Religion dominated the lives of our ancestors. The message was simple. If you find your present difficult, put your faith in god and when you die, you will live in heaven. Suffer now but live by this belief system and you will get heaven later.

I believe, for young people now, this has been completely replaced. Social media tells young people ‘I know you are suffering now but all you have to do is shift your mindset and you can become rich and live in a heaven of material abundance’.

A pre-reg recently showed me a social media account targeted at professionals with medical degrees. Do you not have the life you expected? Are you not paid enough? I can coach you to make £10,000 a month as a medical writer. I can do it, you can do it, anyone can do it. You just need to change your mindset. Classic.

How is all this relevant to pharmacy? This belief system makes getting adequate funding for services difficult. I recently read The Secret Barrister which said the legal system is just as underfunded as healthcare.

If you lobby the powers-that-be and say we need extra funding to support people in the community to get better outcomes and improve the population’s long-term health, you will get less of an ear than if you are lobbying to get funding for a super automated machine that has the potential to harness AI to create a monopoly that could provide prescriptions for everyone in the country.

The first request is what is needed but the second one makes more sense to the true believers who think we are all rational utility-maximising agents.

Peter Kelly is a pharmacist based in London and a stand-up comedian.