Economic karma

When used with modern economic thought, the Buddhist concept of karma can be used to create a unique method of analyzing society. Given that people act rationally and out of self-interest, people act according to two influences: desires(internal) and incentives (external). Karma can be thought of as a constant flux of these influences and the actions that occur because of them. A karmic seed is an action. That action has consequences which come in the form of incentives. These incentives combined with internal desire provide the cause for more actions. The net worth of all the incentives created by an action determines the value of that action.

The idea of economic karma has the potential to synthesize economics with morality. By giving moral worth to the creation of incentives in this way, moral hazard is reduced and the overall level of utility is increased. The moral system produced in this synthesis closely resembles that of two-level utilitarianism. Buddhist morals do follow rules but appeal to intuition when there is a conflict or when rules are misleading.