Economic development of less developed countries has received enormous attention since World War II. A large number of studies have attempted to understand the internal structure of economic backwardness of less developed countries including Pakistan.

Prudent monetary and fiscal policies, efficient use of foreign direct investment, honest bureaucracy and transparent judiciary system, political stability civil liberty, well enforced property rights, democracy, availability of potable water, sanitation and roads, clean environment, and many more are held responsible for reducing backwardness of any society. However, for a large number of countries these statistics (now referred to explicit indicators) have failed to explain the growth differentials.

For example, in year 2000-2001 Sri Lanka citizens had a literacy rate close to 98 per cent but their GDP per capita (PPP) was $3560 which is even less than average per capita income ($3930) of low and middle income countries.

Similarly, the adult literacy rate in Bolivia is 86 per cent but their per capita income (PPP) is $2380. Scholars are now considering the efficacy of these explicit indicators with a significant degree of skepticism.

It has been observed that countries such as Costa Rica, Columbia and Nicaragua with similar literacy rate and life expectancy have experienced different levels of per capita income.

Similarly, China and Indonesia both have similar adult literacy and life expectancy but with $4260 and $2940 per capita income respectively. We have examples of countries that grow much faster despite having similar explicit indicators.

What then explains the growth differentials among nations? There are certain attitudes of the people that reflect the nature of the whole society and vary from country to country reflecting different levels of development across countries despite similar explicit indicators.

One of the important facets of these attitudes is work ethos. Although the differences in work ethos determine the levels of economic development across countries, an attempt has been made to discuss various attitudes in addition to work ethos and to provide meaningful solutions.

First, people do not have a tendency to make queues. One can find this attitude at various places such as movie theatres, grocery shops, banks, post offices, admission offices of public educational institutions, railway stations, bus stops, airports, offices of public utilities such as electricity, gas, water and telephone, etc., public places where admission ticket is required.

Why are people so reluctant to make queues? One thing that has to be cleared here is that this attitude has nothing to do with formal education. It has been observed that highly educated people do not like to make queues at bank counter that is located in the Karachi University premises.

They often tend to make a semi-circle around the counter instead. This attitude is quite logical because all of them are equidistant from the service provider that is equal to the radius of the circle.

There are several reasons why people tend to make semi-circle instead of making straight line. First they want to see the person sitting at the counter how he or she is working.

Second, they want to counteract any possible anomalies and finally for the hope to get through early. Unfortunately they don't realize that making semi-circle further creates delays, which consequently undermines productivity and growth.

Second, people often violate petty rules and regulations for no apparent and plausible reasons. For example, violations of traffic lane and signals, wrong parking, and feel shame to make a complete stop before entering to the main road are prevalent in our society.

Ironically, they have changed the meaning of these signals. To them (most of them are so called mini bus drivers) green lights mean go while red lights mean go but with care. Most of the cars and motorcycles do not have proper indicators and back lights.

These drivers would rather install pressure horn in their vehicles but very much reluctant to fix back-lights which might prevent fatal accidents. This reluctance is not because they are poor or they are incapable of doing certain task.

This is their attitude. Often drivers speed up their vehicles if they see someone crossing the road. This attitude is difficult to justify. Chalking is another attitude in our society. Unscrupulous people do not hesitate to write or paste posters on any wall they want.

Third, people often don't smile or greet other people particularly when they are providing some sort of services. The services are often provided with dejection. This attitude seems abysmal.

Fourth, people spit a lot. It is now indeed very hard to find any footpaths or sidewalls without pan's stains. Finally, people always want to work before their scheduled time. They often come late and leave early. They feel happy and delighted if they reach home half an hour early. This list could be extended but the point is made.

These attitudes often make people exasperated. Consequently, it leads to tension and high blood pressure that in turn make these people lethargic, dull and less productive.

It has been well documented in the literature that workers in less developed countries are less productive than workers in developed nations. Also, workers in less developed countries work much less hours in a year compared to workers in developed nations.

There are numerous ways in which such attitudes undermine economic development and create poverty and income inequality. First, large number of road accidents because of this attitude either claim precious lives or inflict permanent injuries of the income earner of thousands of poor families that exacerbate the problem of poverty.

The wastage of time throughout the year because of these attitudes has also serious implications on the work performance and productivity of the workers. All these attitudes that have been discussed above are very much related to ethics.

At the outset it has been mentioned that formal education does not shape these attitudes. Unfortunately our education system particularly primary education does not teach civic sense, work ethos, social norms, etc. to our children.

The lack of such character building activities leaves our youths in dark. This darkness has further exacerbated the problem when these youths become parents.

Accountability is indeed important for reducing violations of rules and regulations but one has to make sure that people know what is right and what is wrong before they are held responsible for the act they have committed.

To my view though very pessimistic, we cannot achieve economic development unless we educate and edify our children by providing them an environment where they can learn ethics.

To measure these attitudes one has to examine the primary education system and see whether the system is conducive to character building. Moreover, one can also see these attitudes just by visiting various places.

Although these attitudes can only be shaped at early childhood, these attitudes are important determinants of economic development. Therefore, an environment must be provided that is conducive to positive attitudes to our children.

We must also edify our children's way of thinking. We must teach our children what is good for them may not be good for the whole society and the importance of discipline, punctuality, hard work, honesty, and care for others.

Only hiring highly educated and dedicated teachers at the primary levels by paying them attractive salaries can change the attitude of our children. The evidence is apparent that the quality of government schools' teachers has been deteriorating over the years.

Although private schools are providing quality education unequivocally, they are catering the demand for only a fraction of total population and are not successfully impacting our children's attitudes.

One important policy implication of this analysis is that the government instead of providing all resources to higher education should invest more in primary education particularly to uplift the quality of teachers and curriculum.

The only way we can get rid of this vicious circle of poverty is to create an environment for our future generation where they can learn what is right and what is wrong.