Thought for the day
“The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their
backs.”
-
Karl Marx (German, 1818-1883)
Word for the day
Caveat (n)
A warning or caution; admonition.
(Source: Dictionary.com)
Utopia: The economic problem
It was a beautiful
afternoon. Spring had just handed the baton out to summer. Farmers fresh from
celebrating their harvest were preparing the fields for sowing the next crop.
Everything seemed perfect.
A young man was
lying idle under a banyan tree when a wise man passed by. He wondered why such
a young man is wasting precious time when everyone else is working in the
fields.
He approached the
young man and queried “why are you sitting idle?” The young man countered with
an assuring grin on his face “what am I supposed to do?” “Do not waste time.
Go, find yourself some productive work”, the wise man suggested. “Why should I
do that?” the young man asked nonchalantly. Taken aback a little, the wise man
continued “you could earn some money, buy means of comfort and luxury, feel
comfortable, be happy, and rest peacefully”. “That is exactly what I was doing
before you came here”, the young man answered exasperatedly and dozed off
again.
The aforesaid is an
old bedtime story. Various people derive different moral from it. My conclusion
is that each individual or group of individuals have different social,
psychological and physical needs and therefore respond differently to similar
economic conditions.
For some money
beyond a point becomes a passion. For some other, it completely ceases to be a
motivator beyond the same point. Yet for some other it becomes a negative
stimulus beyond the very same point.
From my various
interactions during “Discover India” trip last summer, I found that most
Indians, due to a variety of religious, social, cultural, historical,
traditional, behavioral and/or economic reasons are akin to the young man in
our story. Most of these are hard working, intelligent, and complacent. For
many accumulating “excess” wealth is a sin. Passion for money is mostly an
urban upper and upper middle class phenomenon.
When asked “why do
you not expand your business?” most SME owners, traders and shop owners,
responded “what will I do with more money?”
The roots of this
detachment with money, in my view, could be traced to agrarian culture and
traditions of India. All our religions proscribe accumulation of excess money
as sin and strongly advocate sharing of wealth with society.
The agrarian mindset
makes most of us work hard and pray to God for rains; wish only for a good crop
so that they get enough food and seeds for next crop; consider growing good
healthy crop as our pious duty, treat the land on which crop is grown, river and
clouds that irrigates the land, and mountains and woods that make the
conditions conducive for cultivation as sacred deities. Altruism, socialism,
austerity, and concern for environment are at the core of Indian society.
Any economic model
that violates this core of Indian society is bound to fail. The economic model
adopted post independence era, which was mostly an extension of the exploitive
colonial model used by British Empire, has promoted inequalities, injustice and
unsustainability. And that is the economic problem we need to address….to
continue tomorrow
Earlier
in this series:
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