Nations, poor or rich, are trying to evolve an optimal economic system through the hit and trial method. If socialism was consigned to the dustbin of history along with the implosion of the USSR, then the US-brand of capitalism has also not been an unqualified success either. The Lehmann collapse and its domino effect resulting in the global meltdown, the fiscal cliff and now sequester all point to a society in strife, struggling to balance the interests of the rich and the poor. An elixir for global economic rejuvenation remains elusive.
In China and India, the rich and the powerful are accused by the sceptics of misappropriating the benefits of reforms. But others point out that poor are getting more to eat after reforms, unemployment has not soared and inequalities have not deteriorated by global standards. The two countries continue to grow faster than the rest of the world and are seen by many as two engines of growth that may put global economy back on track. Why this gulf in perceptions, especially between local and international observers?
Even the least analytical individual instinctively realises that the modern entrepreneur has profits as his sole motive.
Many people are ignorant of the fact that during India’s First War of Independence in 1857, the first thing that victorious Indians burnt was the account books of the local money lending businessman. Globally, the common man is sceptical of a businessman, whether an industrialist or respresentative of a multinational corporation. Even the least analytical individual instinctively realises that the modern entrepreneur has profits as his sole motive. The rest, such as a veneer of corporate social responsibility, are only means to achieving this end. The bitter lesson of history is that bureaucrats and politicians are callous to the sufferings of fellow countrymen, and totally untrustworthy.
Economic liberalisation hasn’t rid any society of corruption. The major beneficiaries of the dismantling of the government control in any country are the rich and the well-connected. Corrupt public servants, policemen, municipal officers, crony capitalists, the swindlers list is endless. They continue to bleed the common man. The Occupy Wall Street movement in the US, Bo Xilai in China, and A Raja in India are merely symptomatic of the malaise that infects these societies.
For the masses, cost of living is the touchstone for the success of reforms. This has certainly gone up in most cases, post liberalisation. The mess in Europe only strengthens the argument that reform, like evolution, is a never ending process. Who is the real culprit is a which came first the chicken or the egg sort of question, the answer to which will not provide the common man the basic necessities of life. And that’s why the common man is not interested in polemics of inflation, interest rates and economic recovery. Men, milieu and moment constitute the coordinates of any particular action. History has shown that if the masses are not satisfied then any system — democracy, monarchy or dictatorship, socialist or capitalist — is bound to collapse under the weight of its in-built contradictions. Hollow slogans of liberalisation and reforms will not keep it afloat.
