Diffusing the Time Bomb
Chinmay has made a thoughtful post about the current social reality in our city. I'll try here to put down my thoughts on the subject.
There is no question that all is not well with how the current liberalization is going on. It has created two classes of people who, we'll for the purpose of this post, classify as the "Haves" and "Have-Nots". I make this distinction since its not just the IT yuppies that are raking in the big bucks; I know of independent business-people who, in their late 20s/early 30s are making the kinds of money running conventional industries (the Peenya/Rajajinagar Industrial area types) that the yuppies can just dream of.
But Chinmay, I am afraid its all a part of the country's growing up process. While on assignment in the US, I lived in an apartment complex on the outskirts of Lowell, MA (I lived so far away from downtown Lowell that you could as well classify that I lived in Tewksbury, the next town!). Lowell was a very important industrial town in New England during the 19th and most part of the 20th century. It had some sort of importance till as recently as the early 1980s when Wang Laboratories was still in business. But, it is today one of the most run-down towns with a mostly lower middle class population.
Today, the median family income in Lowell is about $45k. Compare that with Westford, a town 10 miles away where my office was located, where the median family income is about $105k! All this chasm between towns 16kms apart. I highlight the distance here 'cos 16kms is no big deal in Bangalore either (I commute that distance to office). And yes, though the price of a house in Lowell is considerably lower than that in Westford, its still not in direct proportion to the income levels.
Coming next to equality, I think it is a fundamentally flawed concept and it stinks of Socialism. In the current Indian political context, the focus of socialists is to bring down the Haves to the same level as the Have-Nots, not the other way round, thus having the society at the lowest common denominator. Marxism/communism is a worse scum. Its too wedded to the status quo of a world that is stuck 50 years in the past. Communists neither do the right thing, nor do they allow others to do the right thing.
In my view, a start towards finding a solution to bridge the chasm is better education for all.
Its never too late to start, however, there (sadly) is a class/generation of people who have "missed the bus". Honestly, I don't know what can be done in that regard. But, punishing the people who can have a better quality of life just in the name of equality is just not acceptable.
There is no question that all is not well with how the current liberalization is going on. It has created two classes of people who, we'll for the purpose of this post, classify as the "Haves" and "Have-Nots". I make this distinction since its not just the IT yuppies that are raking in the big bucks; I know of independent business-people who, in their late 20s/early 30s are making the kinds of money running conventional industries (the Peenya/Rajajinagar Industrial area types) that the yuppies can just dream of.
But Chinmay, I am afraid its all a part of the country's growing up process. While on assignment in the US, I lived in an apartment complex on the outskirts of Lowell, MA (I lived so far away from downtown Lowell that you could as well classify that I lived in Tewksbury, the next town!). Lowell was a very important industrial town in New England during the 19th and most part of the 20th century. It had some sort of importance till as recently as the early 1980s when Wang Laboratories was still in business. But, it is today one of the most run-down towns with a mostly lower middle class population.
Today, the median family income in Lowell is about $45k. Compare that with Westford, a town 10 miles away where my office was located, where the median family income is about $105k! All this chasm between towns 16kms apart. I highlight the distance here 'cos 16kms is no big deal in Bangalore either (I commute that distance to office). And yes, though the price of a house in Lowell is considerably lower than that in Westford, its still not in direct proportion to the income levels.
Coming next to equality, I think it is a fundamentally flawed concept and it stinks of Socialism. In the current Indian political context, the focus of socialists is to bring down the Haves to the same level as the Have-Nots, not the other way round, thus having the society at the lowest common denominator. Marxism/communism is a worse scum. Its too wedded to the status quo of a world that is stuck 50 years in the past. Communists neither do the right thing, nor do they allow others to do the right thing.
In my view, a start towards finding a solution to bridge the chasm is better education for all.
Its never too late to start, however, there (sadly) is a class/generation of people who have "missed the bus". Honestly, I don't know what can be done in that regard. But, punishing the people who can have a better quality of life just in the name of equality is just not acceptable.
posted by Ananth Narayan at
11:54 AM
2 Comments:
That was the intent of my blog post .. I was only highlighting the point that we need to have more wealth creation avenues for everone and not bring the state of the haves to that of the havenots.
The way to go is only upwards and not downwards.
Agreed! I just wanted to mention that the social phenomenon isn't just restricted to a developing country like ours. And, as long as politicians have vested interests, preserving vote banks and the like, the social scales will still tilt to the lowest point.
I hope we are not conjuring utopian ideas :-)
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