The Vicious Cycle of Stupid Capitalism

“To live fully, we must learn to use things and love people, and not love things and use people.” 

John Powell 

Work. Earn. Buy. Work harder. Earn more. Buy more. Want more. Work even harder. Wages stagnate. Prices go up. Use credit. Want more. Use more credit. Buy even more. Prices rise. Wages stay stagnant. Start giving up essentials; use more credit to buy more stuff. Get deeper and deeper in debt. Repeat.

Therein lies the vicious cycle of the stupid, wasteful, excessive consumptive capitalism that we have become trapped in. One in which companies are driven purely by profiteering based on selling us more stuff; no longer innovating or solving real problems but simply updating existing products with more memory, larger screen sizes or higher definition. We in turn want to keep up with the Joneses and even though there is absolutely no reason to discard your iPhone 5, ROKU 1 or 2009 model 40” LG flat screen TV, we want the newest gadgets and products because everyone else has them.

Even if you try to resist the urge to constantly consume (like our family does), companies have started to ensure that we have no choice. Many now make products with shorter lifespans, that fall apart in a less than a couple of years. I still remember when all white goods and even clothes and furniture from my parents’ generation lasted for decades. My father’s shoes and shirts lasted him more than twenty years; mine last less than two. My mother’s fridge stayed with us for more than a decade; our last one broke in one year. My last laptop died two years after I bought it. I had to buy a new one after Lenovo told me that the cost of replacing the broken part would be more than I paid for the laptop. In fact, it has gotten so out of hand that leading up to the financial crisis people were buying and selling homes as regularly as people upgrade iPhones.

Today, it is as if companies exist purely for profit at all costs. Consumption and consumerism has reached a fever pitch and are now bordering on insanity. Amazon just introduced a DASH button that allows you to re-order household products the moment you start to run low (Source: TechCrunch article). God forbid we ever run out of paper towels or washing detergent, the world might end; toilet paper is another matter entirely.

Perhaps, it started with Wall Street’s introduction of quarterly earnings results which were presumably designed to gauge the health of public companies and create greater transparency. Somewhere along the way it became a measure of profits, with growth expected every quarter. Shareholders started to expect their piece of this pie via an always rising share price and dividends every quarter. 

The problem with this model is that companies realistically cannot grow at such a frenetic pace. Such rapid rate of growth is neither realistic nor feasible and leads to putting the kinds of pressure on management that always lead to ill-conceived and myopic decisions at best and totally dishonest, illegal and fraudulent ones at worst. Essentially, we have created a system where we reward short-term success, at any cost, and penalize long-term or strategic thinking, the type that leads to real and sustainable growth.

This is not a viable model of capitalism and more importantly it is based largely on false premises and unrealistic expectations. It is not the fundamentals of capitalist theory that are in question but the people applying them who seem to have become increasingly devoid of ethics, morals, principles and personal responsibility. We have created a system where winner takes all, at the expense of everyone else. If we continue down this path we are putting the wonderful system of capitalism on a path to failure and also creating conditions for major social unrest across the world.

It seems that all sins are permissible as long as companies continue to produce profits. And when senior leadership fails, they simply move on to the next job with a golden parachute, instead of into management oblivion or jail where they really belong. After Enron, every senior executive learned to never leave an email or paper trail; “when topics broached sensitive territory in e-mails, they would often write ‘LDL’—let’s discuss live.” (Source: New Yorker). It used to take generations to amass substantial wealth. Today, between Wall Street hedge funds and Silicon Valley startups Rockefeller and Vanderbilt-like wealth is being created in a matter of years, and is often based on valuations pulled out of blue sky or based on misleading small investors.

Even the world of academia has succumbed to this growing greed and worship of money. Colleges, whose critical role was to broaden minds beyond traditional spheres of influence and thinking and to encourage generations to discover, are busy peddling sophisticated financial models that help companies evaluate ‘risk.’ Professors have become advisers to large corporations, showing up on company boards and espousing ‘financial and economic’ expertise via regular columns in newspapers or appearances on television and basking under the bright lights of six and seven figure celebrity. 

There are numerous reports of how talk of becoming a doctor, public servant, poet or teacher has long disappeared from the modern day dorm rooms. Today, it is all about how kids can make their first million dollars before starting their sophomore year in college. 

We have moved away from the notion of steady, honest hard work as the key recipes for success to a model that supports fast, easy, reality-TV-type do-nothing success. Everything is about an exit and not about building companies that span generations. Bluster wins the day while substance, it seems, is considered old-fashioned and outdated.

With this approach to success we have washed away the fundamental human values and principles that used to govern our inner consciences. We are looking out for ourselves (in much larger numbers than generations before us) and worried less about improving the lives of our employees, communities and children.

So we can blame our politicians, the business elites, media and everyone else for our woes and push for stricter laws and more stringent regulation, but I don’t believe this will solve the deeper underlying problem we are facing; we have made money our new God. It is this greed that we need to tackle; one that forgoes ethics, principles and decency in a bid to get ahead. 

Until we remember that each of us has a greater responsibility to society and to the generations that follow, we will remain plagued by this imbalance in our lives and in our little global village.

Political Correctness and the Rise of Donald Trump

“I got a feeling about political correctness. I hate it. It causes us to lie silently instead of saying what we think.” 
Hal Holbrook

There has been widespread condemnation, from across the political spectrum, of Donald Trump’s latest outlandish suggestion of barring all Muslims who are not US citizens from entering the United States. This is not the first time he has tread heavily into the territory of race, religion and ethnicity. Mr. Trump launched his campaign pronouncing that all Mexican immigrants were rapists and drug dealers and should be shipped back to Mexico. Since then he also has offended women, blacks, news anchors, the wider Hispanic diaspora, and the list goes on.

I have read many social media posts and news articles dismissing Trump as “un-American” and as someone who does not reflect American values. Yet, Mr. Trump’s poll numbers and popularity have remained largely unaffected and his support continues to grow. A recent poll indicated that 68% of his Republican base would support him if he ran as an independent (Source: USA Today) and he has 37% support nationally.

It is easy but would be dangerous to dismiss Mr. Trump and his passionate band of followers as crazy right-wing republicans and white supremacist bigots. Or to consider them a passing anomaly that has nothing to do with the growing fears and frustration of a large percentage of the American’s. I have heard journalists like Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity try to argue the merits of some of Mr. Trump’s assertions, and I suspect that fears about Islam, terrorism and immigration are main stream, even if the hate rests in the fringes. It is just that the majority of people are too scared to express even reasonable views freely for fear of offending someone and being branded a racist.

I am not suggesting that we seriously consider any of Mr. Trumps’ proposals, but to simply dismiss them and the fears of a growing number of Americans would be far more dangerous. If we do, these frustrations will only continue to fester, turn to deeper anger, and come out in even uglier ways. The question we need to ask ourselves is why does Donald Trump exist as a political force?

Trump is part reality TV star, part American dream, part frustration with politicians and lack of leadership, and part a product of political correctness gone awry. Trump is a cancer built from all the problems we have swept under our carpets for far too long in an attempt to create something resembling a society where nobody is ever offended.

Think about the fact that his greatest appeal is that he says, does, and sounds like most normal people do; like your politically incorrect grandfather, father and uncle. He routinely makes gaffs, says dumb things, lashes out in anger, but never does he come across as scripted or disingenuous politician trying to sound politically correct and thus totally unnatural. 
 
I am sure that political correctness, when it started on college campuses a few decades ago, was well-intentioned and genuinely meant to educate us, make us more aware and sensitive to other people. It was meant to help us become accepting of other beliefs, faiths and cultures. But today it seems to have become about trying to mould everyone into thinking, sounding and saying the same things. It has become the default weapon to shut down all alternate world views and is being used to prevent people from speaking their minds.

The point is that we all do and say stupid things and we all have prejudices and biases. We always have and we always will; that is part of being human. Today, it feels like political correctness (PC) in America has metastasised into a way to chastise anyone and everyone who does not fit some random litmus test. But all we are succeeding in doing is shutting down alternate viewpoints and muzzling people who do not think the same way, or agree with our views. It is this avatar of PC that is in large part responsible for creating and unleashing the monster we now call Donald Trump.

This is a very dangerous thing in a democracy that claims to value freedom of thought and speech above all else. Because freedom of speech also means allowing people who view the world differently to air their views, no matter how offensive, hurtful or heinous we might find them to be.

Not everybody thinks the same way about homosexuality, global warming or taxation. However, there is a stark difference between someone who spreads hate and someone who simply disagrees; and not all disagreement is rooted in hatred. We need to start making those distinctions and respectfully disagree with people, but not try to muzzle or force them to change their views by shaming them. Instead, we need to show people a better way through our actions; that is the only way you to change someone’s mind and long-held beliefs.

We need to make sure that the mainstream voice is more powerful and thus drowns out the hate. Think about the fact that there are still many Nazi sympathisers and active members of KKK, but the power of the mainstream has driven them into the wilderness, and made sure they stay ostracised and in the fringes of society.

We need to accept that everyone lies, fibs and says things that are sexist, racist, and homophobic. This does not make you a liar, racist, misogynist or a homophobe. We are human and will never be perfectly polite or politically correct because part of being human is doing and saying dumb and hurtful things – sometimes in anger, sometimes out of frustration or pain and very often in a misguided attempt to be funny.

I do not want to live in a world that is so superficial and forcibly sanitised, that we have to worry about everything we do and say. If we continue down this obsessively political correct path, all we will achieve is to alienate friends and family, and fuel the hatemongers even more. One day we will wake up to find that we have stopped independent thought, free speech, social experimentation and personal growth.

Our greatest ability, as humans, is not to be perfect in everything we say, do, feel and think, but to learn and change, after we have been shown a better way by others.

 

Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India: Dr. Manmohan Singh

“Yes, ’n’ how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see?”

Bob Dylan

Dear Dr. Singh,

You recently stood outside parliament and invoked an Urdu couplet saying that your “silence is better than a thousand answers; it keeps intact the honour of innumerable questions.” Perhaps, there is some honour in not responding to each and every personal accusation made against you. We understand that many of these are politically motivated and designed by the opposition to disrupt parliamentary proceedings, or to distract the public from far more important matters facing the country. However, there is a much larger issue we are dealing with today, one that goes beyond your personal integrity, and one that affects the lives of each and every one of your countrymen and the future of our children.

The fact is that this is just the latest scam in a seemingly never-ending series of scams that plagued your coalition’s tenure – under your leadership. Perhaps you should also stay silent about the Black Money scandal where an Indian businessman was caught stashing Rs.39,120 crores ($8 billion), and the Supreme Court reprimanded your government “for failing to interrogate Khan and other alleged offenders despite having sufficient material in the possession of investigators.” (source: NDTV). Stay silent about the Commonwealth Games scam where your own party man and Chairman of the Organising Committee was charged by the CBI as “the "mastermind" in fixing and inflating costs of a timing, scoring and result” (source: Times of India). Ignore the 2G spectrum scam which not only involved dirty politicians from your coalition but also bureaucrats, corporate personalities, media personalities and lobbyists. We should also forget the Telgi stamp paper scam which lasted ten years, had tentacles across 12 states, and involved police officers and other government employees. Including one police officer who is said famously to have acquired “assets worth Rs.100 crores despite earning only Rs. 9,000 a month.” (source: Mens XP). Or look the other way about the growing number of defence scams, starting with Scorpene, where it was alleged that the “Congress leadership awarded the contract to French manufacture, Thales in exchange of 4% commission.” (source: Times of India). God forbid you dignify the outgoing Army Chief’s letter about our defence procurement procedures being mired in bureaucracy and corruption with a response. Even if our forces are woefully short of ammunition, poorly equipped and we face “97 per cent obsolescence in air defence preparedness.” (source: Times of India). Facts, it seems, that had previously been submitted by the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) in an earlier report highlighting “the same critical gaps in India's defence, only much more starkly.” (source: Times of India).

I suppose you want all of us to close our eyes when the International media does cover stories with the opening line; “It is sometimes said that corruption is the purpose of Indian politics.” (source: The Economist). Cover our ears and ignore companies like Dell whose senior executives are giving interviews stating that it is becoming impossible to do business in India because of power blackouts, uncertain tax rules and lack of honour among decision-makers.” New decision makers come and they don't honour the contract previously signed." We should say good riddance to companies like Germany's Fraport, the world's second-biggest airport operator, “who recently decided to shut its development office in India, becoming the latest in a growing list of companies exiting Asia's third-largest economy.” (source: Reuters). All while the rupee continues its free fall, to new and even greater lows; causing imports to skyrocket and making it harder for the average Indian to travel or study abroad. India’s last quarter economic growth rate was the slowest pace in the last three years. The agriculture sector posted modest growth of 1.7 percent and the industrial sector grew a meagre 1.9 percent. “The fall in gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), popularly known as the investment rate, to below 30 per cent of the GDP for the first time since 2004-05 does not augur well for the future.” A few weeks prior to this report being released Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch had both downgraded India’s economic outlook for 2012-13 (source: The Hindu). I could go on but perhaps my silence, even as inflation continues to rise, will speak louder for you.

It no longer matters if you dipped your hand in the cookie jar or not. I think I speak for all my countrymen when I say we still believe that you are not corrupt. However, it is not integrity that we seek from you; it is leadership, tenacity and the courage to fulfill the duties of your office. Nobody expects you to wipe out corruption, but at least let justice be delivered when corruption is exposed. Stop protecting those who have abused their office and been caught red-handed. Open your eyes and look around at the devastation your party and coalition members have caused under your nose and leadership. Turn your head in the direction of the havoc they are wreaking through unchecked corruption and unending greed. You will not have to look far to see how they continue to rape and pillage your country, our country, my country only to fill their Swiss coffers. They are selling our souls to the highest bidder, every day. Uphold the oath of your office and serve the people who put you there.

Mother India weeps and lies bleeding at your doorstep. This will be your legacy, Dr. Singh, if you continue to do nothing.

The time for silence is over. The time for words is also over. It is time for action. Save India. Lead us, or get out of the way.

There is Something Rotten in the State of our Democracy…

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"

Mahatma Gandhi

The people’s version of the Lokpal bill was finally debated and accepted by our parliament today. The Lokpal bill has been brought forward and quashed eight times before over the years; and the recent version that this Congress government tried to hurriedly pass had about as much teeth as a newborn baby. While many consider this a great victory for the people, India stands deeply divided on the bill.

Those who argue against Anna Hazare and his movement say that he has used Mahatma Gandhi’s fasting as a tool for blackmail, by effectively holding a gun to our heads and that of our democratically elected government. That his motives are right but his method is wrong; and this is not the way we should tackle this very grave and serious issue. There are others who question Anna’s motives, and say he has a dubious background. They say he has ties to the RSS (the fundamental Hindu wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party). They also say that Anna himself is a corrupt megalomaniac, who believes in his way or the highway. They have posted videos on YouTube showing people talking about Anna’s lies and his shady past. Others argue that the Lokpal bill is worthless because it does nothing to tackle private sector corruption, which has become an even bigger issue in this past decade of liberalisation. Many say that the creation of an extra-parliamentary body, like the Lokpal, is not the answer because it will simply add another layer to the already untenable bureaucracy, and feed the very monster it is trying to kill - by becoming more powerful, further above the law and more corrupt than the establishments that exist today. Perhaps all these people are correct in their accusations, fears and in every argument they make. Maybe there is a better way to do this within the confines of a democratic process. Maybe.

Then there is the other half that supports Anna, his fast and the Lokpal bill. These people feel that they have been shouting and screaming for sixty-four years. They have bribed every official, at every step of the process, and still not gotten their work done. They have voted election after election only to see the number of politicians with criminal records rise each time. One hundred fifty-three of the 543 politicians elected in 2009 had criminal cases pending, including 9 ministers. (source: Telegraph) They see the same old faces and empty promises of fighting corruption no matter which party is in power. On the one hand they feel a great sense of hope when Rahul Gandhi takes the podium and urges more youth to join politics, as a way to rid us of corruption. While on the other hand Sonia Gandhi stands silent even as scam after scam, carried out by her most trusted and senior party members, is uncovered right under her nose. We are told the CBI will investigate; some Ministers are removed from their posts (not one of them has stopped smiling, yet). We all know that the Congress believes this will placate the masses and soon, once the current anger dissipates, it will be back to corruption as usual. It is now an open secret that Praful Patel sold Air-India, our national carrier, to the highest bidder so the Congress and their cronies could fill their coffers with a little more of India’s money that they continue to loot and pillage. We all know this but nobody really cares enough to do anything more than talk about it over dinner, shrug and nod our heads. This is exactly what the Congress was counting on us billion plus Indians to do, yet again.

We are told the Judiciary and Prime Minister should not fall under the ambit of the Lokpal bill because this will make it overreaching and start to erode the fundamentals of our democracy. I was a firm believer in the Indian Justice System until I experienced every corner of our court system, first hand. From the criminal to the civil, all the way up to the high court and I can tell you that not ONE thing happens without paying someone a bribe. You can stand on principle and refuse, in which case you will not even be able to file your paperwork. I realized that the justice system that I was so proud of simply boils down to a race to see who has the deepest pockets and can go the greatest distance in sustaining the bribery to bring their case to conclusion. The courts have a tremendous incentive and the means to drag cases on for years. Of course if you have really deep pockets then you can save everyone the time and trouble by buying the outcome you desire before you ever file a single piece of paper. I have never felt more helpless or powerless in my life.

The Lokpal also wants to merge all the current corruption investigating agencies and bring them under the purview of the Lokpal. This includes the CBI’s anti-corruption wing (Central Bureau of Investigation), which is considered India’s Interpol and premier investigative agency. The CBI is a government agency, its head is appointed by the government and it is controlled by and reports directly to the Department of Personnel and Training in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension, usually headed by a Union Minister who reports directly to the Prime Minister (source: Wikipedia). The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) would also be brought under the purview of the Lokpal. The CVC is an autonomous body that does not report to any executive authority. However, it is not an investigating agency and can only present reports and recommendations to the government; unless approved by the government no further action or investigation can be pursued by anybody. In the event an investigation is sanctioned by the government, then only the CBI is authorised to pursue it. The CVC has been publishing a list of corrupt government officials since its inception in 1964; do you recall how many have been convicted? Over the last decade the CBI has come to be known as the Congress Bureau of Investigation.

Today, as Indian citizens we cannot even renew our passports without bribing someone or having a connection in the bureaucracy, really high up. We can pass our driving tests but will not be issued a license unless we are willing to grease a palm. In fact, we have to bribe someone for virtually every basic right we have as citizens of the world’s largest democracy; for our water, electricity, to pass through toll booths on highways, to get a telephone line and even to park our car in a free public parking lot. How many times have we been assaulted or wronged by someone and told that it is better to let it go because the police are only going to create more problems than it is worth? Or that we will end up spending more money than we were swindled out of if we are to involve the local police…the police! A leading, well-respected surgeon in Bombay stopped the father of a friend of mine from being wheeled into the operating room until he was satisfied with the amount he would be paid in “cash” (or black money) for the life-saving operation he was about to perform.

Is this what we cherish, want to protect, and fear that Anna’s version of Lokpal will start to erode?

A democracy is only as strong as the credibility of the institutions that govern it. This credibility comes from the transparency and legitimacy of the public servants elected to administer and deliver it. And it is only as valuable as the basic rights and freedoms we enjoy, the sense of patriotism we feel and the sacrifices we are all willing to make to protect these freedoms. The word democracy comes from the Greek work dēmokratía or "rule of the people". Today, in India, the people no longer rule. Anna Hazare’s cry brought us together and united people from all walks of life behind a common cause and a shared goal for the first time since Independence. Perhaps the Lokpal is the jolt we needed, that first little step in the long and tenuous process of creating a democracy we can all be proud of. It is now up to each one of us to ensure that the Lokpal does not become our worst fear, but forms the fundamental pillar of the democracy that I know we all believe in but some of us gave up on ever achieving.