Is Free-market a guarantee for free-society ?

Ack: ://woodgatesvi, from Google image pages

Dec 6, 2014

 ( Or) Can the basics of human freedom and FREE-MARKET concepts one and the same thing? )

(The following link leads to a very inspiring speech by a teen-age girl at a UN conference, giving simple directions as to what the political, social and intellectual institutions of the world should adopt to usher a better world !:  https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=852988084731533)

Also recommend to readers, an article by 'The Guardian' writer George Monbiot: http://www.monbiot.com/2015/06/03/3769/

Pope Francis, in his now famous 191 page Encyclical issued in June,2015, appealed not only to Catholics but also to men of every-faith,and even 'no-faith', to undergo a new awakening to save God's creation:
Some of his now popular quotes from the text are:

=>He called for a ' bold cultural revolution' to correct the ' structurally perverse' economic-system in which the rich exploits the poor;turning earth into an 'immense pile of filth'

=> 'Nobody is suggesting a return to the stone-age,but we do need to slow-down and look at reality in a different fashion'

=> 'We need to recover the values and the goals swept-away by our unrestricted delusions of grandeur'

=> It is not enough to balance in the medium term...halfway measures simply delay the inevitable disaster.Put simply, it is a matter of redefining our notion of PROGRESS' 

=> Everything is related,and we human-beings are united as brothers and sisters on a pilgrimage,woven together by Love of God'


Blog starts: 

We, the freedom crazy men of contemporary world, would never imagine that the very concept of human-freedom also can have fake models !

It seems that for the Western world, basic concept of 'human freedom' is almost one and the same with Free-market concept !

It is a very deep and serious philosophical issue today, especially when the very institution that is supposed to 'represent' people, ( democratic governments) is dangerously conflated with the 'free-market' forces. This situation marks the virtual absence of a 'conscience', or a rational center in the modern world.

This writer encountered the stark reality of the above, from an encounter with a reputed 'freedom' organization recently, and this is an attempt to throw light on this serious issue, for the serious attention of every one who cares, and uphold the pure concept of human-freedom !

He ( the writer of this post) used to be in the mailing list of a reputed West-based, international freedom organization for quite sometime. They recently announced a formal membership drive, for the sake of like minded men and organizations to join them, for sharing innovative freedom ideas. When our organization was filling-up the on-line questionnaire for registration, the first item baffled us:

' What attracted you to the FREE-MARKET idea ?'

Suddenly, this author realized the truth of what Dr.Susan George had written about the elaborate scheming the propagators of Neo-liberal ideas in the world:

"Starting from a tiny embryo at the University of Chicago with the philosopher-economist Friedrich von Hayek and his students like Milton Friedman at its nucleus, the neo-liberals and their funders have created a huge international network of foundations, institutes, research centers, publications, scholars, writers and public relations hacks to develop, package and push their ideas and doctrine relentlessly" 
( part of her paper presented at Bangkok, in 1999)

Was the base concept of human-freedom nothing but the 'free-market' ideology for them? Free-market in the sense that, the freedom of the entrepreneurs class to do business under the legendary 'laissez-faire' policy of governments

Our organization was, in-principle, against the modern tendency of world's more than 55% of the wealth and resources getting increasingly accumulated in the hands of, as few as 70 or 80 rich business families and corporate-entities, as recently found by reputed research bodies such as Zurich University and Oxfam. So, we were not attracted to the unconditional 'free-market' idea. Therefore, after filling-up the form for membership with the above stand, nothing was heard about our membership !

For a typical westerner, any reference against 'free-market' is judged as a leftist, or socialist or pure communist bent of mind. Or in other words, an enemy of the freedom of individual. There is no other model, unfortunately, is alive or known today in the contemporary world, wherein basic freedom and dignity of individual citizens are treated separately from the free-market concept.

Now the crucial question is; would a society bent-upon 'free-market notions, simultaneously be a society that seriously care for human-freedom in its traditional and philosophical sense too ? Or, at least the way it was most profoundly expressed in the Declaration of American independence; " that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness " ?

Ayn-Rand was very sharp to detect this subtle, but very specific difference between the two kinds of freedom models. She states that there was a very specific shift from the original political rights to economic rights, in the later years of American democratic development. In her words;

" the gimmick" was the switch of the concept of rights from the political to the economic realm....the democratic party platform of 1960 summarizes the switch boldly and explicitly; ' will reaffirm the economic bill of rights ( such as right to job,income, home, health, education etc.) which Franklin Roosevelt wrote into our national conscience sixteen years ago' ( her book, ' Capitalism, an unknown ideal')

Ayn Rand, though she was radical capitalist, and wrote all the above in her frustration and great anger against 'state-control', her anguish against pure rights and freedom of citizens ( including that of entrepreneurs !) must be taken in the right spirit. She took every citizen as a model entrepreneur !

The real 'globalization' of industry started with its real reign over the political freedom of common man happened after her death in early 1980,s. So, she was probably not aware of the usual perils of the excessive influence of the industry in the later-stage world, wherein every government collaborating with it, for maximum so called 'development' of the world.

Erich Fromm, though her contemporary, was more aware of the perils of the excessively aggressive industry, over the rights and freedom of ordinary men. He writes;

" ..while the canalizing of all human energy into work and the striving for success was one of the indispensable conditions of the enormous achievements of modern capitalism,a stage has been reached where the problem of production has been virtually solved and where the problem of the organization of social life has become the paramount task of mankind' ( his essay ' selfishness, self-love and self-interest')

Probably because of the intensity of the 'cold-war experience, the West seem to have developed a kind of 'paranoia' about protecting entrepreneural freedom, out of her fear for state control over the free-market model.

Today, being those who talk about the world in first-person are the industry in the contemporary world through the media that they predominantly own and run, theFREEDOM they talk about is exclusively their freedom, the freedom of the entrepreneurs, and the market, their own realm selling their finished products and services !

They virtually are the world; its exclusive activity, and the content in the modern day ! Everything rest in the world is the 'means' for their primary existence, and for their professional activity ! Concept of human race outside their institutional perspective is an illusion, and a great void ! World in its essence, is a great market-place , and human life is a matter of unending needs, and their professional activity of meeting these needs.

Any talk of individual freedom etc. outside the perspective of the above realm of economic activity is sheer blasphemy for the above contemporary owners of modern world! That is why every institution that stands for FREEDOM in modern world is organizations that stand for free-market, founded, funded, and run by and for them !

Leading industrial nations boycott other nations when the latter do not participate in thefree-market operations, Grave issues of abuse of human rights and freedom of such nations are matters of secondary concern. As far as markets are open, such political entities are considered free and open ! Matters of right and freedom abuse would be considered as their 'internal' concern !

As a result of the above narrated free-market obsession of modern world, grave abuses of individual dignity, rights and freedom by political regimes are routine and rampant. Rights and freedom of Individual citizens are either grossly neglected and despised by the totalitarian political regimes, or by the so called 'democratic-capitalistic regimes. While in the first model above, if the citizens are mere passive commodity for the primary existence and relevance of the state, in the second model, they are same kind of commodity for the flourishment of the free-market based industrial activities. While China is the prime example of the first model, USA and other advanced industrial nations are examples of the 2nd model.

Though USA champions itself as the role model of human freedom in the entire world, its disturbing features such as her having the maximum number of prisoners in the world, and frequent human-rights violation incidents ( like the recent shooting of a black-teen by police, and the 'choke-holding' and killing of another black-citizen) dampen the authenticity of such claims. The recent 'OCCUPY wall-street' type agitations in US, wherein the citizens raised spirited slogans that, 99% of the population is under the reign of 1% elites, she exemplified the reality of the 2nd model above. It is the reign of the 'free-market', and not the reign of the kind of freedom the founding fathers of USA had envisioned.

In countries like India, who scramble to claim the rank of a fast developing economic super-power, citizens' grievances and genuine representations never reach their destination in various government offices and ministries ! They are despised and ignored at the corridors of power, and their representations routinely find their place in rubbish-bins. Their so called political freedom is confined only to their right of having routine work-strikes, and the mass-protest assembling in cities and villages, seeking various rights and privileges, giving the impression to the world that, citizens are free and empowered! An unattached single citizen is the most helpless and powerless entity in modern democratic-capitalistic society, thus leaving the very concept of FREEDOM a myth! Then, what to talk about the freedom of him in the so called 'free-market' economies?

India's present central government is all set to launch a massive 'development' agenda for the country, without first attending to the primary need of providing ordinary citizens his deserving dignity in the street, at home and at various citizen-government meeting points. Most of the democratic constitutions in the world has specific directives to ensure 'DIGNITY OF INDIVIDUAL' ( fraternity clause in the Indian constitution) in the governance delivery system.

Without first strictly adhering to the above central and primary guideline of country constitutions, simply collaborating with the industry for 'development' will only damage the very fabric of human freedom, dignity of individual and the progress of human civilization. The quality of life of individuals will not ever naturally improve merely with his quality of life in the quantitative sense, ie. making available abundant supply of life-amenities in the market ! The ever-present profit motive in the free-market system will contribute to making these life-amenities ( even quality food and homes !) increasingly un-affordable to large section of the population, thus leading to serious social unrest. So, there is an urgent need to understand and treat 'freedom' and 'free-market' concepts differently and separately.

Susan George, a fiery activist against new-liberalism said:

"Business and the market have their place, but this place cannot occupy the entire sphere of human existence" 

"Starting from a tiny embryo at the University of Chicago with the philosopher-economist Friedrich von Hayek and his students like Milton Friedman at its nucleus, the neo-liberals and their funders have created a huge international network of foundations, institutes, research centers, publications, scholars, writers and public relations hacks to develop, package and push their ideas and doctrine relentlessly.

They have built this highly efficient ideological cadre because they understand what the Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci was talking about when he developed the concept of cultural hegemony. If you can occupy peoples' heads, their hearts and their hands will follow. ...They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars, but the result has been worth every penny to them because they have made neo-liberalism seem as if it were the natural and normal condition of humankind. No matter how many disasters of all kinds the neo-liberal system has visibly created, no matter what financial crises it may engender, no matter how many losers and outcasts it may create, it is still made to seem inevitable, like an act of God, the only possible economic and social order available to us.

Let me stress how important it is to understand that this vast neo-liberal experiment we are all being forced to live under has been created by people with a purpose. Once you grasp this, once you understand that neo-liberalism is not a force like gravity but a totally artificial construct,..

So, from a small, unpopular sect with virtually no influence, neo-liberalism has become the major world religion with its dogmatic doctrine, its priesthood, its law-giving institutions and perhaps most important of all, its hell for heathen and sinners who dare to contest the revealed truth.."

( In her paper presented at 'Conference on Economic Sovereignty in a Globalising World'

Bangkok, 24-26 March 1999,see link: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Father/Desktop/A%20Short%20History%20of%20Neo-liberalism%20%20%20Global%20Exchange.html)

Authored by : Abraham J.Palakudy

An independent Philoosphy,mind, Reason,spirituality and polity seeker,researcher&writer

Contact at :ajoseph1@rediffmail.com

Twitter: Voice of philosophy@jopan1

Blogger link:https://www.blogger.com/profile/14249415589712707293

INFLATION : A systematic tool to sieve-out the poor and under-privileged !

The causes of inflation simplified (or)

The calamity of making ECONOMICS a complex science !

At bottom, every human behaviour is driven by an existential predilection or pre-disposition that man may not always fully aware of. He is only a toy that moves as per the hidden directive energies in nature. Instead of being aware of such deeper motivational factors  of nature, what we are aware about is the sequential order of behaviour, ie. what usually follows one behaviour after the other, or one event after the other.

For example, a man drinks water when he feels thirst. We tend to attribute thirst as the cause of drinking water But the act of drinking water was only an current sequential event in a long biological chain, hence it is not  sensible and logical to attribute the CAUSE factor to THIRST. Thirst was in fact body’s signal method of  meeting its fluid need. Regular fluid need of the human body would have been a better CAUSE here than the feeling of thirst. In most of such routine events in life, one act or behaviour usually follows the other, in a routine sequence.

For achieving better clarity in understanding such existential motivational factors, we better divide these drives into two obvious categories, ie. needs of the body and needs of the mind.

Man has two bodies, one the biological body, and the other the social, or the emotional (that pertains to mind) body. Hence we better divide the needs also into that of the body and mind so that we could attribute most of our ECONOMIC NEEDS pertaining to our emotional needs, the chief theme of this small paper.   

We are familiar with the routine needs of our body such as food and water, sexual needs related to procreation, warmth of the body in winter and coolness of the body in summer, comfortable place to rest (shelter and related body needs) etc

What is the separate body of the mind ?  We better take  man’s ‘ego’ entity as his body of the mind, or ‘social body’, as ego is fundamentally a social product. Every one develops it as a result of man’s constant social interactions. Like heavenly bodies are in their assigned place in the space and orbit due to the work of gravitation, hidden energies involved in social interaction keeps every person in his place in society, and directs his social behaviour. ( please see more on this proposition from our blog: http://unrecognizedobjectsofthemind.blogspot.in/ ( see the 2^nd blog, end portions)  

As we are some what familiar with the motives of the physical body as mentioned above, the possible motives associated with the economic behaviour of a man can be analysed here as the motives of his social body, the ego. This is because of the fact that  with out any science of economics, members of animal kingdom seek and satisfy all their biological needs more over satisfactorily without the help of formal economics.  Though they also have ego phenomenon in rudimentary forms, it is not as profound as that in man. Animals are more body than mind, whereas man is more mind than body. 

The old economics was more about scarcity of products against man’s unlimited wants. But today, this scarcity aspect has more or less has vanished from the world, thanks to its Green revolutions and the industrial boost. Hence economics can have its scope and meaning re-defined, accommodating the newer realities of abundant supply of food and other life needs of man. As Henry Ford had said, world has managed to produce enough and more to feed the entire population, but why  we still have  majority of it in poverty is indicative of the failure of our management system and social values.

Unlike the animal kingdom, man can be said to be living in two worlds - -a physical world of land, buildings, rivers, airports and bridges, and the other the notional world, where the ego, his virtual body resides: the world of ideas, values, fears and concepts; the market place of predominant collective emotions. In  countries where value and respect for concepts like individual dignity is more stringent, this market place of emotions has a different colour, compared to where such  value concerns have scant regard.  Here, people behave at more ease with the fellow beings, if police and state officials treat the citizens with more dignity and care. In over populated societies, such kind of care from the state said to be impractical, hence the notional world of the egos is full of negative emotions like mutual fear and animosity. Naturally, unlike in the former model, the saving, investment and the profit related behaviour of citizens would be drastically different. For example, in USA, before the present economic slowdown in their country, people generally were not in the habit of  ‘saving’ for the future, as the social security schemes had been  more than adequate to take care of their uncertainties of future. People ate, drank and travelled the world immensely, burning out years’ of savings completely. .  

Hence, if the most relevant motive of man’s economic behaviour is to be singled out, it couldn’t be none other than his fear of future. His anxiety about the uncertainty of future, about food, shelter and cloths. Also, more importantly, about safe keeping of his individual dignity in society. It is also directly linked with his material wellbeing in our kind of societies, where human rights standards are very low and disturbing. His buying, selling, his hoarding, his investment and saving behaviour, the profit fixing for his produce etc. are  based and influenced predominantly by this anxiety for future. As we have already referred earlier, the scarcity factor of food etc. is not at all existing in  the modern world, except the fears around its equitable distribution due to its man-made administrative chaos.

As the scope of this small write-up is not a full-fledged thesis on Economics, let it pay its attention only towards the aspect of ‘commodity pricing’ by the business community as an economic behaviour, and its direct relation with the phenomenon of inflation.

Those who are in their 40s and fifties of age must have heard stories from their parents about a sack of rice or wheat coming for certain ‘anaas’ ( earlier denomination an Indian rupee before the introduction of ‘paise’)  during their time. Same quantity of rice or wheat was available in our childhood for at least 10 times less than what is its current price . Prices would be 10 times more in the coming  20 or 25 years! Inflation, or the losing  of value for a given amount of money, is the bane of the present day world of economics.

What could be the chief cause of this calamity of inflation ?

Free market was supposed to be directed by the natural forces of Demand and supply. In the modern world, such temporary imbalances are instantly filled, thanks to the improved technologies, transport system, and improved irrigation, and modern agricultural technology advancement. So, those old theory can not be attributed as cause for the phenomenon of inflation. Even if prices increase temporarily, on short term incidents of lower supply, prices should come back to normal when supply position improves. Hence, the classical free market laws can not be attributed to modern inflation.

What could be a rational cause of the phenomenon of inflation ? Or the ever increasing rise of prices, irrespective of its temporary rise and fall, that reflect in government’s

index system ? The prices of every item 10 years back , by all standards, would be at least double by now, though the temporary inflation index might have gone up and down many times. But we know that prices once gone-up would never comes down to the previous level. If that was the normal course of the market, inflation would never have occurred . The course of price is always up, never down.

Understanding the phenomenon of price rise in simpleton logic

The chief reasons of price rise is, as mentioned above, is related to pricing of the merchandise by the manufacturer and traders. As there is no law or norm for fixing the profit margins, the price of a commodity or product is what is decided by the manufacturer or producer.

As those who do business is in the exclusive realm for profit, and making surplus capital, they will always resist to be a helpless victim of the ‘free market’ corrections, and balancing of prices and profits. Such forces are agents of uncertainty, which could happen at any time without caution and notice. Hence, it is wise for him to reap profits as and when circumstances are favourable, ie. any time is good time for accomplishing this prime goal of business. Hence, any reason or cause that allows him to increase the price will be definitely utilized by him to save precious time and energy.

Take up the typical case of short supply in the market for any given commodity to increase prices. Short-supply in itself need not be a cause of price increase unless there was an increase in cost of production. If the crops were not high as per expectation, farmer is entitled to charge more per unit of the produce in-order to cover up his earlier expected profit. Here too, there is a  law that says ‘anticipated losses are not losses’. If the  temporary short supply was due to end of harvesting season of a farm produce, it should not be a cause of price increase, as here too, there was not any change of cost of production.

Take for example the case of shortage of a raw-material in the market, and the subsequent price increase. When the price is increased due to short supply of a raw-material, in most of  such cases, the price increase was an arbitrary decision of either the manufacturer, or the farm-producer to take psychological advantage of the shortage. It was not due to any real cost of production, and the subsequent price increase at the first point of supply. Short-supply, hence always is a blessing in disguise for the trader class to increase prices arbitrarily. What energy in action is the earlier seen neurosis of the business class to make the profit accumulation a fastest possible process ! Everything here was in the mind only, without any actual increase in cost of production.  

The reaction of a price increase at the first point will cause a chain reaction. At every subsequent point of trade, an arbitrary hike is added, in tune with every trader’s motivation to accelerate his profit making process fastest possible. Thus, if at the first point price increase was 10 %, at the final point to the user/ purchaser, it would have become 30 to 40 %..

Even when the supply becomes normal, the corresponding price reduction would always be marginal. It leaves the base price of the product higher than the earlier price after every event of price increase. The above 30 to 40% temporarily increased price may get reduced to 20 – or 25 %, leaving the net price  substantially above the earlier prices every time. In short, any reason- real, or imaginary- for a price rise goes to the net advantage of the trader and the business man. This arbitrary nature of  price increase by the trader and business man is the prime cause of the phenomenon of inflation.

The other social evil of price increase is that, every currency that reaches the hands of its beneficiary by way pf price increase goes to make a surplus, and such surpluses first goes to enhance his purchasing and bargaining power in the society. In other-words, when ever a poorest of the poor pays an extra currency by way of an increased price for a commodity, the degree in which he was deprived goes to make an increase in the same degree the richness of the trader, or any other such beneficiary ! As this process goes longer, and becomes a regular phenomenon in the market, the poor gets more poor and the rich gets more rich, somewhat in the same degree. 

As price increase or inflation stays in the market as a regular phenomenon, the luxury commodities ( it includes even the good quality fruits and vegetables !) first go beyond the reach of the poor, followed by even the bare necessities of life such as grains and cereals. The assets such as land buildings are the first items that become un-affordable for the poor first, followed by the daily consumables. Such deprivations go hand in hand with the erosion of his social status too. For affording the bare necessities of life, or for meeting unavoidable  medical needs, the poor are forced to sell off his land holdings, and moves to hutment-clusters where the economically poor reside. Then the above narrated step by step deprivation process takes place in his life !  

When 'development' goes ahead in its present format, who suffer the most would be the ones who are drained of all their income sources, either temporarily,or permanently- on account of retirement, or sudden death of the earning member in the family, or sudden lose of job of the head-of the family. When the price of even the basic-needs of life items are also very high, these unfortunate ones have to ends their lives, or beg anonymously at remote habitats ! This blind course of price-rise could dangerously put life of man in great danger if wars or natural calamities engulf a region, or the entire country. The process of price-rise or inflation is a totally irrational and senseless course, that would land mankind into untold miseries any time. It would, of course, get the weak and the helpless annihilated faster in such mass calamities, leaving only the minority rich and powerful surviving, proving Darwin's theory right ! 

The above described is a day-light like plain economic process in the modern capitalistic societies, which, unfortunately for our age, is considered as the unavailable natural law, that of the survival of the fittest. Here, what gets seriously ignored is the plain, unnaturalness  in the process; ie. social approval of the tendency of the rich to have special consideration and special status in society, even when he is engaged in the anti-social act of  arbitrary increase in prices, and thus moving his life into higher echelons of social status and better quality of life.   

The increase in money supply  

Inflation can not happen merely due to price increase.  It often happens with a corresponding, or more than corresponding rate of money supply in the market. If it was due to price increase alone, the net result would have been reduction in demand, and also in purchase. Buyer has a limitation to cope-up with the increased prices of the commodities when his income remains the same.

Here what actually happens is that , when ever the business man gains through increased profit by way of the earlier seen arbitrary nature of price increase, he shares part of his gains with his employees, by way of annual increments and perks. Government employees are benefited too, by way of the dearness allowances in proportion to the market price index. When more money reaches the hands of the actual buyers, he stops murmuring  about the constant price increase. At least part of the increased market prices has been met by his income increase. When the business man knows that buying capacity of the customers are more than adequate, his perpetual hunger for more profits and gains compels him to apply the same technique again and again, thus keeping the market

inflamed every time !

Poverty, and the natural elimination process of the poor and the down-trodden

One who has the net gain from this exercise is always the business class, and the net loser is the bottom layer in the society, whose income sources remain the least increased every time. His buying capacity gets reduced to affording only the bare minimum for subsistence ! Nutritious food items, fruits and vegetables get absent from his bowl after every incident of price rise. Thus, this process gets resulted into a kind of natural elimination, or sieving out of the bottom layer in society in a sure and certain economic process. It is extremely simple a process, needing no great economic sense to understand.

The solution

A very strict and effective system of price control is the simple answer. For every further increase in price, by every sector, a permission from a special ministry could be obtained. Except some degree of annual price rise, NO interim price increase should be permitted at nay cost, unless a cost-sheet ,explaining the specific reason for the increase is submitted to the concerned authority.

Free market and its sacred balancing act was a thing of remote past, when barter system was prevalent in the world. In the modern price, market could be  easily manipulated to create artificial supply and demand scenes, to have price increases and more profit gains.

Some kind of control could be attained at the employer-end too, by way of  decreasing the difference in the highest and lowest wages in every industry and office. When such great difference exists in the wage level, business houses tend to manufacture and design special ‘elite’ products and services in the market to target this excess income of the buyers. This phenomenon also pumps the market with more money, thus adding up to the inflationary pressure. 

The establishment of our times, which we claim democratic, has been degenerated into a realm for fierce competition, or even war to have control over the old traditional realm of Kings and emperors; the realm of ruling the country, It still has all its old power, grandeur, Royalty, and control over immense wealth of the country. Being it vaguely defined as PEOPLES OWN FORM OF GOVERNMENT and nothing else, the rights, status and dignity deprived ordinary people ( the subjects ) of the old realms are now engaged in a maddest possible fight to capture these neo realm of COUNTRY –RULE. Hence, our modern day establishments are NOT sacred realms of peoples collective, with the historic, moral responsibility of achieving universal goals of equality, rights, dignity and human civilizational growth.

The runners of the game are desperate men wanting to avoid theirs and their families falling into the disgrace and deprivation of the old times, by making use of the rare opportunity of the share in country rule to amass wealth for them and for their many future generations in the shortest span of times. This unfortunate state of affairs has made the trading and manufacturing community in every nation the best partners in achieving the same goal. This particular tacit arrangement helps to plainly breed the above narrated sieving out the poor and the deprived naturally into a classic realm of the poor in every nation.

For meeting the ideological compulsions of modern age , where altruism and social responsibility are catchy moral slogans that enhances the social status of the rich and the powerful, special realms have been kept these poorest of the poor where charities of different sorts are pumped. Every modern establishment, thus, maintain this realm of the poor and the deprived like a super refugee camp, and engaged in a competition of a sort to show that their real poverty level always bit above the global statistical average ! Indeed a very tragic state of affairs, but it is the norm of the modern age, that media drum it out 24x7 as the democratic era of the 3^rd millennium !

In short, the existing model of economic growth, by depending upon the industrial class to build more and factories and production centres has to be thoroughly reviewed for its ability to end-up in healthy future societies where social equality and individual dignity prevails. In the present set-up, no other skill other than that of entrepreneurship is encouraged and respected. Every other realm of ability and knowledge and pursuits is expected to aid the former realm, for practical reason. Concept of a healthy society dies in such a socio-economic set-up.

As Rousseau had once quipped , ‘ In a word, I could prove that, if we have a few rich and powerful men on the pinnacle of fortune and grandeur, while the crowd grovels in want and obscurity, it is because the former prize what they enjoy only in so far as others are destitute of it; and because without changing their condition, they would cease to be happy the moment the people ceases to be wretched’.  He plainly meant that it is only the sense of inequality that the rich enjoy: NOT the actual pleasure from the superiority of their rich food or surrounding. The dry bread that the poor daily eats gives them  equal satisfaction what the buttered bread that the rich eats every day, as far as such difference is NOT a matter of social status discrimination. What ever the rich does in his palatial house is the same the poor does it at his hut, including eats, mating and enjoying the social pleasures. Before the invention of electricity, weather control devices and speed locomotives, to days’ rich and poor both had lived a more equal life with regard to amenities of life.

The gross inequality has emerged when such amenities have become institutionalized symbols of the life of rich, and society built massive boundary lines between the lives of the two different classes. As Rousseau said, the pleasure of the rich would vanish the moment such amenities are made universal standard of the life of every one, or by intentional social engineering by genuine collective realms of modern society, such dividing symbols of social differentiation are gradually taken away from society.

For example, the star based hotel system, the gross inequality in the matter of production of high value and low value cars, restrictions in the size and scope of house building, gradual avoidance of class distinctions in public transport travels including that of air-travel, and total avoidance of King time public ceremonies in the honour of democratic office bearers of government etc would serve the CAUSE of social equality in long run.

But price rise and inflation is the root channel of generating social and economic inequality in society. It is NOT a natural work of market, but the work of intentional greed of one group of members in society, supported by an establishment that ideologically is in tune with the anti-civilization tendencies of the age. If the Feudal system of the past is non-existent today in its old form, present capitalist system too is NOT different in essence from Feudalism; it goes on creating Feudal Lords of a different kind, with their same status and role in modern society. The status, reach, influence of the rich and powerful in today’s world is NOT at all less than that once enjoyed by the Feudal Lords of the past !

Authored by: Abraham Joseph

An  independent philosophy, mind,Reason,spirituality and Polity seeker, researher&writer.

Contact us with comments, support and feed-back: ajoseph1@rediffmail.com

Twitter: Voice of philosophy@jopan1