I think India has lost its center, everyone I repeat everyone is an extremist or conforms to some extremist thought. It is really unfortunate that we have reached this point in civil society. Let me try to give some examples in support of my assertions:
1) BJP, VHP, SIMI and all are extreme right, I condemn all religious right irrespective of which community, majority or minority, but the question is , do we have moderates any more? I don't think so, the secular (so called) are also becoming more extreme in their zeal to defend the minorities against the majorities, the perceived notions of injustice are being fanned up, some say for political gains, some say for genuine reasons, some just to espouse a cause to rally the masses, which ever way you look at, one extreme takes law into its hands, tries to damage civil society, and the other extreme tries to question the same law enforcement, doubts every action of the state, both are extreme in their own right.
2) Look at the young in India, they either want to Vote, or they don't want to, they are oblivious to any other consequence.
3) India either wants big time industrialization or it doesn't want anything to do with it, at the cost of getting stuck in poverty, its become a choice of either capitalism or socialism, there is no middle ground visible anywhere.
4) You can either smoke and get arrested, or you stop smoking, there is no space earmarked where a smoker can smoke peacefully.I mean there is no middle path as such, i hope soon the state wont dictate as to how many times one should have sex with his/spouse in a week and what positions are allowed as per Islam/Hinduism/Christianity or the IPC :)
5) Either you get reservations for ever, or you don't get any ever.
Indian civil society seriously needs to think how it is behaving, burning trains and buses, getting goons like Raj to solve labor issues, people like Mamta blocking Highways, is there an optimism left? The problem seems to be that every Indian citizen is suddenly aware of his RIGHTS but cares two hoots about his/her responsibilities. Its a false notion of protective socialist democracy that has given us this state.
I also want to pose a question, who in INDIA has not been wronged and who is not a minority in some situation or the other?
1. I felt a victim being the son of a class 4 employee in railways, felt discriminated that my dad had no connections anywhere!
2. I feel discriminated for being born in a POOR Brahman family which can be safely argued to be a minority going by Indian GOVT statistics and being forced to pay for the sins of my forefathers, while the rich Brahmin's enjoyed privileges.
3.I feel discriminated for not being cared for by the State.
So what shall i do? Will an Arundhati or a Ram Jethmalani tell me if I am wrong in not going the violent way? ;) I don't think they have any sympathy for the silent sufferers like me, the world cares more about those killed in encounters :)
Get back to the centre guys, neither the left nor right help us in anyways!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Who made the mess - Socialism or Capitalism?
I used to work in a Project for one of the biggest Thrifts in USA which was recently taken over by another big bank, a deal which was facilitated by the FDIC. After Bear Sterns, AIG, Lehman Bros, Freddie and Fannie, this bank also was consumed by some one's greed, some one's political correctness, some one's dreams may be. A lot of my friends believe this is the end of Capitalism and USA is now USSA and many of them believe days of Capitalism are over in fact they believe that Capitalism is the root cause, India survived the big punch because we never were totally capitalist.
I am sorry, I beg to differ, I believe that we lost to flawed ideas of equality and Social Justice of Politicians who are more socialist leaning, we lost to unregulated financial markets which needed more oversight, but then, the first socialist idea needed to fuel this bubble also as we would see in the points below:
Political Brownie points:
1) Didn't most Politicians advocate equal housing policies?Were they all not pitching for relaxing credit rules to extend credits to the not so well off, not so credit worthy in the name of social justice and there by extend socialism?
2) Did not most political parties pass and vote laws which enabled, people to get loans with minimum documentation?
3) Why did the regulators and there by the Governments allow Sub prime loans?ARM loans and even FHA loans?
4) Did any politician try to educate the people who took loans that when he takes a loans which is sugar coated with no Interest payments for 3 years, and then starts zooming up, there is a risk of huge default at the end of the no interest tenure?
The Truth is when the sun was shining, all political parties, be it republican or democrat, wanted to distribute Social justice at the cost of credit rules by loosening the credit worthiness process checks, other governments also followed suit, and this is pure socialism. India does it in case of Agricultural loans most of it is just wiped of the books, and the honest tax payer pays the money for this love for the farmer. It is a point that so called socialist India did a bail out for its farmers this year, the housing in India still is not a part of the great Indian dream, the Indian dream is still about Jobs, and that's what saved some grace for India, but in America, the American dream includes a house, and hence the politics has to lean to let people dream of owning a house, they all dreamt and suddenly the other Geo political factors led to people waking up in the middle of the sleep there by souring the dream.
Bottom line, this mess is more because of Socialism rather than Capitalism, at least the failures of Freddie and Fannie for sure.
The Capitalists and Profit Makers or Wall Street:
1) Did these CEO's of wall street who usually dislike socialist Ideas ever try to warn the governments of the results of such dilution of credit rules?
2) Were these fat cats ready to surrender the vast amount of sub prime customers and grow linear rather than exponentially?
3) Could they stop the urge to show these high risk credit extensions as high Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?
4) Were they able to temper the dividend payouts and follow honest business practices?
Bottom line, greed, capitalism in true sense would have actually saved the day, the problem was that, many people in wall street wanted to cater to the social justice bandwagon of politicians and fulfill the dreams (American or Indian or European) of the main street.
Is the mess due to capitalism, partly yes, capitalism does encourage risky ventures and high profits, but the case here seems to be capitalism riding on the handicap of socialism. :)
We the People :
Where do we stand, we the people , who create democracies, who vote, who dream, well we all want a house isnt it? And if someone would offer us interest waivers, deferred payments, zero interest, low monthly installments, reverse mortgages, why should we say no?
The point is how many of these sub prime owners, or ARM loan owners or Reverse Mortgage owners were forced to take these loans? Did not many of them plan for the payments? Were they not sure of their source of income in the coming years?
In India one could have escaped under the garb of illiteracy and lack of awareness, where would the people of USA and Europe take shelter?
The result is we go on in circles, Main street blames Wall Street, Wall Street Blames politics, and greed, and social justice and regulators and Iran, and Al-qaida and USSR and Chavez and Indian middle class and Chinese middle class and ....
The gist is, its a collective failure of civil society, of Governments and Regulators, of Economists, Sociologists and Wall Street, lets not just blame capitalism and free markets. Lets all take a breath, get up, clean the mess in our own little ways, and rebuild the dreams, and yes when we wake up the next time, make sure its not in the middle of the sleep, make sure its at dawn :)
I am sorry, I beg to differ, I believe that we lost to flawed ideas of equality and Social Justice of Politicians who are more socialist leaning, we lost to unregulated financial markets which needed more oversight, but then, the first socialist idea needed to fuel this bubble also as we would see in the points below:
Political Brownie points:
1) Didn't most Politicians advocate equal housing policies?Were they all not pitching for relaxing credit rules to extend credits to the not so well off, not so credit worthy in the name of social justice and there by extend socialism?
2) Did not most political parties pass and vote laws which enabled, people to get loans with minimum documentation?
3) Why did the regulators and there by the Governments allow Sub prime loans?ARM loans and even FHA loans?
4) Did any politician try to educate the people who took loans that when he takes a loans which is sugar coated with no Interest payments for 3 years, and then starts zooming up, there is a risk of huge default at the end of the no interest tenure?
The Truth is when the sun was shining, all political parties, be it republican or democrat, wanted to distribute Social justice at the cost of credit rules by loosening the credit worthiness process checks, other governments also followed suit, and this is pure socialism. India does it in case of Agricultural loans most of it is just wiped of the books, and the honest tax payer pays the money for this love for the farmer. It is a point that so called socialist India did a bail out for its farmers this year, the housing in India still is not a part of the great Indian dream, the Indian dream is still about Jobs, and that's what saved some grace for India, but in America, the American dream includes a house, and hence the politics has to lean to let people dream of owning a house, they all dreamt and suddenly the other Geo political factors led to people waking up in the middle of the sleep there by souring the dream.
Bottom line, this mess is more because of Socialism rather than Capitalism, at least the failures of Freddie and Fannie for sure.
The Capitalists and Profit Makers or Wall Street:
1) Did these CEO's of wall street who usually dislike socialist Ideas ever try to warn the governments of the results of such dilution of credit rules?
2) Were these fat cats ready to surrender the vast amount of sub prime customers and grow linear rather than exponentially?
3) Could they stop the urge to show these high risk credit extensions as high Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?
4) Were they able to temper the dividend payouts and follow honest business practices?
Bottom line, greed, capitalism in true sense would have actually saved the day, the problem was that, many people in wall street wanted to cater to the social justice bandwagon of politicians and fulfill the dreams (American or Indian or European) of the main street.
Is the mess due to capitalism, partly yes, capitalism does encourage risky ventures and high profits, but the case here seems to be capitalism riding on the handicap of socialism. :)
We the People :
Where do we stand, we the people , who create democracies, who vote, who dream, well we all want a house isnt it? And if someone would offer us interest waivers, deferred payments, zero interest, low monthly installments, reverse mortgages, why should we say no?
The point is how many of these sub prime owners, or ARM loan owners or Reverse Mortgage owners were forced to take these loans? Did not many of them plan for the payments? Were they not sure of their source of income in the coming years?
In India one could have escaped under the garb of illiteracy and lack of awareness, where would the people of USA and Europe take shelter?
The result is we go on in circles, Main street blames Wall Street, Wall Street Blames politics, and greed, and social justice and regulators and Iran, and Al-qaida and USSR and Chavez and Indian middle class and Chinese middle class and ....
The gist is, its a collective failure of civil society, of Governments and Regulators, of Economists, Sociologists and Wall Street, lets not just blame capitalism and free markets. Lets all take a breath, get up, clean the mess in our own little ways, and rebuild the dreams, and yes when we wake up the next time, make sure its not in the middle of the sleep, make sure its at dawn :)
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