Note: The Views expressed are purely personal. No offense is meant against anyone and any inadvertent offense is apologized.
A couple of months back the hottest topic of debate had been the soaring oil prices and the resultant inflation in the country. Every body is talking about the global melt down today.
Whenever inflation strikes hard, it is the poor who get affected the most. I am not an economist and let me not show my ignorance by talking about inflation, however let me look at a lesson that we can take home in this global melt down.
We did not have many choices in the clothes we wore, or in the channels that we saw when we were growing up as kids. I still vividly remember those days when we would wait for the songs bouquet on Friday evenings in the state owned DD. Things have changed so rapidly. Our previous generation folks are seeing the effects of globalization in the evenings of their life and hence it does not have as much of negative impacts on them as it would do to our generation. Every body in the youth group wants to wear only branded dresses and shop in malls, eat in posh restaurants whether they earn or not. Spend thriftiness has become the culture of the young students and professionals. I am not against globalization but I am certainly against unrestrained consumerism. Is not the sub prime crisis a result of promoting unwanted consumerism????
Therefore, I have some thing to cheer about the global melt down even though I am worried as I would be searching for a job to make a living in a couple of months now as my studies near their end at the time of a crisis.
We have witnessed the results of an unchecked consumption. It is not an aberration in today's economic scenario but a reminder to humanity about the unsustainable life styles we tend to adopt. Today we are shown luxuries as necessities by the media day in and day out. Why do I say this? Because though 70% of Indians live in villages, 30% are below poverty line ( meaning earning less than a dollar a day) with another 30% in the lower middle class income group, 70% of the bollywood seems to be interested only in the higher income group which is only 10-20%. The problem is I cant afford to own a car but I can afford to own a tv and I see all sorts of nice cars everyday in the TV which I own!!! So what do I do, as soon as I get a job I buy a car in EMI, do shopping on credit, change my life style and spend more!!! The greed increases and I work like a donkey to earn more and spend more.
India is on a new growth trajectory and the entire world has to pause and look at us with awe for we are going to lead the world. But India is also seeing a decline in culture and moral values which has been its greatest strength for ages and ages. The global meltdown is but a starting point if we don't check greed and consumerism for the resources in the world are limited but not the desires of man. It is high time we realize that the resources in this world are limited and use more of our discriminative power to know the difference between needs and wants.
Let me end with what the father of our nation has said "There is enough in this world for every one's need but not for even one man's greed"
A couple of months back the hottest topic of debate had been the soaring oil prices and the resultant inflation in the country. Every body is talking about the global melt down today.
Whenever inflation strikes hard, it is the poor who get affected the most. I am not an economist and let me not show my ignorance by talking about inflation, however let me look at a lesson that we can take home in this global melt down.
We did not have many choices in the clothes we wore, or in the channels that we saw when we were growing up as kids. I still vividly remember those days when we would wait for the songs bouquet on Friday evenings in the state owned DD. Things have changed so rapidly. Our previous generation folks are seeing the effects of globalization in the evenings of their life and hence it does not have as much of negative impacts on them as it would do to our generation. Every body in the youth group wants to wear only branded dresses and shop in malls, eat in posh restaurants whether they earn or not. Spend thriftiness has become the culture of the young students and professionals. I am not against globalization but I am certainly against unrestrained consumerism. Is not the sub prime crisis a result of promoting unwanted consumerism????
Therefore, I have some thing to cheer about the global melt down even though I am worried as I would be searching for a job to make a living in a couple of months now as my studies near their end at the time of a crisis.
We have witnessed the results of an unchecked consumption. It is not an aberration in today's economic scenario but a reminder to humanity about the unsustainable life styles we tend to adopt. Today we are shown luxuries as necessities by the media day in and day out. Why do I say this? Because though 70% of Indians live in villages, 30% are below poverty line ( meaning earning less than a dollar a day) with another 30% in the lower middle class income group, 70% of the bollywood seems to be interested only in the higher income group which is only 10-20%. The problem is I cant afford to own a car but I can afford to own a tv and I see all sorts of nice cars everyday in the TV which I own!!! So what do I do, as soon as I get a job I buy a car in EMI, do shopping on credit, change my life style and spend more!!! The greed increases and I work like a donkey to earn more and spend more.
India is on a new growth trajectory and the entire world has to pause and look at us with awe for we are going to lead the world. But India is also seeing a decline in culture and moral values which has been its greatest strength for ages and ages. The global meltdown is but a starting point if we don't check greed and consumerism for the resources in the world are limited but not the desires of man. It is high time we realize that the resources in this world are limited and use more of our discriminative power to know the difference between needs and wants.
Let me end with what the father of our nation has said "There is enough in this world for every one's need but not for even one man's greed"
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