Remember Aesop's parable of
ant and grasshopper? The ant works hard all summer and prepares for winter. On
the other hand the grasshopper laughs, dances and plays all summer. In the
process he is unprepared for tough days. Winter comes; the ant is safe and
warm. The grasshopper, in contrast, has no food or shelter. Consequently,
he suffers.
Moral of the story: Act responsibly.
The 2012 version is as follows:
As winter dawns, the ant is safe and warm. Using the shivering grasshopper, an
NGO calls a press conference (of course in a five star hotel) and demands to
know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and fed, while the grasshopper is
starving.
Electronic media instantly
provide us live feed of shivering grasshopper, followed by visuals of the ant
seated comfortably in his home. Worse still, he is seen having food. The whole
country is stunned by this stark contrast. How can we in a socialist democratic
secular republic allow poor grasshopper to suffer this way?
Medha Pathkar and Shabana Azmi follow
this by staging demonstrations in front of the ant's house. Prakash Karat and
Sitaram Yechuri tell us how Karl Marx had foreseen all this as early as in
nineteenth century and even provided solutions to such problems.
Laloo Yadav and Mulayam Singh
Yadav blame the ant for hoarding and seek to immediately revive the Essential
Commodities Act. As a solution M K Karunanidhi promises free TV while J
Jayalalithaa rushes to offer free mixie
and grinder. Mamata Banerjee, for her part, assures free Railway travel for the
grasshopper. The Bharatiya Janata party without offering an alternative
lampoons the United Progressive Alliance.
Naturally, the government is
forced to act. The National Advisory Committee drafts the "Grasshoppers'
Economic Revival Act" to be implemented retrospectively from previous
summer. The Act, Kapil Sibal explains, seeks to distribute thousand rupee
currency notes through the local PDS shops - seven every month for each adult
in every such grasshopper family and four per child per month!
NDTV invites Mani shankar Iyer
and Swapan Das Gupta to debate this legislation. We do not know what they
discussed except for the fact that one can remotely conclude that they spoke in
English. Arnab Goswami (Editor in Chief of Times Now) calls eight
experts. Yet, his is the only voice that was heard. Rajdeep Sardesai (Editor-in-Chief of IBN18 Network) is
"concerned" and wants "concerned" citizen journalists to
express their views.
"The Hindu" hails this
legislation in its editorial as progressive. The Times
Of India carries a page three picture of a scantily clad
grasshopper in better times, in page one, leaving its readers confused. Others
in media welcome this decision without even understanding its economic and
social consequence.
The ant left to fend for him and
ridiculed for being a disciplinarian now sees merit in leading an indiscipline
life. The next generation of ants adopt a new role model - grasshoppers.
As all this build systemic indiscipline,
no one gets any worker to work in their farms, factories or offices.
Grasshoppers - the beneficiary of this skewed economic policy - continues to
vote governments that provide such doles and governments continue to subsidize
grasshopper for its electoral fortunes.
The story ends, as India sees
more indiscipline, lower production, higher subsidies, poor growth, plummeting
rupee and soaring inflation - finally leading to its economic collapse.
G for Greeks, G for
grasshopper
But if you thought all that I
have narrated above is an original one - hang on. Let me make a confession -
this is an Indian version of a power point of a similar story being circulated
by some of my friends in the US. This power point is supposed to capture fault
lines in the debate in US - between Republican voters and Democrat voters.
Put pithily, the debate till date
in US has been the role of governments, the nature of its intervention in
providing social security to its own people and the manner in which US Federal
Government should tax its "rich" people to fund such schemes for its
"poor."
While this debate attempts to
encapsulate the entire gamut of economic theories, the fact remains that there
is hardly any difference in the US, even between Republicans and Democrats! No
wonder, while former Republican President Ronald Reagan famously remarked
"Government cannot be part of any solution, in fact, Government is the
problem," former Democrat President Bill Clinton echoing Regan's idea
remarked "the days of big government is over."
In short, while there seems to be
an absolute convergence at the macro level in the ideology of presidents Reagan
and Clinton in a smaller role for the government, on the ground level the share
of government expenditure in the national GDP even in the US continues to be at
a stubborn forty per cent over the past three decades. So much for the argument
of small government, liberalisation, privatisation and de-regulation!
Jeffry Sachs in his recent work - The
Price of Civilization has
brilliantly captured this convergence of economic ideas between the two
political parties in the US, just as it is between the UPA and NDA in India.
Interestingly, despite the
overarching idea of liberalisation and de-regulation, it is seen that the size
of governments across continents has more or less been what it was three
decades ago!
And the beneficiary of a bloated
government has been the quintessential grasshopper, so much so, entire nations
are now turning into grasshoppers - with little or no faith in work or
discipline.
What else would explain the Euro
crisis which is all about Greece which encouraged rampant indiscipline amongst
its population through a dysfunctional taxation system, spent money recklessly,
borrowed beyond its means and finally has a national debt that is simply unsustainable?
And for all its recklessness, the IMF and other multilateral institutions rush
to reward Greece with a bailout - simply because if it goes belly up, the
consequences are unimaginable!
In short, we are in an
extraordinary situation. If the world bails out Greece, it would cost
hardworking, sincere taxpayers across continents big money. If we don't bailout
Greece, it would still cost us big money! The only argument that remains to be
settled is which one will cost more, and which one lesser.
Either way, Greeks can continue
to be indiscipline and reckless. G for Greece. G for grasshopper.
Where people have no hope
of deliverance
Lest the reader come to a
conclusion that Greece is probably an exception, let me hasten to add - Greece
is not an exception - in fact it is the global rule. Greece has several
European countries for company as it has in South America, Asia and of course
the big daddy of them all - the US too.
Call it by whatever name, the
economic system of modern times favours indiscipline of individuals, societies
and governments. Ants, it would seem have no place in modern economies where
the system continues to subsidise, provide incentives and celebrate indiscipline.
No wonder, grasshoppers proliferate in modern economies.
But if you thought that all these
ideas are a by-product of modern economic thoughts and developments, you could
probably be wrong. A reference to a dialogue contained in the classical Indian
epic Mahabharata between Kamsa, (the maternal uncle of Lord Krishna) and his
economic advisor Bahuka on the extant subject, especially on role of doles in
governance, would be in order.
Bahuka, rationalised that the
real danger to Kamsa was not from Lord Krishna, but from people waiting for the
deliverer, and as long as they wait for deliverance, Kamsa would be in danger.
Kamsa asks the next logical quesion - "How can I prevent people waiting
for the deliverer?"
Bahuka pointed that the only
option in the given circumstance was to extinguish any hope of deliverance in
his people. For this, Bahuka suggested that Kamsa should be extensively liberal
with his state spending; teach his people to eat, drink and enjoy themselves;
break up their families; bring up children to look upon their parents as old
and useless. In short, encourage absolute indiscipline in an individual,
society and government.
Once people begin to believe in
unrestrained pleasures as their only goal of life, Bahuka opined that people
will look upon the disciplined as deranged and selfish; they will laugh at
those who talk of duty and other values in life. That will, according to him,
effectively put an end to all those who may even remotely suggest discipline.
And finally Bahuka comprehends
that when wine flows, self-restraint will disappear; men will be like well-fed
cattle at the mercy of their cowherds. Whatever Kamsa would do, people having
no hopes of deliverance will bear as patiently as uncomplaining beasts, and
obey even his "lash as if it were a favour from Kamsa!"
The problem for the global
economy is that Bahuka's advice is now taken far too seriously by modern governments.
His suggestion of complete subjugation of men and their debasement through
doles has now come to be accepted as modern welfare economics. And to me this
is the real problem of global economy as well as modern societies - where
discipline of economics is all about economic indiscipline.
Foolish ant and intelligent
grasshopper?
