CAPitALL

It was my first day as a Junior at Loreto Convent School, I was eager for my Economics Lecture. As we settled down, Mrs. Grover asked “Whoever believes in a Communist or Socialist form of economy, please step out.” I snuggled into my wooden seat conveniently while the entire class stepped out towards the corner of my classroom. Mrs. Grover glanced towards me with scintillated orbs, “ Young ladies, I sense an AYN RAND fan right there.” For a brief moment I was startled. A few days later, I found myself intrigued by the holy letter ‘I’ and the word ‘ego’. 2018, I began my tempestuous belief to see the world establish a universal capitalist economy. 

Individuality and ingenuity are behavioural qualities that are cherished, wouldn’t it be lovely to consume innovative and visionary products in the market? Communism and Socialism murders the creativity in an organization or an individual. Capitalism offers a Return on Equity that measures the value of creation and innovation that eclipses other metric systems. Capitalism is and will remain the most robust system to enhance the living standards. 

Know what you want in life and go after it. I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities.

 If the government ensures that the other firms are receiving the same revenue as what your firm earns while the individuals are working much harder, the desire to think and to perform will be as cold as Pluto. Capitalist Economy ensures to cater to the strong and deserving, after all, “SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST” is nature's regulation.

 I am a man. This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before!

I do not surrender my treasures, nor do I share them. The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of the spirit. I guard my treasures: my thoughts, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom.

I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no man's soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.

And man will go on. Man, not men.

 We are struggling to fight against the same giants who have made our lives as pleasant and plush as it ever could be. It brings out the quirky in oneself, a humongous, magnificent, intricate and impenetrable game of monopoly.  A capitalist economy unlatches numerous doorways to firm, extensive growth and development of a country as it provides an incentive to the government to make further developments in it’s human capital formation and establishment of a much reliable set of human resources. If you’d argue with me over how erratic the government can be, then how do you trust them with the full custody of the Country’s market?

  What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and impotent, are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey?

It is a concept, I’d definitely like to discuss it over some Assam Tea and Coconut Cookies someday. 

While I glorify the essence of capitalism, I also talk of  the small-scale industries of our country, which not only contributes to the GDP but often helps the country to preserve its rich indigenous  culture, for instance handicrafts and spices industries. Forty percent of India’s exports are executed by the small scale and tiny enterprises.

 Mrs. Grover flipped through the pages of my handwritten project ‘Small is Beautiful’, a study of economics as if people mattered. She drew a small heart on the rough plan, she said “Divyangana, I see my younger self in you.” My heart flipped like a jolly retriever who had just landed its paws onto a squirrel. We often sat together to discuss my poems, my scripts, DEMIAN. Her absence is aching, the days she talked about how Harry Styles is the most charming man, the days we went out to the field to understand the economy of ecology, all those lessons of the PPC, supply and demand curves that included coffee, chocolates, marshmallows, teddies and definitely no forgetting her kittens named after famous poets.. 

 I invested myself  in thoughts of  strengthening the small scale industries and an inducement of hope for an expansive growth into larger business models, i.e., nourishing and beefing up the firms for an entrenched capitalist country that India could be. They have to be helped to help themselves.  “Would India ever adapt to the concepts of metaphysics and establish a Capitalist yet Buddhist form of Economy?” is a question that trailed me to every Economics Class. It has always been easier to deal with the goods in comparison to the people, they do not have a mind of their own and hence don’t raise a communication gap issue.   

They say all the primary  insights are overlooked if we continue to think of development in quantitative terms, hence a fairyland bubble was developed in Bhutan. GDP was abolished to embrace the abstract of GNH, i.e.Gross National Happiness.

 It was a rainy morning sometime in September, I entered the class while Mrs.Grover was setting up the EduComp for the class. The windows were open and I could smell the cold rain and feel the cool breeze across my face. I settled near my friend Supriya, opened my notebook to take down the notes and found the index where Mrs. Grover had scribbled “YOU MAKE ME HAPPY :) :) :)” in the most elegant, red-inked cursive. Each positive affirmation from her used to add an extra gallon of esteem in me.  She was the most composed, neat and beautiful woman that I had ever come across in my life, highly intellectual and gorgeous in every aspect. My thoughts were interrupted by a loud voice coming through the speakers. Mrs.Grover smiled charmingly, and asked us to pay attention to the documentary concerning the Economy of Bhutan. While the video gloated about the 72 percent forest cover in Bhutan, I couldn’t help but take note of how gloriously green, pink and white colours were scattered around where Loreto stood. It was serene and surreal yet clouded, I loved it that way.

 The man in the video preached in regard to the ingredients that are measured in order to bake happy chocolate cookies for one’s country. Starting with psychological well being, it continued along the facets of health, time use, education, cultural diversity, resilience, good governance, living standards, community vitality and ecological diversity. It seemed like an exquisite idea to resort to, a structure that would lead a country to it’s eternal happiness. The people of Bhutan lived under the conditions of grinding poverty isolated from the ‘curse of globalization’ attempting to preserve its pristine culture and prosper. For example one of their unusual regulations is to adorn oneself with the traditional attires at all times when outside, men have to wear a Gho and Kira for the women. Traditional architecture and infrastructures are also promoted. According to King Jigme Singye Wangchuk who succeeded the throne in 1972, economic growth doesn’t account for contentment.

  Over the years, the idea was firmly established. Bhutan's superiors were sheltered as this accorded a handy excuse for some of their quirkier policies. Abroad, some development theorists latched on to the concept as an alternative to the globalizers' creed of growth-oriented market economics. For its adherents, it offers a guide to policy that will enable Bhutan to pick and choose in the globalisation supermarket, modernising on its terms alone. For critics, however, GNH is at best an empty slogan—one that risks “including everything and ending up meaning nothing”. At worst, say some foreign observers, GNH provides ideological cover for repressive and racist policies. Reliable, long-term evidence linking wealth and happiness is, however, lacking. Measuring well-being is itself fraught with problems, since it often relies on surveys that ask participants to assess their own levels of happiness subjectively.

Bhutan passively deprived the citizens of a free market, freedom of language, television, electricity for many past years. It was ironic as good governance, freedom and democracy is what keeps the folks pacified according to the pillars of happiness. 

Many surveys also determined how happiness does vary with GDP and wealth, for example, The steady progress of the Victorian period matched a steady increase in British happiness, as did the economic boom of the 1920s, which also lifted American spirits. Both countries’ spirits fell again in the Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of 1929, after the lows of the 1970s, though, happiness in both has been on the rise ever since. Increasing national income is important to happiness, it is not as important as ensuring the population is healthy and avoiding conflict. The economist Richard Easterlin imported the happiness discussion to his discipline with a 1974 paper pointing out that the results of national happiness polls did not correlate all that well with per capita income. Rich people were generally happier than poor people in the same country, but richer countries weren’t necessarily happier than poorer ones; rises in income over time failed to increase happiness.

Money can’t buy happiness. But it could perhaps buy the ability to measure it.

Mrs.Grover rushed into the classroom, the class was now draped in pink screeching silence. We then hurriedly threw our notes open to start noting down Lord Keynes’ accomplishments along with Adam Smith’s advancing frame of notions. Our academic year in high school was coming to an end, in our bags rested beautiful projects, in mine, a handmade card along with EF Schumacher’s hypothesis. I had come a long way up, cherishing and researching more economic abstracts and classic Robin Cook along the way courtesy to my engaging and lovely teacher. Her eyes were moist by the end of the lecture, she adored us. She called me to her class later, whispered how she’d love to give me her extra copy of DEMIAN. I was flabbergasted. As I entered the open hall from the auditorium after our farewell performance, she stood there in her grey-hair elegance. She greeted us with the widest smiles. She handed a plate to me for the refreshments and said “Divyangana, your saree colour is as deep as you are.”

That was the last we met.

Capitalists can be relied upon to follow the money, which means that no matter their origin, they will find themselves doing business in the developing economies, where the intensity of occurrence of growth would be seamlessly high and rewarding. Those economies are growing rapidly, they will convert much sooner to modern infrastructure; because they are youthful, they will become digital native cultures before the aging societies of the West. They are poised to discover the economic rules that will define the information age.  They will be the first to fully embrace new technologies, and they will be the ones to develop the rules for exploiting them. Let's take an example of The Ford Company, when it launched itself first in 1903, major changes and advancements in the automobile could have been brought much easily within a few hours, now, if they'd plan on changing the most minute features like the type of screw they would have to put in months of selfless, laborious diligence.  Here is where “ small units work much better'' concept prevails. Nevertheless, with some simple shifts in perspective, capitalism can evolve and center on new pursuits that reflect society’s broader goals—and in doing so, bring its selection pressures back into alignment. It can adapt and continue to thrive. Capitalism really centered on the pursuit of value—the greatest good for the greatest number. That’s also a formulation that does not reject financial profitability but allows it to sit easily beside the pursuit of other kinds of gains.

Those of us who believe capitalism can adapt and should not succumb to the excesses that are crippling it will keep looking for more aspects in its favour. Collectively we are capable of setting a rose bed without the thorns for capitalism. We are, in the end, not ‘sinseless’.

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