The Economy of Collective Good!

It was around 830 pm on a Friday evening my car was idling in a crowded traffic signal in the sub-urban of Chennai, India. For international readers of this, Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu which is the southernmost  state in the country of India which is known for its unique culture and social policies.  As an entrepreneur running a purpose-driven Employability Company in Chennai I too experienced the sad kiss of the covid -19 and my month-end commitments were dominating my weekend and Friday mood. Next to me was my friend and in few minutes he got a knock on his window shield. One mid-aged lady begging for money and few others like her were moving from car to car in the signal. My friend gently nodded the head in refusal and I said open the tray where you will find few coins of change and give her. He with hesitation gave it to her and said Prabhu (which is my name) “Don’t encourage such things and I am sure many of them are exploiting, cheating and you should be aware of that.”

After a smile, I just gently told him “Yes. I am aware of that too, But out of 10 people give, even if 1 is genuine the purpose is met. Why should I miss out on that one?”

He simply replied, “You won’t change Prabhu and I don’t know how you plan to succeed in business with this mindset.”

I just again replied, “The universe and purpose shall take care”. The signal cleared for the car and we moved on. I dropped him at his residence and reached my home.

It’s not a new or strange incident, but I was just wondering why still in this world humans have to struggle for basic food in spite of all the advancements in all spheres of life.

The world bank statistics talk about extreme poverty which is measured as less than $1.90-per-day as a number of close to 9% of the world’s population, close to a quarter of the world’s population lives below the $3.20 line per day and around 40% of the world’s population live below the $5.50 line.

The literacy rate is increasing but still, the gap between the super-rich and extreme poor is widening.

For a moment I thought and asked myself “Why do people need more and more wealth and aspire for the super-rich?”

The possible answers which came as random answers were, access to a better quality of life (maybe with luxuries) or power or respect or control, or happiness, etc.

In a very basic sense, I asked the simple question. Let’s assume I needed a car for transportation. I buy a car with a budget of say 13000 USD which shall meet up my basic needs, comfort, and safety.

Then I asked what I get extra if I opt to buy a car with a budget of 50000 USD. Still maybe better standards of basic functional needs, comfort, and safety. Still, if I buy for 100000 USD I found predominantly the needs it meets is basically psychological needs and it quenches my thirst for societal status. Though this is explained technically by marketing gurus, as aspirational need or luxury needs the more we intend to garner wealth or possession it only serves more of our psychological needs in relation to the society or people around us. This simply means it’s not either the need or want of ours but an influenced luxury needs to communicate a statement of power or respect or dominance to the people around us.

Then the question came to my mind if people around don’t really give that respect or perceptual power will there still be a need for super possessions, super accumulation in one side of the spectrum of the society while the other is below the poverty line for years.  

I imagined a situation like this, where one super-rich owning a private jet has to stand in a public queue in a government organization and follow the same process to get his work done. It may look like a utopian concept but my queue is not about the one I mentioned above but in the minds of the rest of us.

The simple question is do they (super-rich) gain special importance or we offer them special importance. We offer them special importance because we aspire to get that special importance.

What if 90% of us (common crowd) refuse to offer such special importance (The Power, Respect, etc) for wealth centered super-rich?

My answer is they may be “Super Wealthy Loners” with no one human to acknowledge it as their psychological need is not met. Again this is utopian but it may be possible by a collective shift in mindset.

This article is not about saying being or aspiring for wealth is wrong or a crime. Its intent self-sufficient universe and mankind with appropriate distribution of minimal basic need.

One of the main reasons I found is “Our graduation(so named as education) has prepared us to compete for being richer than yesterday and not educated us to compete for being better self-version of yesterday.”

What will happen if collectively people move their focus of respect & value from being offered to super-rich to people with character, values, philanthropists, integrity, and purpose?

Don’t you think the super-rich will start re-distributing the wealth back to society as their psychological needs are not met by aspirational possessions?

That’s the way maybe the disparity in the society can be met and don’t you think it will be better to call this philosophy “The Economy of Collective Good”.

Maybe I also think it won’t be unfair to say that “Needs drive consumerism, wants drive capitalism, accumulative luxury wants drive Crony Capitalism.”

Maybe soon “My signal for universal poverty elimination through holistic human education” gets some green clearance in all our minds?