Many people think that the rich should give away their money and the poor should receive it and that's the only way the financial disparity will disappear and the world economy will improve. It is in our fantasies, this redistribution. We have many a times romanced with the idea, secretly wishing that a modern day Robin Hood will appear who will rob the rich to give to the poor. And as much as I hate to be the harbinger of bad news, alas, it isn't going to work in the real life. Because the wealth distribution is naturally a pyramid, not a cube. The Lower half of the pyramid, which represents the "have nots" is three times the number of the Upper half residents, the "haves". So even if some revolution manages to take all the wealth lying in the upper half and distribute it to the lower half, it will only fill the needs of one third of the have nots, which would mean that the other two-thirds will continue to remain have nots. The revolution will have only wasted a huge effort and the end result would be worse than the situation right now.
There is a reason why communism failed so badly. Not that I am saying that democracy is the knight in shining armor that has rescued the world. The present economic situation would lead many to believe that democracy has only resulted in increased debt and unemployment. But before forming any strong opinion, we must realise that economy doesn't go linear, it is always cyclical, and a large part of the world is in recessionary phase right now, beginning with Europe. While the policy makers are battling hard to find out solution to get out of this sticky mess, people are growing impatient. 2011 was a year of revolutions, beginning from Mid East and North Africa, that overturned a lot of anarchies. So while we hang in this delicate state of Lack of growth and political inaction, I hope we don't end up acting irrational and end up spreading violence in the hope that it will somehow cause the rich to give up their money and it ends up in the pockets of the poor.
I am not in the rich category, and in my country I am somewhere in the middle (we have a term for that, we are the "Middle class"). So I am not advocating the rich or trying to promote poverty. I am just pointing out what is not considered obvious by many. Where does the solution to the economic mess lie then? I would say it lies in Governments making rational decisions like cutting back spending on non essential things and increasing spending on generating employment. Austerity has never worked and it never will, but cutting back multi billion kickbacks on Wars in other countries (monthly US expenditure on Iraq war is upwards of 9 Billion $. It's only prudent of the US to systematically get out of it. As the internet meme would say, Good guy Obama) and Space programs (oh c'mon, was there really a need to spend billions of public money to send ANOTHER space wanderer to Mars? What result were you expecting?) and focusing on creating infrastructure like China is doing seems the sane thing forward.
There is a reason why communism failed so badly. Not that I am saying that democracy is the knight in shining armor that has rescued the world. The present economic situation would lead many to believe that democracy has only resulted in increased debt and unemployment. But before forming any strong opinion, we must realise that economy doesn't go linear, it is always cyclical, and a large part of the world is in recessionary phase right now, beginning with Europe. While the policy makers are battling hard to find out solution to get out of this sticky mess, people are growing impatient. 2011 was a year of revolutions, beginning from Mid East and North Africa, that overturned a lot of anarchies. So while we hang in this delicate state of Lack of growth and political inaction, I hope we don't end up acting irrational and end up spreading violence in the hope that it will somehow cause the rich to give up their money and it ends up in the pockets of the poor.
I am not in the rich category, and in my country I am somewhere in the middle (we have a term for that, we are the "Middle class"). So I am not advocating the rich or trying to promote poverty. I am just pointing out what is not considered obvious by many. Where does the solution to the economic mess lie then? I would say it lies in Governments making rational decisions like cutting back spending on non essential things and increasing spending on generating employment. Austerity has never worked and it never will, but cutting back multi billion kickbacks on Wars in other countries (monthly US expenditure on Iraq war is upwards of 9 Billion $. It's only prudent of the US to systematically get out of it. As the internet meme would say, Good guy Obama) and Space programs (oh c'mon, was there really a need to spend billions of public money to send ANOTHER space wanderer to Mars? What result were you expecting?) and focusing on creating infrastructure like China is doing seems the sane thing forward.
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