The economic
woes in Europe and America have led to anti-capitalist street protests
in a somewhat confused movement called Occupy Wall Street. The protests
are essentially about inequality. Western economies have stopped
growing, and this has led to high unemployment. A society will accept
inequality only if it believes it to be fair. This sense of fairness has
been damaged after the global financial crisis. But this movement will
not spread to India despite the Left's best efforts. We are at an early
capitalist stage of dynamic growth. Millions of new jobs are being
created and although inequality is growing, the average person is
rising. India's problem is largely governance; hence, protests in India
are about corruption.
The anti-capitalist malaise in the West
is also about work. Many people want to work but cannot find it. There
is also discontent among those who do not want to work. Having grown up
in an affluent, welfare society with unemployment insurance, they have
got out of the habit of working and believe they are entitled to a
living by the state. A third group, also disenchanted, does work but
does not value it. These people are dissatisfied with their jobs, and
exclaim, "Thank God, it's Friday", and grumble when "Blue Monday"
arrives. Policies like the 35-hour week in France have given the
impression that happiness lies in leisure and idleness, which is
reinforced by the Marxist belief that work is exploitation. People have
forgotten that "far and away the best prize that life offers is a chance
to work hard at work worth doing," as the former American President
Theodore Roosevelt once observed.
Roosevelt's statement will resonate with
India's new middle class. It is the first generation freed from
insecurity and is discovering amazing new careers. Before the reforms,
you did not have a choice-you jumped at any job, and many ended up as
engineers or clerks against their will. But an economy growing at 8%
offers amazing choices. For the first time in history, young Indians
have begun to ask: what do I really want to do in life? The lucky few
will discover a passion and make a living doing work they enjoy, and
like Steve Jobs they will win the prize of life! Passionate work touches
the core of one's being. The majority, alas, will live unrequited
lives, making a living, not making a life. A tragic loss when you think
that one spends a third of one's life working.
Some Indians will dispute if passionate
work is the prize. They believe that life's great prize is moksha,
liberation from the bondage of life and work. They think that true
happiness lies in detachment. They should re-examine the ideal of karma
yoga, which as Krishna explained to Arjuna, means to act for the sake of
the act and not for personal reward. But this is precisely how one acts
when one is engaged in passionate work. When one enjoys working, one
tends to forget one's self and one's rewards. True happiness lies in
working hard at what one does well.
The big question is how to find one's
passion? Very few are lucky to discover it when young. Mozart knew at
the age of three that he would compose music, but for most people it
does not come easy. It's a pity that most of us tend to go with the flow
and don't stop to ask one of life's most important questions. We
stumble through life until it is too late. By then we are middle aged,
set in a routine, and life has passed us by.
Roosevelt's prize also has implications
for state policy. It would be a great pity if this new generation of
aspiring, hungry, hardworking young Indians is spoiled by West's culture
of entitlement. The Congress Party is unthinkingly bringing such a
culture to India with welfare schemes which reduce the desire to excel.
The employment guarantee scheme is already beginning to hurt the work
ethic in rural India. Instead of creating phony jobs through NREGA, the
government should invest in roads and power, as China has, and this will
lead to real, productive jobs. Sonia Gandhi should remember Roosevelt's
words that work is the great prize of life.
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