It's local- Part Three

This is a Domino's outlet in Indiranagar, Bangalore. Two things are immediately apparent: the business owner doesn't care about the environment immediately outside the restaurant, as evidenced by the trash around the tree and the state of the sidewalk, and he/she/they do not care about the need of pedestrians to move unimpeded on the sidewalk, rather than have to take to walking on the road in this busy area. Another example of the discourteous "local" mindset.

 This is a pivotal time for gated communities in India, which have no current legal basis for gated security. There is a dispute under way in Bangalore, which I am almost certain will be resolved by new legal provisions to maintain the security and privacy of these communities.  The futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler, in their brilliant book "Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century", predicted what a future India would look like. In brief, they said that India would have islands of prosperous secure gated communities, populated by those either working for MNCs or catering in some way to employees of MNCs, and earning globally competitive incomes and living western lifestyles, surrounded by masses of the proletariat living in continuing poverty barely touched by anything resembling progress. It's a powerfully prescient scenario, as the current unfolding of precisely such communities bears out.

It doesn't have to be, though, and a future India could be a more inclusive India. But for that to happen, some fundamental attitudinal changes are necessary. People have been brainwashed by the glittering promise of globalization, that goods and services will freely flow from areas where they are best produced and that everything will work for the best. I am constantly amazed by the ability of people to believe in promises and projections contrasting starkly with conclusions which may be drawn from sober analysis. Take a look at the fundamental premise of globalization: free trade. Is there really free trade? I would argue that some countries permit freer trade than others, but real free trade exists only in the tiniest of countries, city-states, if you will, which are small enough to permit a specialization that serves them well. The American proponents of globalization argue that globalization has brought immense price relief to ordinary Americans because of Chinese sweat shops. The reality is that with declining incomes and rising expenditures, Americans have only been able to absorb the Chinese output through the massive expansion of consumer credit that accompanied the Sinicization of manufacturing and the global outsourcing of middle-class jobs.

Flashback to the 1960s and earlier, when the US was relatively more insular, with import restrictions on competing goods coming from countries with disparate advantages in terms of worker pay, safety, and so on. There were restrictions on interstate banking, let alone transnational banking. Only the wealthy had credit cards, and ordinary people only had store cards, which had to be paid off in months. The average consumer debt was a few hundred dollars, for furniture or Christmas gifts, and was usually paid off quickly. Unsecured debt was virtually unknown. Yet this was a country where people were fairly affluent, could aspire to put themselves through college without taking out huge loans, where innovation, enterprise or sheer hard work could put you solidly in the middle-class, where stock certificates could safely be stored away for a rainy day or for your kids' college funds, where people could look forward to working for 30 years in the same company and retiring on a sufficient pension. It had a balanced international trade, it's national debt was low and barely rose with inflation, and it was a net creditor globally. This was also the same country that people lined up to migrate to.

Now fast-forward to today, and the impact of the globalization which began in 1972 with the induction of Red China into the UN Security Council. The US has become the world's largest debtor, and its people the most personally indebted. Real incomes have declined, higher education and healthcare have become unaffordable. Job insecurity is unprecedented, and research scientists and accountants are being asked to "reinvent" themselves as plumbers, electricians and small businessmen. No longer is it a country that people from Asia dream of settling in, and now Americans seriously contemplate job opportunities elsewhere. Oh yes, fortunes have been made by some, mostly by putting ordinary Americans into debt servitude via personal and government debt. The trillions in profit from government debt along with the additional trillions in consumer and housing debt have found homes somewhere very private. No doubt China has also prospered, but on the back of western debt and incipient insolvency. The big winners here are the MNCs- or, rather, TNCs(Trans-National Corporations)- which have no national loyalties and do not suffer from any desire to be humane. Their goal is simple: acquisitions and profits without borders.

Now, what does this have to do with India, and the "local" mindset? Frankly, nothing if what we want is only rising lifestyles for the few. On the other hand, if we are concerned with lifting all boats, then the needs and aspirations of the many need to be considered. That means giving up the local=inferior or unworthy mindset, being more socially conscious, having the same aesthetic aspirations for your neighborhood as your home, foregoing some entitlements(like a Rs. 2.5 crore imported bathroom sink or luxury weddings in Bali using foreign exchange earned through underpaid laborers), opposing official policies or actions which do not put nation first, and- most importantly- beginning to hold public officials, elected or unelected, accountable for their actions and responsibilities. The problems are not somebody else's, they shouldn't be accommodated with "sab chalta hai" or "swalpa adjust maadu", or dismissed with complacency. China is on the verge of becoming the largest economy in the world but, for all their problems with corruption, official policy puts China first, and globalization and free trade are skillfully given lip-service while they do what they need to. The solution for India will not come from someone else, or from the Bill Gates Foundation or some multi-national conglomerate or NYT columnist beating the "globalization is good for all" drum.

The solution has to be, and is, local. It's you.