The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism Read online

supplier of energy to various organs. But it would be disastrous to impart the functions of the heart and brain to it, which unfortunately is what the economic fundamentalists are hell-bent upon doing. Still more disturbing is the fact that not only the capitalists but also the socialists tend to put economics at the top of the agenda though their motives are contradictory in some respects. The capitalists adopted economic fundamentalism as their central ideology, their sole aim being to exploit the needs, desires and weaknesses of human beings to enhance their own economic status. They never had any genuine concern for human plight and whatever sympathy they pretended to possess was aimed at silencing the critics, vanquishing socialism and serving a long term or short term purpose. The socialists had genuine concern for the lot of the common man and endeavoured for their economic empowerment through equitable distribution of money. The extreme form of socialism, communism, had Soviet Union and China as its best representatives. Both manifested initial successes in terms of economic development as well as equitable distribution of wealth. Till the time the revolutionary fervour was at its zenith, the men controlling the government had dedica­tion. Till turpitude was not rampant, things did not go awry. But, the system was bound to show decadence with the passage of time as the revolutionary fervour is always short-lived, and because the system itself had the propinquity to ignore the humanness of human beings. Communism dealt with men not as men but as machines who had no choice but to work in accordance with the commands issued by their superiors. They had neither the right to own nor the right to earn privately. Their future was planned and their needs determined by the state. Thus they had very few personal rights and the burden of duties was exacting. As there were no incentives for work; entrepreneurship did not exist. People slowly lost interest in work. Religion was dispatched into oblivion at the time of the Revolution; the people had no spiritual aims. Despondency prevailed in society and immoralities took control of the lives of the people Alcoholism destroyed the character. An overwhelming percentage of people in Russia became addicted drinkers; they drank even at the time of work. The production suffered heavily shattering the entire economy. The confederation of nations that acquired the superpower status began to crumble. The other superpower fished in troubled waters, ultimately leading to the disintegration of the Soviet empire into several small sovereign states. China did not suffer the same fate because it succeeded in keeping moral cor­ruption in check and made certain essential modifications in its economic structure opening it in some sectors.

  The capitalists steadily gained successes because they did not hesitate in using every possible trick, every method of exploita­tion and all possible means--good, bad, legal or illegal, and moral or immoral for their growth. As has already been elaborat­ed, their fundamentalist approach had modified every department of social and political life. They had succeeded in popularising secularism and democracy which gave them immensely greater space to manoeuvre. The marginalisation of religion and remodelling of social values had opened new vistas for their growth. While they persisted in their endeavours to transform the whole of society into either the consumers or the consumed, they also took well-calculated steps to monopolise wealth by restructuring the economic system. The plan comprised liberalisation of economy, popularly known as laissez faire, adopting of a tax system that helped the cause of the industrialists and not that of the common people, establishment of a banking system and stock exchange that mobilised public money for their use, construction of such economic structures as would accelerate the upward mobility of wealth (from the poor to the rich), complicating the science of econom­ics so that the common people, not even the intelligentsia, except the experts, can comprehend what happens at the economic level, using the economists to devise such criteria of economic development as suit their strategy and multiplication of demands by transforming treachery, dishonestly and falsehood into an art.

  From the above-mentioned components of the plan it is evident that the ultimate goal of the economic fundamentalists is to concentrate, as much as possible, the wealth of the whole world into their own hands. One significant step in that direction was the establishment of the banking system. The banking system, private or nationalised, has hardly helped to bring about the economic betterment of the poor. It has done just the contrary. The little money that the labourers, the artisans, the peasant the clerks, the lower middle class people and the upper middle class servicemen are able to save by curbing their desires and curtailing even some essential expenses, is mostly deposited in the banks. The busi­nessmen get hold of this mammoth money, (which becomes mammoth because it is contributed by millions and billions of peoples) in the form of loans to establish mills, factories, agencies, departmental stores and companies. With this money, they earn huge profits, ranging sometimes from 50 to 300%. A very small portion, usually between 8- 15%, of what they amass is given back as interests to the banks, and a smaller portion, 4- 12%, of that interest is distributed among the real owners of that money. This small interest is used as a decoy to trap the naive commoners. The common people have no other option as their money is not big enough to be turned into an asset (gold, property) or to set up any business, and the security problems compel them to put their hard-earned money into the reservoirs of banks. If the ordinary people even contemplate to start their own business with the assistance of bank loans, they either fail to fetch it on account of their ability to submit sureties or if at all they succeed in getting some loans, they have to run the great risk of getting entangled into a debt-traps because their incomes are usually not high enough to simultaneously fulfil their routine requirements and to pay regularly the instalments to the bank. In case their business fails, the probabilities of which are considerably high in the face of hard competition with the big businessman. They do not have sufficient financial backing to make up for the losses. They often have to clear their loans by selling whatever little assets they have. Moreover, if they get the goods like cars financed, they have to pay a substantial amount in addition to the original amount, and by the time they clear the loan the market value of the purchased items substantially fall.

  The private banks, wherever they exist, accentuate this upward mobility. While the incomes from the nationalised banks is utilised, at least partially, for the welfare activities, the whole profits of the private banks are credited to the owners. The industrialists do not believe in keeping the majority of their money in the banks. They either invest in profitable ventures or convert it into movable or immovable assets, the cost of which keeps on rising. These assets prove to be of great utility in procuring further loans. Their business continues to expand with the help of people’s money and the value of their assets contin­ues to show an upward trend. Inflation, which is the outcome of the conspiracy by the industrialist and their cronies in the government, ensures that whatever they pay as interest on the loans (and taxes) is compensated and whatever the public gets as interest on their money is more or less recruited. Inflation recycles the money back to the industrialists. The poor account holders thus get virtually nothing; while with their money the big businessmen build palaces and companies. In short, the banks have become mere vehicles for transferring wealth from the less-moneyed to the more-moneyed. The businessmen also run big financial companies where again the depositors' money is used to give loans at much higher rates of interest to those seeking it. Finance companies do not only earn themselves but also help the indus­tries by increase in sales of consumer items of all kinds including vehicles, air conditioners, TVs and refrigerators. Through finance, the industries succeed in capturing even the future money of the people.

  The insurance companies are also booming; these companies are able to compete with banks because they cash in on the personal fears of the people. The common men are always wary of accidents and sudden deaths; and to ensure financial safety for their survivors, they oblige the insurance company despite the fact that these companies often pay inter­ests even less than what the banks do.
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  The forces of economic fundamentalism have benefited immensely from the banks. But from their point of view there were some drawbacks of the banking system. First, they have limited capacity to cater to the ever-increasing demands of the manufacturers and traders. Second, the banks could provide money only up to a certain limit and for only a certain period. The compulsion of paying back the instalments shortly after the procurement of loans would sometimes bring the companies and their directors under insurmountable pressure. This would stall or terry their growth. Third, the banks regularly meddled in the affairs of the business. Fourthly in case the business suffers loss, the banks did not share it and had to be repaid the whole loan along with the interest. The banks having been managed by competent persons, it is not easy to deceive them. To overcome all these obstacles, stock-exchange was erect­ed. This would provide a regular supply of money and by the estab­lishment of private limited and limited companies they had already