Breaking the Cycle of Consumerism and Poverty

volunteer your time with people less fortunate than you are. when you simply read an article you feel bad, but then a friend calls and life goes on and you forget about the rest of the world and go back to focusing on material things.

when you volunteer your time, these people become real to you. If you go every saturday without fail to an orphanage, you would rather buy a gift for one of those kids than worry about upgrading your cell phone. when you see people dying of AIDS on a weekly basis and get to know them you're no longer as concerned with the material things and are simply happy to be healthy. if you volunteer your time to read to the elderly you will get to hear incredible stories from them that will remind you that there is more to life than parties.

you do not have to cut out your social life. you have to add more into your daily life that grounds you to reality.

No need to change anything other than spending more on consumer durables. It will boost the economy and help hard working people pay for their essentials. India wants more trade rather than aid to fight poverty. The more you spend, the more people down the ladder get.

Moreover, you also pay VAT that goes into the government coffers. This revenue is supposed to be used for welfare of the citizens. Start demanding accountability of these revenues.

Regards,

@ Small Squirrel: Excellent advice. I've been volunteering part time since the late nineties (and full time for 2 years in between) - so I know what you're saying & fully agree with you.

@ Anindo: You know, someone said the exact same thing to me when I mentioned this, he said, "Go, buy more iPods"!

Another question: How do we "Start demanding accountability of these revenues" ? I already blog about certain issues wrt govt revenues that I'm not happy with. Is there anything more we as citizens can do?

a. register as a voter/vote on election day/ stand in an election some day. Vote in every local election. Tell others to do the same.

b. Consume resources carefully (water, Fuel electricity, food etc)

c.Follow the law (donot extend your property dimensions if it violates the law for example), follow traffic rules etc

d. Contribute to charities related to healthcare and eduction

e. If you are well off and educated, here are two other things you can do -> Join a school or college as teacher for 2-3 years, take up a Govt job for 2-3 years

f. If you have kids, encourage your kids to be innovative and creative. Encourage a scientific bent of mind.

These should contribute positively to the society if everyone does this.

One can't bitch about poverty and consumerism in the same breath. That is not honest. Because it is consumerism that drives the economic engine that create wealth and prosperity for people at large. It may not distribute the wealth fairly - but it does distribute it efficiently - it rewards only those who are in a position to participate in the system and their rewards are commensurate with value they add to the economy. It is not a free for all charity. You pay your dues, and rewards will follow.

It is lack of consumerism that creates a cycle of poverty. Without consumerism, no economics can take place, hence no goods and services that people need. Poverty is a sign of lack access to goods and services, it has nothing to do with consumerism which seeks to produce goods and services that people want. Economic pie will expand as consumerism expands, creating new wealth and employment in the process. Thus poverty is essentially a product of lack of desire or opportunity to become productive in the economy. As consumerism expands, it can create more opportunities, but will and desire to participate in the economy is up to the individuals - if their priorities are screwed up, nothing can help them.

On the flip side, windfalls of consumerist economy are not spread evenly among people, while consumerist economy can be inflationary, not just in terms of cost structure but also in terms of human needs. People will find more and more things that they can't live without that they never had needed before. People will see their cost of living shoot up dramatically and their daily needs grow exponentialy while incomes would not grow uniformly across population - creating hardship factor for sizable population. Growth in human needs and escalation in cost structure leads to hardship factor. They constantly escalate while income growth for people takes a while to catch up, and for many people, it never does. thus the hardship factor. Thus, consumerist economy grows at the expense of a segment of people. Most consumerist economies have tried to solve the this problem by instituting some form of welfare stare to look after people left behind. Private and small-scale initiatives of Charity and volunteerism are well and good, but not enough to address the scope. Welfare state has to evolve eventually to reinforce the consumerist economy. What is inhibiting such initiatives in India is reservation and entitlement politics, vote-bank menace, caste-based entitlements - sooner they go away, better it will be to usher in welfare policies that are based on needs irrespective of caste, creed, region, ethnicity.