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Society
The Land of Milk and
Honey
by Subra Narayan
 As
the flight prepared to land and I kept looking out the window taking in
the beautiful landscape of the country for the first time, the older
gentleman sitting next to me said, “This is why they call America the
land of milk and honey”. Twenty years later, the price of a gallon of
milk has more than tripled and the bees are disappearing at an alarming
rate! What happened to the world’s numero uno superpower, the
world’s model democracy, the land of unlimited opportunities!
As we look forward eagerly to a healthy change in the upcoming Fall
elections, that will hopefully install a leader who will focus on the
core issues that are fundamental to the public, we need to understand
what ails America! How did we get into this royal mess in Iraq and
Afghanistan rather than a slam dunk on the perpetrators of 9/11? How did
a balanced budget at the end of the Clinton administration turn into a 9
trillion dollar national debt under the current regime? Why is it that
while many companies are struggling to break-even and jobs are being
shipped abroad, oil companies are continuing to revel in unbelievable
profits? As I write this, the price of gasoline is undauntedly inching
towards $4 a gallon. While millions of people don’t have access to basic
health care in one of the wealthiest nations in the world, billions of
dollars are being funneled to fight a long drawn out war. And if a
certain frontrunner in the elections is to be believed, then this war
will last another 100 years! Why is it that a nation that took great
strides under Washington and Lincoln is now governed by Cheney’s laws?
With misguided priorities, a shrinking funding for basic scientific
research does not bode well for future generations. While everyone
acknowledges the fact that the era of cheap energy is over and
alternatives have to be developed rather quickly, the only solution that
Congress can propose is to change light bulbs. Edison must be rolling in
his grave! With inflation gnawing away at the very fabric of the
consumer oriented society and recessionary signs looming in the
background, the nation cannot afford to lose sight of the core issues.
Surely this must be happening only in a banana republic, right?
Could greed be one of the factors that has driven us to the brink of
this state or is that too oversimplified an answer? When you consider
special interest groups and lobbying which is nothing but legalized
bribery, then greed is an understatement as evidenced by the lobbyist’s
scandal not too long ago. It is mind-boggling to understand the inner
workings of the financial markets, for how do you explain a parallel
financial institution, derivatives, sub-prime mess, hedging on other
people’s miseries as was the case where money managers made billions of
dollars betting that a certain percentage of people would fall victim to
foreclosure! FDR in his inaugural address said that ‘the only thing we
have to fear is fear itself’. Needless to say today’s corporations are
being run by fearless leaders who have epitomized the very notion of
greed and end up landing softly in their golden parachutes while
millions of hardworking Americans lose their lifelines! No one could
have said it better than John Bogle, the doyen of the mutual fund
industry who writes in his book, ‘The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism’
that ‘I believe that the barrel itself - the very structure that holds
all those apples - is bad."
Interestingly NYT columnist and well known economist, Paul Krugman in
his recent book, ‘Conscience of a Liberal” notes, ‘My generation grew up
in a nation of strong democratic values and broadly shared prosperity.
But both those values and that shared prosperity have been slipping
away’. He forcefully argues that the visionary dreams of FDR resulting
in his ‘New Deal’ did much to improve the lives of the middle class
society in America and he strongly advocates that it is time to once
again create institutions that will support and sustain a decent
society. Krugman further goes on to state that the gap between the rich
and the poor who live in a globalized world is not caused by economic
laws alone but by political choices!
If capitalism was good for America in the 20th century, has it somehow
morphed into an Ouroboros that the very good for which it was intended
is somehow being cannibalized? Has it created a fast food society that
is impatient in its march to glory and accumulation of riches? Does this
bode well in the era of globalization as developing countries are
thirsty for oil but may inherit all the decadence of the West?
Jared Diamond has eloquently described how civilizations rise and fall
in his classic, 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed'.
According to him the vision of our leaders is a significant factor in
building and sustaining or destroying societies. While the current
administration turns a blind eye to the effects of global warming,
future generations will have to pay a heavy price for our leaders’
actions or rather the lack of it. Rome was not built in a day they say,
but surely it must not have taken long for it to burn while Nero
fiddled!
Is there any hope that the flaws in the current system will be corrected
ushering in another era of prosperity? Tom Friedman of the NYT seems to
think so and believes that during his travels he has sensed the
emergence of a new ‘can do’ attitude amongst today’s youth. He writes
that while we can talk about nation building in Iraq or Afghanistan it
is time to really put the nose to the grind and talk about rebuilding
America. And clearly as we head into the Fall elections there is but one
clear voice in the wilderness that is inspiring the nation’s youth and
generating a newfound enthusiasm in urging folks to be responsible
citizens and encouraging everyone to be part of a revolution if we are
to truly change the course of this great nation for a better and
prosperous future! That person is none other than Barack Obama!
May 11, 2008
Image under license with Gettyimages.com
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