The Europeans have been very good at reigning in the power
of private capital for their own internal greater good. Their nations
promise-and deliver-public health care, transport, education, and a leveling of
social hierarchies on a practical, day to day basis. They take care of their
old and vulnerable. They support their arts and culture. Consequently, they
remain rich, despite the fluctuations of the casino of foreign currency and the
stock market.
Other countries that have fallen prey to private capital
without reigning it in with the boundaries of social benefits, however, have
not fared so well. And none more so than in Nepal, where the increasing
disparities of what happens when a tiny minority seize all flows of capital has
become clear. The banks have been generous with loans—real estate projects that
follow no cultural or architectural codes abound, leading to a glut of badly
made, glass fronted buildings that nobody wants to live, work or shop in. And
yet the banks continue to fund these structures-clearly, there are no
consequences to the loans, or their subsequent defaults. Why should one worry
about this, you may wonder. Let the empty buildings prevail. But the more
insidious takeover seems to be the takeover of land—or squatting, rather—by
private capital. In America, millions have lost their homes when this greed
from banks to own all property went haywire. Instead of reigning this in
through the law, the American government recently bailed out the very banks
that caused a decade of foreclosures. The neighbourhoods continue to fall to
luxury development in cities like New York—clearly, private capital hasn’t
given up its quest for the takeover of all land.
There’s also been a glut of automobiles on the
roads—cleverly, it seems, through various schemes and incentives, the
automobile industry has made it virtually imperative for almost everyone to own
a vehicle, because without one the once pedestrian friendly roads have become
treacherous.
Then there’s the continuous labor violations that continue
to occur as Nepalese continue to flee in mass numbers from the
countryside—countries like Malaysia, the Gulf and the Middle East continue to
be destinations where labor violations are rife, and a slavery system, funded
by private companies hungry for labor and capital from Western countries immune
to prosecution, continues to thrive and multiply.
The banks have become omnipotent, omniscient, and
above the law of any country. They play god—they make winners and losers. They
take the money of some people and give it to others—true, this could be seen as
an investment in entrepreneurships and new ventures. Alternately, it could also
just been seen as playing god. The money goes to people who the bankers know,
that goes without saying. Often it ends up in the hands of museums and art
dealers who pay stratospheric amounts for a piece of canvas. We Ours has become a world where the value of human lives remains disposable and worth very
little, in comparison to works of art whose “value” keeps soaring, and appear
to have no limits.
Any attempts to reign in the power of private capital is
going to be seen as a dirty commie movement that has to be squashed.
The problem with letting the monster grow bigger and bigger is that even the country
which ostensibly benefited from it, mainly the USA, may be in its death throes. The people of the USA are not doing very well—neither its economy, nor
its people, are thriving at the moment. Vain attempts to revive the glory of
the 90s (witness the lame attempt to inject 40 million into the bland and
uninspiring Imgur via Anderssen Horowitz, in a desperate attempt to make it
look like the roaring Clintoneque 90s are back again) is bound to fail. Bill Gates may have tweaked
his old software for a new device—one that will be downloaded by a few billion
into their smartphones, but that still doesn’t bail out the rest of the country
suffering from the deep malaise of capital gone amok.
World leaders of the present have to think about what may be the greatest challenge of this century—mainly, how
to reign in the unbrindled power of private capital and its adherents. Capital
has become a blank cheque to do whatever and whenever in the top echelons of
finance, government and the military—might is right has been the catchword of
the past decade. The only problem is that it hasn’t worked—either for those
being exploited, or those doing the exploitation. In fact, the massive
unleashing of capital has boomeranged—countries like the USA with the most
unregulated financial systems have become worst hit with the economic crisis.
Will there be more restraint and regulation in the flow of
capital? Will it be distributed more equitably this century? Or will we
continue to walk the path of the laissez faire, liberal, privatized, “trickle
down” economy?
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