HUMANITARIANISM

The world seems to be hurtling towards a chronic and deep level of inequity and dissatisfaction. Whether it is the uprisings in Egypt and other countries or the Wall Street protests which have spread to other countries. People keep rationalizing on the 'how' and 'why'.

It is not about corporate greed or individual greed and control. The issue is we are knowingly leaving our own fellow citizens out in the cold - whether human rights, employment opportunities, economic progress, health or leading a reasonable life.

There are multiple arguments for and against various political models - People are still debating between free markets, socialism, democracy, parliamentary democracy, etc and various other hybrid models in-between. What we all fail to realize is that political and governance systems also need to be proactively developed, changed and instituted with rapidly changing requirements. If we are constantly striving for new technology to improve products, services and lives, why cant we do the same with political and economic systems?

How many of us would like to drive an old manual transmission non-electronic car or only watch a black and white television? This being the case, how can we expect political and economic systems to last forever?
What we have painfully found that whether its Keynes or Friedman or Socialism or democracy, they are effective for a painfully short period of maybe two decades....and that too because the repercussions come later.

What is required is today is not a rigid set of economic or political systems or processes which someone forces down the population. What is required is a Goal. Everything should then evolve around this goal. Even if it means making structural changes in monetary systems, trade systems & political systems, it should be done. Further it should be reviewed periodically and modified if it is not aligning towards the goal.

People may argue about the goal - maximizing profits for a small set of people, constant economic growth even if it is not inclusive or it could be free food, clothing, shelter, etc for the entire World population.

The moment we put in the latter as a goal, things become clear - we are talking about a principle based on which early democratic institutions were founded - Greater good for the greater people. Given our penchant for making things complex, we seem to have forgotten this basic goal, in effect we have forgotten true democracy.

If World leaders would have applied this simple principle, there would have been no bailouts or recessions. Is giving billions of dollars worth of bailout more important, which benefited a small set of rich investors (whether corporate or individuals) or would it have been better to guarantee small investor deposits and SME credit lines which would have saved a few million jobs?

The answer is obvious. Even the U.S, the so called champion of democracy is actually not a champion of democracy, but of free markets. The two are not the same but are clubbed together for the gullible population.

So let us have one goal - greater good of the greater people and let the underlying principle be followed in spirit. Some may call this socialism, some may call it democracy. I think we should call it Humanitarianism, where we are humane to all.