The
Miasma Of Growth
By R Siddharth
08 April, 2006
Countercurrents.org
"Have
you considered how the ancient Greeks exploded all over Europe circa
450 BC?" asked J. Krishnamurti, the philosopher, in an address
before a cultured audience at Madras. So as not to embarrass them he
also provided the answer. "Greece was responsible for measurement.
Without measurement there can be no technology. And the Western world
is capable of great technology, which has moved to East Asia."
"The ancient Indians
said that measurement is illusion. India exploded all over Asia. Don't
be proud of it, it is all gone."
Growth has made its way back
into the lexicon of economics and business. The Indian Business leader
can now be seen at international gatherings, all puffed up by statistical
indices that show that we have achieved economic growth of 8% or thereabouts
over the last 3 years. Rates of growth such as these have been unheard
of in the West for the past several years and remain only within the
realm of pious hopes for the future. The Indian governmental leaders
even coined a word for this phenomenon: they called it India Shining,
only to find the truth in the old saw that all that glitters is not
gold.
Never mind that even our
8% growth has been beaten by China's growth which has been of the order
of 10% for a much longer period. So we all bow to the Chinese even as
whispers abound about the suspiciousness of China's statistics. But
there is no getting around the fact that 2 out of 3 items on American
supermarket shelves or department store hangers bear the tell-tale sign
"Made in China". Or the fact that a majority of worldwide
freight shipments either originates in China or has its destination
somewhere in that country.Growth has a tremendous hunger for energy,
which can even lead to wars between two countries that both want it.
I read a report in the Guardian
that of Brazil's rain forests, an area the size of Israel (about 10,000
square miles) is being converted annually to growing soya beans for
export to China. According to the experience of the developed world
as incomes rise, diet tends to become more protein and meat intensive.
It requires 7 kilograms of
grain to produce a kilogram of meat which may explain the scale of conversion
of Brazilian rain forests into soy farms.
Who are the beneficiaries
of this new found prosperity? The urban citizens in the metropolitan
areas around Shanghai, Hong Kong, and of course, Beijing . Even counting
all the tailings this can amount to about 400 million people. Nearly
twice this number are still living out their lives in traditional rural
misery. And for most of them growth holds no promise of a better lot.
What of Shining India, meanwhile?
A previous Prime Minister
made a short trip to Moscow, Washington DC and London. He put out to
Putin in the matter of the purchase of a yet to be commissioned aircraft
carrier, then kowtowed to Bush on putting out (I believe the word in
vogue is BPO) and rounded off the week with a similar deal with Blair.
Then he hastily made his way to an NRI hospital in India for knee replacement
surgery - the need for which was probably brought about by a whole week
of genuflecting before Putin and Bush and Blair.
Well, India too has joined
the growth bandwagon. With one difference: there were always have people
talking about dividing the pie differently much before there is a hint
of growth in the air. An official document showing growth at rates over
twice as much as the historic Hindu rates of growth will generate as
much excitement as three good monsoons in a row. But the evidence of
the failure of a growth oriented set of policies is likely to be swamped
by the hosannas trumpeted by those in charge of affairs of the state.
For growth on such a large
scale can be achieved only if one or both of the two conditions noted
below hold:
control of nature's capital
in the hands of a few, and its use as an input to produce goods of mass
consumption.
having no or inadequate institutional
mechanisms for dealing with spillover or third party costs, to make
sure that the ones responsible for such costs bear them.
At the level of the enterprise,
it seems possible to account for these two elements of costs (at least
in theory) by appropriate regulatory and environmental policies,. However
in a market driven economy the incentives for management are quite the
opposite. For a CEO who is rewarded by the last quarter's results is
faced with no demand for policies based on wisdom over the long run.
We would be very surprised if he didn't develop a severe case of managerial
myopia by focusing on growth. But we have to grant that growth can cover
a multitude of sins.
Should we step up a level
and choose a governmental solution, we will find ourselves in the same
sort of pickle as before. For the minister and the bureaucrat will face
the same sort of paradox as the corporate manager. The solutions they
propose will at best be a version of crony capitalism.
So it looks like we have
to move one level higher, to have a multinational organization which
will have representation from the whole spectrum of countries. Rather
like the WTO. And just as effective.
Is there no way out? There
is, but the road is long and tortuous. We must be prepared to look critically
at things that we have taken for granted as being part of our lifestyle.
Among these will be the fetish about growth and the miasmas associated
with it. The success of the Indian pharmaceutical industry cannot be
disconnected from the extra-ordinary level of pollution - of the industrial
area at Patancheru - at similar industrial estates are proof enough
of the failure of growth oriented policies.
And what of energy consumption
which will have to be provided for to achieve growth? Even countries
which have passed the stage of development of India or even China and
have a significant 'green' element in their political pantheon would
be daunted by the scale of environmental degradation that is inevitable
in our plans to grow. But of one thing we can be sure: while the growth
we achieve may have a miasma all of its own, it will be dominated by
money. The apparatus for the measurement of output and the apparatchiks
to compute growth will be the same as before: mere illusions all.
R. Siddharth lives in Bangalore. He can be reached
at [email protected]