The chairman of Cafe Coffee Day (commonly known as CCD) is suspected to have resorted to suicide. He has apparently left behind a note in which he thinks he has failed miserably in his professional life and feels the need to escape harassment by government officials.
This case might be the first that has come to light, based on economic reasons, but there are thousands of cases where people suffer ailments or resort to suicide because they simply fail to earn money for a sustained living. This raises questions on the state of the economy and for quite some time, dissatisfaction has been expressed by many academicians, though to no avail.
If people are unable to even earn sufficiently, then what is the point of an economy?
When the economy was introduced, it was a simple exchange of goods between people and expanded to an exchange of goods between states and then between nations. Since every person, state or nation could not have the goods you wish for, but other persons, states or nations wanted the goods you have, the concept of currency was introduced.
When currency came, jobs also appeared where you were paid for the labour you provided. Things were simple here, where individuals understood how things are done in a place. Also, people took care of each other in such a way that no one would go hungry even if they weren’t earning.
As soon as industrialization appeared, the concept of the economy changed in such a way that even the most educated fail to understand what happens every day in the economy. In recent years, the economy has become has a predictability game. Theories and researches are done to understand how the market will behave in the coming years. There are a plethora of rules for every single transaction done. New kinds of business which do not even involve everyday needs have appeared in the market affecting the businesses which are more important for the goods required for human sustenance.
Predictability is the major rule for the economy and the biggest predictor are the share markets, which are so fragile that even a slight negative rumour can change the destiny of the whole industry. Every country now looks up to the share market to see how the country is faring. In reality, very few understand the concept of share markets and lots of money is lost than earned in share markets on a regular basis.
In general, more than 80% of the population of a country does not even deal in the share market. Most people prefer to keep their hard-earned money in places where there is no risk. But share markets are glorified as a money-losing agency. Sometimes, it becomes necessary to question: why are share markets necessary?
Theories and assumptions are a part of the economy which have proven supposedly so efficient, even though the general public has no awareness of the same. No single effort has ever been made to understand the effects of these theories and assumptions so that the economy may seem manageable; it has become unmanageable and inefficient.
Laws and rules are so complicated and change so frequently that even big organisations find themselves in a fix. With every new kind of violation, new laws are brought in which again become a burden and are hard to implement.
Middlemen have become a necessary evil in every business and transaction done in the economy. In order to sell produce, farmers have to deal with some middlemen in exchange for supposed protection from vultures. If there is a need to get work done by any agency without too much hassle, it is better to deal with middlemen so that time can be saved. But these middlemen simply increase prices to such a level that commodities become a privilege of the rich.
The situation of today’s economy is so unmanageable that any decision taken, even in the interest of the people, can have a negative effect which cannot be simply predicted. When the 2008 recession came in, a majority of the people could not understand why a real estate problem can become a headache for the economy of the world. The reason is a complicated structure of the economy and a high degree of interdependence.
From the point of a human life which can end at any point in time, it is difficult to understand why there is a shortage of money. Money is a man-made item that can be supplied in large numbers. Still, people feel the need to fight for money.
Even if a single life goes hungry for the lack of money, it is time to question what are we doing as a government, as a people of knowledge and skills and as owners of corporates and organisations in the larger concept of an economy. It is a reality that as long as things remain simple and can be understood by the majority, it can be controlled easily to bring more results. Profitability might be the norm but it cannot deny the right to life to people who are lazy or cannot work or are unsuccessful.
It’s time to analyse the ways of doing business and high time to introduce zero-budgeting economy where inputs can be purchased at low costs. After all, money is an unlimited man-made resource. It can simply be printed.