What numbers don’t tell
India is hosting the G20 this year in the spirit of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: One Earth; One Family; One Future.’ We want all the world’s citizens to live in harmony, and in harmony with the animals and the trees with whom we share our One Earth. We have big questions to discuss about our economies and our societies. For Indians, one question is, how large will India’s economy become, and when? The second, for all citizens of the world, is: What kind of society do we want to live in?
In the economy, the only work that is considered valuable is work done to earn money because its value can be measured and added to the GDP.
Human beings connect with the economy with the work they do. We must reflect on what sort of work human beings do and how their work is valued in the economy on one hand, and in society on the other. We must honour those whose work has nurtured us throughout our history. Because if we will not value their work any longer, we will not survive much longer. In the economy, the only work that is considered valuable is work done to earn money because its value can be measured and added to the GDP.
Ever since human beings came to live on the Earth, our mothers have worked to bring us into the world. They have worked to nurture us without being paid to do it. They have done this work because it was natural for them, and it fulfilled them too. The work of mothers and caregivers brings goodness to society, even though it adds nothing to the GDP measured in money terms.
For centuries, farmers have grown the food that has fed us. For centuries, masons using their skills have built the homes we live in. They have also built the magnificent monuments that we show off to the world with pride in who we are. While we do not pay mothers for the work they do, we pay farmers for the food they grow, and we also pay workers for what they build. But how much monetary value do we attach to their work? How is the price of their work fixed?
Prices of the work done by farmers and workers are fixed in the trade between them and those who buy their produce. One side has its labour, skills, and time to give. The other side has money to pay. Money can be stored in a vault: those who have money can wait for a better time to pay. Those who work cannot wait to be paid: their work does not have a shelf life. In an economy, the bargaining power of those who control the money is always greater. Labourers must be paid before their sweat dries. And farmers must be paid before their produce rots.
The real difference between a ‘capitalist’ country and a ‘socialist’ country is not whether the government or private sector runs the country’s economic enterprises. The difference is in how much human beings are valued in the economy, and how much respect they are given. The time has come to bring back the spirit of family into the economy to make the world feel more like one family.
I will pose two questions to all economists, whether they consider themselves capitalists or socialists. The first is about the value they attach to the work women perform in society. There is a worldwide drive to get more women into the workforce. Economists say too few women in India are working for money. If many more did, the economy would grow much faster, they say. They seem to forget that hundreds of millions of Indian women go out of their homes to work and earn every day — as women farmers, wage labourers, domestic workers, caregivers, sanitation workers, etc. Their work is not given much value in the economy. And because they don’t earn as much money as men do, they are not respected as much as men. Economists would much rather that these women were employed in formal enterprises where they would learn to do the work that men do.
Which leads me to the second question. Capitalists do not value human beings much. They would much rather replace humans with automated machines who do not form unions to demand higher wages. Technology is advancing rapidly. Machines can now do almost everything that human hands were required for. Artificial intelligence is even replacing the need for human minds in enterprises. Therefore, employment of humans in formal enterprises is reducing, even in wealthy countries. The question is, how many of the masses of Indian youth and Indian women — the largest workforce in the world — can be employed in formal enterprises in future?
In capitalist economics, nature is only a source of inputs for capitalist production machines. Humans are only a resource for capital to
produce more capital. With technological advancement, capital does not need human beings for production. It needs them only as consumers to buy what machines will produce. The problem is, where
will human beings get the money to pay for what they consume, if they are not earning somehow nor earning enough?
Economists see people as numbers in their statistical equations. Economists with a socialist mindset and those with a capitalist mindset debate each other with their numbers, of how many people are poor, and how many people are employed. Economists try to influence policies with their numbers. The time has come for all economists, and policymakers too, to listen to the real people. They must hear the voices of those they consider less important merely because they do not have as much money as others, and who they consider less wise because they are poor.
There are many communities which are concerned about their future well-being in the economy and in society. These include women, youth, farmers, factory workers, self-employed workers and tiny enterprises. They must come together, regardless of their party affiliations. Their voices must be heard, and they must be listened to now.
