सामाजिक कल्याण की अपेक्षा फिजूलखर्ची

 Popular religions have tried to open the eyes of the deprived masses but there appears to be seemingly inexplicable appreciation of the rich by the poor and the middle-class

लोकप्रिय धर्मों ने वंचित जनता की आंखें खोलने की कोशिश की है, लेकिन ऐसा प्रतीत होता है कि गरीब और मध्यम वर्ग के लोग अमीरों की सराहना करते हैं।

 

Rise of the Billionaire Raj 

Economists Nitin Kumar Bharti, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, and Anmol Somanchi, in their March 2024 study titled “Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj”, inform us that in 2022-23, the top 1% income and wealth shares were 22.6% and 40.1%, respectively.

A case of gross disproportion

let's see some data in inequality

In real terms, the top 1% possesses an average of ₹54 million in wealth (40 times the average Indian) 

while the bottom 50% and the middle 40% hold ₹0.17 million (0.1 times the national average) and ₹0.96 million (0.7 times the national average), respectively. 

 wealthiest 10,000 individuals (out of 920 million Indian adults) own an average of ₹22.6 billion in wealth which is a mind-boggling 16,763 times the average Indian.

caste wise data 

90% of the billionaire wealth in 2022-23 was held by upper castes. 

Other Backward Classes owned less than 10% and Scheduled Castes a meagre 2.6% while Scheduled Tribes found no representation among the wealthiest Indians.

what the gov saying ? 

1 NITI Aayog reported that 135 million Indians successfully escaped multidimensional poverty between 2016 and 2021,

2  a report titled “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” 

 (released on July 24 by a consortium of international organisations including the World Health Organization) 

stated that in 2022, a whopping 56.5% Indians were unable to afford “a healthy diet”, the average cost of which for Asia was “4.20 PPP [purchasing power parity] dollars” per person per day.

3 To be specific, almost 790 million people in India are not in a position to spend ₹350 daily on healthy food.

4 In this context, the reportedly massive 

• $600 million (about ₹5,000 crore) price in wedding 

but  ₹1,271 crore (about $152 million) spent on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in the financial year 2022-23.

सामाजिक कल्याण की अपेक्षा फिजूलखर्ची  

1 Thorstein Veblen, wrote “The Theory of the Leisure Class”.

 2 and says - “conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure”, who, to “put his opulence in evidence” seeks “the aid of friends and competitors” by giving them “valuable presents and expensive feasts and entertainments.” 

On entitlement and psychological capture

अमीरों को यह विश्वास दिलाना कि उनकी प्रतिभा उन्हें बाजार द्वारा प्रदान की जाने वाली प्रचुरता का हकदार बनाती है, और इसके विस्तार से, गरीब अपनी योग्यता की कमी के कारण अपने भाग्य के हकदार हैं।

सैंडल सही हैं, क्योंकि यह अमीरों की अधिकारवादी मानसिकता है, जो उन्हें  अपने संसाधनों को खर्च करने के अधिकार को उचित ठहराती है, जिससे न केवल वे अपने साथियों के बीच अपनी सामाजिक स्थिति को बढ़ा सकें, बल्कि आर्थिक रूप से वंचित लोगों को "हारे हुए" के रूप में देख सकें और उन्हें लगभग अवांछित महसूस करा सकें।

शादियों में - गरीबों को हटाओ विदेशी को बुलाओ 

most wedding extravaganzas are hotbeds of classism where the poor and the ordinary are deliberately excluded to let a large section of the international high society celebrate the occasion in perverse isolation 

 If at all, members of the “lower class” may get entertained on a different day as if to remind them of their position in society and the billionaire host’s magnanimity.

 “lower classes” seem to have undervalued themselves and, as a result, become resigned to their “lower status” and start believing in the upper class’s absolute right to its wealth and wasteful expenditure.

Sociologist Michèle Lamont 

speaks of this middle-class peculiarity in her book, The Dignity of Working Men. 

large section of the middle class American “white blue-collar workers” have little resentment toward those who do well. This attitude, she points out, is consistent with surveys showing that many Americans believe that the current distribution of rewards is fair, that opportunity is available to all, and that people can make it if they work at it.

Rights of the underprivileged

 the Koran issued a radical statement

 on the rights of the underprivileged which warned that wealth is god-given and the rich only hold it as trustees (mustakhlafeen) on behalf of the poor. 

One can only hope that Michael Sandel’s moral philosophy will sooner rather than later get the better of the atomistic individualism that shapes the billionaire-mindset.

source the hindu