ENTROPY - Design of Decadence

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

When does a want become a need?

When do we reach that place in our lives when we are incomplete without 10000 rupee shoes that we don’t even walk comfortably in and 20000 rupee single malts that help us portray and pretend refined taste? When we don’t even know how much is there in the bank because ewww I can’t handle moneys it’s all greek and latin to me?

When we just can’t do without our annual three weeks in Europe? And debt is just a four letter word?

Cars on debt, clothes on debt, shoes on debt, homes on debt, lives on debt.

But our country is shining. Debt is lower than GDP, unlike the western world. We’re growing at 8% and more. It’ll never happen to us. We watch documentaries and movies about the recession in the US and turn up our snooty noses and say well those fucking capitalist Americans deserve this. And after the overpriced movie ticket we go to an overpriced restaurant where after an overpriced Pasta Arrabiata we nonchalantly fork out a few 1000 rupee notes in a blatant and appalling exhibition of a complete and utter ignorance about what brought the American economy to its knees - so the movie ticket was both expensive AND a waste, eh.

We’re so used to hearing the word ‘recession’ that it doesn’t startle us anymore. The truth is, we wouldn’t know a recession if it slapped us in the face because we are too busy not acknowledging it. The truth is, we don’t know how to acknowledge it.

Because we’re young and spirited and make 7 and 8 figure salaries and who cares. Until one day when we’re so comfortable in our skin that we scoff about getting a better job now that we’ve been downsized. When our ego is defended as self-respect as we refuse an offer that is marginally lower, until a day comes when we will give our left arm to work for less than half of that. When we start looking at the price of the carton of milk and wonder when it quadrupled. When we look at the price tag of a pair of slippers before we look at the logo.

When we avoid eye contact with our neighbours because they just bought a new car and ours was repossessed. When we suddenly realise that our lives are grinding slower even as others are hurtling ahead. When it dawns upon us that our lives have stopped, and no one really cared to notice. When friends don’t return calls or reply to SMS’ and we, who were the life of the party because of the stimulating conversations we would initiate aren’t invited anymore and we’re actually relieved to not go because if we went we’d be too embarrassed to say anything. When we look around us and all we see is things. The projection 3D TVs, the double door refrigerators with Internet connection, the gigantic collection of shoes … amount to nothing.

When we default on our home loan and have to move back in with our parents into the house that we couldn’t wait to get out of. Because there’s nothing left to sell and raise money to pay the bills. How can you sell something that’s worthless, even if it cost you a fortune?

That, is a Recession. And I don’t even want to get into talking about Depression.

And if you are convinced that it won’t happen to us Indians, trust me when I say that it is already happening. We are well on our way. Our cars, our homes … everything of great value to us, will be worthless faster than its American cousin.

Just look around you at the spending habits of people of your age – people you know, people who are your friends. Our lives, our wants, our needs, our expenses, our budgets, our careers, our futures are all based on the assumption of infinite growth. And the concept of infinite growth is like Atlantis - people took it for granted and then it sunk and disappeared. We haven’t had it half as tough as our parents did. And they did alright for themselves. Most of them didn’t have a home loan EMI payable till they were 70. And they managed to put us through school and college and do the whole parental nurturing thing on a case to case basis. We have much more than they did, but we want much more than they did. So when the day comes that we don’t have any of it, we won’t know what to do with ourselves. What to do when I have nothing wasn’t taught to us in business school. Bankers tell us that we are stupid to keep our money in cash because 4% interest from a savings deposit is being eroded by 9% inflation. We have to invest it and beat inflation. Read – we have to buy an unnecessary product so that he can make a sizeable commission by selling us something where returns are subject to market risks and we must read the offer document carefully, which we never do. Because hey, India is shining, and it won’t happen to us.

So before you buy your next Gucci bag or Versace suit or shrug your shoulders at your depleting cash balance and don’t bother to spare a thought to where it’s all going because you couldn't be fucked to understand your own financial worth, ask yourself what you will be worth during financial Armageddon. And if you think that those are old wives tales and our systems now are too big to fail, I have news for you – you are being taken for a ride by no one else but yourself.

posted by n.g. at 21:45

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