Sunita Narain: Mother of all bailouts: Costing the earth

DOWN TO EARTH

The development model that got us in the current mess is still very much in place.

Earlier this year, I called the Union Budget myopic. Let me reiterate why. The Union Budget did not take into account the fact that the world was beginning to face new challenges, all of which were devastating and related. One, the rising cost of our food; two, the problem of ‘peak’ oil prices; three, the devastating impacts of climate change, visibly on crop productivity because of water scarcity or untimely rains. And four, a possible, US-led global recession.

Well, that recession has, since then, blown up in our faces as companies and banks collapse, and governments rush with billions of dollars to their rescue. And myopia seems a global malaise. What should astound us is not the crisis, nor its scale or its devastation, but the response of our financial and political managers. Remember, these are people who have all studied alike; who all speak the same words and do the same done things. All of them believe they know their world and can come up with answers quicker than you can say ‘meltdown’. So, even as they are completely lost in this world today, their arrogance persists. First, they said, “Don’t worry, it won’t touch us.” Now, they are saying, “Don’t worry, it will pass.”

The fact is they don’t have a clue to what is happening. They also refuse to accept this crisis is actually inter-related crises linked to the way we have managed growth till date. The fact is we have been taught, and have practiced what has been preached, that we can consume our way to growth and consume our way through and out of any slow-down period. “Don’t worry, just consume” is the mantra. If we cannot ‘afford’ to consume, then, too, we should not worry. The financial systems will ensure we get cheap loans to buy homes, cars, washing machines, or anything else we may not need but desire. After all, it is only if we consume that growth indicators will look rosy again and the world will remain happy. We do little to ensure we can bring the cost of the product down so that it is affordable. We also don’t share wealth so that more can afford this growth — afford the house or the car — without the loans that will make the banks boom and then go bust.

The other way to growth is to subsidise the cost of producing the products we should consume. Take the ‘Nano’ example in India, where every car manufacturer is in a scramble to get public largesse — from land at throwaway rates, interest free loans to free or nearly free water and power. This is all to reduce their cost of manufacture, to place the car we cannot buy within our reach. It is another matter that in this economics, the cost of our consumption has been subsidised. It is a story uncannily similar to how food in the rich world is grown — farmers (most agri-businesses) are loaded with subsidy dollars to grow cheap food so that its consumption (and over-consumption) can grow, even as obesity takes the form of the world’s most deadly disease. It is also a fact that it is the same consumption-led economic growth that has brought the world to the climate change precipice. The point still is: Are we beginning to make these connections?

Clearly, no. In fact, there is only one way to crawl out of the current hole — do more of what we have done till date. The $700 billion bailout package was explained very succinctly by US President George Bush in the interest of the ‘poor’ worker: “The banks needed to loan, as otherwise ordinary Americans would not have money to buy the car and this would mean that the factory workers in Detroit would lose their job.” Simple logic for simple economics: Buy and buy to make the economy go around. Even if it cost us a bank or the earth.

We will not talk about this. To do so would mean we would have to change our fundamental understanding of what constitutes growth; to what leads to happiness and what results in employment and well being for all. It would mean changes in how we measure economic growth — junking or going beyond the gross domestic product (GDP) indicator to one that is much more comprehensive in assessment of these needs.

As of now, we will not change. The world is still in the hands of the same men who put us in the mess in the first place. It is their limited imagination and enjoined ideology that has got us here. It is their lack of imagination that first pushes airlines to believe they can be as cheap as railways. Then pushes for public largess to fund what we can’t afford. So don’t expect any change. This financial crisis may go away. But the storm is still to come.