Shah Rukh Khan made a self-effacing statement the other day, peculiar for a movie star. He said:
I'm just a capitalist, happy-go-lucky, dumb star!
It upsets me when people who have made their millions in The Market by satisfying customers in open and free competition call themselves "dumb." Shah Rukh Khan has much to be proud of. But what I really want to focus on is the other word he used to describe himself: "capitalist."
From the Wikipedia entry on him, it is clear that Shah Rukh Khan began his career not as a capitalist, but as a "worker." A capitalist is one who invests his own Capital in a business venture. Shah Rukh Khan did nothing like that. On the contrary, for quite a long time, he was just an actor available for hire by capitalists who funded productions on television. Later, he shifted to films.
Today, Shah Rukh Khan is indeed a capitalist. He has produced 9 films himself, and owns a production company. How did the worker transform himself into a capitalist?
Well, all that Shah Rukh Khan did is to save a portion of his earnings by refraining from consumption and, thereafter, when a considerable sum had been accumulated, he converted that saving into investment. With his own Capital well-invested in his own enterprise, Shah Rukh Khan the actor-worker became Shah Rukh Khan the capitalist.
The lesson to learn is that each and every one of us could try and do the same. The ranks of the capitalists are not closed, and new capitalists emerge every single day. Anyone who wants to join that number can do so - provided he saves.
Thus, while there are no "class barriers" separating workers from capitalists, savers in modern society face an unrelenting foe - inflation. The deliberate policy of perpetual decline in the value of the currency unit penalises all those who save. Inflation erodes private capital. It makes the transition to capitalist much more difficult for every worker. An auto-rickshaw driver, for example, who rents his vehicle and saves so that one day he can buy one of his own, finds that great day forever eluding his grasp.
Workers of the World - Unite Against Inflation!
Thus, the real enemies of the workers are not capitalists as a "class"; rather, their greatest enemies are the Keynesians. If you study their theories, you will find that they have no place in their scheme of things for savings. They want to keep on boosting "consumption" - and they even advocate printing money (which is the cause of inflation) to do so!
Now, there is nothing bad about consumption per se. We all produce in order to consume. But, since time immemorial, we have been concerned about the morrow - and we have saved. The farmers of ancient times saved some seeds for the next crop. These crazy Keynesians who go about destroying the value of our savings are engaged in "capital consumption." Most Keynesians call themselves "socialist" - in the sense that they believe in the "Welfare State" - but the truth is that their evil ideas only serve to "cheat the workers," as Ludwig von Mises candidly put it. It is because of Keynesians that inflation persists - and workers are condemned to remain workers, unable to ever accumulate the savings necessary to join the ranks of the capitalists. Murray Rothbard put it accurately when he wrote: "The good thing about Marx is that he was not a Keynesian."
Our Great Leader, chacha manmohan s gandhi, is one such Keynesian, socialist, and welfare statist - and a good friend of all our Marxists. For all the poor workers, he has "produced work" - the NREGA. But, along with that work, he has also "produced inflation." Today, since anyone and everyone is shouting himself hoarse about inflation, our great chacha has called for a "high-level meeting" to discuss this. According to this news report, those who attended this meeting are:
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, home minister P Chidambaram, cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Economic Advisor to the finance ministry, Kaushik Basu were seen arriving for the meeting.
The report says that the "meeting ended on an inconclusive note." How could they conclude that they themselves are the cause of inflation?
No deliberate policy of a government can continue unless backed by public opinion. In India, with a State monopoly over higher education, Keynesianism has been instilled into every student's mind. They call it "macroeconomics." It is nonsense. A pack of lies.
Which brings me to the subject of Truth. The motto of our The State is "satyameva jayate" - which means "truth always triumphs." The harsh reality is that, with State education, it is The Lie that has won the day.
I have therefore always preferred The Times of India as my vehicle, whose motto reads "Let Truth Prevail" - but it seems they have deleted all my columns (well over 50 by now) from their website! I wrote one in 2007 on inflation titled "Funny Money" - but it has disappeared. Truth has not prevailed. All that prevails is The Lie.
Yet, it is not that the truth stops working. The Great Lie may be in our textbooks - but inflation is a fact of reality. It is indeed the truth.
If you really want to know the truth I suggest you carefully study Ludwig von Mises' Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. It will take you many months, but it will be well worth it. The 1000-odd pages of this massive tome end with these ringing words:
It rests with men whether they will make proper use of the rich treasure with which this knowledge [of Economics] provides them or whether they will leave it unused. But if they fail to take best advantage of it and disregard its teachings and warnings, they will not annul Economics; they will stamp out society and the human race.
You can obtain a free PDF download of Human Action here.
This post is continued here.
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