[lbo-talk] India 8th in billionaire club

[ravi]

Sujeet Bhatt wrote:
> ravi wrote:
> 
>> well, "global capitalist market economy" is not vacuous, is it? isnt it
>> the reality of today? isn't it also the argument of the market humanists
>> (bhagwati, krugman, etc) that this is the best way for all, especially
>> the poor? how then, to explicate miles' question, does one address the
>> paradox of the ascendancy of global capitalism and the polarization of
>> wealth? wait, unless, perhaps, polarization is not really a bad thing.
>> nor is decrease in real wages of the poorer segments?
>
> It certainly is the reality today. But, to paraphrase what Doug said
> elsewhere on the list, when a concept becomes that broad, it becomes
> nearly useless. What one is trying to understand is why India, with all
> its poverty, is producing more billionaires than many other (wealthier)
> countries in which the
> "global capitalist market economy" is equally operational. I for one
> don't have an answer. And the fact that I'm unhappy with the knee-jerk
> "global capitalist market economy" type of analysis does not make me a
> proponent of "market humanism" or any other label that you may choose to
> apply.
>

no, i am not calling you a 'market humanist' (i have heard baghwati, the
world's leading defender of globalism, referred to by that term).

the question you raise (why india is producing more billionaires than
other equally global capitalist economies) is an interesting one (albeit
within the bounds of orthodoxy or prevalent theories, yes?).
interestingly enough, it is also a good example of the usefulness of the
term! ("global capitalist ..."). perhaps i would be premature or naive
in assuming that the reasons are the obvious ones: a large
english-speaking technically educated workforce that happens to be in
the right place at the right time.

as a "leftist" (i put that in quotes because by the measure of some, i
do not qualify as a leftist) what i am [also? most importantly?] trying
to understand is this schizophrenic development (which seems to
accompany global capitalist market economy, admittedly to varying
levels) what the left can offer as an alternative...

btw, i left the "smiley" out of my fictional russell anecdote in
response to your self-referential paradox one. i hope it was clear that
my response was in humour.

	--ravi