Tuesday, March 15, 2005

 
Money, money, money, must be funny..in the rich man's world

While the Indian sun rises in the list of the world's richest men, the underlying assumption (oh, what a hackneyed term !) of money being the reference scale is unstated. So, this could well be the only truly existing monopoly in the world's economy that survives generation to generation. Let me explain..

A monopolistic market has only one dominant player who by his presence has captured all of the market share and has created high entry barriers for others. The consumers in such a market are price takers and have little bargaining power. Relate this to the the diamond market and De Beers comes to mind. Relate this to the Indian skies a decade ago and Indian Airlines is a good example. Now relate this to money as a market of buying power. You see the point ? There is no other tangible or intangible form that will compete with money. It is the longest serving monopoly with no competition in the horizon.

Any second front brewing ? Lets ask Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Lakshmi Mittal..

Comments:
Power.. brings in money automatically
 
Money often costs too much.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
Okay..Emerson feels so. What is *your* suggestion for a parallel economomy with a different indice ?
 
Well, I don't expect to find many takers for this but here is what I feel...Human beings, (read specifically Homo Sapiens, I really don't mean neandarthals or any other other human species) since they emerged out of their caves have really not been able to shake-off their attachment with what is material as a representation of "value". In other words, the idea of self-worth for a Lion might be the size of his territory and the size of it pride, the same way man generally chooses to attach his self worth to the number of shiny beads in his cave (yesterday) or size of his wallet (today).. So what gives? ... Even after millions of years Lions are still Lions and will be Lions a million years hence (if we don't kill them all off, that is). Similarly though we delude ourself into believing we have progressed as a species, the question that keeps assiling me is that have we really evolved from early man (hunter-gatherer) mentality? I muse thus, because we still ask ourself what would be a differnt index of economy instead of asking is there anything beyond economy or beyond the material ... Any theories?
 
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