Western vs Eastern thoughts, empediments to our Economic policy making

Western vs Eastern philosophy, implication on our Economic policies

Western philosophy and thought are rooted in the Cartesian and Newtonian Mechanistic world view of cause and effect, in the formation of reality. Eastern sages Hindus as well as Budha called it ‘avidya’ and according to them reality forming spontaneously is the right approach.

This difference in world view by Indian policy makers reflects in their policy formulations when they use the mechanistic western science implemented through Eastern philosophy. Any science factored down to its constituents is considered as wrong by them and they just create the superficial policies without thinking about the ‘transmission’ of the policy or its effect. This causes havoc on Indian citizen may be from the time of independence manifested in the presence of ill-conceived economic infrastructure, lack of welfare for citizen and rampant poverty and malnutrition.

If we take malnutrition as an example, we Indians don’t define work. We consume food that cannot supply us energy to last  a days work where work is defined as the expending of the energy. We work for sometime, relax, then work and some may even take tea or coffee in between work, spoiling the long hours  of focus and attention needed  for a days work unlike their western counterparts who are endowed with well planned food intake on a day to day basis. Indians per se are abrasive  and unfriendly at work their respective work places for no other reasons. Minute challenges at work hurt them severely and the retribution in an undemocratic way is visible everywhere, causes of course is lack of normal food habits, well planned diet and of course lack of welfare. Works get done inefficiently causing losses to the economy by way of lost opportunities.

Example of a policy goof up may be taken as the last bursting of asst bubble in  here transmitted from abroad. We stimulated when we never tried to maintain the asset price levels. The results can be  asset price bursts lead to defaults which can lead to credit crunch which again lead to interest rate hikes leading again to inflation and hardships for citizen, when they cannot consume in their purchasing power.

We can even experience a recession in the near future due to this. Todays headline read industrial production growth not in targets for first quarter which may be a precursor for what is ahead. Usually in the past any economic downturn in US followed by a similar event here like recession with a lag of around 2.5 years. From last October ’08 to January ’10 it is reaching that point.

I have to say we never looked into the lag studies and the policies were both expansionary and contractionary which is like applying the accelerator and the brake at the same time on a car ride. Our eastern thoughts prevents one here from studying in all our policies the transmission, the lag effects or timing of policies which are cause and effect per se which is aching to western thoughts.

This is because we use two different thoughts concurrently western and eastern with lack of dexterity in work which should come from our food habits and may be due to no thoughts given to differentiation of labor in work places.

If we escape from a slump it can be only due to the better wage levels prevalent here now and long term employment.

Then if we are caught in this trap we can expect austerity measures being passed on to citizen for the  policy goof-ups of the decision makers, which is how we were treated post independence and which is the only way the leadership knows or is experienced to work.