8/14/2019 Opinion in Daily Times , Pakistan

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WASHINGTON DIARY: The price of feeling rich Dr Manzur Ejaz

Every country with a rising gap between the rich and the poor has used differentdevices to distract its peoples attention from core economic issues

There is an elephant in the room. It is not the proverbial one but a real beastthat has been transported from Connecticut to Virginia for an Indian wedding. Itbegan with veer mera ghori charheya (traditional bridegroom riding the horse)

and has now come to the bridegroom riding an elephant and importing flowers fromIndia for his wedding.

Is this the stylish expression of Indian-American millionaires/billionaires? No,this is the new way of the rich of the world.

In this new world which follows the logic of the survival of the fittest andwhere only the cleverest and most ingenious rise to elite status, a hamburger canbe sold for $500 and a bottle of wine can go for thousands of dollars. It appearsthat the new rich of the world enjoy burning their money as the old feudals did,who showered their entire wealth on dancing girls without watching them orlistening to the music. The money was just a show of power and wealth and wasspent for mere thrills.

India and China have been the rising economic tigers in the global economy withannual growth rates of over ten percent. However, a bulk of the gains has beenappropriated by the top five to ten percent. While the masses in both countrieshave been languishing in dire poverty, a Chinese billionaire paid the highest everprice for a bottle of wine and an Indian, Mukesh Ambani, is constructing theworlds largest mansion with a parking facility of up to 800 cars.

The American super-rich are no different. Hiring a domestic servant a rarity inthe US a few decades ago has now become very common. Ordinary Americans still goto good old McDonalds for a $5 meal while the rich spend $500 for a singlehamburger. The American elites have developed segregated consumer markets; racialsegregation, it seems, has been replaced by class differentiation. The US is no

more the egalitarian society it used to be.

The class-segregated society has created the most illusionary and speculativeeconomic culture in the US and the rest of the world. In a bid to ape theexhibitionist super rich, the middle class and even the lower economic tierhouseholds gambled in stock markets and real estate. They bought huge houses andmansions and the builders and mortgage industry, greedy for making a quick buck,doled out loans without checking the affordability.

The level of illusionary consumer culture has reached a point where a pennilessPakistani-American woman is begging for donations for her daughters wedding. Shewants to throw a grand wedding party that will cost thousands of dollars. One cansee that this illusionary feel-rich culture has seeped into the entire fabric of

society.

As a matter of fact, such a make-believe, feel-good culture has served as anopiate for the masses. This false hope of emulating the lifestyle of the rich hasbeen keeping common people everywhere pacified. The prevalence of gambling indifferent markets has also helped to sustain this false hope.

The US administration created other distractions for the masses, too. InvadingIraq, Afghanistan and making noise for the war on terror has been successfullyemployed to keep economic difficulties under wraps. The activist community hasbeen consumed by its anti-war crusade, leaving little or no time to raise

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awareness about ever-rising economic inequalities. Every country with a rising gapbetween the rich and the poor has used different devices to distract its peoplesattention from core economic issues.

However, this unreal, imaginary world can only go so far. Skyrocketing prices ofessential items have brought down the imaginary castle of false hopes and there isuproar everywhere in the world. This wave of becoming rich and feeling rich alwayshad self-destructive tendencies and they were bound to surface. Now the chickens

have come home to roost and the world has to deal with it. How? No one knows yet.

The writer can be reached at manzurejaz@yahoo.com