Economic insanity

Theoretically, we should be able to provide for everyone's needs and reasonable wants with in a static economy. The only reason why endless growth is necessary in the capitalist system is simply that it is the mechanism by which the system works. Without growth, capitalism deteriorates. But growth imperative causes serious side effects, one of which is the tendency to confuse both money and debt with wealth.

• If we don't consume or use up real wealth, it perishes on its own. We can't store enough of it to satisfy our lifelong needs. The only way we can make today's wealth fulfill tomorrow's needs is to lend it to others, put them in our debt, and persuade them to pay us back over time, with interest. While debt tends to expand regularly and indefinitely, the wealth it symbolizes cannot.  
• The ruling passion of individuals in a modern economy is to convert wealth into debt in order to derive permanent future income from it. That is the heart of the capitalism. But the idea that all people can live off the interest of their mutual indebtedness is a vulgar delusion on a grand scale.
• In reality, only the minority earns significant interest and the majority pays it. But the difference between what the majority owes and what it is able to pay steadily widens. Debt grows exponentially, but new real wealth which common laborers must repeatedly create new real wealth to pay the interest on their borrowings does not. We can never produce enough actual growth in wealth to keep up the exponential growth of our debts. We just roll them over and end up borrowing to pay up interest on them which is nothing more than a giant, legalized Ponzi scheme.
• The solution to debt crisis is a further dose of growth. The way to grow is to invest, and the way to invest is to borrow. The solution to debt is to increase the debt! How it is believed that new debt will be used productively than the older debt is never explained.
• The resultant explosion of debt will lead to defensive actions by borrowers include inflation, bankruptcy, confiscatory taxation, fraud, or outright theft. These are socially and economically destructive actions and yet they are also the inevitable fruit of compound interest which we deem normal and acceptable.
• Growth in the money supply is the “leading edge” fueling productivity and economic expansion through debt. The logical solution to this dilemma is simple. Since exponential growth of real wealth is impossible, we must tie the money supply more closely to wealth to keep it from expanding needlessly. 
• Exponential growth of money and debt creates unrealistic expectations for similar growth in real wealth which in turn puts immense pressure on short term profits and return on investment. Thus to attract capital, businesses must offer competitive return which often means they search the world over lowest-cost production opportunity. Thus manufacturing gets relocated to countries with lowest labour wages and returns greater.
• Free trade between nations brings only unrestricted capital. But labour stays put which results not in mutual benefit to both the nations but significantly lower wages to the nation that loses capital.
• Balance of trade and capital mobility is the way country borrows in real terms is to import more than it exports. In the last few decades, US has run up staggering trade debt means that immense amount of capital has moved out to other countries. No economist would maintain that this large trade imbalance can continue to expand forever. At some point capital will have to start flowing in opposite direction to bring the account back into balance. For this to happen wages and benefits of US workers have to fall to globally competitive levels. The living standards of US workers will drop significantly. Americans must somehow change course to a limited growth economy—and even accept a no-growth paradigm—or the whole system will explode.
• An economical economy is inherently conservative (not wasteful) in both its production and consumption. In the restorative economy products will require more labour, use less energy and produce less waste. Productivity will go down but employment and profits will go up. This runs contrary to conventional economic logic. Taxation and fees must discourage frivolous, dangerous and dirty products and encourage useful, safe and clean products.
• Such a system will remove incentives for unlimited growth, discourage or deterr formation of enormous, impersonal and capital driven corporations and encourage small, employee-owned, service oriented and environment-sensitive businesses.

There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need 

but not for man's greed ... Mahatma Gandhi

We have far more oil, coal and gas than we can safely burn without global warming. Coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels produces least amount of energy and the greatest amount of pollution and threatens clean water to drink, clean air to breathe, and a safe climate. In the name of globalization human consumption & wastage has crossed ecologically sustainable limits and piles of waste has proven disastrous to environment. Pollution haunts every city in the world. Enormous burning of oil & gas adds to the woes. While over population is the fundamental cause, other aspects of over consumption and wastage and elimination of unnecessary and dangerous items is in our hands.

Unmasking Aadhaar

The mindless, mandatory biometric linkage of Aadhaar numbers to every aspect of our lives -- from birth to death, telephones and bank accounts -- is causing widespread harassment. The hype that biometric identification was a gift to citizens and a world-beating technological leap is a fallacy. People who are wary about the risks involved in Aadhaar linkages has now risen dramatically, with details of its fallibility being widely reported. But the continued coercive tactics by service providers and regulators indicate that the UIDAI and the government are in no mood to listen.

• (1) There is growing evidence of how inefficient biometric identification in Aadhaar is. 
• (2) Aadhaar is not merely about acquiring an identification number; there will be a cost/fee involved in every authentication and updation. The government has maintained a stunning silence on the cost of updation and other mandatory services.
• (3) Most people are realizing that biometrics change over a lifetime. This means that Aadhaar authentication can fail anytime and would need frequent updating especially for senior citizens. If you find it frustrating to update bank KYC information, get prepared for perpetual harassment when ever your biometrics let you down.
• Aadhaar is a nightmare for vulnerable, less-literate people and disempowering for senior citizens who will need to rely on Aadhaar kendras or bank officials for updation.
• UIDAI appoints enrollers and mandates linkages, but provides no recourse to those who are cheated by agents. If you are a victim, you will end up fighting a legal battle or chasing the police for redress.
• The effort involved in the Aadhaar updation exercise will make us even more reluctant to change service-providers and put up with shoddy service. This makes a mockery of competition and choice in a free market.
• IDRBT, a subsidiary of the RBI, has called for caution in use of Aadhaar for government programmes, based on a study of its implementation in AP. It says that it is also unclear if, in the long run, the benefits of Aadhaar will outweigh the negatives.
• On Dec 1,2017, Premani Kunwar, a 64-year old widow died of starvation. Her Aadhaar-linked bank account was manipulated to fraudulently transfer her old-age pension into the account of her husband's first wife. Denied income and rations, she slowly starved. Shockingly, the first wife had a valid bank account with updated KYC (presumably Aadhaar-linked) to which funds were transferred, even 25 years after her death. The case reeks of collusion between bank officials and a stepson, who has been arrested, and exposes the easy manipulation of records and its devastating impact on the very poor.
• Ravindra, a 64-year-old central government officer, who, harried by repeated failure of Aadhaar authentication, wrote, "I am desperate and sometimes start thinking of ending of my life." Writing to the UIDAI was of no use. Instead, he received gratuitous advice to procure a phone in his son's name, thereby defeating the purpose of linkage, disempowering the senior citizen and placing a needless burden on his son.
• Neither the government nor the UIDAI has bothered to respond to thousands of such senior citizens complaints on the National Consumer Complaints Forum.
• What is worse, a government that is in the habit of repeatedly changing its goalposts is not called upon to explain its claim that it will help unearth black money.
• UIDAI's response to criticism has been to browbeat and silence critics. When The Tribune exposed its vulnerability by gaining access to the UIDAI database (not biometrics) by paying just Rs 500 to an intermediary, it reacted by filing a police report. When this led to a media uproar, the government back-pedalled quickly.
• The UIDAI has also announced the introduction of 16-digit virtual ID and facial recognition for better security, and to address the issue of failed authentication for citizens. In case the apex court does not grant relief to the petitioners, we are all in for rough times, while the UIDAI experiments with new technologies whose cost, efficacy and availability across the country are unknown.

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The reckless linking of Aadhaar with all services and transactions undermines citizen's privacy rights and is unacceptable in a democracy especially without any robust privacy laws and misuse recourse obligations. This falls short of a 'surveillance state' where all citizens must prove their credentials for each and every transaction they may make just for administrative convenience of irresponsible bureaucracy and for luxurious spending by political classes. This must not be allowed. Aadhaar must be confined to providing unique ID card and for efficient distribution of government subsidies and benefits only. Noting more and nothing less. Biometric verification should always be voluntary and never mandatory for all citizens, except for criminals.