Whether you're a citizen, or a customer, there's no Free Lunch!

A couple of posts ago I wrote about markets, democracy, and forces that exist within each of these, and how, in our society, we're finding them wrestle one another, but of course, not helping anyone in the end. Today I continue talking about these two devils - the market and a democracy, in a not very different perspective.

The reason I call them devils is both of them seem to possess a power derived out of our very own lack of wisdom - wisdom as citizens and customers respectively.

Every day in our lives whenever the reason for being represented (reason for democracy i.e.) or the reason for being a customer (reason for a market i.e.) is beyond both extremes, a new problem starts cooking underneath us all. Be it our farmers expecting a government support-price for their produce, or the rice-growers themselves seeking govt. subsidized rice and cereals, they form clear evidence of misunderstood purpose of government. On the other hand an aberration of an individual's needs as wants has led to the typical excessive consumerism syndrome in most urban settlements in our society. All these appear to portray a common issue - that of wrongly placed expectations from both a democracy and the market.

The 'representation misunderstood' problem

Why do the farmers (yield to) expect a govt. support price for their produce when there exists a market craving to consume them? They need to be educated about the purpose of a government, and about the existence of a market. Why do the literate settlers among us believe it to be the handiwork of some political party when petrol prices go up, or why do we feel the govt must fly in like Superman and save the sky-rocketing onion prices? Clearly we need to be informed about the role of government in all such situations.

The 'market misunderstood' problem

Why do the typical urban shoppers yield to consumerism, get seduced by calls of marketers, and forget the elementary difference between the needs and wants of life? Why does a majority of the urban consumer base appear to be buying/consuming stuff that it actually didn't need? Why so especially when those wants hide beneath them grave dangers for mankind? We need to be wary of our needs, and reassurance that discovering one's needs is more important than knowing one's wants. We need to also know that there are memories of the marketer's magic in our mind that make our wants different from our needs. And we need to realize that this disparity between needs & wants is dangerous to our economies and the ecology alike.

Let there be Jaagruti

In summary, aren't we misinterpreting the purpose of a government and a market? Said another way, isn't the government and the market not appearing to take undue advantage of the lack of awareness in people? Is it something in the system that has made the government and the market act that way? Or was it always built that way, expecting always, the constituents of the system to educate themselves so as to avoid disappointment? If latter be true, I guess it is time we realized that in a democracy, like in a market, there's nothing called free-lunch, and the only way to liberation is good education. People need to know what to expect from a government and a market, and not get these two mixed up! After all, education (jaagruti) is what man needs to go after - be as a citizen, or as a customer.