capitalism down the toilet-- india travel blog

The reason India will never be the "major world power" that all these bullshit pundits are always saying is that India has no concept of capitalism. Now you and I know that capitalism isn't going to save the world and it may very well be its downfall, but those of us from capitalist countries, or, I suppose, even socialist countries, understand the basic notion that you can charge more if you offer more. If your produce is better, then you can charge more for it and people are happy to pay. If you offer better customer service or a cleaner or prettier environment, you will get more customers. There is a sense of competing for a limited supply of customers when the environment is capitalist, and that causes neighborhood businesses to try and improve. In the big picture it also causes corruption and people cheating and fooling people into getting something (like financial products ala the 2009 disaster) that they are actually not getting. Okay, but in the smaller picture, it causes small businesses to try to improve. In India nobody could give a shit for improvement.

friendly prison guardTwo produce stands right next to each other. Neither one tries to be more polite or give a better deal. They just sit there and wait for luck and see who gets the customers and who doesn't. Three dhabas next to each other and nobody realizes that if they managed to have fewer flies in the doorway and all over the food they would get the business instead of the other two. Haven't they ever heard of a fly strip? I'm perplexed as to why one of these dhabas doesn't make a little effort to stand out just that extra bit. Its not that they don't care about money. I mean come on. Everyone has bills to pay. It makes no sense. But when a pale face goes to one of these dhabas or fruit stands or auto rickshaw drivers or anything, they try to rip you off with an insanely overblown price. It never occurs to them to just offer a cleaner rickshaw and a more polite attitude and then westerners would gladly pay more without complaint and no one has to be dishonest. No. It's all about the rip off.

Shera says all this is true, simply because Indians are so cheap, they will never pay more for anything, even if it's better. So if you want more money, you have to trick people. I just can't believe it. Once they see that a certain sandal lasts twice as long as another one, they are going to pay a little extra for the longer lasting sandal. It's just human nature. I mean as bad a business person as I am, I could walk through Ghandi Gate and just tell each and every store along the lane one thing they could do to attract more customers. Its so simple, especially when things are in as decrepit a state as they are in now. Like don't have a broken sidewalk and customers will actually be able to reach your shop, or don't have trash lying on the floor in your restaurant. It is a turn off. I think they have it because there is a man who does the cleaning and nobody else is going to stoop to doing it until that man comes. So it just sits there all day if necessary. Of course, the workers don't have an investment in the business, so why should they care, but the owner is there too, inevitably. Why doesn't he do it or tell someone else to do it OR ELSE? I just don't know. I just don't know. I mean this is a really busy city and people are all over the place buying things. Why not try to sell more by improving? I am guessing this has something to do with religion. Like maybe they think prayer is the thing that will bring them more business, and that's where they concentrate their attention. I really don't know. I asked Shera and he says its a democracy and a capitalist country as well, but I just don't get the lack of interest in solving problems. Like you have a problem, you try to solve it. That's my mindset. Some people have a problem. They just don't try to solve it. They just watch it and go hmmm.

This issue requires contemplation. It must be fathomed. It must be fathomed.

It seems to me that in India it is pretty easy to have a start-up business. Like Shera and his friend opened an internet cafe and it's doing pretty well. Real estate is probably cheap because all people do is just put up some forms and pour some more concrete and bada-bing you have a second or third story. I don't know if there are any regulations regarding this, but i doubt it. Construction is constantly happening and donkeys are perennially hauling bags of cement and giant loads of bricks here and there. The big thing is to get a government job, which is about the same as one in the U.S. except for the added benefit of baksheesh (bribes). You get a good pension, people slide you a little extra for special treatment, and you show up to work whenever you feel like it. Corporate jobs however don't seem to exist. I know in Hyderabad they had those big hi-tech buildings and that was a corporate type environment with good jobs and so forth, but I think it's unusual. In Amritsar it seems that unless you have a government job you are either an entrepreneur or work for one. The result seems to be that anyone can be an entrepreneur, even people who know nothing at all about business, and that's why most businesses are run so weirdly and sadly. I don't know. That's my analysis. It's probably wrong.