Two reports released this week in the US will have significant and far-reaching implications for countries like India. These reports are: Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds, by the US National Intelligence Council, and US Strategy for a Post-Western World: Envisioning 2030, by the Atlantic Council.
These reports should be read and digested by countries like India as we need to prepare strategies to deal with the post-Anglo-Saxon era. The reports are available.
Firstpost is no stranger to these ideas. In an earlier article, Decline of the West, we had expected the decline to accelerate in the coming years. The decline stems not only from the shift in economic power, as the above two reports suggest, but from a fall in societal values.
People are comforted near Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday after a man killed 26 people, including 20 children. AP
Friday’s massacre of school children in Connecticut is yet another indicator of the loss of sovereignty of the family. The gunman could have come from a dysfunctional family system and gun culture is destroying the US social fabric.
In the earlier article, we had recalled the pioneering study of Angus Maddison for the OECD, in which he demonstrated that till 1820 India and China had nearly 50 percent of the global GDP before their decline started. From that point of view, we are “re-emerging markets” and not emerging markets. Nearly 200 years of western dominance are coming to a close, and, as predicted by Sri Aurobindo, “India will rise from the ruins of the western civilisation.”
The above mentioned two reports tell us something we always hesitate to believe till someone from the west confirms it for us. The reports indicate how China and India will be more powerful than the US by 2030. One of the reports also suggests that Asian cultures will supersede America’s and Europe’s in 20 years as the global middle class grows. But it also predicts that competition for resources, including food, space and water, will be fierce.
Five trends which will have far-reaching implications for the west and us are the following:
*The west’s problems are related to the decline of the family as an institution and household savings.
*Demography is increasing the proportion of old people in the population.
*Rising longevity is leading to a social security crisis which will bankrupt governments.
*The decline of the church and belief systems – both in Europe and US – could have major implications
*The Westphalia consensus about the sovereignty of nations which are not western/white is over.
These trends have not been adequately dealt with in the main reports possibly because they are focused more on economics, energy, etc. But the building blocks of any civilisation start with the family, and this has gone for a six in the western world without alternate institutions emerging.
During the early nineties, more than 50 percent of global GDP, adjusted for purchasing power parity, was with the G7 countries (predominantly white/western), with the major emerging markets like India and China accounting for 36 percent. But this has already reversed. It is expected that the original G7 countries will have less than 30 percent of global GDP by 2020. Also, the forecast for growth rates in the coming years is either negative or a very low number.
The unemployment rate in many European countries like Spain and Greece is more than 20 percent and among youth (aged 16 to 24 years) it is nearing 50 percent. Europe had nearly 25 percent of the world population during World War I and now it is around 11 percent and expected to be 3-4 percent in another 20 years.
Britain has fallen out of love with marriage. The 2011 Census shows that the number of married people has fallen to 20.4 million, nearly 200,000 less than a decade ago. A quarter of the people in England and Wales are single, while the number of those cohabiting has risen from 9.8 percent of the population to 11.9 percent. Growing numbers of people are also choosing to divorce.
The breaking up of the family has put tremendous pressure on the state to sustain single parent/single women families and also the elderly. This has put their social security schemes – if at all funded – under strain.
Europe has become secular, which is a euphemism for renouncing or ignoring the church. For instance, the recent census in the UK has revealed that there has been a decline of 12 percent in people belonging to Christianity and 25 percent of the population said they had no faith – an increase from 15 percent a decade earlier.
The UK is also exhibiting tendencies in societal behaviour more typical of third world countries. For instance, urinating in the streets is becoming a major issue and the town of Chester is using innovative ways to punish offenders like asking them to maintain local heritage sites.
The French are grappling with the issues of illegitimacy and failure of the family system. An ex-French law minster had simultaneous relationships with eight men and it is becoming difficult to ascertain who is the father of her kid. In another decade, many French kids may be able to identify their fathers only through DNA tests.
The USA is facing similar issues. In 2010, more than 50 percent of children were born out of wedlock and illegitimacy is the new norm. Among blacks, it is 75 percent and among Latinos more than 55 percent.
The US faces an unprecedented crisis since families have been nationalised and businesses privatised. Society has become dysfunctional. This year, more than half the births are of non- white children, giving rise to the possibility of the US becoming a non-white majority country in another 30 years when Spanish and Chinese could become major languages. This could have a tremendous impact among Mid-West and Southern Bible-thumpers like Rush Limbaugh. This could give rise to sharper social conflicts and open up the old civil war fault lines.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal last year (10 October 2011), nearly half of US households received some form of government benefits like food stamps, subsidised housing, cash welfare or Medicare or Medicaid (the federal-state healthcare programme for the poor) or social security. The US is also a stock market economy where half the households have investments, and recent bank and corporate failures have hit them hard.
Under the circumstances India needs to strategise for the future.
We should recognize that for most of the Indian elite, their umbilical cords are linked to the west. Many of them are/were educated in the US or Europe, and most of them have their children studying or working there. Due to colonial genes, acceptance/recognition by the west is critical for average middle class Indians.
The danger is that we are going to buy their failed models when they are in decline. They will try to sell us everything they have, and we will buy because of our colonial genes. They will hire more Indians to head global companies as showpieces in order to penetrate our markets.
The reality, that the west is in decline and many of its institutions are failing, has still not struck us and we will continue to try and imitate them – including dysfunctional family systems. We should recognize that we are a civilization and not just a market. Today funds are in search of markets and not the other way round. Instead of heading global institutions, we should acquire them.
Civilisationally, we are nearer to the East than the West. We should take the lead along with others in the East to create alternative institutions to the World Bank, the IMF and the UN. The need is to recognize that the old debate about big business or big government is passé. Our ability to look beyond Marx and market into our thriving communities and bazaars will provide us answers to many issues.
Will India, as Aurobindo mentioned, rise from the ruins of the West?
Vaidyanathan 
Only some desperate admirers of the West will question the above hypothesis.
I will draw your attention to three factors which arer probably more important.
1. What will replace Pax Americana? Will it be China? Will modern China be any better than the West?
2. Germany has become a major economic power three times – without colonies, without slavery, without loot. How will Germany evolve in the future?
3. Will the Anglo-Saxon Bloc quietly fade away? Peacefully? Unlikely.
In all these cases just what kind of preparation will India need to make? Likely scenarios? Probable outcomes.
[…] http://prof-vaidyanathan.com/2012/12/15/why-india-needs-to-prepare-for-the-decline-of-the-west/ […]
With all due respect professor, you have chosen to ignore India’s problems!!!
What a good article and timely one.
US- centric economic model, is it correct to solely pursue it at the expense of other options?
Any good economic policy should start with encouraging and funding education oriented towards creating skill sets and developing intelligentsia that will be useful in generating indigenous production manufacture and service sectors with global acceptance and reach and which will ensure the concomitant benefits of employment generation, export earning etc.
In addition, if the country is blessed with good amount of natural resources and raw materials, then there is nothing like that to turn such a country into a nation which can become the super power. Even if all the above mentioned factors are present in varying degrees, then it is good enough to become a commercial super power not necessarily a militarily one.
Fortunately India geographically as a country has most of the factors in good degree and some in abysmally low levels and they are the result of wrong priorities, perverted policy decisions and putrefied politics. I am not going into the specifics and details.
Even if any country cannot afford to do this, for any reason, at least it should ensure its intelligence in trade and economy in a globalized economic scenario like the present one by following a strategy of trade and commercial ties and operations with many nations based on purely economic exigencies and humanitarian ideologies.
If this strategy is followed then a nation’s economy need not suffer due to any sudden shift and change in the economic activities and status of one particular country, or a particular group of countries based on any regional, ideological or political identities.
All the TNCs [Trans National Corporations] or to use the modern terminology all the MNCs [ Multi National Corporations] know this fundamental fact of profitable survival in trade and economy.
It would be wise for all big democracies with a large number of globally acceptable intelligent and educated masses to understand and accept these facts and draft sensible policies based on these facts.
It is not any xenophobic idea but pure economic imperative and commercial pragmatism that no country can afford to have and opt to operate its economy on any specific or particular overseas country specific economic growth model; it is actually a euphemism for parasitical economic model.
In fact three decades ago the mantra of globalization was injected to mostly facilitate US based business interests. If anyone bothers to make an unbiased appraisal of globalization they would perceive that most MNCs were either US based or predominantly US sponsored and of course the benefits and new methods of operation that it brought to along enticed many business houses, investors, politicians, even academic economists to en mass pit for it. It was like a small tired boy falling asleep under the shade of a static elephant unawares that he would be kicked around or stamped heavily when it starts to move and crushed when it falls down.
This is what is happening or will surely and slowly happen to economies that followed only US centric economic policies. The black money of some economies, huge global financial manipulations etc have given a temporary relief to US economic recession. However, it is still not completely out of the woods. So, at least for the sake of senseless policy decisions of many countries which followed predominantly US centric economic policies let us hope that US economy springs back to its original strength or at least now these other countries should modify their economic policies.
Way back in the 90s itself I wrote for a magazine the dubious designs of so called Globalization and the likely eventuality of reciprocal sabotage.
You can find that article in the following link
http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2010/11/west-needs-to-change-its-obsession-to.html
US centric economic model, is it correct to solely pursue it at the expense of other options?
Any good economic policy should start with encouraging and funding education oriented towards creating skill sets and developing intelligentsia that will be useful in generating indigenous production manufacture and service sectors with global acceptance and reach and which will ensure the concomitant benefits of employment generation, export earning etc.
In addition, if the country is blessed with good amount of natural resources and raw materials, then there is nothing like that to turn such a country into a nation which can become the super power. Even if all the above mentioned factors are present in varying degrees, then it is good enough to become a commercial super power not necessarily a militarily one.
Fortunately India geographically as a country has most of the factors in good degree and some in abysmally low levels and they are the result of wrong priorities, perverted policy decisions and putrefied politics. I am not going into the specifics and details.
Even if any country cannot afford to do this, for any reason, at least it should ensure its intelligence in trade and economy in a globalized economic scenario like the present one by following a strategy of trade and commercial ties and operations with many nations based on purely economic exigencies and humanitarian ideologies.
If this strategy is followed then a nation’s economy need not suffer due to any sudden shift and change in the economic activities and status of one particular country, or a particular group of countries based on any regional, ideological or political identities.
All the TNCs [Trans National Corporations] or to use the modern terminology all the MNCs [ Multi National Corporations] know this fundamental fact of profitable survival in trade and economy.
It would be wise for all big democracies with a large number of globally acceptable intelligent and educated masses to understand and accept these facts and draft sensible policies based on these facts.
It is not any xenophobic idea but pure economic imperative and commercial pragmatism that no country can afford to have and opt to operate its economy on any specific or particular overseas country specific economic growth model; it is actually a euphemism for parasitical economic model.
In fact three decades ago the mantra of globalization was injected to mostly facilitate US based business interests. If anyone bothers to make an unbiased appraisal of globalization they would perceive that most MNCs were either US based or predominantly US sponsored and of course the benefits and new methods of operation that it brought to along enticed many business houses, investors, politicians, even academic economists to en mass pit for it. It was like a small tired boy falling asleep under the shade of a static elephant unawares that he would be kicked around or stamped heavily when it starts to move and crushed when it falls down.
This is what is happening or will surely and slowly happen to economies that followed only US centric economic policies. The black money of some economies, huge global financial manipulations etc have given a temporary relief to US economic recession. However, it is still not completely out of the woods. So, at least for the sake of senseless policy decisions of many countries which followed predominantly US centric economic policies let us hope that US economy springs back to its original strength or at least now these other countries should modify their economic policies.
Way back in the 90s itself I wrote for a magazine the dubious designs of so called Globalization and the likely eventuality of reciprocal sabotage.
You can find that article in the following link
http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2010/11/west-needs-to-change-its-obsession-to.html
Click to access GlobalTrends_2030.pdf
Due respect professor, Just because 50% children are born out if wedlock doesnt imply demise if a culture and rise of India. In character and morality India is possibly worst despite the near universality of marriage bonds.
The argument why India should prepare can be economic, which is what China did 30-40 years ago. The cultural superiority arguments when our home is made of glass…this argument is best left to jingoist bollywood.
We cringe our noses when the 60% of Indians defecate in the open. Delhi is rape capital of the world..Lowest castes still carry night soil in many parts of the country. India, actually has no locus standi to talk to cultural superiority.
For more Indian disparity and double speak read the link below :
http://jurisklinik.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/from-2-to-200-in-india/
You miss the point of the article completely. The author argues, rightly so (of couse, I do acknowledge that this is a prediction; it is a ‘bet’ although not a ‘gamble’), that the globe is at the verge of an important translocation in terms of economic power and that we need to (actively) shape our future ourselves. Such opportunities are coming to us after a long time and we need to grab them with both our hands!!
It is also true (to my limit of understanding) that most people ape the prevalent
general western thinking and habits mindlessly; probably the result of having been colonised for at least 200 years. As the author says we should focus on family as an economic unit and move away from the statist policies of Nehruvian socialistic era with the Nehruvian rate of growth, the very same policies which are also now forcing western governments on the verge of (sovereign debt) bankruptsy.
Historically, time and again downfall of many great empires/civilisations (including the mighty Roman empire) have been due to a general decline in moral and ethical values, which eventually culminate in the economic decline (partly due to adultery of coinage/money). So it is right to focus on these issues and what is good for us as a nation and all he says is that we just don’t blindly copy the current western thinking (as it clearly is wrong and the empirical evidence is that most western countries are on verge of bankrupsies).
As an example of the ‘current’ family values which the author has criticised; America was once very proud of its rich family values (the so called ‘American Dream’ and ‘Americal Family’, famously did represent the true American libertarian spirit of ‘equality of opportunity’ (this doesn’t mean equality of outcomes) and also its rich family values which really did put the influence of state a very subordinate role in the lives of people. In such environment, the countru thrived and prospered and became the richest nation on the planet. As the rich culture and spiritual values changed, we can see that these affect other areas such as economic and miltary policies etc. I could be wrong as well; but all of us need to see their history – how the country evolved and is now declining and take the right messages from there and not just copy their latest fad!! We need to be individualistic and self-condent in our thinking and analysis (going away from the colonial bent of mind) and not just take the garbage being fed to us by neoclassical American economists/culturists/faddists/ethicists.
Similarly, the best economics i ever learnt is about Austrian economics (which is again recently developed in Europe and recent resurgence in US and which ironically was practiced in our society millenia ago), which the mainsteam media hardly talks about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV0OcvylweM&feature=bf_prev&list=PLDFA82051066933E9 (would strongly recomment this series of 11 lectures on Mises and the Austrian School – Introduction to Austrian Economics )
Similarly one major issue which affects the policies (including economic policies) a society chooses is whether people are short-term oriented or long-term oriented. And I definitely think what shapes this thinking in any society is the cultural/spiritual values guiding the populace.
The China way is not preferred by me for one main reason: the lack of freedom. Without property rights, there is little incentive for people and also an economy which is guided by a group of people (planned or command economies) is always liable to problems in the long-run as they can’t respond to market signals as well as a free market. We have already done that for 40 plus years till we HAD to change in 1991 (there is absolutely no need to go back). We just need to make businesses thrive by liberalising domestic markets first (as compared to reliance only on FDI/FII; again an issue which the author frequently talks about).
Of the issues you highlighted, the main one is on women safety and this is a law and order problem; there is nothing in our culture that justifies it. The story of Mahabharata is about the price the entire society pays if women are disrespected! The other issue you highlight is about the caste system and here i agree that inflexible caste system serves as an economic barrier. This doesn’t mean that castes can’t exist, there serve a useful purpose of exchange of new ideas and flourishing of trade as the medieval European guilds and some business communities in our country also have shown. Castes were originally intended to be based on occupation and not based on birth and a change in caste system as is is being practised now (caste by birth) to professional guilds/castes (if required) is desirable for economic prosperity as well. Again this supports my argument that cultural/spiritual issues do have their influence on economic issues.
Lastly, the idea is not that our culture is all great or theirs is all bad. We need to think consciously and figure out what is good in both and adopt them, than just blindly following the west. India got its independence on the 75th birthday of Sri Aurobindo (he was born on 15th August 1872), may the prediction of Sri Aurobindo, which the author cites also come true!!
DEAR SIR thank you for wanting to talk about such an important issue with me. I think from what you write we have in common. Some thoughts, but I want to do. The first too often we talk about spirituality without understanding what it means and how often the more you talk about something, the more you do not understand! What is the Spirit no one knows, except those who have been achieved holiness. This is why in our full humility are the steps to change all of humanity together without prejudice. The second aspect is to leave each leave our resentment. All History is littered with wars of colonialism that led the man to move away from the path of love. We want to remember forever what did the British, the French what they did, what did the Americans to American Indians, etc., etc.. etc. It ‘came the point of saying that WE do not want more of a colonized world. It is no longer important which country produces more, but what kind of world we want to create. There is no time for grudges or economic battles but only how to survive on this planet. In today’s world if China is making headway in the economic field this happens by working people in an inhumane way. And ‘This is the world we want? Where 5% of humanity has 80% of all the wealth? This happens in China after it has already happened in the U.S. and Europe. We’ll talk then of Colonialisomo of clsssi rich? Third and last point I would like to point out that the world is already colonized by banks that have no interest in knowing where they produce material goods. The banks control the world and therefore the suffering of people. This is why I speak of new consciousness and NEW AWARENESS because one day I can tell God I tried to live in love with my brothers. Thank you and happy Christmas
Once again we are talking about a way of life of a country compared to another. This is wrong. A new awareness of the world to be born. This awareness is linked to a distinct change of our planet: food resources, energy resources, pollution, overcrowding of the world population. All men must come together to create a new way of living together. Just a society full of values over another. A comparison useless and destructive. Each company has a large capacity which, together with another can give a future to our children. But as we talk about reincarnation, love, hope, and then as if we were blind to what is happening in the world we are still talking of political power? I hope the mondom is different. Happy Years 2013 to all
Let me congratulate you for the correct prediction and articulation of effect of western culture driven by market economy. While market economy has given us many good things but this happiness is short lived. The fracas of western system has started appearing earlier than anticipated.
Now question arises as to where we should start? Do we have some long term agenda as a nation to regain lost glory say of 1850’s? I think we are not. Nevertheless, we need to make a beginning someday!
I have been thinking about it about a decade back when I was doing research on India’s past with respect to the advent of British and their systematic approach to establish in India for a long haul, which I feel that they were also not had fully visualized the outcome. I came across a speech by Lord Macaulay addressed to the British Parliament on 02 February, 1835 published in a south Indian Vernacular, which I reproduce below:
” I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation”.
Today I feel that we are truly a dominated nation, possibly we were better off when they were here (pre 1947 era) at least we were not all that corrupt. Today they have gone but what they have truly taken away is our moral wealth, values, ethos and punctured our self-esteem.
Thus we need to reinvent the wheels and see how we can regain what we have lost. We have to begin with education first. We need to work out as to how we are going to inculcate values through this modern education system(given by British only). So far as spirituality is concerned, we have to work on age old joint family systems, strengthening village based societal orders, discredit the ills if western society such ‘Live In Relationships’, single parenting or children out of wed-locks. I am also opponent of Khap kind of mentality or Brahminical hegemony, which we need to guard against. So some of the ideas are:
– Bring in some kind of Gurukul system with due modification to include modern science based education. (There were approx 10,000 Gurukuls in 1850’s and systematically shut down by the British). Even Modern education system can be blended with our Vedic education.
– Rekindle village based social order. To rejuvenate village lives and thus facilities of cities and employment have to be taken there, then only we will be able to reverse the human traffic flow from villages to cities.
Possibly there will be many in this list and I find most appropriate would be to look at Gandhi’s teachings on this. we have not honoured him when we became independent, let us do it now !
Well said. One important differentiation with respect to the way i use the terminology – market economy vs materialistic economy – these two are not the same. Market economy is a free market economy and we had the same in india, traditionally (and this is what we should get back and will lead to long-term properity and happiness). What you are complaining about is the materialistic economy and i completely agree with your assessment here and the only solution i can contemplate is value-based education that you also propose in the form of gurukul education. Gurukul set up (which build character to children at young age, similar to some sort of vedic education, along with science-based education) is onething i too like. We should ensure that it is market oriented (i.e., free market system in which the customers fund these set ups and hence will make the gurukuls accountable as they are paying for them, and that there should be no government intervention in education). Actually such systems can exist only in a free market with absolutely no barriers to entry (10000 gurukls those days would mean a very gurukul/population ratio; hard to imagine such a number these days). Every society should then arrange with local funds on the type and quality of education they want to provide their children. The other recommendation about village-based social order (or its equivalent when applied to urban areas) should produce goods results as history has shown time and again that such decentralised power structure will promote economic freedom and hence economic prosperity.
Not sure about Gandhi’s teachings. But recently read in wikipedia that Patel was for free markets “Patel was also one of the earliest proponents of property rights and free enterprise in India” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallabhbhai_Patel). Although it is difficult to reconcile his advocacy for property rights and free enterprise with that of his other achievement for which he is remembered as “remembered as the “Patron Saint” of India’s civil servants for establishing modern all-India services”. Wish we follow his advice regarding free markets!!
Bring in some kind of Gurukul system with due modification to include modern science based education. (There were approx 10,000 Gurukuls in 1850′s and systematically shut down by the British). Even Modern education system can be blended with our Vedic education.
Agree with you more than ever.. You cannot move to the next topic until you complete learning one. We’d definitely produce great products.
The hallmark of the economic stability of India is its solid family system which traditionally encourages savings and puts a damper on extravagant spending. All purchase decisions are taken collectively and the accent is always on thrift and savings. And the epicenter of this family system is the woman of the family. It is the wife who advocates saving for the rainy day. But this cohesive set up is under threat from several quarters who are working overtime to break the established family system and reduce them as “single” men and women outside family realm. This exercise of breaking families has a dark aim to make people spend more on consumer goods so that multinationals prosper at the cost of our national savings.
It is not a typical conspiracy theory. The following news item bears ample testimony to a step in that direction which is ostensibly engineered by the vested interests to promote “single women” by offering goodies and preferential treatment such that women would start feeling that their lot will be better outside the family system.
“NEW DELHI, December 17, 2012
The government proposes a separate quota for single women under its two ambitious housing schemes — the Indira Awas Yojana and the Rajiv Awas Yojana — and assured access to employment and equal wages through special job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Women’s groups will be included as implementing agencies of MGNREGS works.”
…
Further, single women must be made aware of their rights and entitlements within their maternal and matrimonial households. For this, special focus is needed on legal aid to single women as well as promotion of separate federations of single women at the block and district levels.”
(Ref: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/special-housing-quota-for-single-women-proposed/article4207214.ece)
In addition, grossly biased matrimonial laws have been enacted to put the men at a disadvantage which has resulted in proliferation of marital disputes and divorce cases in India. Domestic violence act (PWDV Act) is made applicable to live-in partners in order to make the women more “independent” devoid of the commitment of the family orientation since the said act dangles the carrot of maintenance, alimony and accommodation to the estranged woman live-in partner in case of any dispute! Dowry harassment Law (Sec 498-A of IPC) has been made very draconian to scare the eligible men away from the burden of marriage.
There is a systematic onslaught on the family system in India by many Feminist NGOs who loose no opportunity to cry hoarse on the state of women in India and form pressure groups demanding more and more one-sided and misandric laws. Many socially famous women openly air the views that our tradition has kept our women in subjugation by such false values as chastity and family system of living – both conjugal and consanguinal – and that women should break such shackles that have been enslaving them and remain single.
And if these machinations succeed, India will very soon be perched on the edge of the same economic cliff as the West as portrayed by Prof. Vadyanathan!
Nice analysis. Government policies/laws usually tend to make bad things worse!!
Your article also reminded me of something i read from US context, the recent fiscal cliff deal – http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/02/politics/fiscal-cliff-5-things/index.html . The point two (in the link) talks about tax proposals for single individuals vs families: wouldn’t such (tax) policies incentivise working couple to remain single/live-in than being married or at least file for individual tax returns than family tax returns (of course, this is applicable for people of a particular income category, but the general principle remains the same)?
Gem of an analysis, tragic but true. But it should not be neccessarily rise of east at the cost of west. Rather, the reemergence of nonpredatory west may be a key to the global all round progress by means of reemerging true India.
Would it help us as a nation to localize and build on alternate thoughts like mises (mises.org).
This tradition seems to be closest to what you are advocating?
Wouldn’t a proper economic tradition help us revise and rediscover out real history?
whav!!:-) Happy that someone even mentions it!! I have learnt most of my economics (actually ‘relearn’ – first, get rid of all the nonsense taught in colleges under the name of economics and then learn the ‘correct’ economics) from them – mises.org and their great online/youtube material. Would be more than happy to contribute if anyone wants to bring in (actually ‘rebring’ – we had free market work ethic iin this country long ago) such thoughts into the country and reach the majority of our population (most of my posts can easily be appreciated from the Misesian tradition/thought).
Economics as taught by Mises is seen as a value-free science and they say that it is up to people to decide what values they want to espouse or care for. Here we have to be a bit careful, as i feel it is our responsibility also to ensure the right use of economics. Lastly economics alone wouldn’t be enough but it’s a very good start!!
Doug Casey recently said “Almost everything in the material universe boils down to economics, and almost everything in the non-material world – what you might call the spiritual universe – is a matter of psychology” (http://lewrockwell.com/casey/casey140.html). Interestingly over the past few years, i realise almost every aspect of life and life decision and societal problems – most/all of which are problems related to ‘matter’ eventually boil down to economics (and its consequent libertarian ethic and law and their consistent and ruthless application in all areas) and all those which are beyond matter are dealt with spirituality (of course, i don’t agree with his assessment of spirituality as ‘psychology’ – it is, for me, much more than that – there is no comparison!!). But, nevertheless, Misesian economics is a good start. His career is also equally inspiring!!
[…] http://prof-vaidyanathan.com/2012/12/15/why-india-needs-to-prepare-for-the-decline-of-the-west/ […]
the west in which stage they are living is no any more viable and practical,because simple paper money without any gold cannot maintain trust in their system,by the way whole world is flat,one man consumption is another income,if one keep on consuming mean manipulation of corrency and subverting system for few decade thorough political and army manipulation