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American Dream and Its Indian Vendors
By—Girish Mishra
For
many, many years the US official circles, the propertied classes
and the media controlled by them have been propagating a myth.
It is the myth of the American Dream, which means that in the
United States, any person can climb up the ladder of prosperity
through his hard work, courage, and determination and secure a
better life for himself and his family. This is because the
state does not obstruct his activities and the market forces
ensure that his talents, zeal and hard work are adequately
rewarded. It is pointed out that the immigrants from Europe and
elsewhere have been coming there for centuries and realizing
their dream of prosperity. Here, it is asserted that neither the
family background nor the pulls from influential quarters have
ever counted. The American Dream acted as a driving force not
only during the gold rush of the second half of the 18th
century, but also proved to be a great magnetic power in the
case of the impoverished Western Europeans, especially the Irish
farmers, escaping the potato famine. Its attraction has not
diminished even after centuries and one can see the rush of
legal and illegal immigrants from Latin America, Asia, Africa
and Eastern Europe.
During the second half of the 19th century, the American Dream
was idealized in a variety of literary writings. The novelist
Horatio Alger, Jr. was prominent among them. In the beginning of
the 20th century a number of industrialists became symbols of
the American Dream. Among them were Andrew Carnegie and John D.
Rockefeller. In spite of their very humble origins, they came up
to the top, thanks to their talent, intelligence, readiness to
work hard and courageously face all sorts of odds. The market
forces recognized their worth and rewarded them with fabulous
riches. Not only in trade and industry, but in the arena of
politics too this phenomenon could be observed. Quite a few
politicians reached the White House and the corridors of power
from their huts or log cabins.
One finds a number of vendors of this myth in India and other
developing countries. They stress that one could rise to higher
echelons of the society and economy on the basis of their
talents, hard work, courage and enterprise only if the
government stands aside and confine itself to the minimum
possible roles assigned by the neo-liberals as facilitator for
market forces. Market is, said to be, no respecter of family
connections and caste and religious background. Hence, now
onwards market forces should be the sole arbiter and decide
success and failure. A reference is made to the last one and a
half centuries when many petty traders and moneylenders rose to
become top industrialists of the country with their hard work,
daring, talents and foresight.
Looking back, we find the American Dream received a shattering
blow during the Great Depression or Great Crash of 1929-33.
Market forces plunged not only the American, but also the entire
world economy, barring the Soviet Union, in deep despair and the
working classes in all sectors and in all continents suffered
great destitution. Far away from America, in India, peasants
failed to sell their produce and obtain money to pay up their
rents. Consequently, landlords tried their best to confiscate
their holdings and this led to massive peasant uprisings. A
number of industrialists, traders and peasants became bankrupt.
John Maynard Keynes who stressed an active role for the state in
running and regulating the economy decried the blind dependence
on market forces.
Looking back, over more than two centuries of the American
Dream, Joseph Stiglitz has found it misleading because it is not
possible for anyone possessing talent, foresight and innovative
zeal besides the capacity to do hard work to climb up the
socio-economic ladder. Almost the same view permeates Arthur
Miller’s classic work, Death of a Salesman. Its main character –
Willy Loman – comes to the conclusion that his American Dream is
beyond realization. It is extremely difficult for the children
of the poor to get education, not to speak of the best available
one. That is why most poor children drop out after the school.
Even if some one struggles and acquires necessary skills, it
will be extremely difficult to reach the level of a Carnegie or
Rockefeller in the present day world because of one’s inability
to mobilize enough resources to compete in the real world. At
best, one can become a small businessman.
Ever since the beginning of industrialization, the American
Dream has been losing its attraction and, to a large extent, it
has been replaced by the philosophy of getting rich quickly by
the hook or by the crook. It is not without reason that people
today are seduced by gambling, television shows like “who wants
to become a millionaire?” lotteries and so on. Obviously,
today’s Americans no longer put their trust in thrift and hard
work but hanker after the ‘almighty dollar’. The ability to buy
a big house and the latest variety of car is a sign of success
in life. The values and ideals of the American Dream such as
justice, liberty, fairness, democracy and equality have long
been forgotten. Even when the American Dream was supposed to be
reigning supreme, family and class connections played a very
significant in a person’s rise to the top. Adam Bellow, son of
the Nobel laureate Saul Bellow, in his book In Defence of
Nepotism has not only underlined this, but also defended it.
In the recent times the myth that the American Dream provides a
leeway to all those who are prepared to work hard has been fully
exploded. It is no longer valid to say that the class system or
government does not stand in the way of the talented, hard
working and determined persons. In a recent article in Observer
(June 8, 2006), Paul Harris has this to say: “Over the past few
decades there has been a fundamental shift in the structure of
the American economy. The gap between rich and poor has widened
and widened. As it does so, the ability to cross that gap gets
smaller and smaller. This is far from business as usual but
there seems little chance of it stopping, not least because it
appears to be government policy.
“Over the past 25 years the median US family income has gone up
18 per cent. For the top one per cent, however, it has gone up
200 per cent. A quarter of a century ago the top fifth of
Americans had an average income 6.7 times that of the bottom
fifth. Now it is 9.8 times.
“Inequalities have grown worse in different regions. In
California, home to both Beverly Hills and the gang-ridden slums
of Compton, incomes for lower class families have fallen by four
per cent since 1969. For upper class families they have risen 41
per cent.”
The Economist (June 17, 2006) underlines that only 3 per cent of
students at top colleges come from the poorest section of the
society. “Poor children are trapped in dismal schools, while
richer parents spend more cash on tutoring their offspring.” It
needs to be added that the government stands aside and looks
elsewhere according to the philosophy of free market. It goes on
to predict elsewhere in the same issue: “All in all, America’s
income distribution is likely to continue the trends of the
recent past. While those at the top will go on drawing huge
salaries, those in the broad middle of the middle class will see
their incomes churned.” One may well imagine the implications
for the coming generations in the context of the much trumpeted
American Dream.
Ever since the beginning of the Washington Consensus-based
globalisation, the Indian vendors of the myth of the American
Dream has been very enthusiastically propagating it. They have
been asserting that in the place of capitalism, a new system has
come. This new system is bazaarwad or marketism where market
forces unhindered by state will run and regulate all economic
activities. The real worth of each commodity will be truly
assessed without any extraneous considerations. Since labour
power is a commodity, the person possessing it will be rewarded
without any consideration of his family background, complexion
of his skin and the region he comes from. Only his ability,
training, educational qualifications, capacity to do hard work,
skills and efficiency will count. Gone are the days when state
enterprises recruited quite a sizable number of people on the
basis of pull and push. With privatization gaining momentum and
the role of state drastically curtailed, besides labour laws
thoroughly rewritten to suit capital, the American Dream will
become a reality in the Indian context.
The ground reality, however, is quite contrary to it. Most of
the corporate sector is family dominated. Here there is not an
iota of chance for an outsider, however highly qualified and
talented he may be to occupy a position where he can work
according to his own judgment even though it goes contrary to
the likings of the family controlling the firm. Take, for
example, in the print media, even now editorial staff is treated
as doormats. Ever since the beginning of the economic reforms
mandated by the Washington Consensus, the gap between the rich
and the poor has rapidly increased. Similarly, regional economic
disparities are largest since Independence. The new jobs that
have been generated require the skills that cannot be acquired
by the poor, especially from the rural areas. Most educational
institutions in rural areas do not have furniture, proper
buildings, teachers, blackboards and electricity. They cannot
afford computers even in their dreams. In this situation, the
American Dream has no relevance for them. Maybe it can inspire
the young people in higher income groups who can think of
emulating their counterparts in the USA.
If one looks at a representative sample of the tycoons that have
emerged since Independence, one will be surprised to note that a
quite number of them have risen by pursuing the path of criminal
activities, not by their honest entrepreneurial zeal and hard
labour like most industrialists of pre-independence days. “Greed
is good” has become the motto nowadays. It is no accident that
lotteries, speculation, bribery, smuggling and so on have become
more attractive. It is the lure of easy money that made
programmes like “Kaun Banega Crorepati?” extremely popular.
Whatever the media may say and the vendors may propagate the
American Dream no longer remains a global fantasy.
Girish Mishra,
E-mail: gmishra@girishmishra.com
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