It's the Economy stupid

The forthcoming US presidential election has stirred up a big debate among Indians both in US and India based on one prominent issue, the future of outsourced jobs.

A big majority of Indians in both places have a strong support for the republican party in this matter, because they are daunted by the thought that if Democrats win the White House, the much championed (bubble) boom in India which is largely based on the outsourced jobs (IT mainly) will suffer a serious blow.


Although there are enough reasons to remain fearless about losing jobs just because of a Democratic president, such concern does reflect on the worldview and aspirations of a large section of "urban, educated" Indians, the focal point (and by far dominant) of which remains "economic and material prosperity". There is nothing wrong in being concerned about one's economic well being, but what becomes problematic is when this thought becomes so pervasive that it blurs one's vision like a venomous smoke.

When Indian's aspire for an US president (which according to them should be from the Republican party) who will not raise a finger against outsourcing, unfortunately they leave out a few, yet very important points...

1. The matter of job outsourcing is not solely a decision of the republican or democratic party, rather it is a by-product of the economic model of US, which has and is being followed blindly by many world economies. The capitalist model in place , oriented around profit as it's chief goal will look for resources, labors and markets where it can envision maximum profit. Today India appears to be that attractive platter, but the sustenance of such appetite for India can barely be (if ever) guaranteed. Even the most optimists about this system should realize how uncertain and volatile the scenario is just from the fact that if it was so relianble then why US elections are leaving them so restless!!!!!
The democratic party can do very little to alter / reverse this, unless they themselves risk to look outside the system, which in my opinion is impossible at this time, even with their best intentions.

2. From an ethical point, it is ridiculous and extremely selfish for Indians to think that an US president expected to serve the interests of other countries and international community will have prime focus on India. Even for the sake of argument if I think that a democratic president will hurt outsourced jobs as opposed to a republican one, but at the same time shouldn't we also remain concerned about what promises such a president will bring to other economies of the world, our social and environmental health, and the future on a whole!!!
I won't start here delving on issues or giving examples, that's another debate, but it is very much evident that outsourced brains lack that thinking.

3. Another very close to home point this class tends to overlook is that, a primary task of the president of any nation should be looking into it's domestic policies. On this point, I suppose any "rational" person, for whom a nation is more than just a constellation of the corporate gurus, will admit that Democrats offer better options than republicans. The argument that the democrat's policies of increasing taxes of big businesses and the rich for domestic goods will hurt those corporations, and inturn will present obstacles for their businesses abroad does sound very odd.

There are several other points that can be discussed on these lines, scrutinizing policies and propositions but I suppose I have discussed atleast some important ones which are relevant for the discussion. From my observations what I conclude is, we do remain "progressive fundamentalists". It does sound like an oxymoron and it is. I purposefully use the phrase because I think that our contadictory existence and ideologies rightly fits well with it. We like to call ourselves modern progressive, but the signs of our modernity only lies in expensive lattes, latest outfits, yuppi jargongs, floors of discos, chic parties and many such materials, but our souls do remain confined within a few fundamental views. Within such existence grassroots ideologies, ethics remains as slogans, what prevails as the logical fact is the economy stupid...