Was Karl Marx right all this while? While there is obvious word play in the question (Marx being left, not right), It’s not easy to ignore the reinterpretations of the Communist Manifesto especially post the 2008-09 subprime crises.
I was watching this BBC documentary on YouTube recently and realized that much of what Marx wrote on socialism was remarkable, but even more remarkable was what he had to say about capitalism. The chief difference between Marx and other leading thinkers of the time was his ability to look at the “human condition” under the lens of pure economic decisions. While other thinkers thought of economics as only a part of human life, Marx’s writings told us that EVERY relationship that humans entered into was because of the economics involved (not purely money, but largely as food, shelter, security etc).
But what does that mean for a B-schooler and a future contributor to corporate India’s illustrious rise? One, like he said, that a mindless pursuit of capitalism is a recipe for disaster, so that shouldn’t be on our minds. We start shortlisting B-schools on the basis of placement performance, academic competence of the institution means little more than nothing. While even this is an economic decision, it doesn’t require one to judge a seat of academics by its reaction to market forces, which are mostly beyond its own control.
There is obviously a growing disconnect with pure accumulation of money, by many of our generation. Unbridled profit-making, has kind of stopped and the late 90s saw the emergence of CSR and Businesses and private enterprises giving back to the community. If all business in India remained shamelessly capitalistic, we would have only about 50% of our development and back-end infrastructure. They could have spent millions trying to juice out billions from our major cities, and left the villages on the wrong side of development. But, the socialist angle, however unknowingly, came in. And while there wasn’t a blanket adherence to communist/Marxist principles, there was a growing dislike of the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer.
It just means that, us, many of whom are going to be captains of Industry in the coming decades, must see the light at the end of the tunnel, which supports markets to behave themselves, but also supports the need for businesses to renounce 100% capitalism and look at giving back to society. While private ownership of resources will continue to be the order of the day, we must look to accelerate CSR spending. And these must change from being just token-isms to making a larger impact on society. Let business leaders unite to redistribute economic benefits, which MUST reach the last Indian in the last village. Some of us will need to lead the change. Like Marx once said “Let the workers of the world unite, the only thing they have to loose is their chains.”