The world's worst enterprises are funded by banks. Be it mining or oil. So it's your money which is actually doing the killing. Climate Camp takes on RBS this August. Here is the link to their newspaper - Never mind the bankers. Download and have a read. It will put some nice questions in your mind. I am glad to continue my association with the amazing Camp guys. This time I sent them quite a few pigs!
While on banks, here are a few thoughts of mine on economics. I call it:
Simplenomics:
Let’s assign values to these things. From 1 to 10.
Being able to breathe in clean air.
Being able to walk in the park.
Being able to watch the birds, feed the sparrows.
Being able to quit from a job if you don’t like it.
Being able to take a year off at 32 and do your thing.
Say fuck you to the job and actually go and live in Goa for 6 months and do pottery.
Being happy.
Now let’s assign a value to these things.
Not being able to quit the job because you are paying a humungous EMI (Easy Monthly Installment: Everything in India can be bought in monthly instalments. From houses to cars to music systems.).
Wasting each passing year doing things you hate doing because you are paying a humungous EMI.
You get the drift.
It would be easy to conclude that the simpler things in life score highly, and anything to do with being tied down score really badly. And yet every one of us gets into an EMI trap willingly.
Let’s explore the importance of EMIs. Or the biggest instalment that we pay. The Home Loan.
We buy a home because it’s good to have a home.
Any home loan would last up to 20 years.
So if I take a home loan at 25, by the time I actually own a home, I would be 45.
Asset made.
And life wasted.
For 20 years I am trapped by an Easy Monthly Installment that doesn’t allow me to be happy in most cases.
I end up doing a lot less interesting things than I would have, if I had not EMI trapping my soul.
And who knows, if I followed my heart for 20 years, I would have more chances of buying a home outright. And in the place I want to.
But if it’s so simple, it can’t be economics.
Asset made.
And life wasted.
For 20 years I am trapped
Welcome to the West
I stopped calling them bankers. They are really banksters.
Hello Hermant,
I would put your post under ‘personal development’.
At the moment my life is (and has been for the last 26 years) completely outside the EMI situation. I have done work in a weird variety of fields and I have quit my job several times. Needless to say that people around me find it nuts and are worried about my future.
That is how bad the situation has become.
If you don’t have a regular job you are stuffed, if you don’t drive a car you are weird and if you quit a job people think you are crazy.
Yet the stress I am experiencing is next to nothing. It’s wonderful.
‘Bankters’ - good, exact expression! I agree!
@ Benno, yes we are committing the same mistakes as the west. not learning at all. And ignoring Gandhian economics.
@ Giedre, true!
@ Johan It’s still trade to me. I mean this entry. I wanted to talk about RBS and then bring it back to you and me.
But I can imagine what you are saying. I am too, like you, still. Don’t know how long can I put away the pressure of falling into the trap of debt.
Growing up is preety much realizing that you are free to do what you want, but you can’t because of EMI’s…