Rocket Science and the Rat Race

Was watching Satyamev Jayate’s episode on corruption. There wasn’t much in it that I didn’t know. But the theme of every Indian being a millionaire struck some chords. Pity that I didn’t know I was born rich as an Indian. Its just that riches are collectively owned by an entity called Government, which in democracy is supposed to be of the people, by the people, for the people.
But these days it means of the politicians, by the bureaucrats, for the crony capitalists.
So everybody pays taxes. A farmer, a business man, a professional or even a beggar. Be it sales tax or income tax, an average Indian pays taxes somewhere between 10% to 30%.
That means every Indian works 1 to 3.5 months of an year for government. Thats somewhere between 30 to 100 days. But how much care do we take that this money, that we pay out of our salary is put to good use? We never bother ourselves about those 30 to 100 days of work! Being middle class, we always worry about spending every penny. We always worry about putting those extra savings in good investment so that we can earn good returns. We are good at working hard at our job so that we can get those promotions and salary hikes. We switch jobs for better prospects and those extra raises. So every time our salary rises, income tax rises too.
Although unhappy at the rising income tax, we don’t really bother about where that tax money goes. Thats not really our cup of tea.
Be it inertia, lack of courage or whatever reason, we give up on that tax money for which we work so hard.
A lot of friends agree that Aam Aadmi Party is really serious about routing out corruption. They believe in their fight and want them to succeed, but when it comes to supporting actively or by donation, their inertia sets in. Their noncommittal attitude comes in.
By simple math, if we spend a month’s salary to change the system and bring in a corruption free government we can save tons of money over the rest of our life. Corruption free government would also mean controlled inflation, better infrastructure and better quality of life like most western countries enjoy. Is it a rocket science, I think not. But but it seems we live in certain psychological bondage that doesn’t let us think big.
That’s why we remain in the rat race all our life. And the elites keep becoming richer as we keep working those 30-100 days for them.