Endowment Lecture - Hon'ble Dr.Ajit Ranade -Part 3

[Music] 27 philosopher s Shri ganeswar and S Shri tukaram involment lecture series and orientation program [Music] 2022 is inequality bad the answer to this question is um see if you have too much inequality what do you think is the consequence of that basically uh typically I submit to you that it leads to social instability there may be some anxiety there may be issues of Law and Order because if you have extreme inequality you know I'm reminded few years ago when we had to go to South Africa in say the Cape Town the capital Johannesburg they used to say that after 5:00 please go down don't go alone in outside the hotel what is the reason they said no you you can get mugged not murdered but you can get mugged mugging I hope you have heard this word mugging m not studying for exam mugging this mugging incident happen in New York also so because of widening inequality the risk of getting mugged or getting attacked by somebody who is poor is higher now you can have only so many police in society you can't everything cannot be controlled so the risk of such incidents increases with high inequality the risk of Law and Order breakdown the risk of extreme instability the risk of uh anxiety social anxiety increases so what happens people you know as I was saying earlier in our convers that people will then protect themselves you will have societies with guards you cannot enter a Housing Society unless you have security sir mobile number these are all measures you know there was a time during the time of Marco Polo he went around the world there was no visa and passport you could move around but now you have so many controls I'm not saying that's related to inequality but inequality causes uh U social instability and what happens is from an economic growth point of view you know it will deter investors investors do not like to put new factories and new investments in areas which have very high inequality some parts of Africa have high inequality some parts of Latin America have high inequality not not much investment goes there because investors are worried that their property may not be protected too much if there's too much tension it could be you know it could if there's too much unrest there's there's insecurity feeling of insecurity anxiety and risk so inequality leads is bad because of this consequence too much inequality so uh I told my my submission to you is that think of inequality like Po is like pollution we are in industrial society you know we have this Podium we have this chairs we have electricity lights how do they come the lights are here because of electricity electricity is here because we have to burn coal in power stations you know most of our power is electric power is produced by burning coal when you burn coal you have pollution so we can't as a modern society we cannot live without pollution but there is something called too much pollution if you go to Delhi these days the air quality index is very bad so that so we are trying to do something to reduce it so as a society we say oh this pollution about it's too much air quality water quality we need to control that so therefore we introduce uh measures like affluent control like Pollution Control try to reduce pollution we introduce penalties and taxes we try to discourage the use of coal we try to go for renewable energy all these are policies to reduce pollution so think of inequality like pollution okay inequality too much inequality is like pollution we cannot have zero inequality in society because they are all differently talented some people are going to get more income some people are going to get less income but when when that Gap widens we have to think how much we have to control it just like pollution so think of pollu inequality as pollution so the reason so my answer to second question first question is is there inequality yes there is inequality I can give you lot of data lot of data second if you're traveling in a car uh in Mumbai where I used to live and if your car stops at a traffic signal immediately some people come and knock on the window sir sir that is another manifestation of inequality so I don't have to you know I I hope I don't have to convince it so first there is inequality second it is bad because it leads to adverse consequences like deterrence of investment investment goes down social instability goes up but I want to tell you that it is bad for another reason and that's the connection with spirituality or with ethics or with morality this is a domain about which economics is completely silent economic science or economic subject will not tell you why I mean the morality of it because morals and ethics and just things like fair and unfair it inequality Society it's so unfair we use this word right it's so unfair economics is silent about this what is fair what is unfair this definition does not exist in economics this comes from outside economics this comes from the social sciences this comes from our jurist Prudence this comes from morality this comes from the spiritual literature so I'm saying that inequality is bad not only because investment will go down it's bad because fundamentally as human beings we feel for other you know since we are remembering SAR so they even the great Saints have said that you have those who have fellow feeling for their fellow human beings those who have empathy for people those who are suffering so inequality is bad because if people are below you and if you feel for them then that that that causes hurt that causes pain so you have to reduce the pain now this is not an economic argument okay I made an economic argument saying inequality is bad because investment come GDP come that's not what I'm saying I'm saying this is beyond so inequality is bad for the second reason so I hope that that is the end of that question first is is there inequality second is it bad it's bad because of instrumental reason which I mentioned to you but it's also bad for a moral reasons which is beyond [Music] [Music] economics

Channel: Vishwashanti Darshan

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Length: 7min 18sec (438 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 27 2023