Model of Prosperity for Punjab

Throughout history, and for most countries today, poverty is the norm, prosperity is the exception. 

If we don’t consciously understand what brings prosperity… we will subconsciously bring poverty through our thoughts and actions, and then we will call it fate.

Good intentions and rhetoric are not enough.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate” – Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology.

Sections

• What is prosperity?
• Money or Prosperity
• Our current economic model
• Ideological and political vacuum
• Freedom of speech, human rights, property rights, and environmental protection
• Small meritocratic virtuous government
• Police state
• Authentic capitalism
• What about the poor?
• Model for prosperity
• Why it will not be allowed
• Who will bring prosperity?
• Summary and Call to Action

What is prosperity?

The Prosperity we want is:

• Inclusive: Prosperity for all rather than just growth in GDP, or transfer of wealth to large corporations, or stock market boom for the few. 
• Based on development: Prosperity that comes from social, economic, cultural, intellectual, emotional development, and not from just exploiting natural resources and scientific progress.
• Sustainable:  Prosperity that lasts generations, rather than riches from exploiting nature and selling national assets that bring prosperity for the few for short term 

Money or Prosperity

There is more to prosperity than just money.

A rich man will have comfort, but may have anxiety about the future. Governments can harass him, extort his wealth, and his children might not have secure future in a polluted environment and bad social conditions. 

What good is money without good living conditions, mental health, safe food, clean air and water, healthy community, freedom from exploitation from government, and freedom from random harassment from the police.

We have to ask ourselves if we will make decisions about our future based on money and comfort, or prosperity.

Our current economic model

Our current economic model is Neoliberalism, and rapidly evolving into Techno-feudalism. 

Neoliberalism comes not from the constitution or our history or our culture. It is a foreign model that is imposed on us by foreign entities like the Wall St, World Bank, and World Economic Forum.

The original premise of Neoliberalism was privatization, deregulation, reduction in government spending and services, and lower taxes. The argument in favor of this was that private enterprises are more efficient. All of these were implemented, without the reduction in taxes. 

Government managed public utilities and services such as schools, roads, banks were neglected as part of government policy. Private companies took their place. The tax funded public services that government provided were intentionally made unusable while taxes increased. Tax on petrol goes up, but we have to use toll roads. Income tax goes up but government schools and hospitals decline in quality, forcing us to use private schools and hospitals. This is neoliberalism.

Government by design became bigger, and unhelpful.

An even more dangerous model for the future is Techno-feudalism. What Neoliberalism did to government schools, hospitals, banks, and roads, techno-feudalism will do to private property – that is your business and your money.

Your business: shutdown by covid, sanctions, end of globalization

Your money: destroyed by demonetization, KYC rules, digital currency, asset confiscation

Your life: travel restrictions, visa delays, #loveisnottourism, family separation

Money and power will be concentrated in the hands of a few oligarchs, and the majority will be without any rights, land, or assets. People will beg from their feudal lords for basic rights, and get even more exploitation in return. Independent minded people such as entrepreneurs and libertarians will be demonized, blamed, harassed, taxed, and imprisoned.

You will own nothing, and will be kept alive by handouts from the government, entertained by legalized drugs, and dopamine of social media.

All this will be done in the name of social justice, reducing poverty, security, growth, development, saving the country, and to deal with the latest crisis or foreign threat. 

The government transferred public wealth and assets to corporations under the Neoliberalism model. Now they also want to confiscate all private property and give it to corporations under the Techno-feudalism model. 

Techno-feudalism is also called “New World Order” and “The Great Reset”. The only thing it will reset is reset your bank account to zero.

The 3 farm laws in Punjab were part of this World Economic Forum global strategy. Privatizing other public utilities such as railways, airlines, and insurance companies is also part of the same plan. 

Economic wars and sanctions are also part of this wealth transfer. Economic wars, restrictions, and sanctions allow big business to do cross border trade, whereas small businesses cannot.

The next crisis will introduce digital currency and embed the Techno-feudalism model in our day-to-day life. It will be permanent demonetization of our money. 

Digital currencies like the Central Bank Digital Currency will allow government to track and approve/deny every transaction in the name of social justice, political favors, preventing terrorism, managing pandemic, fighting climate crisis, tax collection, security, and of course national interest. 

Bureaucrats want authoritative control, and they will try their best to get it even if it destroys all business, economy, and people’s lives. It is what narcissists in power crave above all – authoritative control. Our democratic system also encourages rise of narcissists that manipulate people with big dreams and small gifts, and rise to the top. 

“The inability to grasp the pathology of our oligarchic rulers is one of our gravest faults” – Chris Hedges.

“Government creates problems, their solutions make it worse” - Peter Schiff.

This is just a taste of the exploitation and extortion that awaits us if we don’t take ownership of our fate, and just keep shouting at everything and going to government to fix things. 

These foreign exploitative economic models cannot be our model. They are not fit for purpose. They are imposed on us because we have failed to come up with our own model of development. Why should we be loyal to them? 

Decouple from the current economic model that makes false promises of riches, manipulates people’s minds, destroys families by forcing people to migrate, over-exploits resources, and destroys the environment and our prosperity.

Business as usual today will lead to economic and social disaster tomorrow.

Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country has done for you.

Caption: Ask what your country has done for you. Crony capitalism, mafia capitalism, electoral autocracy, Minority Report style policing, end of globalization, Post Truth, visa delays, #loveisnottourism, inflation, social engineering, propaganda, constant anxiety, and PTSD from non-stop crude lies.

Ideological and political vacuum

If we ask an educated, aware, cultured, and well-traveled person today, what will bring prosperity, they will start with ‘government should do this, government should do that...”.

What do we do now after the kisan morcha (farmers protest)and elections are over, and other sangarsh(campaigns) have not succeeded yet?

Who are you planning to vote in the next election?

You can try a revolution, but there is a classic philosophical question: what happens the day after the revolution? Will you just keep the corrupt bureaucrats and old systems of exploitation in place the day after the revolution?

Caption: “What happens the day after the revolution?”

Sadly, even among the educated elites, there is no plan except to tell the government to start a government program to do this or that… build hospitals, build schools, build roads, open trade routes, give jobs to the poor, tax the rich etc. 

Without a strategic model and direction, random tactical moves are ineffective and wasteful.

We the people do not explore any alternate model because we are focused on money, business, our comfort and entertainment. We say we want change, but we merely change faces and personalities of our leaders. We don’t care about understanding the root cause of our suffering. We only shout at superficial symptoms. We have no interest in even thinking, imagining, or believing there is an alternative.

Our intellectuals chose to serve and support the government for comfort and money. 

“The greatest tragedy …appalling silence of the good people.” – Dr. Martin Luther King

“Problem of spiritual and moral lag, which constitutes modern man’s chief dilemma” - Dr. Martin Luther King

We unable to do anything about climate crises, environmental destruction, pollution, mountains of garbage, government tyranny, decline of human rights, changing demography. Can you name a problem that was solved in the last 25 years? If we can technologically invent our way out of it like we did with damage to ozone layer and switch to unleaded petrol, we can solve the problem. If we can’t invent our way out of it, the problem keeps getting bigger.

Caption: From Dr. MLK Nobel Prize winning speech: “The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually.”

This ideological and political vacuum will destroy our prosperity.

What will be the core building blocks/pillars of our prosperity?

Freedom of speech, human rights, property rights, and environmental protection

Freedom of speech is not just freedom to say good or right things, but freedom to say what others don’t like or find offensive or dangerous. 

Freedom of speech is absolute. It is not relative. No person or body can decide what others are allowed to say or not.

“The most improper job of any man is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it” – Prof. J. R. R. Tolkien

We live in a world of complexity and uncertainty. We need absolute freedom of speech to understand and benefit from this complexity and uncertainity.

Absolute Freedom of Speech creates a marketplace of ideas. Without it, only the single narrative approved by government bureaucrat is allowed.

We wrongly believe that offending others can start riots or weaken a country. Were the largest riots and 1984 Sikh Genocide started by ordinary people or with planning and collaboration with police and government. Will police or courts react when government sponsored agents say things that are offensive or genocidal? We know very well that those approved by the government are treated differently. 

It is wrong to think restricting freedom of speech is necessary to maintain communal harmony, law and order, or save a nation?

There will be no prosperity if we don’t allow outdated, inefficient, corrupt practices to be questioned. There will be no prosperity if we don’t allow alternatives to be discussed.

Do not ever under any circumstances let the government punish anyone for what they say. If you let government punish someone for what they say, the same process will be used tomorrow to punish you. 

“Free speech is THE Human right”.

“No prosperity without freedom of speech”.

“Right to free speech is more important than the content of free speech” – Voltaire

One of the biggest economic revolution in Punjab was brought by Banda Singh Bahadur who gave property rights to those who farm the land. Sikhs in Punjab have a deep love, and spiritual and economic relationship with its land. Therefore property rights and environment protection have to be central to our economic model.  

Small meritocratic virtuous government

It is critical to have small meritocratic virtuous government with limited sphere of influence. 

We create big government that interferes in every part of our life because we want government to fix everything. We cannot fix our problems because of our intellectual and organizational laziness, greed, convenient lack of understanding, and poor character. 

“Big government + Big corporations = fascism”

Don’t we all have this secret desire of a strongman or big influential man or police office or government bureaucrat who will come and fix everything? In Punjab, we have a saying: “ਇਹ ਸਾਰਿਆੰ ਨੂੰ ਸਿਦਾ ਕਰੂ ਗਾ”. “He is going to fix everyone and everything”. 

It is not going to happen.

There is no incentive to succeed in the government. There is more money if you keep inventing new problems and keep failing.

In business, if you fail, you go bankrupt. In government, if you fail, you are given more public money to try again without any consequences or punishment.

Every crisis is used as an excuse by the government to pass more laws to get more power and control. Damn the costs or damage to the economy or the people. It is power and control at all costs. Bureaucrats and politicians do this because big Government becomes a festering ground for narcissists and egomaniacs. They always want more power and control, and to use that power to get even more money. It is sickness of the mind. We let them because we want government to fix the problems we create. This eventually leads to fascism.

Government’s sole purpose is to:

• Draft good laws – be meritocratic, virtuous, and moral in order to do it
• Enforce the law
• Maintain security(police and army)

Government should not to get involved in:

• Social programs – the market and individuals can do it themselves
• Wealth transfer or social engineering(taking from rich to give to poor)
• Providing services like education, health, infrastructure, housing, subsidies - the market and individuals can do it better

As an example, it is well researched and documented how government involvement in education and housing reduced both quality and increased price.

We have to make the government smaller, by actively ensuring government is not involved where it does not need to be. Yes, government needs to run the army, but not schools, transport, or hospitals. Private sector can do it better if government bureaucrats are meritocratic philosopher-kings who can make and enforce good laws.

“that government is best which governs least”

“Small government for prosperity”.

“No to cradle to grave government help”.

Learn to say to government - “None of your business”.

Police state

Punjab is an over-policed state with 4x budget for police compared to development. Punjab budget in 2020-21 for rural development is Rs 1700cr(Rs 17bn). Police budget is Rs 6500cr(Rs 65bn).

Bad governance, tyranny from suppressing basic human rights, lack of development, and declining economy creates social problems. These social problems manifest themselves in unexpected ways as people are stressed and frustrated. Then the government orders the police to restore law and order by harassing, suppressing, and imprisoning people. The police is given more money, power, and control as they are seen as protectors of law and order. There is no money left for development. The cycle repeats itself.

Police presence might be acceptable to some, but the entrepreneurs and the brains of our community don’t like it. They leave. 

This is something hard for common man to understand. Common man tolerates the police state, but the presence of police is toxic to the best of the best minds we have.

We have to actively change this culture and laws that allow police to randomly ‘check’ things. Stop this culture of police coming uninvited or invited to every gathering of people. 

The best and brightest who have self respect and pride leave. Those who are going to create great ideas, and businesses for the fourth industrial revolution demand autonomy in every field of life. They will leave in a police state, taking away our chance at prosperity. 

Caption: USA 4th amendment – freedom from "searches" and "seizures".

Libertarianism: Authentic capitalism

Only the private sector can efficiently provide airlines, cars, solar panel, iphone, whatsapp, gmail, youtube, oil and gas, cement, medicines, fertilizer etc. These are not products of a cottage industry or cooperative or government. 

The problem with our current model is not capitalism, but the crony mafia capitalism. The problem is not corporations but the nexus of corporations and government which only lets selected corporations succeed.

In this nexus, the government officials and politicians auction access for money. The corporations then have to increase prices to cover the cost of bribes to officials, and election funds to politicians. It costs unbelievable amount of money to contest elections. The public ends up paying for it in the end. The businessmen then naturally use mafia to protect their permits. This is not capitalism but crony capitalism and mafia capitalism.

Caption: “Crony capitalism and mafia capitalism is not capitalism”

The model for prosperity is of small Libertarian government with good laws, respect for people’s property and business, and genuine capitalism where government does not give any special favors to any corporations. The government makes the rules, and corporations compete to give best goods and services to the public.The next fourth industrial revolution will be driven by corporations big and small. We need corporations and private sector else we will get left behind from the riches of fourth revolution.

 

What plastic is today, carbon fiber will be tomorrow. 

What diesel generator is today, solar panel and micro-hydro projects, and battery storage will be tomorrow. 

What migrant labor is today, robots, exoskeleton, drones, and Internet of Things will be tomorrow.

We have to understand this and master these technologies to benefit from fourth industrial revolution. Otherwise, we will be using fax machines in the age of email and whatsapp.

Government bureaucrats, and politicians do not have a clue or interest in what is required to evolve our economy for the fourth industrial revolution. 

Corporations big and small can do it, provided there are good laws by meritocratic virtuous/moral government, and corporations don’t spend all their money on bribing officials and donating to politician’s election fund. 

As mentioned before, the biggest economic revolution in Punjab was brought by Banda Singh Bahadur who gave property rights to those who farm the land. Sikhs in Punjab have a deep love and spiritual and economic relationship with its land. 

Libertarian economics protect private property rights. Socialist co-operatives by failed comrades, crony capitalism, and techno-feudalism takes people’s property away, and give them to co-operatives or corporations. So we cannot allow socialism or crony mafia capitalism or techno-feudalism. 

Libertarianism, not Liberal economics, but Libertarianism is the only acceptable model that protects our rights, and provides freedom from government tyranny.

What about the poor? 

The poor and downtrodden don’t need handouts. They need a meritocratic socio-economic-political model where they have freedom to achieve according to their ability. 

The poor and downtrodden have been systematically and intentionally demoralized, their opportunities for growth blocked, and their spirit broken. Now we play games with their mind and brainwash them into staying demoralized and addicted to our handouts. 

When middle class is taxed less, they create business which employs others or creates subcontracts. This creates dignity of labor rather than handouts or government job supporting outdated inefficient services. 

It sounds kind and caring to care for others and have socialist programs and handouts, but it is not an effective way to help others.

“The only permanent way to cure their poverty is to increase their earning power.” – Henry Hazlitt, Why Some People Are Poorer, Mises Institute.

To help the poor, create conditions for entrepreneurs to flourish.

Learn from our history. Guru Gobind Singh in the late 1600’s gave his blessing to Marwari lohars(ironsmiths) and called them Sikligar Sikhs. They flourished by making weapons for the Khalsa Army. This is one of the reasons we respect Guru Gobind Singh. He didn’t give handouts or tell the poor to work for the government of the time. He gave dignity of labor, role in something bigger than themselves, and a sense of accomplishment to common people. 

Model for prosperity

The 3 pillars on which to build prosperity in Punjab are:

1. human rights, property rights, and environmental protection; 
2. small, virtuous and meritocratic government; 
3. genuine liberaltarianism capitalism for the fourth industrial revolution.

Sadly… today we have none of these. That is why we see such rapid decline in every sphere of life. Our life is diminished.

Model for prosperity is not more government, or big government leftist socialist government programs run by failed comrades. Big Government is responsible for all our problems today. Why have more of what has failed over and over again for 75 years?

Model for prosperity is not social engineering. It is meritocracy.

It is not handouts or subsidies or facilities for the poor. It is low taxes for enterprising middle class.

It is not more coal plants, but solar power and micro-hydel plants.

It is not banning videos, new ideas, and new technologies but absolute freedom of speech, and more freedom to the enterprising middle class.

It is not crony mafia capitalism for the select few, but genuine libertarian capitalism.

It is not Minority Report style policing, but freedom from random checks, road blocks and asset seizures.

It is not government hospitals, but private healthcare regulated by sensible laws. 

It is not industrial mono-crop but small scale organic farming for local consumption only.

It is not exploiting nature and natural resources but environmental protection and riparian rights.

It is not hate, fences, bans, tariffs, and sanctions… but diplomacy, and free trade.

“It is always the country with more freedom and less government, that has more prosperity” - Peter Schiff.

Prosperity does not come from just changing economic model in isolation. Prosperity is a result of our social values, economic model, and political vision. So any model for prosperity has to optimize the social-economic-political landscape. Just tuning one part of this in isolation will have no to limited benefit.

Why it will not be allowed

We live in a democracy – which is the worst form of government. Socrates and Plato also warned about democracy leading to bad decisions. Things are unlikely to get better in a Democracy.

“Plato argues that democracy is inferior to various forms of monarchy, aristocracy and even oligarchy on the grounds that democracy tends to undermine the expertise necessary to the proper governance of societies” – Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy.

People want free bread and free circus. Democracy gives power to those manipulative narcissists who promise big dreams and give small gifts. That is why entertainers backed by media corporations win elections in Punjab.

The prevalent narrative today among intellectuals and academics is left-leaning Marxism where big socialist government programs and cooperatives is the way forward. They will not accept small government and Libertarian capitalist model.

The model proposed here will not be acceptable to rich and connected as they have perfected the art of getting benefit from the government. They have perfected art of getting benefits using their setting(connections). They don’t want that corrupt nepotism system to end. Rich and connected want the government to brutally suppress in the name of law and order anyone that threatens their privileged life based on their connections.

The sad truth is that the model proposed here will not be acceptable to the majority of the suffering public either because of intellectual and organizational laziness, greed, convenient lack of understanding, and poor character. Majority of the public want big government to take care of them and give them free bread and free circus. 

“When a nation is psychologically and spiritually empty, totalitarianism comes in to the fill the vacuum; and the people sell their freedom as a necessity for getting rid of the anxiety which is too great to bear any longer.” – Rollo May.

Mussolini wrote “Never before have the peoples thirsted for authority, direction, order, as they do now”. People subconsciously thirst not for freedom, but for fascism.

The model proposed here will not be acceptable to anyone in government as we propose small government. Government officials, media, politicians will use all their state power to stop that. 

This model will be criticized, ridiculed, and brutally oppressed by all in the name of helping the poor and the sick, growth, development, security, saving the country, foreign threat, or the latest crisis.

Who will bring prosperity? 

Poverty is the norm, prosperity is the exception. Prosperity doesn’t just happen. Good intentions and rhetoric are not enough.

Who will bring prosperity? 

Change occurs when the small committed minority of 10-20% of the population leads. 

The majority only cares about bread and circus, comfort and convenience.  They go with the flow. Change occurs when the committed minority generate a critical mass of flow.

There is no magic spell that will fix our problems. There will be no messiah or strongman or a roadmap from outside that will fix things.

Only we the committed minority can bring prosperity. 

“If not me, then who? If not now, then when?” – Gorbachev

“The time is always right to do what is right” – MLK

We have to ask ourself if our everyday thoughts, words and actions contribute to prosperity or not. Do our daily actions support a foreign, corrupt, planet destroying socio-economic-political system?

Ask yourself if our actions support human rights or take them away. 

Ask yourself if you support absolute freedom of speech, or do you think it is acceptable to lock someone to preserve law and order. 

Ask yourself if you do business with a genuine capitalist or a crony capitalist. 

Ask yourself if your actions create fascism by bringing in big government.

Watch your thoughts, for they will become actions. Watch your actions, for they'll become your habits. Watch your habits for they will forge your character. Watch your character, for it will decide your destiny.

Caption: Thoughts -> Actions -> Habits -> Character -> Destiny (source unknown, attributed to Margaret Thatcher).

 

Do we have the moral strength, the emotional intelligence, and intellect to change the status quo?

“A solid upbringing is exactly what lies at the root of everything good in this world,” - Emmanuel Kant.

Perhaps, spiritual strength from good upbringing and moral values is the key to prosperity. IQ, genes, weather, location, geopolitics, natural resources, history, and other factors outside our control may or may not contribute to prosperity. But all we have under our control is our character and spiritual strength.

As an example, the conversations parents have with their children at dinner table in the evening decides their future. Most children and their parents are only capable of conversations with their iPhone or dog or cat. This should give us a realistic indication of our destiny. 

We are at a great crossroads in history from the Great Convergence of multiple developments. 

There are decades when nothing happen, and then are weeks when decades happen. Are we ready to take advantage of it, or will we be taken advantage of?

When our character is of Guru’s Sikhs, we will not give in to brainwash and temptations of the nexus of government officials, politicians, corporations, and media.

When our character is of Guru’s Sikhs, we will have confidence to create a marketplace of ideas, and marketplace of goods and services in a capitalist economy.

When our character is of Guru’s Sikhs, we will elect leaders not on basis of what they can do personally for us, but on basis of their capability.

When our character is of Guru’s Sikhs, we will not enjoy the spiritual entertainment of controversies and emotional speeches, but rational logical thought.

When our character is of Guru’s Sikhs, we will make our own destiny.

Poverty is the norm, prosperity is the exception. Like good character and good health, prosperity just doesn’t happen no matter how much we want it. It happens when we put conscious and intelligent effort into it.

If we don’t consciously understand what brings prosperity, we will subconsciously bring poverty through our thoughts and actions.

Caption: “Prosperity is inclusive, from development, and sustainable.”

Summary and Call to Action

Here is a model for prosperity in one (long) sentence: human rights, property rights, environmental protection; small, virtuous and meritocratic government; and genuine Libertarian capitalism for the fourth industrial revolution. 

Here is a handy pocket-size guide which you can use to see if an idea, or a person is good for prosperity:

10 rules for prosperity

Our model for prosperity is also the history of Sikhs. 

Sikh religion is more than a religion. It is the one and only proven socio-economic-political model for security and prosperity for all natives of this land. 

The Khalsa Raj(rule) of Banda Singh Bahadur brought human rights, freedom of speech and religion; small meritocratic libertarian government with revolution in property rights; and end to crony mafia capitalism of nawabs and their jagirs(estates).  This was done more than 50 years before the French or American revolution.

We today are addicted to comfort, greed, entertainment, and make excuses due to our intellectual and organizational laziness. 

Hundreds of years ago, our ancestors fought the tyranny of the largest empire of that time that controlled 25% of the global economy. Our ancestors gave us freedom from tyranny; human rights and property rights; equality and inclusiveness under law; good governance; and spirit of entrepreneurship. We have to do the same again today.