Dear God,
As I draft this, I am only a few pages into Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. And it is quite a revelation already. I think I speak for a majority of my fellow countrymen when I say that there are quite a few "I didn't know that, wow!" in there.
For this precis though, I'd like to limit myself to writing about one stark observation the book makes. A little footnote mentions a shock therapy experiment in W. Germany of the late 40s. The FM Ludwig Erhard's sudden move of introducing a new currency without warning shocked the German economy at that time leading to mass unemployment.
Isn't that eerily similar to what we witnessed in our country too, about a year ago? Demonitization. A real jolt that left us cash-strapped for at least 3-4 subsequent months. The announcement was sudden and worse, under the garb of the US election results, leaving us with very little time to react. And react if we did, would we have salvaged anything, I wonder! With ATMs and homes alike running dry, the system didn't leave us with too much of a choice. I can't imagine how the daily wage earners would've survived that painful ordeal.
I believe, in some consolation to its citizens, not only did Ludwig Erhard not cut public spending but also protected the increasing wages. In contrast though, our FM has indicated that we are going to move towards a no-subsidy economy. Already, you can see passionate calls to sacrifice domestic gas subsidy, cuts in small savings interest rates et al. And all this in a land that has a non-existent, archaic healthcare plan, poor infrastructure and zero social security.
Naomi Klein: I see the effects of this gangster capitalism everyday. Shock people beyond their wits, hit them where it hurts most, re-write the script before there is even a semblance to reaction. The biggest winners during this crackdown were the e-wallet companies. I understand it made many of them overnight billionaires.
Ok, that's some consolation...
As I draft this, I am only a few pages into Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. And it is quite a revelation already. I think I speak for a majority of my fellow countrymen when I say that there are quite a few "I didn't know that, wow!" in there.
For this precis though, I'd like to limit myself to writing about one stark observation the book makes. A little footnote mentions a shock therapy experiment in W. Germany of the late 40s. The FM Ludwig Erhard's sudden move of introducing a new currency without warning shocked the German economy at that time leading to mass unemployment.
Isn't that eerily similar to what we witnessed in our country too, about a year ago? Demonitization. A real jolt that left us cash-strapped for at least 3-4 subsequent months. The announcement was sudden and worse, under the garb of the US election results, leaving us with very little time to react. And react if we did, would we have salvaged anything, I wonder! With ATMs and homes alike running dry, the system didn't leave us with too much of a choice. I can't imagine how the daily wage earners would've survived that painful ordeal.
I believe, in some consolation to its citizens, not only did Ludwig Erhard not cut public spending but also protected the increasing wages. In contrast though, our FM has indicated that we are going to move towards a no-subsidy economy. Already, you can see passionate calls to sacrifice domestic gas subsidy, cuts in small savings interest rates et al. And all this in a land that has a non-existent, archaic healthcare plan, poor infrastructure and zero social security.
Naomi Klein: I see the effects of this gangster capitalism everyday. Shock people beyond their wits, hit them where it hurts most, re-write the script before there is even a semblance to reaction. The biggest winners during this crackdown were the e-wallet companies. I understand it made many of them overnight billionaires.
Ok, that's some consolation...
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