by :J. Watanabe

Many of those in developed countries fear that emerging economies like India and China would take over the leadership in the world economy in foreseeable future. You can spend hours, days, weeks or even months discussing why this can possibly happen, but the simple fact is that the vast majority of people in emerging economies work hard and honestly and they try to get something out of their hard work. I have been in India for the last couple of months and I have seen how people work. It is a bit of exaggeration to say that most people in developed countries do not work hard or honestly, but too many people work in such ways that they do not exactly contribute to the development of their economies.

First, too many people in developed countries do nothing; they do not work. I am personally for social programs such as tax-funded healthcare and tax-funded education, but the simple fact is that too many people rely on those social programs and do not work; furthermore, social programs in some countries are too generous. For example, UK has some of the most generous social programs and its government just hands out cash to too many people; the government does not hand out just enough cash for people to survive but it hands out more than enough to them so that they can even entertain themselves.

Second, too many people in developed countries force them to feel content while they work for good hours. Not everyone has to have ambition to become a billionaire, nor does becoming a billionaire automatically contribute to the development of the society. However, when people work for good hours, they ought to understand that they deserve certain results financially. It is true that money is not everything. It is also true that being able to find meaning and value in life is very important. However, it is almost a trend to speak of such meaning and value in developed countries today; they focus too much on finding philosophical meaning and value, and they start neglecting the fact that they ought to get financial and materialistic results at the same time. There ought to be a good balance. Philosophy is very important, but that alone does not contribute to the development of their economies.

Third, too many people in developed countries essentially achieve their financial gain by stealing from others. One of examples is corporate executives’ terminating employee pensions, liquidating what employees already contributed and telling analysts and shareholders that they increased profit. This is not wealth creation; this is wealth extraction. Another example is that those who run businesses while they destroy the environment; this is also not wealth creation, but it is wealth extraction. These practices do not contribute to the development of their economies ultimately, but they only stifle their economies in the long run.

I exaggerated a little bit and wrote that too many people in developed countries either do nothing, force them to feel content while they actually live unfulfilled life or steal from others, but this is not entirely false. The way in which people in developed countries go to work is different from the way in which people in emerging economies go to work. The former go to work to wait for tomorrow while the latter go to work to create something; they go to work to improve their life. There is a tremendous difference between the two, and one obviously does not lead to prosperity, while the other leads to prosperity and creation of wealth.