Merit over
Fortune

When you go out on the streets, in India, you see the streets infected with garbage, and surrounded by disease. If you continue to walk, you would soon be belittled by a tall building towering over your head. If you walk inside, you enter a lobby, air conditioned, clean and pristine. A huge building, 50 floors, it houses maybe 300 people. The same place could house 3000 workers.

I for one believe in capitalism, in the free market system, so why do I still think it is harsh?

To understand this, let me ask: how does one, in the monetary sense, get rich? Most people would say by hard work and sheer luck. I find that the 'luck factor' outweighs the hard work factor. Most people lose because of luck — they work hard and they fail! I think our societal system favours luck more than hard work. I think a person who works hard, with good intent, should get what they deserve.

I also dislike communism, where they remove luck and hard work as factors and reward you irrespective. I think people should be rewarded for their hard work. I don't believe in either system, as they do not do justice to a hard-working man, and I think it is an important change required in society: work-based reward.

Many powerful people, in order to protect their wealth, have built a society with a green garden and a tall hedge, where only a few are lucky enough to climb and make it over. The tall walls have been built over generations for people to protect their wealth, driven by their greed, envy, brutality and competition.

Thus I believe, we as a society must work towards building a social system where economic rewards are given for hard work, merit and diligence.