Of Wants and Ways…

Are you rich? It is all relative. Relative to your perceived ‘wants’ and your upright ‘means’. Depending on this delicate balance, you are ‘rich’ or ‘poor’. But in the pursuit of an ever-increasing urge to amass, we fall prey to means that are foul, thus perpetuating an unsatiable spiral. Better to strive for means that will help both self and society

The relationship between richness and poverty is similar to the relationship between infinity and zero. It all depends on the scale of comparison of an individual’s wants. If your income is more than your wants, you are rich. If your wants are more than your income, you are poor

Are you rich? A few may say they are rich, while many may say they are not rich, and that in fact they are poor. The divergent replies lead us to formulate a method to know whether we are rich or not.

A professor teaching mathematics in a college devised a very interesting method and asked his students the following questions:

1. What is zero?
2. What is infinity?
3. Can zero and infinity be the same?

The students thought they knew the answers and said the following:

• Zero means nothing. Infinity means a number greater than any countable number
• Zero and infinity are opposite and can never be the same

The professor countered the students by first talking about infinity and asked: How can there be any number which is greater than any countable number? The students had no answers. He then explained the concept of infinity by asking the students to imagine the case of an illiterate shepherd who can count only up to 20. Now, if the number of sheep he has is less than 20, then on being asked about the number of sheep he owns, his answer would be 3, 5, 14, etc. However, if the number is 20, he is likely to say, “too many.”

All in the context…

He then explained that in science infinity means ‘too many’ and in the same way zero means ‘too few’. Infinity is not uncountable and zero does not mean nothing. As an example, if we take the diameter of the Earth as compared to the distance between the Earth and the Sun, the diameter of the Earth can be said to be zero, since it is too negligible in comparison. The diameter of the Earth, however, if compared to the size of a grain, can be said to be infinite.

The professor concluded that the same thing can be zero and infinite at the same time, depending on the context or matrix of comparison. The relationship between richness and poverty is similar to the relationship between infinity and zero. It all depends on the scale of comparison of an individual’s wants. If your income is more than your wants, you are rich. If your wants are more than your income, you are poor.

Wants not static

The formula to measure richness appears simple but it is difficult. Wants are an important segment of the formula and the same are linked with an individual’s psychology. In a majority of cases wants are never static. They are never absolute. The more you get, the more you want. Limited and static wants are connected with contentment. They represent enlightened souls. Our scriptures have dealt with such situations while explaining absolute richness and ultimate happiness.

In today’s world most of us live in a fluid state of wants. They keep building up with income increase, and the end result is more wants than income. This gives rise to a chaotic state of mind, leading to disappointment and frustration. Increase in income works as a catalytic agent to manufacture more wants.

Wants, known and unknown

There can be a situation where the income is so high that it cannot be consumed, despite the mushrooming wants, and this give rise to mounting surplus year after year. Yet that person cannot be considered ‘rich’ as he accumulates the surplus for unknown wants or for the wants of his future generations. If wants survive, then there is no addition to your richness, despite the pile of accumulated cash or material infrastructure.

Recently, during an income tax raid against a liquor manufacturer-cum-politician, a cash pile of over 350 crore rupees was found. Can he be called rich? No. He was piling up cash beyond his present day’s wants, for unknown future day needs. Statistically, he may have had a high money count, but his wants in the form of future possible wants remain, and so his piled up cash did not make him rich. He has not reached the state of absolute richness.

Devious means

The path to become rich is generally mistaken and people take wrong turns. There is nothing wrong in working hard to increase income but people do not look at their wants properly. The result is greed, lust, fraud, tax evasion, criminal activities like smuggling, drug-trafficking, corruption, etc. which are the offsprings of choosing the wrong paths.

A village school teacher is much richer than fugitive tycoons like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. The sad thing is that in our society the real rich school teacher with controlled wants is not much respected. People mistakenly give all respect to people with ill-gotten money. Society fails to distinguish between the genuine rich and economic offenders who have looted money. And worse, these looters even escape the law. They firstly escape the weak and corrupt legal dragnet, and even when caught escape the courts with the help of expensive advocates.

Richness comes with the limb of income, together with the limb of wants. Just as it is important to reduce wants, so it is to increase income. Here we have to consider income that is legally obtained. Income legally earned and tax paid thereon makes one truly rich. Such income and corresponding wealth created do not require to be hidden. Enforcement agencies like Income-Tax, ED and CBI cannot do any harm to such wealth.

Shady havens

Innovative ways are used to earn illegal income, and novel ways found for the safe keeping of such generated wealth. The world these days is witnessing many Crocodile Island and Channel Island-like tax-havens, which are frequented by people with illegally earned income. There are expert legal eagles to guide them, like the one detected by the Panama Papers to help with the safe custody of illegal wealth in off-shore trusts. As an example, Vijay Mallya has a 30-acre mansion, ‘Lady Walk’, on the outskirts of London and it is mathematically difficult to infer its real owner from the chain of off-shore trusts and trustees.

Similarly, take the concept of ‘round-tripping’, involving the movement of money from one country to another, finally coming to the country of its origin in a different shape and form. The owner of the ill-gotten money remains hidden, but he ultimately becomes the beneficiary of such money by the device of round tripping.

These days’ tax-frauds are common, which ensnare gullible and unsuspecting people driven by greed to earn quick money. Artificial intelligence (AI) too is being used to fool people to make money. Can you call yourself rich by earning such income? On the contrary, you will be called a thief, a fraud, a tax-evader etc.

Wealth is…

“You are no richer than what you carry in your mind, no stronger than what you hold in your heart, and no purer than what you harbour in your soul. If you need money to be rich you will always be poor. It is better to be rich in love than to be wealthy with gold,” said a wise person. Money can buy you comfort, but it can’t buy you peace. Money can buy you pleasure but it can’t buy you happiness. Money can buy you delight but it can’t buy you love. Money can buy you praise but it can’t buy you respect. Knowledge is true wealth; wisdom is true riches.

Limited wants give contentment, and that gives happiness. “Trur contentment is not in having everything, but in being satisfied with everything you have,” said Oscar Wilde. Contentment makes a poor man rich, while discontentment makes a rich man poor. Money, which we earn is not only for ourselves but for others too.

We are trustees

We should consider ourselves trustees of the society. Money is important and it should be earned first for our basic needs, and then for the economic growth of the society and the country. We can learn lessons from the Tatas. They made money by honest means and helped the country in its economic growth for more than 100 years. They opened charitable trusts for philanthropic work.

A middle-class person who pays tax honestly is helping the country in its developmental and social work and hence he is richer than a person with ill-gotten money and who is a tax evader. We all of us are the individual units of the country who can help our country become rich and powerful. We must honestly contribute to nation building. A person is rich based on how much he contributes for others.