Sunday, March 18, 2012

Google Earth Helps Indian Man Find Family And Village After 25 Years

This is a heartwarming human interest story, but I am posting it for another reason. It is the story of an Indian child, a beggar, who gets lost and is permanently separated from his poor family. He is later adopted by an Australian couple, is educated and attains success in business. Still remembering his Indian family and village, he searches for the village on Google Earth and discovers it. Returning, he finds his birth family living in a slum.

The social, political, and economy point is that poor people are not poor by nature but by circumstance, and by changing their circumstances, they can assume a higher position in society and lead lives normal for the society, even a much wealthier society.

This is strong argument against the notion that the poor are poor by choice and if they just worked harder and pulled themselves up by their boot straps everything would be fine. It also give the lie to the notion that people born in better circumstances than other deserve the head start they get in society through the luck of the draw. (Others would say karma, and this is my view also; but this is beside the point here.)

If the basis of democratic egalitarianism is equal opportunity, then a democratic society needs to pay more attention to circumstances that affect lack of equal opportunity. MMT analysis shows that lack of affordability is no excuse for inaction.

Read it at The Mercury (AU)
He's our Slumdog Millionaire
by Emma Hope
(via The Huffington Post)

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