Untold Facts

Ethics of Begging

That the top businessmen combined together in seeking Taka 600 crore or six thousand million to face recession as a sort of subsidy for their business organizations from the government apparently looks nothing unusual. Such bail out packages being given recently to many American and European industrial and financial institutions may appear as rational demand from the business houses in Bangladesh. But should not they ponder a bit if they have asked for alms like any street beggar though in a befitting sophisticated manner from the public exchequer?

It is true that government intervention in some cases at times become essential in free market economy. That is what the big and rich western economies have of late been doing to face and contain adverse effects of recession in those countries. US President Obama has immediately after assuming office on the 20th January 2009 sought for 900 billion lump sum rescue package to bail out some drowning industries and financial institutions. His proposal went into the two houses as usual. It took quite a few weeks for not all of 900 billion US dollars but some what nearly 700 billion dollars passed by the houses, and that also Obama had to impress and appeal repeatedly to the members of the two houses, the Congress and the Senate. The latest of the 18 billion bail out package was for the AIG or the giant American Insurance Group.

The president did already provide bail out packages to the giant AIG and multinationals like GM. Chrysler, Ford, etc not as much as they individually sought for but in reduced amount lower than what they originally demanded for. Not only this, he has asked his Secretary of Treasury to probe into one important ethical and moral issue in the matter. The issue is the huge bonus packages the big bosses took from the institutions even at times when their big giants had been sliding down into bankruptcy. I may quote him in verbatim here. ‘It is not the question of dollars and cents, it is the ethical and moral issue involved’. He said so and asked his officials to probe into that out of the bail package given from the public money they cannot take fat bonuses that he considered immoral. Because, as he also said, many tax payers work hard just to make both ends meet and yet paid taxes that make public exchequer. Some time back the French President Sarkozi, as well, in his speech at the UN raised a similar ethical and moral issue in drawing regularly fat salaries and bonuses when they knew well that their organizations had been drowning. He further asked in his emotional speech for return of the money in unusually big salaries and bonuses they took from the failing organizations concerned.

USA, France and all those Western free market economies are not that poor as Bangladesh is one of the few poorest in the world. They could afford billons in subsidy and bail out packages possibly without much injuring the macro economy. But Bangladesh’s poverty is so crushing that nearly 50% of the people are desperately poor. The gap between the richest and the poorest have widened in the recent decades. Thus it is only logical and matter of good conscience that any affordable public fund should be spent in helping those poor through development works and generating avenues for employment if not at the go right now for all of the 44 million unemployed but for, I would say, at least for a million right now in the country through public investments in the Keynesian theory of generating ‘full’ employment to meet the recession. I am not certain if the Taka six thousand million the business houses have asked for would create some additional employment and increased productivity, at all.

The ethical and moral question looms larger in Bangladesh than possibly in the West, because, the teeming millions poor of Bangladesh have to survive on about one dollar a day earning. The beggars of various genres even in the metropolitan city streets should make a reminder to our conscience, ethics and morality. The skinny and bony children begging for alms in the city traffic lights should be a reminder to our conscience riding on million Taka chauffer driven cars, apart from the questions of ethics and morality for asking alms from the public exchequer. Could the fatty bosses of the big business houses of Bangladesh think dispassionately for foregoing part of their big income used for conspicuous extravagant living and life style, not for making philanthropy, but to make up losses for the their own organizations and firms? That was what the top boss of GM, FORD, Chrysler did as we had news from the media some time ago.

The Bangladesh Government, I am sure, has no scope to make any show up of spending at anybody’s whims, as did the legendary HATEM TAI.

Author: Dr.M.T. Hussain