What we see !

Post date: Dec 2, 2013 5:48:39 PM

My mother taught me at a very young age that You don't need to look for a Guru but be a learner. She always told me the stories of Dattatreya and how he acquired wisdom from small, otherwise irrelevant things.

Similar to that, I feel, we observe and see things based on what we have been feeling.

I always quote (myself :P) that if you are in love, You will see and feel it in whatever you do. An artist will see it in his(her) art, a mathematician in numbers and equations, an economist in economic theories, a driver in his driving, and so on. You don't need roses, mountains, beaches, and a romantic set up to feel that. The same is true for our other experiences and feelings in life.

Today, I was reading this article "Turning Good Economic Luck into Bad" by Ricardo Hausmann. It is about Economy. but I find few paragraphs at start and few lines here and there more poetic and philosophical !

Read paragraphs below and you will see what I mean - in place of country read people, and life in place of economy. In place of Argentina and Venezuela think of two people you met in life and "benefit from high prices" as an incident in their lives that was perfect but didn't lead to what it should have ! :)

Excerpt from article -

"It is often difficult to understand how countries that are dealt a pretty good economic hand can end up making a major mess of things. It is as if they were trying to commit suicide by jumping from the basement.

Two of the most extreme cases (but not the only ones) are Argentina and Venezuela, countries that have benefited from high prices for their exports but have managed to miss the highway to prosperity by turning onto a dead-end street. They will eventually have to make a U-turn and backtrack over the terrain of fictitious progress.

The puzzling thing is that this is not the first time either country has veered into an economic cul-de-sac. It has been said that only barbers learn on other people’s heads, but some countries seem unable to learn even from their own experience. The ultimate reason for such self-destructiveness may be impossible to identify. But it is certainly possible to describe how the road to hell is paved, whatever the intentions."

and later -

"Such a system can generate a self-reinforcing set of popular beliefs, which may explain why countries like Argentina and Venezuela repeatedly drive down dead-end streets. Because so many businesses make money from the rents created by the rationing of foreign exchange, rather than by creating value, it is easy to believe that markets do not work, that entrepreneurs are speculators, and that governments need to control them and impose “fair” prices. All too often, this allows governments to blame the car, and even the passengers, for getting lost."

:)