It's all about the money!

In her song Meja says she wants to escape from this crazy world because it’s all about the money . This pretty world, it seems to her, is getting out of hand. We have got it all wrong anyway, have we?

Isn’t money a direct indicator of prosperity and development so what’s wrong if it’s all about the money, I wonder? Perhaps there is something wrong with that notion.

In his book called Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen talks of the economics of development, development as freedom and freedom from the notion, of wealth and income as the only indicators of development. It’s rather interesting how he unravels the concept of income and wealth, as one amongst many means to freedom and development, rather than an end in itself.

Development as freedom – freedom as an equivalent of development also implies, in my view, a need to reconsider our definition of development itself. In this liberal world we are still incapacitated in many ways from the freedom of choice. Does that imply at some level our being captive? If that is the case then we might need to reexamine the kind of path of development that we are moving on. If development is n’t only about growth of income, wealth and prosperity in material gains then what is it about? Think about it and if you find it difficult to find the answers I would say get a piece of Sen’s mind on it.