Skip to main content

The great Indian Middle Class dream- Broken?

IThe great Indian middle class dream is slowly turning into a night mare where the common man, as the middle class and the upper middle class is known, is not only being taxed like nobody's business but they have to pay the brunt of the poor, who are not tax payers!
There are no subsidies or the tax benefits for us! Of course there are the ads but in all how much can a salaried middle class afford to really save?

Back in 1991, when the man who was is our PM now, liberalized the economy and made the middle class realize their dreams,  is the very person who is shattering the dreams of this middle class! Ironic. Full circle of life- whatever you may want to call it!

As the petrol prices reach almost 70 Rs/liter, and beyond in other states, it is hard to imagine what it would be like to run a house! If at all I am ever able to buy a house! The stark reality that, Metro cities and living in them is going to be as good as impossible unless, I stumble upon a lost relative who out of sheer love for me leaves me a couple of thousand crore of rupees! Which as we all know is super unlikely!
Then there will be other things, children their needs, education! And what not! Seeing the spiraling prices, I think, I'd rather have uneducated children! The dream of wanting them to study in our schools is just that- a dream!

And through all of these hardships, it is the middle class that is mercilessly raped,over and over again!

The rich, are just that, always- rich! And the poor, even if they have the money, will tale all the government benefits by showing that they belong to some or the other reserved category!

I wonder what the government is really upto? No, I am not going into the party bashing mode, for a simple reason, that I feel, that all these bloody politicians are crooks! Of the first order!

I wonder what do they get paid for? No substantive work is EVER done in the parliament and they get a hefty pay for breaking parliament property!
All these parliamentarians, with their hefty pay packets should be NOT paid a single penny. They should be made to use all the money that they have stashed away. Maybe then, they will realise, the value of the hard earned money that we salaried people pay, every time the inflation touches a new high!

I wonder, what the experts mean when they say that India is progressing economically...!!
Go help us, oh no, wait, god, please find an unknown relative, who has tons of money and who unconditionally leaves it for me in a tax heaven.. so that inflation doesn't bother me.. Yeah that would do!

Comments

I heard a joke recently.. that the Govt is screwing middle class as part of 'revenge act'. After all , they r the ones who supported Anna the most.

But jokes apart, we guys are really in trouble. I can fully understand ur concerns and rants ... sailin in same boat principle.
Good post. The cost of living has certainly become quite high for a middle class family in a city.
Imagine, even if you earn a 70k per month which by all means looks a good salary,but is nothing in the Metros.
If you have two school going kids,then you'll have to shell out around 7.5k on their schooling per month,if not more. That takes away 15k from the salary. Apart from that, if you live in a rented house, a 3BHK's average rent varies from 17k in Noida/Ghaziabad to around 25k in Gurgaon. That knocks off another 20k. Add another 10k for miscellaneous household expenses on food and grocery. So fixed expenses= 15k+20k+10k= 45k. Imagine you're left with just 25k more to fend for yourself. If you've have a car EMI to pay,take another 5-15k from that, and you're left with 10-20k left with you.
I've not even taken into account the expenses when a family goes out for a movie or a dinner and around 5k in expenses if you drive a fairly good car as Honda City which you would to maintain your status. That would virtually leave a family with almost negligible savings.

The three innovative solutions I can think of to fight off inflation instead of cursing the government are:
1. Marry late. People now, anyway, are.The more late the marriage, the later the kids, the less the expenses.Women, don't blame me though if you have complications in child birth though if you heed this advice. Haha
2. Marry a rich woman or someone who earns substantially more than you even if it hurts your ego.Better than hurting your pocket which will in turn hurt your ego anyway :-D
3. Start asking your manager for an increment every month even if he says no even if he thinks that you're stupid. "Kya karein inflation hai,sir" :-D
@ Sakshi,
I've not been in India for a long time and I've definitely not worked there, so I'm not sure I can relate to the taxation situation.
Maybe we all ought to have a discussion on this where I can listen and learn!
Nice writing- I can feel the anger.
But your solution of not paying politicians for doing work (or whatever farce they call work) is not the solution! They'd just take and make more from kickbacks and bribes!
We need another solution! And none of Mann's three make sense!

@ Mann,
Those solutions don't make sense, but they definitely made me laugh!
I like the analysis (that came before) though.

D
Unknown said…
Rs 70/- OMG..May be I should go back to Assam and try to get hold of an oil well !

Mannu bhai your brief sketches seem scary :P
Mainak said…
Petrol Rs. 74.48 per litre in Hyderabad :(

Thank god at least my bike gives a very good mileage to curb this petrol hike almost every month :)
atri said…
A nice post and a series of interesting comments...
Mann your analysis is damn good...

In fact I did a similar calculation a few months ago and when I figured out that I may not be having too much savings to enjoy in future I went to Sonnet ( earlier regent )to booze ..... God knows what happens next... I burned a hole in my pocket in paying the tax for it. The tax could have fetch me another drink.

We loathe politicians for devising such policies, show our anger and do similar things alike ..... Out of frustration we keep on saying lot of things which we think are solutions but are actually not..

So I am also not trying to give a solution but one thing I admit that I am eager to pay hefty taxes provided the government offers public facilities worthy enough for a great Indian middle class to enjoy such as develop a good transport facility so that we do not have to buy car, commute easily from one place to another; provide good medical facility absolutely free of cost ( like that of European countries )

At least if the government address these two issues many of our problems will be solved.---- Dont have to buy a car ( buying a car will be a sort of luxury if the government provides a facility), avoid traffic jam and also no tension to foot the medical bills if you fall sick or have any medical complications....
I am optimistic and I hope India will see that day soon.
Sakshi said…
@DG
Well, I have no idea what the government is actually trying to do!
I doubt though that you are sailing in the same boat!
Sarkari Afsar!
Sakshi said…
@Mannu
You have painted a nice scary picture for all of us, who were thinking of settling down! Yes, it is a mad mad mad kind of thing happening, all of a sudden, money has actually become paper.. that is it! the value is going down the drain! Another 2008 run in the markets, I know, how much the smaller investors will suffer!

Here is the draw back to your nice innovative solutions!

1. Late marriage- there will never be anything about the kids, because the later you marry, the harder it becomes to adjust to another person! By the virtue of you being so used being your own person for so long! the couple ends up fighting more! And you have any which ways mentioned the bearing of children draw back!

2. Marry for money, and you will have everything but, peace of mind. You will end up being more frustrated than happy.

3. And then the manager will kick you out and there will be no money in the pocket.. forget the increment!
Sakshi said…
@Dino

See, it is not the tax system.. it is just hap hazard idiocity by the government. The government, has actually pretty much opened the price control of the petrol prices, and it is in the hands of the oil cos. The thing is, that instead of increasing competition, whereby, a company will be offering lower price than the other, all the oil cos increase the price!
It is exasperating, because there is a huge chunk of money that is gone out of the window... coz there is no planning, and something has to be done about it!
Sakshi said…
@Rathz

Maybe you should, and get us all a stake in it! ;)

@Maidhak
But the budget does go for a toss!
Unknown said…
I am amazed to learn the number of economists we have in this forum.
Sakshi said…
@Atri

The thing is, that even if the government does something good, develops something, there are people who will spoil it in the first go.
The people need to learn to how to appreciate the public property and use it properly, instead of exploiting it!

Then only it makes sense!
raj alakshendra said…
hmmm ... hmmm ...
shayon , beta ye soch tera kya hoga shadi ke baad .. he he ...
sakshi ko to bahot knowledge hai re ;)
Sakshi said…
@Raj
All this knowledge is because Shayon pushes me.. he is a total freak when it come s to tech knowledge, so I have to know about other things.. so all the credit goes to him!
Unknown said…
Raj tera fotu mein exclamation mark kyun hain !
@ Sakshi,
I cannot blame the increase in petrol prices.
Firstly there's the war in the middle east that holds the largest reserves of petrol in the world, and secondly (more importantly), all this oil is going to run out and we'll be back to the steam engine! Ha ha ha. So the prices are going to increase no matter what people want (you have to add inflation to all this too!)!
Sad, but true!

D (the couch economist)
raj alakshendra said…
@raths
abe photo to aa raha hai ...
Dion is right. If you look at it, the government simply has no other option but to increase the price of petrol. Diesel is the fuel used by farmers and in public transport so the government can't afford to put additional pressure there. Kerosene is supposed to the fuel of the poor,so again the price has to be kept low. The last thing which is left is LPG. The government is working on limiting the number of cylinders a family can purchase at the current rate which is heavily subsidized as with the other fuel.
So the only fuel left is petrol.
Poor government, the people in the government always seem unwise and draconian somehow, but sometimes they also don't have any other option. I'm no economist.Just that I read the editorial section daily, so I steal ideas/info from there :-D
Sakshi said…
@Mannu
These lines were directly out of the the editorial!
Diesel and Kerosene being the fuel of the poor!

On a serious note, the Government, really needs to take stricter measures as far as black marketeering is concerned. Believe it or not, Petrol/ oil is hoarded!
And there are oil fields that are under litigation as well!

I know, a systematic increase in price is always agreeable to, but in such quick succession, kills us man!

Popular posts from this blog

(· · · — — — · · ·)

This a distress call to all TWM folks. This has been the longest duration of inactivity for TWM. So is it that we are all too busy or have all of us hit the writer's block. Let's break the spell of inactivity....HOW?? WHAT SHOULD I WRITE ABOUT?? I have an incomplete draft, shall I post that? May be I will do a recap of the past few days..No mood to write paragraphs.. Connect the dots yourself.. * Kaminey - Movie was good, the ending could have been better..The bong mafia coming with a long gun to the fight scene was really comic..Fahid Kapoor ki acting mast thi..waifey aap log ye movie dekhey kya?? * Books - Finally I read the book Love Story by Erich Segal..Hmmm the story is good but the effect of the classic book has not yet got into me..Meanwhile I am also reading 'The Great Indian Novel' by Shashi Tharoor..I will surely recommend this book..Tharoor has splendidly blended the tales from Mahabharata into the modern Indian history.. *Movies - I watched 'Little Miss

Boastful avatar..

Hello folks, I reached a new height in my non-illustrious quizzing career :) . The Tata Crucible, Kolkata round was organised last saturday and me & Rajneesh Kumar(tronix) made it to the stage round.. The link: http://www.tatacrucible.com/corporate/report2009/Kolkata.html Njoy..

Updation of the Contribution Done ...

Hi friends.. More contribution is coming for the for the Daksh team ... The latest in the list are Rahul & Nandan... The total contribution is Rs 16500 now & I am hoping for more.. The team has gone to Indore to compete in the event there . Lets wish them goo luck... The updated list of the contributers goes like this: Dion - Rs 4000 Nandan - Rs 2000 Rudra- Rs1000 Karma - Rs 1000 Chiru - Rs 1000 Debu - Rs 1000 (deposited directly in the college acc) Gandhi - Rs 1000 (deposited directly in the college acc) Atri - Rs 800 Chaki - Rs 700 Shayon - Rs 500 Raths - Rs 500 Andy - Rs 500 Sandeep - Rs 500 Samik - Rs 500 Myself - Rs 500 Mannu - Rs 500 Rahul - Rs 500