@v

One thing that strikes me every time I am back in India is the sense of optimism that people carry within them. Indians on balance seem to believe that their children will live in a better world than the one they experienced. I imagine that most Americans once felt the same way. But today, most people I talk to act as if the world will get worse or stay roughly the same. People in India have lead more difficult lives than their American counterparts. They also face great inequality, corruption and strife. They should be, by all accounts, less optimistic about their future. Where does the optimism come from? I think one explanation is the adage that growth solves all problems. India has a real GDP growth rate in the high single digits. It has evolved from an agrarian society into a manufacturing one in just a few generations. People who tilled fields in the hot sun saw their children work in factories who in turn saw their children get desk jobs in the cities. Change is in the air and people believe that they can get a piece of it if they work hard enough. My mother met someone who moved to New York to work as a cab driver so he could put his children through school. He hasn't been able to afford a trip to see his family in nine years. Life in India is difficult for the average person but there are many that work really hard to improve their families' lot. Why don't we see this as much in developed countries? Is it a form of "resource curse" where the successful get more complacent? I don't quite know the answer, but I think bringing back some sense of optimism about the future would be a good thing for America and the west.

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