Kamala prioritises the everyday citizen over corporate interests and her message is getting traction not only in the US but across the globe
The global economic landscape could shift dramatically if the US Democratic Party's presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, succeeds in implementing her bold stance on prices and corporate control. This move could send shockwaves across the world, compelling nations like India to reconsider their current economic models—just as they did during the liberalization era when corporate power surged. It appears the tide is turning, as people worldwide demand freedom from the manipulative tactics that drive up prices. Harris’s message is clear: Americans can no longer tolerate skyrocketing costs. Her aggressive, populist economic agenda aims to rein in corporate power and lower the cost of living, potentially setting a new standard for global economic policies.
A 74-year-old Indian blogger after a lavish Indian corporate marriage in July blurted out on X-twitter, “In my 74 years, I have not seen, or even heard of, a more tasteless, egotistical or pretentious wedding than the recent, 24X7 televised extravaganza.
The perversity and its real portent lie elsewhere.“It lies in the way money was expended, at a time when the average Indian has never been worse off economically, when inequality and unemployment have reached record heights, when 67 percent of the GST is paid by 50 percent of its poorest citizens, when the top 1 percent control 40 percent of the country's wealth, when 800 million people have to be provided free/ subsidized foodgrains to survive”.
Not much different is the weekend speech of Harris. She says, “We know that many Americans don’t yet feel that progress in their lives. Costs are still too high and it feels too hard to get ahead.”
No wonder Republican nominee Donald Trump calls her too liberal.It seems so similar to the echoes of severe price rises and joblessness during the June Lok Sabha elections in India amid rows of mutton, muslim, mandir and mujra, mehngai and berojgari. Yes, Indians and Americans need food, a minimum quality of life and freedom from organised oppression.Indians are certainly more concerned because with whatever rank in the world economy, it is nowhere near the US.
If the American economy is not in good shape, Indians can at best be convalescing, post-COVID-19. But the stranglehold of the honchos in India is more gripping than in the US, which has strong anti-trust laws despite the protests from the big. Indian policies suit the big shops more with quite a few trillions being waved off in taxes and other benefits, including tailoring national and stock market policies. Harris instead, despite being the Vice President of the USA, empathising with the American people, says, “The bills add up. Food, rent, gas, back-to-school clothes, prescription medication. After that, for many families, there’s not much left at the end of the month. As president, I will take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans.”
Those words any Indian voter would love to hear from their leaders. It follows a dozen proposals for improving the lives of Americans. Some like 3 million new housing units to the people seemingly have been picked up from Indian political party manifestos. Like India’s PM Avas, she proposes to provide up to $25,000 in down payment support for a million first-time home buyers.
An addition is tax incentives for builders, who build affordable rental housing. It could be a welcome scenario for most Indians.As now being debated in India on capital gains tax indexation or also rentals, Harris is keen on preventing corporate landlords from using algorithmic price-setting tools to increase rents by large margins. It is gradually becoming a problem in areas in the national capital regions of Noida, Gurgaon, Delhi’s Dwarka, Bengaluru, and Chennai. India has just started feeling it.Medical costs and health insurance fraud are the worst in the US. Many Indian companies now have emulated it.
Medical expenses are increasing in India and the US.
Both countries are discussing it intensely and often end up saying the United Kingdom has the best medical facilities. Harris promises to eliminate medical debt for millions of Americans, possibly by using federal funds to buy and forgive outstanding debt from health providers. She wants to limit Americans’ annual out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs to $2,000. Thousands of kilometres apart the conditions are so similar!
The one difference is that India wants to repeat the US insurance follies and they are trying to change it.
Though in some cases like PM JanAushadhi, India is doing better in providing generic medicines at low prices. Harris does not have that option and says would cap the out-of-pocket cost of insulin at $35 per month for all.As direct benefit pensions are given to kisans in India, Harris would give a child tax credit that would provide $6,000 per child to families for the first year of a baby’s life.
Indian budgetary novelties introduced as direct benefits or pensions in various ways have fascinated Harris. Each of Harris’s proposals, whether in terms of food, medicine, housing or child care is “populist”, involving government intervention against corporate interests on behalf of consumers.
Socialism, direct or indirect, despite big companies ruling the roost, is returning to world politics. What Harris does may just create a flutter, but countries like India, who claim to be the next global leaders, have to trudge more cautiously to safeguard the poor, farmers and the working class.Harris has borrowed quite a few of it from the Indian budget. Now it is India’s turn to ensure how it could check the corporates to serve people’s interests. The world is changing and India’s populism is winning big one’s heart.
(The author is a freelance writer and columnist; views are personal)
