a sense of entitlement

economic crisis happens => companies lose money => people lose jobs

that's just how things work. what baffles me is how the indian news media has been crying foul over job cuts, framing every instance of corporate cost-cutting as the sacrifice of poor employees by rich corporate honchos. what do these so called reporters understand about the financial position of these companies? what do they understand about cost structures, bankruptcy risks or long-term strategies governing management decisions? without any fact-based analysis, the media has been rather quick to convict managements of greed & incompetence.

case in point, the indian airline industry. kingfisher & jet airways have been losing tens of crores of rupees every day. in order to stem the bleeding, both have resorted to cost cutting measures. jet laid off several hundred employees while kingfisher announced pay cuts for its senior pilots. jet had to quickly retract its decision after its fired employees took to the streets & sought help from hoodlums like raj thackeray. and now kingfisher is facing flak for cutting pilot salaries. there was a guy on barkha dutt's show, screaming hoarse that vijay mallya should curb his extravagant lifestyle before punishing his poor pilots who have each spent 15 lakh rupees on their training programs. several questions for that genius and other people of such persuasion:

- did mallya coerce these pilots to spend all that money in training & to join his company?
- did mallya provide lifetime guarantees for all jobs & salaries at kingfisher?
- what exactly are mallya & goyal supposed to do with all the redundant workforce? take empty flights for sorties in the sky for the amusement of said geniuses?
- maybe mallya has a lot of personal wealth. why stop at paying people's salaries out of his own pocket? maybe he should make out his will to all kingfisher employees.

truth is, we're all on our own out there. we invest in our training & education because we expect a reasonable lifetime ROI out of it. but like all investments, this too comes with risks associated. it's no different from investing in the stock market. if a broker loses money on a kingfisher stock, does he ask mallya to pay for his losses? the broker invested in the stock knowing fully well that there's risk associated with his investment. he was prompted by his own greed for high returns. the pilots who joined kingfisher bet their training money on a booming airline industry. unfortunately, the industry slumped and it'll take longer for them to recover their investment. it's not like the airline industry is dead, it'll probably recover in due course & provide many more jobs & attractive salaries. but if the media & politicians insist on irrational employment practices, they'll simply end up breaking the industry's back.

tagged out of inertia

poked, commented & phoned out of it by the vyas. so here goes.

my oldest memory: watching a movie out of a tiny square window, projector whirring in the background. kulfi & popcorn during the break & rabbit spotting on the way back home.

10 years ago: i bought my first computer.

my first thought this morning: what a strange dream that was. what was it?

you built a time capsule today what would it contain: a bar of chocolate, a bottle (um, make that a case) of the finest wine (can u imagine what a treasure that would be!), chai & coffee, seeds (of everything), candles, matches, a macbook with a wi-fi card and a ping pong ball.

this year: gives me a sense of deja vu.

14 years from now: stocks might be up.