“Your argument loses its worth once you start with the namecalling.”
NO namecalling - just observation. You’re complaining about people who earn money spending it as they will.
“I’ve read Milton Friedman’s works more than a handful of times.I suggest you familiarise yourself with the economics of marriages esp. in Northern & Western India & how vulnerable persons working in that section of the hospitality sector are.”
I do have more than a passing familiarity with the level of abject poverty in India. Of course that level of poverty existed before Bollywood, so i’s tangential to it, not caused by it.
“Do you know about the scores of musicians,cooks(not chefs) & domestic helps who are languishing without work because persons are spending more & more on spicing up their weddings hiring a few niche specialists?”
Sounds like a good opportunity for a smart cook or musician to become a niche specialist, don’t you think? There are a lot of people languishing without work in India. It’s not the fault of people who have extravagant weddings. If anything they help the economy. All the people who attend - they have to get their laundry done. If they’re wealthy, someone drives them in a limo. If not, an autorickshaw. Someone cleans up afterward. Someone grows the food, brings it to market, sells it. Someone grows the flowers, tailors the suits.
“Do you know about the appalling conditions that such lower end workers live in.”
I know well what conditions they live in. Like I said though - this is nothing new for India. Commerce is their way out of it - not restricting how people with more money can spend it!
“About the Bollywood stars,do you mean those same people who buy their cosmetics & jewelry from Dubai & London?”
I didn’t know that the poverty stricken villages were places people could go buy cosmetics or jewelry. Now you want to restrict their access to passports? How about the IT guys who make billions overseas and bring the money back to India? Bollywood sales are also huge outside india, throughout all asia and the middle east for example. Even big in the US where it has a cult following, no to mention the millions of Indians here.
“Who shoot 75% of their movies in Switzerland,Manhattan & Singapore??What employment have they generated,other than allowing the Indian mafia to go legit??????”
Where should they do, bring the cast and hundreds of crew to a small village with no electricity or phones, 3 stinky hole in the ground toilets with no doors, and poop all over the streets and in the river? (See, I do have a familiarity with Indian poverty...)
If you think Im the only one complaining,I guess you should look at the editorial & opinion pages of quiet a few Indian papers-many persons from the corporate world themselves supported what the prime minister said.Nobody has a problem with spending-it’s wasteful spending that’s causing the negative vibes here.& the fact that scores of middle class Indians take after them,ruining their lives & those of their families in debt.Why not advocate your line of unrestricted spending-might be very encouraging to them.
Your familiarity with India begins & ends with suiting your arguments-there are scores of high end consumer shops in India,not just the poverty stricken villages filled with poop that you seem obsessed with.Why aren’t the likes of your Bollywood heroes going there????
Smart cooks & musicians need a lot more than spunk to perform at the wedding of an industrial bigwig or actor-so they scrap around hoping for the odd wedding.