Jamal Mecklai: Kiss and fly

MARKET MANIAC

I visited France, after many years, last month and came away amazed and delighted. I had forgotten how beautiful Paris is. And how stylish the French are, particularly the women! I could, of course, go on about French women but it may lead me away from the focus of this piece, so I shall desist.

The focus of this piece is that despite more or less continuous double-digit unemployment, mini to micro economic growth, dire demographic predictions and the chill winds of globalisation howling about rigid labour markets and the failure of European socialism, the good life is alive and very well in France, thank you very much.

The French, I was told, see work as something you do between holidays. They understand that life is for living and that the function of work is simply to finance that life. As a result, the French are less interested in business than they are in lunch and food and wine and art and beauty and, yes, politics.

They take their socialism seriously""for instance, it is incomprehensible to them that in the United States, there are 40 to 50 million people""equal to the entire population of France""who are, from a health coverage standpoint, destitute.

They understand intuitively that""to use a sexist analogy from the old Anthony Quinn film, Zorba the Greek""when a beautiful woman sleeps alone, it is a shame on all mankind. So, too, when a single person is hungry or sick or, indeed, sad, it weighs on all society, making it very difficult for anyone to enjoy lunch. And while you may do many things to the French, one thing you do not do is disturb them at table.

Which may explain the huge disconnect between many French politicians and the French people, reflected in the massive "non" vote to ratification of the European Constitution. While some European politicians like Peter Mandelson, the British EU trade commissioner, believe that "there is a lack of appreciation amongst many ... in France that in the 21st century Europe has to raise its economic game", I believe the French people were simply saying that they are not willing to further reconstruct their social order for short-term American-style growth.

In fact, there have been many analyses over the years that articulate that lower European growth may well be a result of lifestyle choices by Europeans, and it seems to me that the crisis in the European Union sparked by France's rejection of the treaty is a signal that the single-minded accountants-as-economists march of globalisation may have met something of a match.

Fortunately, the politicians who will try and capitalise on this vote""an unlikely combination of the Far Right (who were opposed because the expansion of the EU would bring all those Turks in) and the Far Left (who were opposed because they feared that France's precious social safety net would be diluted)""will never be able to get together, so it is likely that Chirac (or some version of him) will remain in power and""perhaps over lunch""the game will continue, balancing slow to modest growth with the good life.

So what does all of this have to do with India? Our economy is miles behind France in scale and, critically, our social safety net barely even exists. However, our government (like that of France) is weak, and our ethos is closer to that of the French than, say, the Americans""most Indians are far less interested in business than they are in lunch (or spirituality, or what have you).

This may explain why, like France, we are always growing at a lower rate than our "full potential". Perhaps we, at some level, are willing to give up a couple of percentage points of growth to enjoy our lunch.

Now, I understand that India is a poor country and the cost of this same luxury is much more dire than in France. Each percentage point of growth costs the French, perhaps, an extravagant vacation; each percentage point of growth costs some Indians their lives. So, I'm not making a case for 2-hour lunch breaks.

Rather, I'm saying that as we develop our economy, we need to keep investing in effective social programmes. Every government does, of course, pay lip service to this, but the key word in the last phrase is "effective".

I was at the launch of a book written by Dr Bimal Jalan, ex-Governor of the Reserve Bank and currently a member of the Rajya Sabha, and in the discussion he pointed out that using certain econometric models he estimated that corruption in India costs as much as 2 percentage points of growth. Clearly, this is where we can get the resources to finance the safety net we need so that we, too, like the French, can truly enjoy our lunch.

And after lunch, lovely as that is, there is much, much more. So many simple ways that make life lovelier. The list is endless, but the loveliest I experienced this time was at Nice/Cote d'Azure airport, where we were taking a flight to Paris. A friend was driving us there and as we approached the drop-off point, where, in more mundane airports""Mr Praful Patel, take note""you would see signs like "passenger drop off" or "alighting only", I saw a large sign that said KISS AND FLY!

Kiss and fly, indeed. Lovely. Let's.

The author is CEO of Mecklai Financial