Note to Mukesh Ambani – Why rich should share wealth with poor

I came across this Mukesh Ambani press release today and while it offered little in detail it was a push in the right direction. While I am not a believer in a philosophy of giving for giving sake, I do believe that corporations should help the poor by creating meaningful jobs. Mukesh seems to believe in restructuring the rural farmer’s retail arrangement (let’s assume and hope he means cutting out the middlemen) with consumers.

Making a case for his retail outlets, he said: “Indian farmer bears the highest risks. So, by unleashing a genuine pro-farmer and pro-consumer retail, it would help both and put them in a win-win situation.”

I agree, but let’s add taking government out of the equation entirely. Why not let the farmer decide the price based on market demand? Currently, these farmers are lining up in long queues while their product rots. Why do local governments or quasi government officials need to be involved at all? Let the farmer decide how to sell his product and let the entrepreneurs in India decide how to best get it to market.

India’s wealthy corporations and high net worth (HNW) individuals should be pushing for economic reforms from India’s government to better empower the individual by offering meaningful jobs. The lesson of simply giving to the poor has been learned time eternal. By giving to the poor without any strings or just as bad without any working opportunities, you create a welfare situation. The US has (and still is) learning how difficult it can be to get people off welfare. Had the US implemented a 90 day financial safety net along with extensive training programs (instead of giving money without strings) the poor and their offspring would have been much better off.

I loathe the extremely wealthy preaching to the rest of us to help the poor without giving any details. It’s easy for the wealthy to make those statements because they can afford to make them. Most of these pitches to help the poor are simply public relations stunts and do nothing to actually help the poor. The HNW individuals I respect actually train the poor or offer them real jobs and opportunities with real career paths. It appears that Mukesh Ambani is doing just that by offering farmers a way to sell their goods bypassing the middlemen. While he profits in turn, welcome to the world of free enterprise. It’s a win-win situation that can be duplicated by all retailers across India. Reliance is not a monopoly (another free enterprise feature) and others can ride the success if Ambani manages to change the farmer/consumer retail paradigm.

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• Note to Mukesh Ambani – Why rich should share wealth with poor