Substack

Monday, June 11, 2007

Corrupt Individuals and the Lifestyle Paradox

There is an interesting characteristic about rent seeking individuals in Government. If one were to closely observe the lifestyles of the majority of our protagonists, it is common to see a near total lack of any display of ostentation. In fact, most of the corrupt individuals would surprise us with their remarkable material simplicity. I have seen numerous individuals, who by any yardstick would have earned enough to afford very comfortable lives, with extremely spartan sartorial sense, and without even a minimal display of a good lifestyle.

Let me explain with a couple of examples. There was this Town Planning Building Inspector, caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, with assets worth above Rs 4 Cr, whose physical appearance and lifestyle would embarrass a pauper. Another observation, I am sure you will agree with me that middle class families can easily afford atleast the smaller cars. So it is all the more surprising to find even higher level officials using the ramshackle Mahindra jeeps of decades vintage used in Government, for taking out their families. Faded and old shirts, fraying collars, repeated use of the same dress, torn sandals, use of old and ramshackle vehicles etc are some common distinguishing features of such individuals.

The common argument is that by deliberately avoiding any signs of conspicuous consumption, these individuals are trying to deflect any attention from themselves. But ironically, by consciously downplaying their incomes and trying to give an exaggerated impression of penury, the more corrupt individuals may actually be unwittingly signalling themselves out in the crowd! What makes this even more stark is the contrast with the less corrupt or honest officials. The majority of these individuals lead normal lifestyles, commensurate with their incomes.

Taken to its conclusion this argument would make it impossible to spend money on anything. Though this consideration would be certainly working in any individual's mind, the extreme frugality exhibited by some individuals goes beyond any reasonable yardstick. In any case, the behaviour of these individuals clearly appear to deviate from Thorstein Veblen's universally applicable Theory of Conspicuous Consumption.

My observations are confined to those I have seen and interacted with in my eight years in Government. However, I think it is a big enough sample to form certain hypotheses, which need to be then tested more rigorously against available data. Do we have a lead for anti-corruption agencies? I am inclined to believe that we do have one. How about targetting the more suspiciously under-dressed and those consciously displaying a lack of ostentation in their lifestyles? You will agree that instead of the more difficult task of going after those with incomes disporportionate to their known sources of income, it would be much easier to target those with lifestyles disproportionately lower than those with similar incomes. My guess is that both would be the same!

3 comments:

Quintessential Critic (Sudhir Narayana) said...

I guess your piece makes a sweeping statement. I don't agree with what you say. It's true that *some* corrupt people go overboard to hide their ill-gotten wealth but others try to project a *Very Normal* lifestyle - one that goes with their *real* income. Please avoid sweeping statements - while I agree with the underlying angst in your writing.

Urbanomics said...

Having re-read the post, I feel that it could have been more nuanced, and your note of caution is welcome. I am inclined towards post-moderns like Derrida, who assailed the "grand narratives", which tend to over-simplify every social phenomena. In fact one of the objectives of this blog is to stay free from such over-simplification.

The post does not intend to declare that all rent-seeking individuals lead consciously spartan lifestyles. For some time, I have tried to track alleged or suspected rent-seeking officials and contrast their lifestyles with those of those acknowledged as honest. There is a distinct trend, as outlined in the post, among all my field staff - Engineering, Town Planning, Public Health, and Taxation. My contention is that this could be some sort of preliminary signalling rule for fellow officials, anti-corruption agencies, and even the citizens.

Any definitive hypothesis can be drawn only after more rigorous data collection and analysis. Empirical analysis of social phenomena, so as to draw actionable conclusions, is an interesting and emerging field of study. In fact the Humanities Departments in our Universities ought to be taking this up seriously.

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