To be rich, or not to be

Not enough people in Bangladesh care about getting rich. There, I said it. It's probably not what you believe, but it's true.

Because if enough people cared about making money, we would have an opinion whenever an uninspired financial policy makes the headlines. I refer not to any recent ones, of course. 

At the same time, I should add, if you cared enough about making money, you wouldn't paint all businessmen as corrupt and evil. Maybe you don't. But so many do. 

If you cared about getting rich, you would also try to learn a thing or two about finance. Financial literacy refers to the ability to make good financial decisions. Maybe you are financially literate, since you are reading the Business Standard, but too many are not.

I have met business students at public and private universities who cannot tell you how much money you will have in the bank, if you got a 6% interest on a $100 deposit, over one year. I kid you not. I have met them all through my academic career. 

I have met respectable business leaders who have put their company savings into the stock market even when the market capitalization of DSE was over $50 billion and the GDP was around $110 billion. 

Did they not think that the market was overheated? Despite the mere smattering of large local corporates and multinationals with a measure of corporate governance, being listed? 

I have met senior bureaucrats who actually, truly believe that making money is evil and forbidden [until it is their turn to make it]. Heck, I have met academics who think money is the root of all evil. Too many. Way too many.

I am grateful when I make money. I am an academic, consultant, researcher, and development strategist, and I appreciate what money allows me to do. It allows me to spend on people I deeply and dearly love. It allows me to support people who could use my support. It also allows me to give it away. 

I am also a big proponent of financial literacy. I have cultivated a bit of it. It grew from my love of numbers. But I know many, for whom, it just grew. So anyone can grow it, anywhere. 

Why, you ask? Why care about growing it? I cannot tell you that you should care about making money, because ultimately, if you are happy not caring, I will probably believe you one hundred percent and leave you alone.

But if you do care overtly or covertly, then it's probably fair you stop hating it overtly or covertly and start giving a toss whenever you hear of a financial policy that makes no sense to you, or such things. 

Of course, it is also possible, you are much, much cleverer than I. 

Maybe you do care about making money, but you are flexible. That's always a possibility. You are smart enough to adjust your sails with the winds of change. 

Why care about policy, and greatest good for the greatest number, when you can just shapeshift your interests and I daresay, morals, in line with the latest budget or whatever initiative is getting funded? 

What matters really? Not clean streets, quality of healthcare or the food we eat, the integrity of our leaders, the characters of our men, and the safety of our women. You can buy our way out of these problems, if you have enough money. 

But, can you really? 

Sajid Amit, is Associate Professor, ULAB, and Director, ULAB EMBA Program. He is a Richard Hofstadter Faculty Fellow at Columbia University, 2005-2007. He can be reached via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter at @sajidamit75