A hair salon might be an odd place to derive information about a community or a country, or the changes going on in it. But knowing how and why some small and big businesses are supported or promoted might help us figure out a lot about the larger vision, priorities and values of a society. As they say in qualitative research, "Sometimes an in depth look at one case or scenario can provide an efficient and reliable window into an entire system or society, and offer important insights into emerging social trends or problems".
The mercantile or merchant class of old feudal societies always had its place...with some socially imposed limits of course. In some societies they were even relegated to a separate caste - with their own rights and responsibilities; rules and regulations; strengths and weaknesses and constraints and contributions.
Social and cultural restrictions placed on businesses were put in place to make sure that the ruling class, or the governing community, and the intellectual class (or caste) were not in any way contaminated by business values that put monetary interests above others. This helped the merchant community, also referred to as "the trader caste or the business class", pursue their production, manufacture, marketing, negotiations, innovations, experimentations and economic priorities without too many limits that might hinder their exploration and creativity, while also ensuring (though not always successfully) that the basic needs of the people were not ignored, and the basic resources of the community were not exploited.
Making sure that the business class did not become the administrative class, nor dominate the intellectual class, helped protect and promote important institutions, policies and laws connected to "social justice, fairness and equality", so foundations of democracy, fairness and important social values, beyond short term monetary interests or gains, were not neglected or weakened.
In any society where "education, advanced research, health care, the judiciary, the law enforcement system, politics and governance" are corrupted by money and moneyed interests, there is likely to be "poverty, disparity, crime, crookedness, corruption, cronyism, incompetency, mediocrity, thuggery, violence and tyranny".
An old Japanese saying goes, "Keep the merchant and his value system away from government and free pursuit of truth and knowledge Then you will have a strong society where even businesses operate efficiently, reliably and ethically".
But when hairdressers charge $ 50 or $ 75 dollars for a half hour haircut in the US, while engineers and IT workers with Ph.Ds or Masters degrees are earning $30 to $ 50 an hour for their professional work, you know you have reached an unbalanced unfair development, and absurd social change.
When I searched around, in my dwindling and declining middle class neighborhood near the famous California Institute of Technology, also known as Caltech (a reputed training and research institution responsible for graduating some of the most talented researchers and engineers in the US), for a hairdresser who'd do a simple coloring and cutting (that millions of people do around the world), I was stunned to be told that I'd be charged anywhere between $150 to $300 dollars for this service. Brain surgery by a highly educated neurosurgeon might cost less per hour.
Today in the United States I can eat at a very expensive restaurant for less than a $100. I can go and consult a very good physician, with an MD and a license to practice, for less than $100 an hour. I can find an engineer from MIT who'd be willing to provide professional consultation for less than $100 an hour. I can find an IT professional, with very good qualifications, advanced training and specialized expertise, willing to work for less than $100 an hour. But "low skilled or semi-skilled workers", with diplomas from community colleges, who do hair cutting, coloring and simple styling are now charging $150 to $300 for haircuts and styling. Are they that much in demand? Or...is the system “too skewed and”, as some Americans humorously say, "too screwed up"?
One might be tempted to say it is the latter. When societies focus excessively on appearance and presentation, rather than content or substance, and pay exorbitantly more to people who provide basic grooming, marketing and entertainment than its educators, researchers, engineers, innovators and competent rulers...such societies generally tend to be on a decline.
When an actress who "pretends" to be teacher, a researcher, an inventor or an electrician earns much more than an actual teacher, a researcher, an inventor or an electrician in a society, then that society has lost its social priorities and its fundamental commitment to "recognizing, rewarding and promoting relevant abilities, capabilities and contributions".
In which enlightened and evolved society will a hairdresser charge $150 or $300 for a simple hair coloring and cutting, or for one hour service, than an engineer with a Masters degree or a social researcher with a Ph.D.? In which sensible society will such service providers be able to get away with ridiculous charges without a social critique?
Also, in which sensible society will banks and lenders give huge amount of money to individuals and groups for opening up fast food joints, restaurants, hair salons, beauty spas, tattoo parlors...as they often do in Los Angeles, in the name of "small business encouragement and investments", while ignoring, neglecting and even punishing inventors, innovators, scientific entrepreneurs and important social policy developers and implementers?
In many parts of Los Angeles you can see immigrants, who cannot speak a word of English, getting loans to start "a pizzeria"; "a taco joint" or "a nail salon"...but unable to get loans, with an affordable interest, to invent a more efficient oven; develop a more healthy taco or find more affordable ways of keeping one's nails healthy and attractive.
Several faculty colleagues of mine noted, "Many of our students wear better shoes and clothes than us. They drive far more expensive cars than us. They own more trendy gadgets than us. But many cannot read and write their own mother tongue, English, well...even at the college level. And they all have the attitude that if they pay they must get an A. Some bully and coerce their teachers to get the grade they feel they deserve, rather than work for it or earn it".
In some parts of the US some students even shoot their teachers because they don't like their "strictness", or "the teacher's demand for compliance in classroom and competency in class work".
A university degree, advanced education and higher learning should never be "an economic necessity or a social entitlement". Advanced and higher education should be mostly based on an individual's inner intellect, talent, interest, passion and a calling, with a fairly objective and an intelligently intuitive measure of an individual's abilities and capabilities during recruitment, and an individual's learning, competency and mastery at the time of graduation.
Those societies that provide free higher education to everyone who applies, or is in need of a college degree, irrespective of their talent, capabilities, commitments, competencies, contributions and preparedness, ends up with "copious numbers of graduates who cannot do much more than sit in an office and shuffle papers while looking important". Some end up wasting their time and talent doing jobs they do not like, nor are prepared for. Some may also get degrees in unemployable fields by pursuing social trends rather than their personal passions, or what is socially relevant. And we all know that lack of interest in one's work; lack of talent to do a particular job and/or lack of appropriate incentive in one's profession affects "productivity, creativity, competency, innovation and even integrity". And we also know that good or excellent taxi drivers and plumbers do not need college degrees, though some training in driving rules and diverse plumbing techniques are always helpful.
America's inability to establish policy distinctions and program differences between "trade colleges" ; "technical institutes" ; "professional schools" ; "four year Bachelor or two year Master programs" and "institutions of advanced learning and research" have created both "educated illiterates" and "uneducated innovators who are poorly recognized and supported". This is a contradiction that is likely to become a serious social problem, and that developing countries must avoid.
For many people, coming from extreme poverty, deprivation and desperation, the US is still a paradise that they spend copious amount of hard time, creative effort and precious resources trying to enter legally. Some put their life on the line, literally, to enter the US illegally. For many such people running water and indoor plumbing are a luxury. A small apartment with 24/7 electricity, even in the ghettos of American cities, is a luxury. A kitchen with a refrigerator, a microwave and dishwasher is a luxury. A bathroom with a flushing toilet, around the clock running water and a nice tub is a luxury. And for others a gallon of milk, a dozen fruits and a kilo of vegetables at an affordable price are a luxury. Then there are those who consider fast or junk food for less than $ 5:00, that can feed two kids, a luxury.
For some, definitions of safety and security in the United States are influenced by the extreme violence, lawlessness and social dysfunctionalities in the communities they emigrated from. Some immigrants consider the police that constantly monitors them and their neighbors, creating fear and total obedience in some, as a good thing...because they were once surrounded by thugs, the mafia, goondas, cartels and highly crooked officials in the old country.
As I noted in one of my papers years ago, "What is accepted, tolerated, sought out, embraced and even celebrated in the United States has a lot to do with where an immigrant comes from, and what their personal or professional conditions, ambitions and social priorities are".
An Indian woman once said, "When my car broke down on a highway, and there were no cell phones then, the telephones in booths on the road for emergency services in the United States actually worked. An emergency crew actually responded promptly when I called in the middle of the night from middle of nowhere. Can you imagine something like this happening in India?" The recent news about a young woman getting raped in a bus near Delhi does not boost confidence about telephones, even cell phones, working for anything...let alone to save a life in a middle of a rape on a moving bus.
One can understand why so many women from patriarchal communities and sexist cultures from around the world desperately wanted to move to the US. They did so mostly for security, safety, better opportunity and freedom (without negative consequences).
Extreme uncertainty, poverty, disparity, lack of mobility, lack of justice, lack of opportunity, lack of protection, too much violence, too much corruption, fear, desperation, lack of social values, etc. have also driven many people to emigrate out of, or flee from, their countries. Many have fled awful conditions to come to the US where public services, living conditions, economic opportunities, social comforts and community protections, for many decades, appeared "much better", or "better than most things anywhere else".
As one African immigrant noted, "The July 4th celebration with the firecrackers exploding in the air are the only explosions I want to hear. In my country there were too many bomb explosions and untimely deaths. I fled to the US for peace and security".
A Saudi upper class woman stated, "Where I come from driving is a luxury, voting is a luxury and being equal to a man in your own home is a luxury for a woman. I shall never return to the Middle East from the US until things change dramatically for women there."
A Latino immigrant sadly mused, "I had to walk one mile for water in my village, and there were many days when I was hungry or had to beg for food. I came to the US for plenty of cheap food, plenty of opportunity to find economic security and mobility. And if possible find success."
If you come from Sudan or Congo ; if you arrive in the US from the villages of Mexico or Northern India ; if you migrate anywhere from Pakistan or Afghanistan ; if you move away from extremely strict and rigid conditions imposed on you as a woman in Saudi Arabia or Iran ; if you come from challenging poverty in Ukraine, Poland or Romania ; if you come from the horrible corruption in Tajikstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan ; if you come with all kinds of romantic views about Capitalism from Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador....you will find America, even its poor inner cities, a paradise, and American propaganda on "capitalism as a perfect solution for every human problem" an attractive Kool-Aid to consume.
Nothing brought this out more clearly than my short drive to my hairdresser. That short drive, like my search for an affordable hair stylist in Pasadena, California, provided some social insights into the new emerging America.
The traffic near my condo was like in India, with cars weaving in and out without any warning. Most cars, trucks and buses only stop at the red light, and even the way they stop is sudden, in different directions and without following the road lines and divides. The cars turn without warning, and some have begun to use their horn to signal their presence or to overtake. Some also use horns and alarms when reversing and parking, adding to the city's noise pollution.
On several major roads there were shops, shops and shops till the eyes could see. There were no parks, no trees, no birds, no pretty architecture and no empty space in-between ...though there were plenty of empty stores and buildings.
There were also many people crossing roads as they pleased, spitting on sidewalks as they pleased, parking and driving as they pleased, eating, shopping and talking incessantly as they pleased. It was not the kind of people's energy that I usually welcome and enjoy in a city. It was the narrow, self focused, sometimes narcissistic, trivial small world of the "desperate, deprived, depraved, dysfunctional and the enslaved"...in a mindless world of perpetual selling or buying without balance, reason or thought.
These are early signs of an emerging third world nation: unnecessary chaos ; avoidable crises ; unreliable or sloppy frontline work ; poor or punitive management ; growing incompetency in government and business services ; lack of adequate punishment or penalty for wealthy lawbreakers or fraudsters ; excessive isolation, segregation, mistreatment and incarceration of the poor ; a dwindling and insecure middle class ; an upper class that is not economically accountable and socially responsible ; development and growth without planning...and planning without adequate reliable implementation of sensible laws, policies and programs.
It must also be borne in mind that infrastructures and many social institutions in under developed nations do not work, or they work in very shoddy unreliable ways...or they work mostly for the rich.
Welcome to Third World United States.
I also wondered as I observed this community change, "How are all these people, walking, talking, driving, spitting, shopping, buying, selling...going to vote? Who are they going to vote for? What kind of government or governance are they going to create?"
These questions went through my head the same day the Federal government of the United States went into a shutdown over a budget negotiation that was never about sensible foresight or vision. The shutdown occurred because a small group of elected conservative representatives merely wanted to prove to their base, their funders and future collaborators, that they could create enough theatrics to "bring their own government to a standstill". The purpose of closing the government down to repeal Affordable Care Act never succeeded, though the actual shutdown continued for weeks.
As many analysts admit, "This is not an unprecedented Federal government drama over a policy disagreement as much as an actual weakening of the legislative process. In the future nothing will get done: policy discourses and legislative actions, that require prompt governmental decisions, will get delayed, stagnate or deteriorate."
What many people forget is that mafias, criminal elements, unethical people, selfish people, tribalistic people, and those who beat up on the vulnerable, the desperate, the trusting and the naïve, have always moved ahead in the US historically, economically, socially and politically. But when the middle class was large, mobile, and could reasonably succeed without too many hurdles, injustices and problems, the ugliness, the deceits, the illegalities, the insensitivities, the cruelties and the social immoralities of the rich and the super rich were not considered "a big problem". But as the middle class dwindles, slips back, and are crushed by the illegal, unethical or careless conducts of many institutions, professionals and those in power, the awfulness of the elites, and the disparities among the masses, become more apparent and troubling.
And what is "authentically American" has not only undergone change, but it has begun to be defined and directed exclusively by the elites whose Americanism and patriotism have always been dominated by narrow economic self interests.
A disappointed liberal mused, "President Obama is surrounded by the same crooks, cronies and crazies as Bush...though some of them claim to be Democrats, liberals, centrists, moderates, Independents, non-partisan, bi-partisan, blah, blah, blah...For the next century or more the same old beliefs, same old boys with the same old toys and the same old policies and programs will rule. When people lose control over their own government, and policies no longer reflect their interests, you know it is a society on the decline".
An American humorist posted a statement over a sign near a bridge, "We cannot fix or repair this bridge. But you can still drive on it...at your own peril of course. And we wish you a nice day."
I chuckled when I read that post, and sensed, no matter what the social and economic deteriorations going on all over the US, the American sense of humor is not in decline. That provides room, if not for optimism, for some enthusiasm.
And in countries like India social and economic standards have been so low for centuries that for majority of the people low quality life and poor quality environment have become the norm.
As the Indo-American joke goes, "The US is declining. Please honk your horn in warning if the crumbling American bridge is shaking. Reconstruction might be delayed. On the other side India has declined. Please honk your horn in celebration after the shaking desi bridge has fallen. Rebuilding may be relayed".
About the author
Dr. Meera Srinivasan has a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, and has taught at several private and public universities in the US at the Bachelors and Masters levels. She earned her B.Sc. in Statistics from Bombay University, and her Masters in Medical and Psychiatric Social Work from the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She also has a post-graduate training in counseling from Australia. She has many academic papers and published articles to her credit. She has also presented in numerous conferences and seminars. She has lived in four countries (India, Thailand, Australia and the US), and has traveled to over thirty nations. Her commitment to social research, social development, mental health and social justice have played a big role in her personal life, professional work and public activism. She has won several awards for her professional contributions and community work. She has been praised very highly for integrating cultural and social diversity, in a complex and nuanced way, to her mental health and social work theories, analysis and practice.
Also read
1. Social Interpretation of Navratri for self awareness and self development by Dr Meera S
2. Differences on Women’s rights and choices between the U.S., India and the Middle East by Dr Meera S
3. Demystifying Caste