Two words can save our turbulent world: social contract. The social contract of the past three decades has died. We need to create a new one.
Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Deng Xiaoping and Narasimha Rao may not have agreed on a lot. But they all shared the mood of the time, best captured by Deng’s memorable phrase: “To get rich is glorious”. The rich would get richer but the poor would get richer too. Everyone believed this fervently.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, India’s chief planner, once told me an interesting tale about a visit in the mid-1990s by a group of Chinese economists, who were keen to explain their economic reforms. An Indian economist somewhat tentatively observed: “But this will create greater inequality.” His Chinese counterpart smiled broadly and said: “We hope so!” In short, greater inequality would make the poor better off too. Now we know that this is no longer true.