Note to our customers and partners:
Before I get bashed up by some of our customers or partners (who use our product, Vembu StoreGrid, for their online/onsite backups) who are reading this blog to learn more about our company, our product, the online backup or the SaaS/MSP industry, I promise that the next two posts of mine will be related to our business. Please bear with me for letting out my frustrations in this blog. I am deeply passionate about some of these topics – especially how more and more government intervention in our lives is the root cause of most of the problems we are facing today, including the long and deep recession that is staring at us today.
Note to everyone:
I express my views with no malice towards anyone. I use harsh language to drive home the gravity of the situation. My harsh language is not to be taken personally. I strongly believe most of us as individuals are good natured and will not cause intentional harm to others. That is another reason I strongly feel we need to get out of the system which breeds crooks out of even the good natured individuals amongst us. If we do not strongly question these when we can, the day is not too far when our right to question will also be taken away in the name of “national interest”.
I am constrained to point out yet another example of government excess. In the name of protecting India’s reputation and in the name of protecting the 50,000 plus employees at Satyam Computers and in the name of protecting the entire Indian IT industry, the government of India has stepped in and taken charge at Satyam Computers. They have disbanded the current board at Satyam Computers and appointed a new board to ensure continuity of operations at Satyam Computers. It is a surprise to me that the government has such a power in the first place. It is worth noting that the shareholders of Satyam Computers were not consulted at all by the government. It is also worth mentioning that all the “spineless industry experts” are praising this government intervention into a private company’s affairs as the best thing since slice bread. By my definition, anyone, whatever reputation he/she has built for himself/herself over the years, who accepts the board position at the government created board at Satyam is a “crumbs picker”. It does not matter they all come with good intentions. They are crumbs pickers because I consider it immoral for the government to intervene in a private company’s affairs. It is another matter that the previous board members, appointed primarily by the founders and approved by the shareholders, were crumbs pickers too. But they at least had the approval of the shareholders even if it is specifically for picking crumbs thrown at them by the founders rather than representing and protecting the shareholders. So it is the shareholders who should pay the price, which they have already done. Having learnt their lessons, the shareholders should get together and decide on how to run Satyam Computers. It is none of government’s business to intervene in the name of protecting the national reputation or Satyam’s employees.
The government’s role should only be to make sure the fraud perpetrated by the founders is investigated impartially and the guilty are brought to book. That’s it. Nothing more. The shareholders who are the rightful owners of Satyam Computers will have the full right to decide the future of Satyam Computers. If they want to run down the company by appointing another set of crumbs pickers to the board and crooks in the management, let them exercise their right.
Why am I so against the government intervention even, in this case, if it appears to be “good for everyone”?
Because the same power the government uses for the “good of everyone” would be misused when it suits them. As I said in my last post, “Crooks are taking over this world; How long do we just settle for the crumbs”, when government gets more and more power the biggest of the crooks in the society will end up in the government because that is where it is the most profitable and the risk of getting caught is also minimal. Let me clarify how the same power used by the government for the “good of everyone” can be misused by the crooks who eventually are in the government. The process always goes like the following:
Just think for a moment why everyone is praising the government intervention in Satyam Computers affairs. That is because it is impossible to argue against anyone who is saying that “Satyam’s employees have to be protected at all cost” and that “India’s reputation should be protected at all cost”. These are what I call “motherhood slogans” for obvious reasons. We all know that this “motherhood slogans” are what is successfully employed by almost all crooked politicians to usurp more and more power onto themselves so that they can enrich themselves at the expense of others. So the power to disband a board of a private company and appoint its own board will be misused one day by the crooked politicians to destroy a genuine and honest company probably at the urging of competitive businesses run by crooked businessmen. And these crooked politicians will use all the “motherhood slogans”, like “national reputation or even national security”, at their disposal to destroy an honest business. So, as I keep saying the best way to protect honest people and businesses from crooks is to have a system which automatically makes these crooks powerless where ever they are and whatever they do. And that system is the “true free market” system which by definition would be minimal government and maximum freedom and power in the hands of individual citizens.
