We commonly hear and blame “the middlemen” as the prime rent seekers in our systems. Most discussed, perhaps, are the middlemen in the markets. When we fail to ensure a good price for our farmer-producers, we blame the middlemen. In one sense it is right, they can be blamed because they do not produce anything but try to earn their livelihoods without any investment.
We have limited understanding about the market mechanism and dynamism which are very much linked with the state of the type of capitalist system we are living under. In our kind of market mechanism, personally speaking, the middlemen are a blessing in most cases. Because they are ensuring that all the goods being produced are being bought by them, collected, packaged, and finally handed over at the immediate local markets. This is a service that farmers, or primary producers, very much recognize as being very important.
That is only the beginning, this handing over continues up to 10 or 15 times until that specific good reaches a local retailer. It is the final price of the item of the product that hits us strongly, depending upon class. In a supermarket we don’t usually complain about prices but with a small vendor on the street we have concerns. This complaint and the blame then travel around. It goes to the press and media and finally enters politics. No one has an answer nor has a clear idea as to how to escape.
But imagine that we don’t have any middlemen anywhere in the market. In the market where all the players have a set role as a professional, they grow organically in the system and earn their livelihoods in return for a service following a set rule. In the real world, we do not have rules to follow, and we don’t want to work on those rules of the game and dare challenge the existing structure.
I want to serve my role sincerely as the best broker, selling a product, a service, or an idea coming from anywhere, good or bad, I have no power or a clue to judge. If I am serving a project, I have no idea about how much of the project benefit ultimately reaches its desired beneficiaries. If I am selling a service, I try to extract as much in fees as possible, no matter how much the actual cost looks like.
Most of the budget expenditure for public services is allocated for salaries and infrastructures, very little is for actual expenditure for the target beneficiaries. So, you have a top-heavy administration, you think if you can satisfy them with all the facilities -- and that’s it, you are done. Running the show and efficiently implementing the same is the indicator of success, but not seeing how much in it that you can claim as your contribution to the development.
Most of us are in the middle, running the show. We deal with both ends. We don’t organize farmers and help them understand their power, their rights, and the importance of unity to be able to bargain the price of their products or to establish their own marketing channels. We work with labourers to divide them, not to unite them. We are negotiating for the status quo and helping the masters to run the businesses without challenges.
Of course, we have criminals at the top who we brand as “capitalists,” “syndicates,” etc, the hoarders who create artificial scarcity of goods in the market. They are connected to the permanent power nexus and have efficiently established themselves in the system. They exist in every sphere of our system and have the ability to challenge any government. For these groups, we need to make sure that we establish a system of fair competition and not favour anyone.
Middlemen are here to fill up the blanks. They grow as much as the system has the niche for them to grow. We cannot blame the middlemen. We must challenge ourselves to work for the development of systems which automatically reduce the layers of middlemen and make it a more equitable society. A society that will have justice and equitable share for all and rewards which helps all sections of the society to lead dignified life.
Revolutions bring the opportunity to reject the status quo and reignite energy to establish new systems as people in general and the leaders and their newly-built bonding and trust help grow hope, consciousness, sincerity, and dedication. We must find ways to interact, to form new ideas for a new set of systems which are strategically important to set this country in motion for a dignified future for all.
Ahmad Salahuddin is a development researcher. He can be reached at [email protected].
