Five gas stations theory

I cannot stop appreciating the same book (Lexus and the Olive Tree). Today I learnt about the five gas stations theory. This is a story about five gas stations, owned by people from five different countries.

The first one is a Japanese gas station. It charges $5 a gallon and employs 4 people. These people tank up the gas, and wash your windows with a smile. They are friendly and you drive out with a smile on your face (achha lagta hai??)

The second is the American gas station. It charges $1 per gallon and has just one person. You fill the tank yourself, wash the windows yourself, fill the tyres yourself. And while you move out 4 homeless people try to steal your hubcaps.

The next station is the western European gas station. Gas costs $5 a gallon. There is one man on duty who pumps your gas, and changes your oil. But he doesn’t wash windows. He Works only thirty-five hours a week, with ninety minutes off each day for lunch, during which time the gas station is closed. He also has six weeks' vacation every summer in the south of France. Across the street, his two brothers and uncle, who have not worked in ten years because their state unemployment insurance pays more than their last job, are playing boccie ball.

Fourth is the developing-country gas station. Fifteen people work there and they are all cousins. When you drive in, no one pays any attention to you because they are all too busy talking to each other. Gas is only 35 cents a gallon because it is subsidized by the government, but only one of the six gas pumps actually works. The others are broken and they are waiting for the replacement parts to be flown in from Europe. The gas station is rather run-down because the absentee owner lives in Zurich and takes all the profits out of the country. The owner doesn't know that half his employees actually sleep in the repair shop at night and use the car wash equipment to shower. Most of the customers at the developing-country gas station either drive the latest-model Mercedes or a motor scooter nothing in between. This place is alway busy, though because so many people stop in to use the air pump to fill their bicycle tires.

Lastly there is the communist gas station. Gas there is only 50 cents a gallon -but there is none, because the four guys working there have sold it all on the black market for $5 a gallon. Just one of the four guys who is employed at the communist gas station is actually there. The other three are working at second jobs in the underground economy and come once a week to collect their paychecks.

This story (or theory, whatever you call it) portray the state of various economies that they represent. Japanese like togetherness, and follow and tend to reward equally. Prices are high (Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world), taxing those who can afford. They tend to reduce inequalities and move towards an equitable atmosphere. They guarantee lifetime employment, and then protect their markets from external attack.

The western Europeans tend to depend a lot on social security. Developing countries have high gap between the haves and the have nots. The middle class vanishes, and there are just two classes: the rich and the miserable. The Americans are market oriented, and would do everything to reduce costs, without providing anything called the social net. Performers are rewarded, turtles are fired.

Globalization has given rise to a market driven economy. Now everyone is moving towards capitalism, because socialism has failed.