Why Nepalese do not value money and spend recklessly?

By Rajeeb Satyal, Social Marketing/Management Consultant

One of the many reasons for Nepal’s failed economy is the public’s reckless spending habit. Nepalese spend recklessly because they do not value money. They do not value money because they never earned it themselves. It has always been the other’s money that every Nepalese spent, either inherited from ancestors, or stolen from the public fund. It is rare, if not impossible, to meet any person in Nepal who has achieved a high level of affluence through true hard work and honest business. This has created a mass conviction that people cannot become rich without adopting either one or both of these two options: inheriting parental property or earning by corrupt means. People do not believe in the third option of becoming affluent by honest and independent means. But it is the third option that we need to focus on and widely promoted in Nepal if Nepal is ever to achieve some level of affluence in the future.

Middle class Nepali families build mindlessly expensive houses dumped with equally mindlessly expensive decors, completely devoid of any aesthetic sense and consideration for functionality and purpose. In spite of expesensive decors, these houses lack very basic things such as proper maintenance, cleanliness, and warming system for winter season, not to mention about the basic life styles to match such expensive houses. I have seen many of my rich friends spitting chewing tobacco from the balcony of their newly built palace like houses. Usually many newly built houses have several western style expensive toilets, which stink due to lack of regular cleanliness and care. We imitate western life styles purely at superficial level devoid of their true spirit.

We make wedding reception unbearably expensive, to show off our prosperity, by inviting the number of guests far beyond we can afford and need, just to impress others and later to regret. And just contrary to what we occasionally express our concerns for degrading Nepalese culture, we tend to adopt new but entirely unnecessarily expensive culture such as dowry, Daksina and exchange of expensive items between bride and groom families.

The increased number of customers in the supermarket indicates people’s reckless spending habit where they pay more for the same item. It is also indicated by people’s readiness to pay extravagant charge to private hospital for mere superficial comfort even though they get the same or better service in the public hospitals.

Parents spend a lot of money for children and their education. Children’s are admitted in expensive school, provided with luxurious things those parents could not have afforded with their honest income. Majority of children would not know their parents’ income level and source. The message that the children getting from this phenomenon is that it is OK to earn from some unexplainable means. What is done is done among adults. May be we cannot change that. But it is really important to orient our children differently right from the beginning if we want Nepal to prosper in future.

These are only few examples of common extravagant spending among the middle class Nepali families. But this habit of extravagant spending habit exists at all socio economic level. For any expatriate consultants, understanding the equation between people’s income and expenses is very confusing.

 Why Nepalese do not value their money and things?

The general interpretation of this behavior has mostly been misinterpreted and presented as Nepalese generous culture. Sometimes we may genuinely believe that we are warm, happy go lucky spender who believe in today, not tomorrow? But, we have to test ourselves how far it is true. Would Nepalese do the same thing if they had earn their living right from the age of 16 and do not inherit parental property? Definitely NO. The spend freely only because they have not learned to survive on their own, and value what they earn. I was amazed when political leaders/ministers of this country decided to contribute 15 days of their salaries for flood victims. Would they have done it if they did not have any other unexplainable source of income?

It is almost obvious that Nepalese do not value money or for that matter anything, including sense of honestly, commitment, or religion, family or the relationship, which are taken for, granted. The real problem is that this attitude has become so deep rooted in the Nepalese society that nobody realizes it as a problem. On the contrary it is taken as something to be proud of.

Some key factors behind this reckless spending attitude

a) Inherited property

Almost every Nepalese inherits some ancestor property. Even the poorest people living in the remote parts of the country inherit some land or small hut that provides very basic things to live. The average country men has not yet experience the extreme level of poverty, disaster or crisis which would give them lesson to value money and whatever they have and to rise from the scratch.

If you deprive any Nepali, irrespective of his or her socio economic class, from inherited property, most of them will be poorer than a beggar in the street. The clear and loud message that we are giving through this tradition is that without parental property no body can survive. The ugly part of this tradition is that when one inherits property in form of land, money and business, one also inherits all the obsolete values and beliefs that push the people further to poverty. It also gives a false sense of economic security, because parental property makes people lazy apart from making them extravagant spender. In the process, people loose their faith in their own ability to earn, build house, and raise family on their own without parental support.

b) Corruption

It is well known that the wave of corruption has touched everyone’s life in one way other. Naturally people do not value money earned through corrupt means, simply because it is not their hard earned money. So corrupt money comes easy and goes easy. So a manager working in INGOs will spend more consciously than a government officer working in the custom office, even though manager working in INGO will have far higher salary.

However, although only political leaders and civil servants have been blamed for corruption in the country, the average citizen are equally or even more responsible for the corruption. And the treatment does not lie in legal actions and crude punishment against any particular class or community but in devising some creative way to transform the society against corruptions through holistic social reform. It is not easy, when whole society is infected with the disease of corruption. Corruption has already been approved by the society. Otherwise, every banks, every school, every service center would have asked for the income source of every person they serve. And every children, every spouse, every parents-in- law would have asked how did their beloved family members afforded luxurious lives with such a low income? Would the people have spent money with the same recklessness if they had truly earned it?

c) Religion/fatalistic view

Though it may not be the true teaching of the Hinduism, the general public has conveniently chosen to believe in the fatalism- a philosophical doctrine holding that all events are predetermined in advance for all time and human beings are powerless to change them. So why should people work hard to earn money or spend wisely if human destiny, everything that you do is so pre-determined? People genuinely believe that being born in a rich family and inheriting ancestor’s property and spending recklessly are their destiny and their birthright that were determined even before they were born. So why would they value money which is not earned with hard work?

d) Dignity of labor

When one does not have to work hard to earn money, one does not value it. In Nepal, there are two classes. One who works- (Kam Garne Manchhe- person who works), and the other who does not work but only eat sleep and watch TV at home (Kam Na-garne Manchhe –the person who do not work). The majority of the people do not want to be the “ Kam Garne Manchhe’ but aspire to be Kam Na-garne Manchhe (the person who does not work). Now if you see a beautiful intelligent female servant, and try to acknowledge her, the whole family will yell at you; why do you pamper our Kam Garne Manchhe (the person who works)? So in our society, persons who do not work are respected more than people who work hard for their living. So how can you expect dignity of labor in this country? And how can people expect to value their money when they do not realize the dignity of labor?

e) Misled attitude towards money

Deep down in subconscious level, people have already concluded that choosing the path of honesty will make them poor. It is an unshakable truth for them. And religion and social values have done everything to support this belief. And one has to become poor to prove that he or she has chosen honest path. So money, and richness are almost synonymous to being evil or dishonest. .

f) Education

We realize it or not, Nepal’s education system has totally failed to provide kind of education that is receptive to Nepal’s needs to develop favorable attitude and value system among the children. Most difficult part is that both the parents and schools are satisfied with each other in their short-term interest. Parents want educations that enable their children to do higher education in foreign countries, and probably migrate there permanently. Such parental desires are served but what happens in the process is that student looses their sense of patriotism, moral value and integrity, which is the true objective of the education.

Finally, we are already trapped in a vicious circle of poverty, corruption, and misinterpreted religion and value system. This vicious circle can be broken only if intervened with a bigger and positive vision for affluent Nepal with the enrollment of all-Nepalese people, not merely by some isolated patch works carried out with political motive. It can be done only with integrated approach whereby every sector, including education, religion, civic society and individual family plays a vital role. How we do is more important than what we do. It always has been the poor quality of things that we do that has prevented Nepal’s development. We are badly in need of thinkers, spiritual leaders, and philosophers to lead this country who can provide a holistic leadership.

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