WRITTEN by S NAGARAJAN
swami_48@yahoo.com
Date: 20 AUGUST 2019
British Summer Time uploaded in London – 10-26 am
Post No. 6903
Pictures are taken from various sources. ((posted by swamiindology.blogspot.com AND tamilandvedas.com))
பாரெடோ பிரின்ஸிபிள் Pareto principle (Post No.6903)
Posted by Tamil and Vedas on August 20, 2019
https://tamilandvedas.com/2019/08/20/%e0%ae%aa%e0%ae%be%e0%ae%b0%e0%af%86%e0%ae%9f%e0%af%8b-%e0%ae%aa%e0%ae%bf%e0%ae%b0%e0%ae%bf%e0%ae%a9%e0%af%8d%e0%ae%b8%e0%ae%bf%e0%ae%aa%e0%ae%bf%e0%ae%b3%e0%af%8d-pareto-principle-post-no-6903/
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Swami’s Cross word 19819 (Post No.6902)
Tamil and Vedas 
R.Nanjappa (@Nanjundasarma)
/ August 20, 2019Wilfredo Pareto was a master of many fields, unlike the narrow specialists of today. He is well known for the so called 80/20 principle as it has been extensively followed and become popular [ like Parkinson’s Law or Peter Principle]. But his contributions to other fields- mathematics, economics and sociology were also important.
In economics, he studied the distribution of income and wealth closely. He observed that in any society, the bottom rung simply laboured and struggled to survive; the middle rung too laboured but managed better, while it was the top thin layer that had nearly half of all the wealth. Well, this is the situation even today, and with all the high decibel hype about growth, the top 2 or 3% own most of the wealth in the world, and the gap between the rich and the poor is growing. We are reminded of the lines from old Tamil movie songs like ” காடு விளைஞ்சென்ன மச்சான் நமக்கு கையும் காலும் தானே மிச்சம்” [ பட்டுக்கோட்டை]. But Pareto did not say this was a characteristic of a capitalist society; his view was based on a historical observation of all societies.
Pareto introduced mathematical analysis into the study of economics. Since Adam Smith’s time, economics had been a part of ‘moral philosophy’. Pareto changed that. But he found that his mathematical models did not work in actual life! This disillusioned him.
He is also known for a concept known as “Pareto Optimality” which says that it is impossible to make one person better off without making another worse off!
He then turned to sociology. Here, his main observation was that in any society, under any system of governance, it is only a small elite who controlled power. He found that this was the position even under socialism and democracy- a few leaders came to power and this became a new aristocracy, and most people continued to labour (suffer) as before! He therefore did not believe in socialism or democracy. But this made him a controversial figure, as many believed that his ideas favoured Fascism, as Mussolini had been his student! However, this was not true. His observation was merely that a small number monopolised power in any society, in any set up. We saw how power was concentrated in a family during UPA rule in the second largest democracy in the world, in the 21st Century!
But Pareto will live through his 80/20 Rule! After all, we know that even more than 80% of our bureaucracy is idle and unproductive, and it is the rest who work and produce all the results, including the distortions! Here too, the lines of another Tamil song come to mind: “பொறுப்புள்ள மனிதரின் தூக்கத்தினால் பல பொன்னான வேலையெல்லாம் தூங்குதப்பா! Of course the image of our PM Deve Gowda who slept through some official proceedings is still green in our memory!
R.Nanjappa (@Nanjundasarma)
/ August 20, 2019The name is spelt Vilfredo Pareto ( not Wifredo.)
Santhanam Nagarajan
/ August 20, 2019super points!
thanks!!