"For last few months we have been investigating the curious phenomena of the inexplicable popularity of chain mails and discovered that they are more popular in fast-developing, high-growth economies like India where almost everyone with an email id receives and forwards more than a 10-20 chain mails in a year. That set us thinking - Is it just a coincidence that Indians owning personal computers and having an email id also happen to be India's most prosperous and high-income earning group. We began to wonder if there was more to this phenomenon than anyone could have imagined." wrote Levitt.
"What could explain millions of highly educated, rational group of Indians, forwarding mails and power-point presentations that made wild claims of instant luck, immediate prosperity and qualitative life improvement all in matter of a week? Could it be that people who were forwarding such mails were actually enjoying increased luck and instant life improvement, which encouraged them to keep following the instructions on these chain letters obediently? We conducted a quick survey which confirmed our suspicions - that people with email ids who forwarded chain mails promising instant luck and prosperity mostly belonged to high-income groups and were indeed more prosperous than those without computers and email ids."
According to Levitt, "It became increasingly self-evident that the main reason for the dichotomy visible in Indian society - an ever-increasing group of highly educated an prosperous middle-class enjoying the benefits of a flourishing economy growing at the rate of 8-9% annually in sharp contrast with vast majority of poor people living in dire poverty - was that the former group had access to personal computers allowing them to actively participate in the business of chain mail forwarding."
The duo called upon governments of developing countries worldwide to invest heavily in computer literacy and in subsidizing personal computers to people in their countries living in poverty. "The chain email letter is a wonderful invention that has bestowed instant luck and prosperity to millions of people and has the potential of eradicating impoverishment, misfortune and ill-luck for ever from the face of the earth. Once the initial investment has been made in ensuing 100% computer literacy and accessibility of computers to everyone, luck-granting chain mails can be received and forwarded at zero cost, allowing all the inhabitant of our planet to enjoy luck, wealth and happiness."
"We have also found that the content of the chain letter makes no difference to the success of the letter in delivering luck and life-improvement to the forwarder of such emails. Any image of any god or goddess, inspirational message or good luck charm can be used to create a chain letter. The success of the letter depends on how enticing the promised rewards are."
In an effort to contribute towards making our world a better place, the maverick economist and the NYT journalist duo have designed their very own chain mail letter and have instructed all the readers of his book to forward it to everyone on their contact list.
