tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82031994474119066692024-03-13T02:05:40.973-07:00Praxeology: My Reflexions on IndiaMadhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.comBlogger282125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-74407098716261403772022-04-06T09:54:00.002-07:002022-04-06T09:54:51.200-07:00On the Hijab Ban<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">Karnataka high court has upheld the government’s orders on the ban on wearing hijab (headscarf) by Muslim girls in school/college etc., places. In its verdict the high court</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/karnataka-hijab-row-high-court-052909463.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #144d7f; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">said</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">,</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span></p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">India’s Karnataka state has ruled that the hijab is not “essential” to Islam.</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The three-judge bench held that allowing Muslim women to wear the hijab in classrooms would hinder their emancipation and go against the constitutional spirit of “positive secularism”.</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">“There is sufficient intrinsic material within the scripture itself to support the view that wearing hijab has been only recommendatory, if at all it is. What is not religiously made obligatory therefore cannot be made a quintessential aspect of the religion through public agitations or by the passionate arguments in court,” the order says.</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The court, however, said the order was valid, holding that the government had the right to prescribe uniforms for students.</i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">There are many delicate issues involved here. The implications of this decision are far and wide for the future of the Indian nation state and we must discuss these issues and their implications. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">First, do governments have any right to prescribe uniforms for students? Second, is it the job of the state judiciary system to determine what is essential and not essential to any religion? Third, is it judiciary’s job to do women’s emancipation? What is this constitutional spirit of “positive secularism”? Let us discuss these one by one. After discussing these questions I will discuss the real issue involved in this whole matter which everyone is forgetting. In the end I will also present the solution to this problem of hijab ban. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Do governments have any right to prescribe uniforms for students?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">According to mainstream reasoning the government is a <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">negative force</i> created by people to safeguard their lives from any physical harm done either by society’s members to each other or from outsiders. It is a collective force created by members to defend their fundamental rights to life, liberty, and property. Therefore it is none of government’s business to enact any positive legislation like the hijab ban. As Frederic Bastiat said,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">When law and force keep a person within the bounds of justice, they impose nothing but a mere negation. They oblige him only to abstain from harming others. They violate neither his personality, his liberty, nor his property. They safeguard all these. . . But when the law, by means of its necessary agent ,force, imposes upon men a regulation of labour, a method or a subject of education, a religious faith or creed — then the law is no longer negative; it acts positively upon people. (</i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Law-Frederic-Bastiat/dp/1612930123/?tag=acadofidea-20" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">The Law, Frederick Bastiat</a><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">)</i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Even constitutionally speaking, nowhere does the Indian constitution say that government can tell people what they should wear or not. I do not know where in the Indian constitution it says that the government has the right to prescribe uniforms to students. Can these judges give us an exact quote from the constitution where this right (sic) is clearly mentioned? </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Then in reality this whole idea of ‘government as our protector’ is a ruse created over the years by government officials and its supporters to legitimize their illegitimate rule of using violence against people to rob and kill them to live parasitically. All governments historically came into existence via conquest of peaceful people by a gang of marauders. As Murray Rothbard said, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">We are now in a position to answer more fully the question: what is the State? The State, in the words of Oppenheimer, is the “organization of the political means”; it is the systematization of the predatory process over a given territory.</i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">For crime, at best, is sporadic and uncertain; the parasitism is ephemeral, and the coercive, parasitic lifeline may be cut off at any time by the resistance of the victims. The State provides a legal, orderly, systematic channel for the predation of private property; it renders certain, secure, and relatively “peaceful” the lifeline of the parasitic caste in society.</i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;"></i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Since production must always precede predation, the free market is anterior to the State. The State has never been created by a “social contract”; it has always been born in conquest and exploitation. (Source: </i><a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Anatomy%20of%20the%20State_3.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Anatomy of the State</a><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">, pp. 15-16)</i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Both from the perspective of theory and history government has no right to ban hijab or legislate any positive action like the hijab ban.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Is it the job of the state judiciary system to determine what is essential and not essential to any religion?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The role of the judiciary system in any state is to interpret the law and see whether government legislation adheres to the law of the land, i.e., the constitution. Their job is to deliver justice and nothing else. It is none of their business to determine whether some religious practice is essential to that religion or not. That job is left to the scholars of that religion. In this case it is the job of the Islamic jurisprudence scholars, i.e., Ulema, to determine whether wearing a hijab is essential to Islam or not. Interpretation of the Quran is not any Indian judiciary’s job. Any interference of courts in internal matters of religion will have far reaching implications e.g., imagine in 2024 an Islamic government comes to power in India and their courts determine that it is illegal for Indian women to wear a mangalsutra and sindoor. How would Hindus feel then? By allowing courts to interfere in internal matters of religions like this, they are opening a Pandora’s Box and what comes out of it in the future may not be liked by the majority of Indians. It is always necessary to keep state and religion separate. When you mix them together, it brings society to its knees. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Moreover the Indian constitution <a href="https://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/COI...pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">says</a>, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a </i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">1 </i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">[SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC] and to secure to all its citizens: </i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">JUSTICE, social, economic and political;</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; </i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">and to promote among them all </i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the </i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">2</i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">[unity and integrity of the Nation]; </i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Against this the Karnataka education minister has now <a href="https://www.opindia.com/2022/02/strict-action-will-be-taken-if-students-are-forced-to-remove-tilak-kumkum-bindi-etc-karnataka-education-minister/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">said</a>, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Strict action will be taken against educational institutions if they force students to remove tilak, kumkum, bindi etc.</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">kumkum, sindhur and bindi are our cultural identities, they are used as ornaments, and they can’t be compared with the hijab</i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">This directly goes against the Indian constitution which says, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.</i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">—(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them. </i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to— </i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">1. Ins. by the Constitution (Twenty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1971, s. 2 (w.e.f. 5-11-1971). </i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">37 </i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">———————————</span> </i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">(</i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">a</i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or </i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">(</i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">b</i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public. </i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">What the BJP government in Karnataka is doing is directly against the Indian constitution, and instead of throwing out the Hijab ban the high court has affirmed it. Affirming such legislation means judiciary is participating in the injustices of the government instead of correcting them. Instead of promoting fraternity among citizens, BJP government and Karnataka high court are busy dividing them and creating a civil war kind of situation in India. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Is it judiciary’s job to do women’s emancipation?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Judiciary’s only role is to see if person’s human rights are violated or not i.e., if any injustice is done or not and then to correct the injustice and deliver justice. Nation state’s constitution is a document, designed by its citizens, that binds government in its limits of protecting the God/nature given rights of its citizen. It is popularly believed that citizens have rights because the constitution gives them these rights, but nothing can be more further from the truth. As Frederic Bastiat said, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Life, liberty and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it is the fact that life, liberty and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. (Source: <a href="http://campconstitution.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/The-Law.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">The Law</a>) </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">This means that it is none of judiciary’s business to carry out women’s emancipation! Their job is to deliver justice, period.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">What is the constitutional spirit of “positive secularism”?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">If India is a sovereign secular socialist democratic republic then it is imperative that the state be kept separate from religion, and in that case state governments have no right to ban hijab. Banning hijab is a violation of constitution’s positive secular spirit. If banning hijab is maintaining the secular spirt of the constitution then government should ban all religions from India! </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Real issue and the solution</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The real issue here is the attack of government on fundamental human rights. Human rights are private property rights and self ownership is the first form of private property. As Murray Rothbard <a href="https://mises.org/library/propterty-rights-are-human-rights" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">said</a>, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The human right of every man to his own life implies the right to find and transform resources: to produce that which sustains and advances life. That product is a man’s property. That is why property rights are foremost among human rights and why any loss of one endangers the others. For example, how can the human right of freedom of the press be preserved if the government owns all the newsprint and has the power to decide who may use it and how much? The human right of a free press depends on the human right of private property in newsprint and in the other essentials for newspaper production.</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">In short, there is no conflict of rights here because property rights are themselves human rights. What is more, human rights are also property rights! There are several aspects of this important truth. In the first place, each individual, according to our understanding of the natural order of things, is the owner of himself, the ruler of his own person. Preservation of this self-ownership is essential for the proper development and well-being of man. The human rights of the person are, in effect, a recognition of each man’s inalienable property right over his own being; and from this property right stems his right to the material goods that he has produced. A man’s right to personal freedom, then, is his property right in himself.</i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Every individual is sovereign and free to wear whatever they want to. States have no right to prescribe any uniform for anyone, period. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The hijab ban can now easily be solved by privatizing the Indian nation state. If a private school doesn’t allow a particular kind of dress in its premises then it is not a violation of any human right. Everyone has a freedom of association and disassociation in a private law society where the state does not exist. If some institution or organization does not want to associate itself with a particular group of people then it has those rights. The problem of Indian nation state is lack of private property rights. By Constitution it is a socialist state and that is the reason why conflicts are going to take place continuously, and these conflicts will one day destroy this nation state. Private property rights are the fundamental foundation for the peaceful organization of any society. In a society where these rights do not exist and/or are replaced by public or common property rights, conflicts are going to be a daily occurrence. The prime objective in the organization of any human society is avoidance of this conflict, but the <a href="https://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/1957_9/3-4-5/socialistic_pattern_of_society_and_the_second_five_year_plan.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">socialist pattern of society</a>, which India has, is fundamentally contradictory to this prime objective. This is the reason why Indian society will disintegrate one day. Hijab ban is just one small step in that direction of disintegration. </p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-5942825697075951262022-03-31T09:52:00.003-07:002022-04-06T09:53:10.130-07:00Lesson for India from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War<p> Russian president Vladimir Putin finally decided to stop the Western NATO power from coming too close to his country’s borders. Alarmed by the comment that Ukraine wants to become a nuclear power by Ukrainian prime minister Zelensky, Putin has invaded Ukraine and is either going to free it from its corrupt Western stooge government or he’s going to annex it, as he has now made it clear. To understand the full background of this war please listen to this <a href="https://tomwoods.com/ep-2078-russia-and-ukraine-the-essential-backgrounder/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">interview</a> of Anti-war expert Scott Horton. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">In a nutshell, this is a typical war of one criminal gang with another i.e., one nation state fighting with another for territorial gains or to protect its turf where he enjoys the monopoly of use over violence. The latter applies to Putin where he is trying to keep the Western powers away from coming too close to Russia’s borders. Wars are the main weapon of nation state gang leaders for gaining hold of an area on which they are going to exploit for their parasitical survival. In this war no one is a hero and no one a villain. No nation state has any moral superiority over the other in preaching the message of peace or moral righteousness because all nation states are villains of our societies. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>These are the violent people who use violence as a political mean for their survival instead of working hard in the market and selling their surplus production to purchase the things they need for their survival peacefully. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">There is one crucial lesson here for India. </p><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em;">India has abstained from voting against Russia in both the UNSC (United Nations Security Council) and the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Commission). </li></ol><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Whatever <a href="https://indianexpress.com/videos/news-video/pm-modi-explains-reason-for-indias-neutrality-in-russia-ukraine-war/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">logic the Modi government has</a> behind this action, the implication of this is that in future when China or any other nation state will attack the Indian nation state, India will neither have any reason to oppose those attacks on a principled ground, nor can it scold other states for not coming to help because India has given tacit support to Putin’s actions of annexing another nation state. In any case when it comes to nation states it doesn’t really matter who is right or wrong. Nation states are criminal gangs and for criminals such moral issues are irrelevant. All nation states are immoral entities as they all begin and survive by using immoral and illegal acts of violence. In a war between one criminal gang and another the only important consideration is who is strong and who is weak. Whoever is strong will win the war and will gobble up their enemy’s territories. When the world is ruled by the ‘might is right’ principle, this is the end result we must expect and accept. When it comes to nation states, peace is illusionary. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Indian prime minister Modi and many Indians are talking about <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pm-modi-on-russia-ukraine-war-on-peaces-side-pm-says-on-russia-ukraine-war-then-tells-major-worry-2815877" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">peace right now</a>, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Amid a war between Russia and Ukraine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India’s several needs are connected to the involved countries but it is on the side of peace and hopes that all problems get resolved through dialogue.</i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">but they do not have any moral force behind their talks because these very same Indians are supporting their own government’s actions of abolishing article 370, which gave autonomy to the former princely state of Jammu & Kashmir, and they are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPhRLQN1EoA" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">clamoring for a war with Pakistan</a>. Most of these Indians, especially the voters of the ruling BJP party, are supporters of the idea of an Akhand Bharat (Undivided India). This undivided India includes the modern day countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, etc., and making them part of the Indian nation state means attacking them and grabbing their areas. This hypocrisy in international affairs is going to be costly for the Modi government and its supporters. You cannot talk about peace selectively. There is no alternative of peace. Peace is an absolute value which all must desire all the time, and not only when one’s side is weaker and is going to lose the war.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Nationalistic Indians only have two options today: If they talk about war then they must gear up for wars i.e., they must get the capability of fighting and winning wars, and if they cannot achieve this capability then they must stop talking about ideas like Akhand Bharat or starting a war with Pakistan or China. If they wish peace then demand peace all the time. Oppose immoral acts including condemning abolition of article 370. If Indians will support the Indian government’s take over of Jammu & Kashmir then they will be in no position to oppose China or Pakistan’s similar actions in their areas in the future. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The lesson for Indians is clear: Stay ready for future wars or stop talking about war, and stop supporting their own government’s illegal and immoral actions like gobbling up Kashmir or creating an Akhand Bharat.</p><div class="heateorSssClear" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both;"></div><div class="heateor_sss_sharing_container heateor_sss_horizontal_sharing" data-heateor-sss-href="https://misesindia.in/2022/03/13/lesson-for-india-from-the-ongoing-russia-ukraine-war/" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-35308958674203372182022-03-29T09:50:00.003-07:002022-04-06T09:51:50.786-07:00Elon Musk vs the Indian Government<p> Some recent headlines re the entry of Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla in India read something like the following, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">American car manufacturer, Tesla, is in serious negotiations with the Indian government over its entry into India. India is a very large market and all levels of purchases (high-end, mid-range and entry-level) are significant. However, the Indian government is leveraging on the significance of its market. The government will not allow any Tesla electric car that is not “Made In India” to have the same privilege as a Made In India car. </i>(<a href="https://www.gizchina.com/2022/02/11/tesla-electric-cars-in-india-must-be-made-in-india/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Source</a>)</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">You Can’t Have the Market In India But the Jobs In China: Centre On Tesla</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The government’s policy is that if the Indian market is to be used, job opportunities will have to be given to Indians, said Union Minister Krishan Pal Gurjar, replying to a question on Tesla.</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mr Gurjar said the government has Production Linked Incentives for automobile and auto components as well as for manufacturing Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery. Both schemes are open for domestic as well as foreign entities.</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Responding to a query on Tesla, the minister said “the company wants workers from China but their market in India. This is not possible with a Modi government… our government’s policy is that if Indian market is to be used, job opportunities will have to be given to Indians.” </i>(<a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/cant-have-market-in-india-but-jobs-in-china-centre-on-tesla-2756743" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Source</a>)</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Let’s examine the economics of these arguments put forward by the Modi government. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Basic economic fact of life </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Consumption is the ultimate economic aim of human life. This is necessary for survival and reproduction. All economic activities are aimed at this end. This also implies that before we consume anything, production is necessary. Without production consumption is impossible. Also, production must be cost effective for the prices to remain low enough so consumption becomes possible for a maximum number of people. That is the way we satisfy the most urgent needs of the maximum number of people. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Employment of labor services are only important because labor is one of the factors of production. However, it is just one of the factors, and not the only one. In fact it’s not even the most important one. The most important factor is capital. Capital increases productivity of both labor and land and so makes it possible for us to produce more goods without expending much of our labor or land. That is the sign of progress where economy is increasingly using more capital and less and less labor i.e., people are enjoying more leisure time and machines are producing most of the things. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Is employment important?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The above discussion about the economic fact of life tells us that employment per se is not important. Production and ensuing consumption is important for life. If we can produce and consume more without employing more people, it isn’t an economic catastrophe as most people want us to believe. In fact, that is a boon of life because remember life is not for working; it is for enjoying more leisure. As Henry Hazlitt said, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The economic goal of any nation, as of any individual, is to get the greatest results with the least effort. The whole economic progress of mankind has consisted in getting more production with the same labor. It is for this reason that men began putting burdens on the backs of mules instead of on their own; that they went on to invent the wheel and the wagon, the railroad and the motor truck. It is for this reason that men used their ingenuity to develop a hundred thousand labor-saving inventions.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">All this is so elementary that one would blush to state it if it were not being constantly forgotten by those who coin and circulate the new slogans. Translated into national terms, this first principle means that our real objective is to maximize production. In do- ing this, full employment—that is, the absence of involuntary idle- ness—becomes a necessary byproduct. But production is the end, employment merely the means. We cannot continuously have the fullest production without full employment. But we can very easily have full employment without full production.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Primitive tribes are naked, and wretchedly fed and housed, but they do not suffer from unemployment. China and India are incomparably poorer than ourselves, but the main trouble from which they suffer is primitive production methods (which are both a cause and a consequence of a shortage of capital) and not unemployment.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The progress of civilization has meant the reduction of employment, not its increase. (Source: <a href="https://mises.org/library/economics-one-lesson" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Economics in One Lesson, pp 55-56</a>)</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The reason why we have to continue to work like donkeys is because the fruits of our hard labor are being stolen from us by the parasitic class of our societies i.e., the government officials. There are many ways through which they steal our income. Firstly, taxation. That is a direct way of stealing our income. Second, and more subtle and sinister way, is inflation. By printing money state officials steal our income without even touching it. When government’s central banks create inflation that reduces our purchasing power and transfers that much purchasing power in their pockets. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">If prices fall secularly, because of the gold standard and abolishment of the central bank RBI, then without too much work we all can consume more. That is how we increase the standard of living of billions of people. Thus our problem is not employment, but inflation created by RBI and government taxation. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Does it really matter where Tesla is manufacturing its cars? </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">In this background now let us examine the arguments of the Indian government. For India’s development it doesn’t really matter where Tesla cars are manufactured. What matters is at what cost is he making them to keep the price down. Lower priced Tesla cars will help Indians, not high cost and high price production in India. Comparatively cheap Tesla cars will leave more money in the hands of Indian customers to spend on other items. With that same income, Indians will be able to consume more as consumption is the final aim of life. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Paying higher prices of Indian manufactured Tesla cars will leave little extra money in the pockets of Indians. That will lower their real income. With that reduced real income, they cannot spend more money on other items in India and the Indian economy will be that much more depressed! A depressed economy will generate more unemployment and not less. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">All those government incentive schemes just represent the higher cost of producing cars in India. Subsidy money will come from Indian tax payers. Higher tax burden will again reduce the income of Indians and make their lives miserable. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Conclusion</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">By not allowing Tesla to sell their Chinese manufactured cars in India the Indian government is only lowering the standard of living of people. Economic science informs us that it doesn’t really matter where a product is manufactured as long as that product is available to everyone at a lower price for consumption. Employment per se is never important. Higher standard of living and enjoyment of more leisure is important. The policies of the Indian government are not going to result in a higher standard of living for Indians. As long as the Indian government officials are stealing the fruits of hard earned income of Indians, this country cannot progress. </p><div class="heateorSssClear" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both;"></div><div class="heateor_sss_sharing_container heateor_sss_horizontal_sharing" data-heateor-sss-href="https://misesindia.in/2022/02/27/elon-musk-vs-the-indian-government/" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-27528455324785839232022-02-20T01:47:00.000-08:002022-02-20T01:47:13.788-08:00The Myth of the Fastest Growing Economy<p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">While addressing a post-Budget interaction with industry body FICCI, the Finance Minister Sitharaman <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/budget-2022-india-is-going-to-be-the-fastest-growing-economy-fm-sitharaman-8046761.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">said</a>, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">India’s economic recovery is going to place it as the fastest growing economy amongst others.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">It’s time now for us as Team India to rise. We are at such a juncture where the revival of the economy is very clear…this recovery is therefore going to place India as the fastest growing economy among the larger economies and that would continue even in the next fiscal.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">This talk of India being the fastest growing economy in the world is what we hear all the time from the Indian politicians, of whichever party is in power, media pundits, and other state supporters. But how significant is this claim? Does it really matter for an average Indian if his country’s economy is the fastest growing in the world? Let us examine these questions below. </p><figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3520" class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_3520" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 2em 1.5em; max-width: 100%; width: 550px;"><a href="https://www.investopedia.com/insights/worlds-top-economies/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-3520 jetpack-lazy-image jetpack-lazy-image--handled" data-lazy-loaded="1" data-recalc-dims="1" height="490" loading="eager" sizes="(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" src="https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-09-at-12.56.03-PM.png?resize=550%2C490&ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-09-at-12.56.03-PM.png?w=1439&ssl=1 1439w, https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-09-at-12.56.03-PM.png?resize=300%2C267&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-09-at-12.56.03-PM.png?resize=1024%2C913&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-09-at-12.56.03-PM.png?resize=768%2C685&ssl=1 768w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 1s; vertical-align: middle;" width="550" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-3520" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05); box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-style: italic; padding: 0.4em; text-align: center;">Figure 1: Top 10 Countries by GDP</figcaption></a></figure><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://www.investopedia.com/insights/worlds-top-economies/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Economic growth number per se doesn’t say much about the standard of living of the people in an economy. Instead of economic growth rate, the size of the economy and distribution of its gross product is important. For example, India’s economic growth number can be higher than America’s but that means nothing when the size of the US economy is 15 times bigger than India’s (see figure 1 below for a meaningful comparison). India’s economy is US$ 2 trillion (nominal GDP) while America’s US$30 trillion. At this size, even at a much lower growth rate per annum America is way ahead of India in terms of standard of living of its population. This fact is reflected in the per capita income numbers. While India’s per capita income is US$1927 dollars, Americans are enjoying per capita income of US$63,413 even when their growth rate is less than that of India. Indian economy will have to grow at a rate of hundreds of percentage point for centuries to catch up with the American economic standards. The same goes with China. Chinese economy is seven times bigger than India’s. Chinese per capita income is US$10,434 compared to US$1927 2000 of India. Indians will have to work their guts out to catch up with the Chinese standard of living. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://www.investopedia.com/insights/worlds-top-economies/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Not only is talk of India becoming the fastest growing economy of the world hollow but it is also a shameful statement by the finance minister. We should not forget that Indian economic growth was </a><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/india-economic-growth-hit-record-140716374.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">-23% just a few quarters ago</a> because of mindless implementation of lockdowns by the Modi government. No other economy in the world was damaged as much by these lockdowns as the Indian economy was. After this negative GDP number any tiny growth rate number is going to look good on paper, but that doesn’t mean improved living standards for Indians. Once you hit rock bottom low then the only way is up. But that way up is not to be celebrated as fastest growth. That rock bottom low should be lamented because it represents the damage done to the economy. Nirmala Sitharaman’s bragging about India as the fastest growing economy after pushing it at -23% growth rate is like a gambler bragging about winning 500 dollars after losing 5 million!</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">India’s growth rate number can be higher than that of America’s or China’s but for an average Indian it means absolutely nothing. His life was and is actually more miserable now. Indian economy and society both are going backwards and no amount of manipulated fastest growth number is going to help average Indians as long as it is not going to improve their standard of living. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">And whatever planned growth is taking place in India since its so-called independence is being cornered by a few individuals who are well connected with the statist system. Indian masses still live in a dirt poor conditions. They will continue to live in that condition until they remove the state out of their lives. Until then people are forced to live in a delusion by their rulers that their economy is the fastest growing in the world. </p><p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></p><div class="heateor_sss_sharing_container heateor_sss_horizontal_sharing" data-heateor-sss-href="https://misesindia.in/2022/02/17/the-myth-of-the-fastest-growing-economy/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></div><div class="heateorSssClear" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); clear: both; color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></div>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-22207916164315525732022-01-15T22:16:00.001-08:002022-01-15T22:16:19.505-08:00Economics of Pollution<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">In the list of the world’s top polluted cities majority are from India. India’s capital New Delhi is again in the grips of very</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/india-smog-photos-delhi-pollution-184842136.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADRICBG_xlGKqIy9NxkVCcN7eRnW0dej-5GQIP7IecokCgjvkh8eDr81JuuNBY-HPp7dAzdjwtaN_fBlhxOdMQFyWNuFgJ36oiXFOTxnU-5Rg0UbucVg5pO7GHohNbmwObY00WYoQEf0rPSqGO1MgIVwvhJsC0h43b3jRZoEhjFc" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #144d7f; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">hazardous pollution</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">. Delhi government has shutdown schools, I have no idea how shutting down schools will stop or lessen pollution or keep children healthy but that is a question for some other time, and they are also thinking of imposing a climate change lockdown in the city!</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">To understand what is causing this pollution we need to understand what are the different sources of pollution. Once we know these sources, we can figure out who is responsible for those sources. Below I am going to list down the major sources of pollution. </p><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;">Vehicle pollution </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;">Factories </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;">Urbanization and </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;">Population growth and poverty </li></ol><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Who’s responsible for all these sources? Let us see that now. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Vehicle pollution </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The Indian central bank RBI is mainly responsible for vehicular pollution. I am sure my readers will be asking me a question in their minds: how is RBI responsible for vehicular pollution? Let me explain. There are more vehicles on Indian roads because more people are buying vehicles. Why are more people buying vehicles? Where are they getting money to buy these costly vehicles? Although there is no systematic data available on the mode of vehicle purchase by Indian customers, arguably almost 90% of all vehicles must be purchased on loan, i.e., borrowed money, by the Indian consumers. According to latest RBI data<a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/auto/news/outstanding-auto-loans-hit-new-high-in-fy21/articleshow/82316295.cms" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">,</a> </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">outstanding vehicle loans with banks hit a new high of Rs 2,39,400 crore in FY21 up to Feb 26, which is an increase of 8.5% from Rs 2,20,600 crore at the end of FY20.</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Incremental growth in auto loans at Rs 18,800 crore in the first eleven months of FY21 was higher than loan book growth in other financial years except for FY18 when auto loans grew by Rs 19,300 cro</i>re. It was Rs 17,600 crore in FY17, Rs 12,400 crore in FY19, and Rs 18,400 crore in FY20. </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Purchasing a vehicle on loan means Indians are buying cars and scooters even when they do not have money for it. This consumption boom in the auto sector is because of RBI’s cheap money policy. Under the pretense of its growth mandate RBI keeps market interest rates artificially lower from what they will be in a free market. Such artificially low interest rate fuels the unsustainable boom and squanders society’s resources. Because of these cheap loans there are more vehicles on Indian roads, and more vehicles means more pollution. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">What is the solution? The solution is simple: we must first pressure the RBI, and its owner the government, to stop its cheap money policy and let the market determine the interest rates for all sectors. Finally we must dismantle the RBI so that it can never manipulate interest rates and distort the economy. Once the cheap money policy ends, with it will end the auto sector boom. That will reduce the number of vehicles on Indian roads reducing pollution immediately. Private companies can provide community transport services where a less number of vehicles can carry more passengers, again reducing pollution. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Factory pollution</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Government argues that factories are needed for growth and development. Most people will also believe that they are an outgrowth of the capitalist system, which is frequently alleged by the climate change activists. But is capitalism responsible for this growth of pollution belching factories? Not really. On the contrary, governments are responsible for not only their existence but their existence in the vicinity of urban areas e.g., when I was growing up in the Surat city in the 70s and 80s there was little to no pollution, but then the government of Gujarat decided to industrialize the city and it started giving its land to big industries in Hazara and Pandesara area which are now major pollution hubs of Surat city. India is a socialist country where every piece of land is owned by the government. Politicians give land away to their cronies to make money and stay in power. This corruption results in pollution. The institution of socialism and its public property regime is the root cause of pollution. Pollution belching factories are a result of this state socialism <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and not capitalism, which is completely missing from India since time immemorial. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">If state socialism and its public property system is the root cause of pollution then removal of socialism and institutionalizing the regime of private property rights is the solution of this pollution. As Murray Rothbard explained, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">… only private property rights will insure the end of pollution … (For a New Liberty, p. 318) </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">… when we peel away the confusions and the unsound philosophy of the modern ecologists, we find an important bedrock case against the existing system; but the case turns out to be not against capitalism, private property, growth, or technology <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">per se</i>. It is a case against the failure of government to allow and to defend the rights of private property against invasion. If property rights were to be defended fully, against private and governmental invasion alike, we would find here, as in other areas of our economy and society, that private enterprise and modern technology would come to mankind not as a curse but as its salvation. (For a New Liberty, p. 327)</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Urbanization</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">If we see the list of top 10 most polluted areas in the world then all of them are urban centers like New Delhi or Shanghai etc. Pollution is basically an urban phenomenon. We now need to inquire, what is the cause of this rapid urbanization around the world? The literature of development economics has the answer: urban bias. Urban bias theory states that, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">… urban classes in poorer countries use their social power to bias (distort) a range of public policies against members of the rural classes. Lipton maintains that urban bias “involves (a) an allocation, to persons or organizations located in towns, of shares of resources so large as to be inefficient and inequitable, or (b) a disposition among the powerful [urban classes] to allocate resources in this way” (<a href="http://www.lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/cpa/spring06/welfare/corbridge.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">source</a>)</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">As all the investment and development is focused on urban areas, people are forced to leave villages and migrate to cities to live in filthy and polluted environments. Increasing urbanization puts immense pressure on the local government which fails, as usual, to manage the city. As we can see, here also it is the government and its policies that are responsible for urbanization and resulting pollution. Theorists, policy makers, and the activists frequently ignore this fact. They blame urban rich people for distorting a range of public policies but easily ignore the fact that urban rich became rich because of politicians favoring them in the first place, so blaming them is like putting the cart before the horse. And some group of people can distort the public policies because there are public policies in the first place! If the society is private where there is no government interference in the economy and society, then there is no institution of the state for the urban rich to become rich and then hijack its policies! </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Population growth and poverty</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Population growth and poverty are also blamed for increasing pollution. Here also government is to be blamed for both problems. My readers will ask, how come the government is responsible for population growth? This is how: by subsidizing the poor, government encourages them to have more babies. When the cost of rearing your child is born by tax payers you sure are not going to be careful about how many to have. The incentive is to produce more babies. The welfare state thus encourages higher population growth rates. Poverty is also caused by government socialism. As Murray Rothbard said, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">… violent intervention in the market and a hegemonic society tend to lead to general poverty. (Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, p. 340)</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Conclusion </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Our careful economic analysis informs us that the government is responsible for the problem of pollution. If we want to eradicate pollution then we have to eradicate the government monopoly of our economies and societies. Instead of that, people around the world have put their governments incharge of controlling pollution! This is like appointing a fox incharge of the hen house. The statist socialist system that produces pollution can never remove that very same pollution. Only removal of statist socialism can clean our environment and heal our mother Earth.</p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-14398925010332001112021-12-27T18:46:00.001-08:002021-12-27T18:46:15.816-08:00A Radical Political Proposal for India<p> When it comes to the political choices in India, Indians have no real choices. All political parties in India, in one form or another, are wedded to the ideology of socialism and its variants like communism. Whether it is the ruling BJP party or the major opposition Congress party or the Aam Aadmi Party, they all are followers of socialism. They all present the statist view of the society where the individual is subordinate to the state and its ruling government. The government is our overlord, our nanny who is going to control and regulate every aspect of our lives. The concept of the individual and its liberty is completely missing from the Indian social, cultural, and political scene. Basically the Indian culture is collective tribal and primitive. The present BJP government and its prime minister Modi are touted by many as a pro-market prime minister and to the right of the political spectrum, but looking at BJP and Modi’s track record, e.g., increasing centralization of the society and economy where everything is decided by the prime minister himself and a few of his lackeys, the wrecking of the economy via draconian policies like demonetization or GST and then brutal lockdowns etc., we find nothing pro-market at all. Both are, in fact, exactly the opposite of the Right or the market economy. The ruling party exhibits fascism where the state and a few private sector corporatists are fleecing the populace under the guise of market economy and privatization. This isn’t Capitalism at all. This is socialism. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Delhi’s AAP is brazenly socialist. Arvind Kejriwal is the worst sort of dictator. I am sure if Kejriwal will come to power, he would put Modi to shame. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The only so-called Libertarian party of India <a href="https://www.sabhlokcity.com/what-would-i-do-as-prime-minister-of-india/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">SBP</a> (Swarna Bharat Party led by Sanjeev Sabhlok) also falls way short of Libertarian standards. In the end, they also don’t want to end the state but just want to continue with it in slightly different form. Any such tinkering with the present system will not solve India’s problems. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">What India needs is a radical change in its political system. I propose that change below. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">My proposal is to create a <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">No tax party</i> whose only political platform will be to eliminate all taxes whether that be direct or indirect. Those who understand the true nature of the state know well that taxation is the main sustenance source of the state. In taxation lies the strength and weakness of the state. It survives through tax and will die through tax also. This is the reason why any liberty lover should focus on eliminating taxation. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">If even after this people continue to support socialist policies then they deserve their fate. But Indians must not have any excuse in the future that someone didn’t tell them about the <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Freedom </i>alternative. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Is this proposal practical? </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Who cares? Time for such consideration is long gone for India. A total shake up is needed. Whether this can be done or not is not a question here. The important thing to know is that this is the RIGHT thing to do. </p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-52543119345309570902021-12-05T08:34:00.001-08:002021-12-05T08:34:35.100-08:00Economics of Corruption<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">Corruption has been maligned by everyone as if it is something bad and has to be condemned and removed from society forever. Transparency International</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://www.transparency.org/en/what-is-corruption" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #144d7f; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">defines</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">corruption as,</span></p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">We define corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Corruption erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development and further exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division and the environmental crisis.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">They also discuss three different forms of corruption,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em;">public servants demanding or taking money or favors in exchange for services,</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em;">politicians misusing public money or granting public jobs or contracts to their sponsors, friends, and families,</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em;">corporations bribing officials to get lucrative deals</li></ol></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Although corruption per se is bad and it must be eliminated from society, doing that requires a sound understanding of causes of corruption. This is important because without removing the cause of corruption, if we try to eliminate corruption – which is a mere symptom of the underlying problem – then instead of making life easy for people we will make it difficult or even impossible. We must understand that corruption is the vent through which market, and with it people, breathe life. Corruption is a life saving mechanism when government is big and tyrannical. To understand this let’s imagine two alternative scenarios.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Scenario 1: Society without a tyrannical government</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Suppose society A is a society where there is no tyrannical government. Government is very small and uniustrustive. It doesn’t wield any control or regulation over the society or its economy. People are free to interact with each other in the market and outside the market. Free market is the norm. In such a free market economy consumers will buy whatever they want to at the market price and producers will produce and make available those goods which consumers are demanding. No trade is illegal in such a society, and no trade needs to go underground in such a society. This is because there is no government burden which people need to avoid. There are no public servants so no one is demanding bribes or taking money for favors. People will only take their activities to an underground economy because they’ll want to avoid or by-pass government controls and regulations, which are very costly for them.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Scenario 2: Society with a tyrannical government</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Now imagine society B where the government is big and tyrannical with all kinds of controls and regulations over the lives of ordinary citizens. For one or the other excuse, like public goods or externality etc., politicians and bureaucrats have banned or controlled the society and economy at large. Buying and selling in the market is not free. In such a society individual buyers and sellers are compelled to take their activities underground e.g., if the government has banned the use of alcohol then selling of alcohol will take place in the black market at higher prices; higher prices because the government ban has reduced the supply of alcohol. Consumers want to consume booze so sellers will provide it. The reason why government has banned consumption of alcohol has nothing to do with changing the habits of people or health reasons. Public health is a myth. As we have seen time and again, the areas where an alcohol or drug ban is implemented, that is the place where the most alcohol, or drug, is being consumed under the aegis of the government itself. Governments get money from bootleggers and other mafias who now enter illegal trade. We know most of the time the best quality booze in a prohibition area can be obtained from the policeman only! This is the reason why politicians, police, and mafia are the three groups who most oppose lifting alcohol prohibition because that will take away one avenue of their income. Also, where prior political and bureaucratic permission is needed to start any business, i.e., licenses, businessmen will be forced to pay bribes to state officials just to obtain the license to start his trade or he will be encouraged to give kickbacks to state officials to stop his competitors from entering the market.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">In all these cases corruption is an end result of having a tyrannical government; of having politicians and bureaucrats ruling our lives in the name of “democracy”. It becomes necessary because of the presence of the state and its interventions in the free market enterprise system.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">This implies that if anyone is interested in ending corruption from their society and economy then they should unequivocally demand removal of the state and its interventions into said society and economy. Free market capitalism is the solution for corruption. As Prof Rothbard said,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">… given the unfortunate and unjust laws prohibiting, regulating, and taxing certain activities, corruption is highly beneficial to society. … Corruption greases the wheels of trade. The solution, then, is not to deplore corruption and redouble enforcement against it, but to abolish the crippling policies and laws of government that make corruption necessary. (P. 107 <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Rothbard%2520A%2520to%2520Z.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Rothbard A to Z</a>).</p></blockquote>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-7913680356664778222021-11-17T20:48:00.004-08:002021-11-17T20:48:52.631-08:00Afghanistan and the Criminal Gang called the Government<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">The political institute of the state historically evolved out of conquest of peaceful people by the hoards of marauders. Murray Rothbard in his important work</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Anatomy%2520of%2520the%2520State_3.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #144d7f; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Anatomy of the State</a><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </i><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">discussed this theory,</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span></p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">We are now in a position to answer more fully the question: what is the State? The State, in the words of Oppenheimer, is the “organization of the political means”; it is the systematization of the predatory process over a given territory. For crime, at best, is sporadic and uncertain; the parasitism is ephemeral, and the coercive, parasitic lifeline may be cut off at any time by the resistance of the victims. The State provides a legal, orderly, systematic channel for the predation of private property; it renders certain, secure, and relatively “peaceful” the lifeline of the parasitic caste in society. Since production must always precede predation, the free market is anterior to the State. The State has never been created by a “social contract”; it has always been born in conquest and exploitation. The classic paradigm was a conquering tribe pausing in its time-honored method of looting and murdering a conquered tribe, to realize that the time- span of plunder would be longer and more secure, and the situation more pleasant, if the conquered tribe were allowed to live and produce, with the conquerors settling among them as rulers exacting a steady annual tribute. One method of the birth of a State may be illustrated as follows: in the hills of southern “Ruritania,” a bandit group manages to obtain physical control over the territory, and finally the bandit chieftain proclaims himself “King of the sovereign and independent government of South Ruritania”; and, if he and his men have the force to maintain this rule for a while, lo and behold! a new State has joined the “family of nations,” and the former bandit leaders have been transformed into the lawful nobility of the realm. (pp 15-17)</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">As he said, the state is a gang of criminals, writ large. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The on-going state/government formation in Afghanistan is a live example of this historic process. After the fall of the US backed Ghani government, former terrorist organization Taliban is now in power and is about to be recognized as a legitimate government by other statist criminal gangs i.e., the UN and its member states. Yesterday’s terrorist organization is today’s nation state of Afghanistan. Yesterday’s most wanted terrorists like Haqqani are interior ministers of this government. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This is the same process through which all modern day nation states have come into existence. Just because their formation took place in the past, our present generation is ignorant of this fact and they believe the state/government to be their savior. In reality, the state and its ruling officials are the parasitic class of society feeding off the hard working productive class of that society. The myth generated by state apologists that the state exists for our protection and welfare is just a myth, after all. As I have mentioned <a href="https://misesindia.in/2021/07/31/our-visible-world-is-a-giant-racket/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">elsewhere</a> the whole idea of a property expropriating property rights protection institution is so contradictory that only deluded people will believe in it. As Frederic Bastiat said, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">So many are forgetting that the state itself is living at the expense of everyone of us. As long as people of India and the world are not understanding this true parasitic criminal nature of the state/government, no improvement in human condition can be expected.</p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-14091112891765118202021-11-12T04:08:00.000-08:002021-11-12T04:08:11.838-08:00There Are Trade-Offs<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The global hunger report 2021 puts <a href="https://www.globalhungerindex.org/india.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">India at 101 out of 116</a> countries. Neighboring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal are also better in terms of hunger compared to India. The only country in Asia that is behind India is Afghanistan. The Indian government has expressed its shock on the latest ranking. They have brushed aside these findings by saying that they are “non-scientific”, but government’s own <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/business/news/story/budget-2020-niti-aayog-shocker-poverty-hunger-income-inequality-up-in-22-to-25-states-uts-poor-indians-241797-2020-01-08" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">NITI Aayog said</a> the same thing few years ago,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Niti Aayog’s SDG Index 2019, released on December 27, 2019, says that more Indians have fallen into poverty, hunger, and income inequality in the past two years. This is after a remarkable reduction in poverty between 2005-06 and 2015-16.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">On the other hand the Prime Minister has unveiled a program of military buildup in India via seven state-run defense companies! Prime Minister <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pm-narendra-modi-launches-7-defence-firms-says-aim-to-make-india-worlds-biggest-military-power-2576322?utm_source=pocket_mylist" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">said</a> that the goal of this policy is,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">to make India the world’s biggest military power on its own. </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">He also said,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">a single-window system has been put in place instead of stagnant policies to develop India as a major producer of defense equipment. </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Table 1 below shows military expenditure wise top 10 countries with their respective per capita income. I am making this comparison to demonstrate if India can afford to spend more money on military buildup. </p><figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3453" class="wp-caption alignleft" id="attachment_3453" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1.5em 2em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 300px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-3453 size-medium jetpack-lazy-image jetpack-lazy-image--handled" data-lazy-loaded="1" data-recalc-dims="1" height="254" loading="eager" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-17-at-10.36.12-PM-1.png?resize=300%2C254&ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-17-at-10.36.12-PM-1.png?resize=300%2C254&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-17-at-10.36.12-PM-1.png?w=750&ssl=1 750w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 1s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></div><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-3453" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05); box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-style: italic; padding: 0.4em; text-align: justify;">Table 1: Per Capita Income and Military Expenditure (Source: shorturl.at/kxBIR, shorturl.at/twxX3)</figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">We can clearly see the difference between India and other countries. India’s per capital income is only US$ 1900 but it still spends the third highest military expenditure in the world, behind USA and China whose per capital incomes are way higher than India’s. This means most Indians are dirt poor but its government has decided to become a super power! </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Actions of the Indian government demonstrates its priorities. This reminds me of some of the fundamental principles of economic science. Gregory Mankiw’s <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Principles of Eonomics</i>discusses some of these foundational principles as follows:</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The management of society’s resources is important because resources are scarce. Scarcity means that society has limited resources and therefore cannot produce all the goods and services people wish to have. Just as a household cannot give every member everything he or she wants, a society cannot give every indi- vidual the highest standard of living to which he or she might aspire.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">PRINCIPLE #1: PEOPLE FACE TRADEOFFS</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The first lesson about making decisions is summarized in the adage: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” To get one thing that we like, we usually have to give up another thing that we like. Making decisions requires trading off one goal against another. (p 4) </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This implies that if the government of India is going to use Indian society’s resources, provided by the taxpayers, to make more bombs and bullets, then that means many Indians will have to go on living without bread and butter.<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </i>Global hunger index indicates the consequences of the policies of the government as faced by the 1.4 billion people of this country. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">One can argue endlessly about the desirability of spending more on defense, but one cannot deny the economic fact that this means forgone opportunities of feeding the increasingly hungry Indian population. This also points to the contradiction of defending a hungry population. The question arises, can a hungry and poor population fight wars and defend itself?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Actions of the Indian government also reminds me of what Thomas Sowell said, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Let us see if a hungry and poor Indian nation state can become a military power or not. I know the answer but I will let Indian voters ponder on this issue. </p><div class="heateorSssClear" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both;"></div><div class="heateor_sss_sharing_container heateor_sss_horizontal_sharing" heateor-sss-data-href="https://misesindia.in/2021/10/17/there-are-trade-offs/" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-32021018952037170052021-11-06T02:28:00.001-07:002021-11-06T02:28:42.974-07:00Afghanistan and the Criminal Gang called the Government<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">The political institute of the state historically evolved out of conquest of peaceful people by the hoards of marauders. Murray Rothbard in his important work</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Anatomy%2520of%2520the%2520State_3.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #144d7f; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Anatomy of the State</a><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </i><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">discussed this theory,</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span></p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">We are now in a position to answer more fully the question: what is the State? The State, in the words of Oppenheimer, is the “organization of the political means”; it is the systematization of the predatory process over a given territory. For crime, at best, is sporadic and uncertain; the parasitism is ephemeral, and the coercive, parasitic lifeline may be cut off at any time by the resistance of the victims. The State provides a legal, orderly, systematic channel for the predation of private property; it renders certain, secure, and relatively “peaceful” the lifeline of the parasitic caste in society. Since production must always precede predation, the free market is anterior to the State. The State has never been created by a “social contract”; it has always been born in conquest and exploitation. The classic paradigm was a conquering tribe pausing in its time-honored method of looting and murdering a conquered tribe, to realize that the time- span of plunder would be longer and more secure, and the situation more pleasant, if the conquered tribe were allowed to live and produce, with the conquerors settling among them as rulers exacting a steady annual tribute. One method of the birth of a State may be illustrated as follows: in the hills of southern “Ruritania,” a bandit group manages to obtain physical control over the territory, and finally the bandit chieftain proclaims himself “King of the sovereign and independent government of South Ruritania”; and, if he and his men have the force to maintain this rule for a while, lo and behold! a new State has joined the “family of nations,” and the former bandit leaders have been transformed into the lawful nobility of the realm. (pp 15-17)<span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777;">As he said, the state is a gang of criminals, writ large.</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777;"> </span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The on-going state/government formation in Afghanistan is a live example of this historic process. After the fall of the US backed Ghani government, former terrorist organization Taliban is now in power and is about to be recognized as a legitimate government by other statist criminal gangs i.e., the UN and its member states. Yesterday’s terrorist organization is today’s nation state of Afghanistan. Yesterday’s most wanted terrorists like Haqqani are interior ministers of this government. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This is the same process through which all modern day nation states have come into existence. Just because their formation took place in the past, our present generation is ignorant of this fact and they believe the state/government to be their savior. In reality, the state and its ruling officials are the parasitic class of society feeding off the hard working productive class of that society. The myth generated by state apologists that the state exists for our protection and welfare is just a myth, after all. As I have mentioned <a href="https://misesindia.in/2021/07/31/our-visible-world-is-a-giant-racket/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">elsewhere</a> the whole idea of a property expropriating property rights protection institution is so contradictory that only deluded people will believe in it. As Frederic Bastiat said, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">So many are forgetting that the state itself is living at the expense of everyone of us. As long as people of India and the world are not understanding this true parasitic criminal nature of the state/government, no improvement in human condition can be expected. </p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-47713282488144983622021-10-30T08:38:00.005-07:002021-10-30T08:38:50.546-07:00Is Narendra Modi killing Democracy in India?<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">Oxford University press India has refused to publish an upcoming book</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">To Kill a Democracy</i><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">by Debasish Roy Chowdhury and John Keane possibly because of fear of the Narendra Modi government. This book is highly critical of the policies of the Modi government. Asia Times reports:</span></p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">In an apparent attempt to avoid offending the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Oxford University Press has declined to print the Indian release of <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">To Kill a Democracy</i>, a book whose international edition was <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2021/06/__trashed-19/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">reviewed favorably</a> by Asia Times in June.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Is Narendra Modi really killing Indian democracy? Let’s see. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">What is democracy?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Democracy is defined as a system of government of elected representatives of people. In India a political party needs 2/3 majority to be in power. This is the majoritarian rule for which democracies around the world are famous. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Judging by this main criteria of majority rule, Narendra Modi is very much a democratically elected prime minister of India. His party BJP and allies won more than 2/3 seats in the last parliamentary election. Modi’s ascension to power is very much democracy. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">So what Modi is doing to India <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">is</i> Democracy. He is not killing it. Modi is a properly elected democratic PM of India like what Hitler was. This <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">is</i> democracy. It actually is the <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">peak</i> of democracy. Modi represents the heart of a majority of Indian voters. I talk with them daily in my classes and outside them. They want a Hindu Rashtra even at the cost of their livelihood. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This whole episode reminds me of what H L Mencken said about democracy: </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Narendra Modi represents this inner soul of the majority of the Indian voters. And this is why all the criticism of Narendra Modi should be the criticism of democracy. Narendra Modi isn’t a problem. The system of democracy is the problem which allows majority of people to dictate the terms. Narendra Modi is just an agent elected by the majority of voting public to do what their heart is desiring. Without their support, he is a nobody. This is the tyranny of many. Despotism of the crowd. To understand why democracy is the worst form of political system my readers are advised to read Frank Karsten’s <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Beyond-Democracy-Frank-Karsten-ebook/dp/B007692VDW/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Beyond+democracy&qid=1633849754&qsid=257-3922962-5864812&sr=8-1&sres=B007692VDW,0199291659,B009ATD0UE,019925043X,B005OYKDXG,B073FNBXN2,B019YNZVV6,B002WJM6WW,9350357291,0268102813,B07J4GS7SY,3030252965,1583226958,0471667307,3030781879,0674979435&srpt=ABIS_BOOK" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Beyond Democracy</a>. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">People need to stop worshipping the <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Democracy-Economics-Politics-Perspectives-Democratic/dp/1138522163/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Democracy+the+God+that+failed&qid=1634017439&qsid=257-3922962-5864812&sr=8-1&sres=1138522163,B07DPQQXQC,B01ETFVG22,B07FLJ9NNP,B09FY6QL9N,B085TQVK6B,B07KD697CX,0141991178,0241366518&srpt=ABIS_BOOK" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">failed God of democracy</a>. It is time to go beyond democracy and look for better alternative political systems for the world. </p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-70987969549474833272021-10-25T07:51:00.003-07:002021-10-25T07:51:41.955-07:00Do Telecom Sector Tariffs Need To Rise In India?<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal recently</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://www.cnbctv18.com/telecom/why-tariffs-need-to-go-up-in-the-telecom-sector-in-india-10786891.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #144d7f; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">emphasised</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">the need to raise tariffs saying that the major cause behind this crisis is low tariffs. He said,</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span></p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">To say that the telecom industry is in a bit of trouble is actually an understatement. It is in a tremendous amount of stress …</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Mittal emphasised the need to raise tariffs saying that the major cause behind this crisis is low tariffs.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Is Sunil Mittal right? To answer this question we need to understand how companies make profit in the market. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Profit is a price differential between the prices of producer and consumer goods. Producer goods are those goods that satisfy our needs in an indirect way by helping us in producing consumer goods, which satisfy our needs directly. Example of producer goods are land, labor, capital, time, raw materials etc. Consumer goods are final products that an entrepreneur produces by using the producer goods. Let us take a simplified example of producing an apple to bring home this point. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">To produce an apple I require one acre of farm, one laborer and one plough. The price of farm, i.e., rent, is let’s say Rs.100; the price of labor, i.e., wage, is Rs. 50 and time price of borrowing money for the plough is Rs. 50. So total producer prices are Rs. 200 for producing an apple. This apple is selling at Rs. 250 per piece in the market in future. That means, I am making Rs. 50 profit in this production process. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Now what is important for us to understand here is that profit can either go up if the producer goods prices have gone down as compared to consumer prices or when the consumer goods prices have gone up as compare to producer goods prices. Profit is just a price differential between these two prices. It does not exclusively depend on prices of either producer goods or, more importantly, consumer goods. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">In the light of the above discussion now we can see why Mr Sunil Mittal is wrong in proposing higher tariff for making the telecom sector profitable again. In case of Indian telecom sector, profits have not gone down because of exclusive reduction in the prices of consumer goods i.e., telecom service tariffs. In fact what has happened is the prices of producer goods have gone up more than the price of consumer goods <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">because of the heavily inflationary Indian economy as well as government’s heavy taxation</em>. We have to remember that inflation increases prices of both producer and consumer goods; first prices of producer goods as freshly printed money supply enters the capital goods industry first via reduced interest rates of loans, and later prices of consumer goods. Not only inflation but government’s taxation policy has also increased the expenses of telecom sector as we can see in Mr Mittal’s following <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/telecom/telecom-news/out-of-rs-100-earned-rs-35-goes-to-govt-bharti-airtel-chairman-sunil-mittal-on-whats-ailing-telecom-sector/articleshow/85763932.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">statement</a>,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><div class="stock_tooltip" data-compid="2718" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal minced no words in saying that the government levies are far too high in India when it comes to the telecom sector. Mittal, while addressing an investor call, said that out of Rs 100 earned, Rs 35 goes to the government.</p></div></blockquote><div style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This double whammy of inflation and higher government taxes have resulted into higher production cost of the telecom sector and because of that their profits have declined, and not because of lower tariffs.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Looking at these circumstances the proposal of raising tariffs at this moment is illogical. There is also another factor that Mr Mittal is forgetting to take into his consideration before proposing higher tariffs. Let us see that factor now.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">That factor is the law of demand which informs us that whenever the price of a product goes up the quantity demanded of that product at that price goes down. If the quantity demanded reduces by more than the risen price then making profit will become difficult because revenue will actually decline compare to cost. And all these in turn depend on the elasticity of demand for the goods in question. Mr Sunil Mittal will have to keep this in his mind when he is proposing higher tariffs for telecom services. It is quite possible that the sector might lose both customers and profit in the aftermath of higher tariffs. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Looking at all these circumstances the reasoning and the proposal of Mr Sunil Mittal both are incorrect. Telecom sector is not losing money because of lower tariffs but because of higher cost of production due to higher inflation and higher taxation policy of the government. For higher inflation the Indian central bank RBI is responsible, and for higher taxation Narendra Modi and all other past governments. Blaming consumers for the wrongdoings of the RBI and the government is not going to help the telecom sector. If Mr Sunil wants the telecom sector to make money again then he will have to take his complaints at the doors of the central bank and its owner the central government. Raising tariff will make matters worse. Mr Mittal should demand that RBI stop inflating the currency and government abolish its taxation. Only by reducing inflation, which is a form of indirect taxation, and taxation telecom sector’s problems can be solved. </p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-82549396883925618082021-10-18T22:19:00.002-07:002021-10-18T22:19:17.676-07:00Should India Bring Petrol and Diesel under GST?<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Recent </span><a href="https://theprint.in/india/77-indians-want-petrol-diesel-to-come-under-gst-survey-finds/734315/?fbclid=IwAR0p-CH_V5a1ma-khn2wmEE2IeITEzUfbt11chp7gozK1lRKsemrV6mF860" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">survey</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> said 77% of Indians want petrol and diesel to come under GST. The rationale for bringing petrol and diesel under GST goes something like this,</span></p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Bringing petrol and diesel under the ambit of GST will significantly improve the cost of living for many. The price of petrol and diesel can come down to Rs 75 per litre and Rs 70 per litre with a 28 per cent GST rate. “This could give a huge impetus to the economy and businesses via increased consumer spending. However, both the center and states will see loss of revenue in the short term,” the survey notes.</span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">There are many things that need discussion here. First, are the prices of 75 per litre for petrol and 70 per litre for diesel lower prices? Why not bring down the prices to Rs.10 per litre? Or 5 rupees or 5 paisa per litre? Isn’t that a better improvement in the cost of living of Indians? Second, is bringing petrol and diesel under GST the only way of bringing down the cost of living for many? Or are there better alternatives available? Third, will consumer spending give a huge impetus to the economy and businesses? Will center and state see loss of revenue in the short term, and is it a good or bad thing? Let us discuss all these issues one by one below. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">I know many people will think I have lost my mind when I said why not bring down the price of petrol and diesel to 5 paisa per litre, but I haven’t lost my mind. Bringing down the price to that level or any other level is very much possible. It only requires political will and societal understanding of the science of sound economics. Let us see how the prices are determined in the market, in our case the price of petrol, by four economic forces which are:</span></p><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Demand for petrol</span></li><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Supply of petrol</span></li><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Demand for money I.e., rupees; and</span></li><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Supply of money</span></li></ol><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Now, if three remaining variables remain constant then increase in demand for petrol will increase the price of petrol, and decrease in demand for petrol will decrease price of petrol. Under the similar assumption of other variables remaining constant, increase in supply of petrol will decrease its price and decrease in supply of petrol will increase its price. Increase in demand for money, i.e., cash balance, will reduce price of petrol and decrease in demand for money will increase price of petrol. Similarly, and this is most important, increase in supply of money, which is </span><a href="https://fee.org/media/4484/hazlitt1104e.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">inflation</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">, will increase the price of petrol, and the price of everything else also, and decrease in supply of money will decrease the price of petrol (for a detailed discussion of this please read Murray Rothbard’s</span> <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Mystery%20of%20Banking_2.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mystery of Banking</i></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> (Chapter 2-3)). </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Also, government taxes increase price of petrol over and above its market price.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Worldwide supply of petrol is </span><a href="https://knoema.com/infographics/cbhnele/world-crude-oil-supply-and-demand-forecast-2020-2021" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">rising</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> due to technological innovations, like fracking, so the price of petrol must decrease as we have seen in international prices of crude oil over a period of time (see figure 1 below). </span></p><figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3396" class="wp-caption alignleft" id="attachment_3396" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1.5em 2em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 300px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-3396 size-medium jetpack-lazy-image jetpack-lazy-image--handled" data-lazy-loaded="1" data-recalc-dims="1" height="188" loading="eager" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="https://i2.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-18-at-8.37.53-AM.png?resize=300%2C188&ssl=1" srcset="https://i2.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-18-at-8.37.53-AM.png?resize=300%2C188&ssl=1 300w, https://i2.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-18-at-8.37.53-AM.png?resize=1024%2C642&ssl=1 1024w, https://i2.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-18-at-8.37.53-AM.png?resize=768%2C481&ssl=1 768w, https://i2.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-18-at-8.37.53-AM.png?resize=1536%2C963&ssl=1 1536w, https://i2.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-18-at-8.37.53-AM.png?resize=2048%2C1284&ssl=1 2048w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 1s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></div><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-3396" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05); box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-style: italic; padding: 0.4em; text-align: justify;">Figure 1 Crude Oil Price</figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Last year demand for petrol crashed because of Covid lock downs which should have resulted in very low prices of petrol in India, but we didn’t experience those lower prices. So both demand for, and supply of, crude oil tell us that prices of petrol and diesel must fall in India, but they keep on rising. Why? The rise in price of petrol and diesel in India can only be explained by demand for and supply of money variables as well as government taxes. The single most important factor here is supply of money i.e., inflation. The supply of money in India is rising rapidly due to RBI created inflation, especially after Narendra Modi government came to power (see figure 2 below) .</span></p><figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3395" class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_3395" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 2em 1.5em; max-width: 100%; width: 300px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-3395 size-medium jetpack-lazy-image jetpack-lazy-image--handled" data-lazy-loaded="1" data-recalc-dims="1" height="248" loading="eager" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-17-at-9.06.34-PM.png?resize=300%2C248&ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-17-at-9.06.34-PM.png?resize=300%2C248&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-17-at-9.06.34-PM.png?resize=1024%2C848&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-17-at-9.06.34-PM.png?resize=768%2C636&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-17-at-9.06.34-PM.png?resize=1536%2C1272&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-17-at-9.06.34-PM.png?w=1595&ssl=1 1595w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 1s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></div><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-3395" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05); box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-style: italic; padding: 0.4em; text-align: justify;">Figure 2 M1 Money Supply</figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Government taxes on petrol and diesel are also </span><a href="https://www.news18.com/news/india/central-excise-duty-on-petrol-diesel-their-tax-collection-jumped-manifold-since-2014-data-3959762.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">rising rapidly under the Modi government</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">. </span></p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The central excise duty on petrol in 2014 was Rs 9.48 per litre. Currently, the central excise duty on petrol stands at Rs 32.9 per litre — an increase of nearly 3.5 times, data from the Union Finance Ministry showed.</span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">This means rapidly increasing money supply and government taxes are responsible for the continuous rise in prices of petrol and diesel in India. The government (especially Narendra Modi government), and its central bank RBI are solely responsible. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Looking at the international scenario of supply of and demand for crude oil, the prices of petrol and diesel would have come down rapidly in India if the Indian central bank RBI was not creating inflation and Indian government was not imposing heavy taxes on petrol and diesel. Bringing down the prices of petrol and diesel to 5 rupees per litre or 5 paisa per litre is very much possible if we stop RBI from printing rupees and generating inflation, as well if we can pressure government to abolish the taxation, especially on petrol and diesel in this case. Instead of bringing petrol and diesel under GST, we should abolish all taxes on petrol and diesel to bring down the cost of living for all Indians rapidly. Including petrol and diesel under GST is not an optimum solution of bringing down our cost of living. Abolishing RBI’s inflation and government taxes is the optimum solution. But there is no political will to carry out these changes, and the voting public is ignorant of sound economics so they are never going to pressure the government to do the right thing. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Consumer spending bringing both the economy and businesses out of recession is a fallacy that I have exposed in my past </span><a href="https://misesindia.in/2021/05/10/is-consumer-spending-key-to-post-covid-recovery/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">articles</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> so I do not feel the need to discuss that issue here again. Suffice it to say that consumer spending is not the driver of the economy, saving, and investment is. Increasing consumption will only make us poorer in the future. It will only deepen recession.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">As far as finances of the government are concerned, sound economics tells us that government at the least must balance its budget by reducing its spending without trying to increase its revenue. That means reduction in government revenue is a good thing for the economy. If abolishing taxation reduces government revenue then so be it. Government’s size must reduce if India is to progress.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Conclusion </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">If the objective is to bring down the cost of living for Indians then best solution is to stop the RBI from generating inflation and abolish government taxes. Bringing petrol and diesel under GST will not help much. Rs.75 per litre price of petrol is still very high. And by reducing the price of petrol and diesel, whatever money consumers are going to be left with is better saved and invested to build human and physical capital which can increase future production and income. If that increased income is going to go into consumption then that will result in lower future income. Government’s lower revenue is not a cause for worry. A reduced size of government is to be celebrated and not mourned. </span></p><div class="heateorSssClear" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both;"></div><div class="heateor_sss_sharing_container heateor_sss_horizontal_sharing" heateor-sss-data-href="https://misesindia.in/2021/09/18/should-india-bring-petrol-and-diesel-under-gst/" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-39678825402889272562021-09-29T00:12:00.000-07:002021-09-29T00:12:11.096-07:00The Myth of Public Health<p style="text-align: justify;">In this Covid era, all the tyrannical measures like masks and social distance mandates, horrible lockdowns, vaccine mandates, etc., implemented worldwide to supposedly stop Covid-19 have a common justification behind them: protection of public health. Public welfare has always been the favorite excuse of state officials to justify their coercive use of power over our lives. In its name they have been aggrandizing the world population since the inception of nation states, especially after WW I. But the type of tyranny we are seeing the world over today in the name of Covid is unprecedented in world history. It seems there is no escape from this tyranny anywhere in the world. Previously the West used to be the refuge of the world’s persecuted best and bright people, but today the West is leading the world in Covid tyranny. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK, Germany, USA etc., all countries have gone completely Nazi totalitarian. In the name of protecting people, state officials everywhere are trying hard to totally control them. Freedom, human rights, and the rule of law are all tossed out of window in the name of protecting people from a virus which has a mortality rate of <a href="https://thenewamerican.com/stanford-epidemiologist-studies-covid-finds-its-highly-treatable-and-rarely-a-deadly-disease/?utm_source=pocket_mylist" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">less than 0.20%</a>! </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://misesindia.in/2021/07/31/our-visible-world-is-a-giant-racket/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Elsewhere</a> I have already elaborated why the nation states, who are implementing these measures, are giant protection rackets. To fully grasp this point let us understand what protection means. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Definition of protection </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">According to Merriam-Webster dictionary protection means an act of protecting. What then is the meaning of protecting? Protecting means, <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">to cover or shield from exposure, injury, damage, or destruction</i>. So in this sense the government is supposedly trying to <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">protect </i>citizens from Covid-19. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">What is public health and is health a public good? </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Before we define what is public health, we need to define what public is? Public generally means, <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">of, relating to, or affecting all the people or the whole area of a nation or state. </i>This means, public health is a political word and it has no existence in reality. This is because a nation state is a political entity. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">In economics public good is defined by two criterions: </p><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;">Non-exclusion and </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;">Non-rivalrousnes </li></ol><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This means a good is a public good, so government production of that good is justifiable and necessary, when its use cannot be denied to people or its use by one person will not bar other person from using it. For example, if health is a public good then any use of health services must not be denied to someone, or its use by one person must not exclude the other person from using it. Now, in this Covid pandemic we saw exactly the opposite happening e.g., in India the use of hospital beds or oxygen bottles by some individuals was denied use to vast majority of other people because of the scarcity of hospital beds and oxygen bottles in government, as well as private, hospitals. We saw different states in India fighting to procure the supply of oxygen from the central government. Why is this? Because the use of oxygen by one state resulted in its lack of supply for the other state and similarly for individuals residing in those states. This is because oxygen was scarce, which makes oxygen a private and not public good. The same is true for health systems the world over.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This means health is a scarce good and so it is a private good which should be produced and delivered by the free market system of private enterprise. Government’s monopoly of covid management is totally unjustified. That monopoly resulted in unnecessary deaths of many people. In the absence of government’s health monopoly and central planning, the market would’ve easily provided all the protection and care that was needed for covid patients and everyone else. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Public health is thus a myth. The word public is a collective concept which doesn’t exist in reality. Public is always made of individuals, and different individuals have differing needs of protection from danger. The risk of danger is also measured subjectively by every individual e.g., for a professional mountaineer climbing Mount Everest is not as risky as it is for some common man who will never attempt to go up Everest. Similarly for someone who likes smoking, the risk of smoking is less compared to someone who hates smoking. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Even objective assessment of risk is different for different categories of people. For example, let’s talk about the risk of death due to Covid in different categories of people. Below, figure 1 shows relative risk of Covid for different age groups: </p><figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3386" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_3386" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2em; max-width: 100%; width: 282px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-3386 size-medium jetpack-lazy-image jetpack-lazy-image--handled" data-lazy-loaded="1" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" loading="eager" sizes="(max-width: 282px) 100vw, 282px" src="https://i1.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Data.jpg?resize=282%2C300&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Data.jpg?resize=282%2C300&ssl=1 282w, https://i1.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Data.jpg?resize=962%2C1024&ssl=1 962w, https://i1.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Data.jpg?resize=768%2C818&ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Data.jpg?w=1080&ssl=1 1080w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 1s; vertical-align: middle;" width="282" /></div><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-3386" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05); box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-style: italic; padding: 0.4em; text-align: justify;">Figure 1 Covid Infection Survival Rate</figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">(Source: I<a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.08.21260210v1?fbclid=IwAR0fR5ud3doD1nwotFsaimuI406v5b1VLhJ1FfbZAAA_Q7y69qfsP2OwZrA&utm_source=pocket_mylist" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">nfection fatality rate of COVID-19 in community-dwelling populations with emphasis on the elderly: An overview)</a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This data tells us that the risk of covid for all is not at all the same. And because the risk is not the same, the need for protection is also not the same. As it is the case with every matter of life, things are always different and varied for all individual human beings. Nature has made us all different and so such data aren’t surprising. Except the elderly, who are specially suffering from underlying diseases, risk of Covid for all other age groups is almost non-existent. Even for elderly, the risk isn’t as high as many other diseases. Every individual’s health needs are different and so the whole concept of <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">public health </i>is dubious. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Now, just for the sake of argument if we agree with the idea that governments exist for our protection, then the protection against Covid is needed only by the elderly population 70 years and older. In India the life expectancy is 70 years (<a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.MA.IN?locations=IN" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Worldbank data</a>) which means the risk of dying because of Covid for Indians is close to zero. The only question Indians need to ask is, is this close to zero percent risk a justifiable reason for destroying the economy in the world’s most brutal lockdown? Is this risk justification for the government’s mindless vaccine push to please the globalist powers? </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Is public health a just reason for all the tyranny? </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">I know my above question is rhetoric. In no circumstances can tyranny be justified, but the way our world has turned into one giant concentration camp I must carry out this discussion. Can we justify coercing people against their wish in the name of protecting public health? Tyrants often make this argument to justify their tyranny: <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Well, your liberty affects my health. When that occurs, we have to come to some sort of agreement.” </i>Let’s dissect this argument and see if it holds water when put under logical scrutiny. First of all, on the face of it, this is a non-sequitur argument because even if my liberty affects your health that doesn’t mean we involve government in coercing people out of their liberty to comply to the wishes of those whose health is getting affected. The agreement here doesn’t necessarily involve the government. There is a better and moral solution to this conflict. That solution is private property rights i.e., privatizing everything. To understand this we have to understand how my liberty affects your health. Let’s take Covid as an example. Someone’s health is in danger when that person catches the virus from someone else. Where will he catch it? When he will go outside in public places. Because public places belong to everyone there is a conflict between these two parties. The conflict is, who will use these places? Those who want safety or those who want liberty? Public property results into this conflict. We can resolve this conflict by privatizing all public properties e.g., streets, gardens etc. Once privatized, owners can decide different rules so that both parties can use their property e.g., there can be a fee for using streets by liberty lovers. If safety lovers want to use that street then they will have to pay higher price and reserve a street for their own use. Whoever desires the street more than others will pay an appropriate price and use the street, and similarly for all other private properties. Private property will solve this conflict between the vaccinated and unvaccinated people. There is no need for violating the rights of either vaccinated or unvaccinated people. In a private law society separate areas will be designated for both groups of people. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Or, the best thing is, our societies divide between vaccinated and unvaccinated people. There will be employers who will hire unvaccinated people, there will be restaurants, gyms and other such places that will accept unvaccinated customers, there will be airlines who will fly unvaccinated people and so on and so forth. That way the needs of both groups of people can be fulfilled without violating rights of other group. There is no need to impose the wishes of one group on the other group by using the coercive power of the state. People must be free to choose because freedom is supreme.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Conclusion</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The mythical concept of public health or any other such excuse can never be used to justify any kind of violation of our God given natural human rights. In no circumstances can any kind of tyrannical use of force be justified. We or the State cannot pretend to protect someone’s health by violating someone’s freedom, which in turn will affect their health. If my liberty is affecting your health then what about your health fears affecting my liberty? If your health fears are important then my liberty is also important. Liberty gives life; it is its prerequisite. Control in the name of public health is anti-life. It kills people. And anything that is anti-life can never be more important than liberty which is life’s basic condition. </p><div class="heateorSssClear" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both;"></div><div class="heateor_sss_sharing_container heateor_sss_horizontal_sharing" heateor-sss-data-href="https://misesindia.in/2021/09/13/the-myth-of-public-health/" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-44608398209249473342021-09-18T03:46:00.000-07:002021-09-18T03:46:08.936-07:00On India’s New Education Policy<p style="text-align: justify;">After coming to power in 2014 the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is spearheading a movement to change India completely. He and his ideological backers RSS want a <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">New India </i>which is supposedly rooted in ancient Indian traditions. They want to discard the “Old India” which they believe was built by the British colonial masters. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">In their effort to build this New India they have drafted a new <a href="https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/Draft_NEP_2019_EN_Revised.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">national education policy</a>. The vision of this policy is,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The National Education Policy 2019 envisions an </i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">India centred</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> education system (emphasize in original). </i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The implementation of this policy has slowly begun. In this brief article I am going to discuss this policy and some of its most important implications. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">First, before we discuss this new national education policy we need to discuss whether any such national education policy is required. We must question the very need of such national policies. Should education be centralized and provided by the state in a uniform fashion to everyone? Or should it be free market education where everyone has a choice of studying whatever subjects they want to based on their own curiosity? As Murray Rothbard and world famous teachers like John Taylor Gatto and John Holt, or self taught geniuses like Benjamin Franklin etc., have said, education is better left to the wishes of the learners i.e., students and their parents. This is necessary because nature has made us all in different molds. Every child is different with different educational needs. Rothbard puts it nicely, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">One of the most important facts about human nature is the great diversity among individuals. Of course, there are certain broad characteristics, physical and mental, which are common to all human beings.3 But more than any other species, individual men are distinct and separate individuals. Not only is each finger- print unique, each personality is unique as well. Each person is unique in his tastes, interests, abilities, and chosen activities. Ani- mal activities, routine and guided by instinct, tend to be uniform and alike. But human individuals, despite similarities in ends and values, despite mutual influences, tend to express the unique imprint of the individual’s own personality. The development of individual variety tends to be both the cause and the effect of the progress of civilization. As civilization progresses, there is more opportunity for the development of a person’s reasoning and tastes in a growing variety of fields. And from such opportunities come the advancement of knowledge and progress which in turn add to the society’s civilization. Furthermore, it is the variety of individual interests and talents that permits the growth of specialization and division of labor, on which civilized economies depend.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Since each person is a unique individual, it is clear that the best type of formal instruction is that type which is suited to his own particular individuality. … It is obvious, therefore, that the best type of instruction is indi- vidual instruction. A course where one teacher instructs one pupil is clearly by far the best type of course. It is only under such con- ditions that human potentialities can develop to their greatest degree. It is clear that the formal school, characterized by classes in which one teacher instructs many children, is an immensely inferior system. (Source: <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Education%2520Free%2520and%2520Compulsory_3.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Education: Free and Compulsory</a>) </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Against the backdrop of this human diversity, the uniform national education will kill the Individual and with it India. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">If national education policy will kill the individual then what is the real aim of this policy? The only true aim of national education policy thus can be what H L Mencken has mentioned, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The most erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This policy only makes sense from the state’s perspective. Our ruling masters want to breed a standard docile citizenry who will never question the government and its policies no matter how unjust or injurious they are. Public education always breeds mediocrity. It kills individual efforts and produces robot like zombies. Governments always hate those individuals who can critically think for themselves. Politicians don’t like anyone who dissents or questions their authority, and so this new national education policy. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">After knowing the above facts, for me there is nothing much else to discuss about this policy, but for the sake of discussion let us take up one central feature of this policy and analyze it.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Heavy centralization</span> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">As a recent Mises India <a href="https://misesindia.in/2021/04/12/india-centralize-or-decentralize/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">article</a> discussed, the process of concentration of power in New Delhi frim the Prime Minister’s office has been increasing since 2014, and this new national education policy is yet another step in the direction of centralization of power. The draft report says, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> organisational set- up and the coordination structures for the Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (RSA)/National Education Commission (NEC) will draw their authority from the highest political levels of the country. This highest body is being placed under the responsibility of the Prime Minister himself/herself so that in his/ her role as the highest functionary of the government of the country, the Prime Minister can bring his/her authority to create the necessary synergies and provide direction to this national endeavour, as a part of the country’s overall vision of a knowledge society. (p. 32)</i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">In fact, the whole national education policy is drafted to fulfill the wishes of prime minister Narendra Modi. The report says, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">India<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> aspires to take its place beside the United States and China as the third largest economy by 2030-2032, the same period during which this Policy will bring about the biggest transformation. India is the sixth largest economy now and we will reach five trillion in five-seven years taking us to fourth or fifth position. By 2030-2032 we will be the third largest economy at over ten trillion. Our ten trillion economy will not be driven by natural resources, but by knowledge resources. We have not looked ahead into the implications of being the world’s third largest economy. It will be a totally different environment. Ecosystems force us to think differently and achieving this milestone will have ramifications all across the country. Are we ready to take our place besides the USA and China as the top three largest economies of the world and be confident of sustaining it in the following years? To do this, we will need a knowledge society based on a robust education system, with all the requisite attributes and characteristics in the context of changes in knowledge demands, technologies, and the way in which society lives and works. In this context, </i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">the Prime Minister’s recent call to leverage the Fourth Industrial Revolution</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> to take India to new heights is particularly apt. (emphasize mine) (p. 33) </i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">India doesn’t aspire to anything because India as a collective entity does’t exist. It is an imaginary entity in whose name state officials like politicians, bureaucrats, and technocrats who drafted this policy, are trying to impose their ideas of India on 1.4 billion Indians. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Conclusion </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">There is nothing new in this new education policy. Just like past policies, this is the same central planning exercise in education sector, and just like all other central planning systems this system will also fail in achieving its lofty objectives. True education is the one which is left to the learners themselves. The schooling system cannot provide education. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">As far as all the lofty goals are concerned, of critical thinking or quality education etc., that are <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>mentioned in the draft policy, all those goals can easily be achieved if education is left to the individuals instead of being centrally planned and provided by the state. In this regard, the education sector of India must be freed of any governmental/state interference. Public education should be dismantled and such national education policies, and the education ministry itself, must be scrapped and abolished. Alternative educational approaches like homeschooling or unschooling must be legalized and education must be left to the private affairs of learners. </p><div class="heateorSssClear" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both;"></div><div class="heateor_sss_sharing_container heateor_sss_horizontal_sharing" heateor-sss-data-href="https://misesindia.in/2021/08/23/on-indias-new-education-policy/" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-29346608371402376172021-08-30T08:33:00.006-07:002021-08-30T08:33:58.403-07:00Should India Nationalize Vodafone-Idea?<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">Recently a Bloomberg opinion article by Andy Mukherjee proposed to nationalize private telecom player Vodafone-Idea in the wake of their financial struggle and a possible exit from India which will result into job and economic losses. Author </span><a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/india-should-nationalise-vodafone-idea-head-off-jio-dominated-duopoly-121073000120_1.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #144d7f; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">says</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">, </span></p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The world’s cheapest data costs have done wonders for India by helping spread the benefits of the internet beyond a tiny, urban, affluent class. </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">But there’s a problem: Successive governments have hounded telecom operators with outlandish financial demands.</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Now things have gone too far. </span><a href="https://www.business-standard.com/topic/vodafone-idea" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Vodafone Idea </a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ltd., one of the three private-sector competitors left standing in what used to be a field of a dozen players, is very close to crumbling under the weight of its $30 billion debt. That will effectively turn the wireless market in the nation of 1.4 billion people into a duopoly.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Maybe not immediately, but the gains to consumers could be reversed because of the lack of competition. (An international survey shows Indian data plans to still be highly affordable, though they’re no longer as inexpensive as the world-beating 9 cents per gigabyte last year.) The pace of digitization of the economy could slow. Avoiding this scenario calls for some creative thinking.</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nationalization should rank high among the few viable options worthy of consideration, even though the state getting into the driver’s seat of private enterprise has in the past created zombies on perpetual taxpayer support, such as Air India Ltd. (emphasize mine) </i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Is nationalization of private telecom company Vodafone-Idea the right solution of this problem? To give an answer to this question we first need to understand why so many telecom firms have exited India and why Vodafone-Idea is struggling too. Our author actually provides this answer in his article, but then as it happens with most mainstream experts, instead of giving the right solution he just says the government is here to rescue us. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In his own article, my emphasis above, the author talks about how successive Indian governments have harassed telecom operators in India and forced them to exit the Indian market. This lack of </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">ease of doing business </i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">in India is then responsible for the exit of many telecom operators. Our author calls everyone for creative thinking to solve this problem of lack of competition, but then without any creative thinking (or thinking itself) he offers the very same government that destroyed this sector as its savior! If government harassment of the telecom sector is the root cause of the lack of competition in the Indian telecom market then how is government nationalizing that sector outright the right solution to this problem? How will nationalization of Vodafone-Idea result in more competition? How will nationalization result in efficient functioning of the telecom market? Governments the world over are known to be the most inefficient institutions. Even our author knows this perennial fact, that when the state gets into the driving seat it creates zombie corporations which become a burden on tax payers. The reason why the Indian telecom market was opened for private players by the past governments is the very inefficiency of the public telecom operators like the BSNL or MTNL! How is going back to the same system of public operators now going to give us a different result? This is quintessential insanity. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">If competition is desirable then why not advocate removal of government interference from the telecom sector, and the economy? Why not demand the government stop harassing the telecom sector? Competition will develop naturally in the market once government stops interfering, and that competition will reduce tariff rates again and improve quality of services. Nationalization of the only remaining private player in no way can bring any kind of competition into the telecom market. Nationalization is antithetical to competition. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nationalization should not rank high among viable options at all. It shouldn’t even be considered as an option. The only viable option is allowing market forces to work in the economy, and that means stopping government interventions into the economy and society. This is the only viable option. Anything less than this will not work, guaranteed.</span></p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-52028042245235549802021-08-28T06:19:00.000-07:002021-08-28T06:19:15.634-07:00Our Visible World is a Giant Racket<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">Hollywood’s famous movie The Matrix shows that our visible world is a giant make-believe world of a matrix created by our machine overlords. The reality is something totally different than what we experience daily. The protagonist of the movie Neo is being exposed to this world of slavery by the rebel character Morpheus. He offers him two pills: red and blue. Red pill takes Neo into the ugly reality while the blue pill keeps him in the make believe happy world of the Matrix. In this article I am going to play the role of Morpheus for my readers. This article is like a dose of those red pills of ugly reality. Let’s begin our descent into the rabbit hole. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">What is a racket? </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Before we discuss different types of rackets running behind the happy facade of our make believe world of the Matrix, we need to define what a racket is. In his famous essay </span><a href="https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">War is a Racket</a><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">, </i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">US Army General Smedley Butler defined a racket as, </span></p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small ‘inside’ group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Our present day world is full of such rackets. I am going to briefly discuss them below. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The State as a protection racket </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The biggest racket of all rackets is the political system of the state. The state is a territorial monopolist who monopolizes the function of ‘use of violence’ over its physical territories. To perform this function it has supposedly been given total power. This power is negative in nature i.e., a power that is only to be used to stop two people from physically harming each other, and if there is an incidence of harm then to adjudicate that matter and use the negative force to punish the culprit. This it does to supposedly protect its citizens from any internal or external harm. Why is the state a racket? To understand this we have to quickly understand how the state arose historically. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Suppose there is a village called Pandora. Pandora is inhabited by peaceful farmers who are producing a surplus and selling that surplus in the markets of nearby villages to exchange whatever they need for their livelihood. Pandora and the villages nearby are living peacefully in a voluntary contractual market society. There is no ‘use of violence’ in Pandora and its surrounding villages. Now in a far distant place there arose another village called Andora which is inhabited by violent marauders. People of Andora are naturally war like and prone to violence. Once or twice in a year they attack the people of Pandora and nearby villages and loot and pillage them killing some of the inhabitants in every attack. As time goes by the pillagers realize that instead of killing and robbing the inhabitants and destroying everything, they would be better off coming and living in that area as their overlords and asking for annual booty, i.e., protection money, as a price of not robbing and killing them like before. That is the beginning of the state. As the </span><a href="https://oll.libertyfund.org/quote/franz-oppenheimer-on-the-origin-of-the-state-in-conquest-and-subjection-by-one-group-over-another-1907" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">conquest theory </a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">of the origin of the state tells us, every state on this earth has begun in such a conquest. Once formed via conquest, the apologists of the state (with whom the original state forming gang of bandits are eventually forced to share their power wirh, to stabilize internal rule and to achieve legitimacy) justify their existence by legitimizing it in the public’s eye by using theories like the social contract or the Leviathan needed for internal security from each other etc. These are fabricated lies. No one would voluntarily sign such a contract which will subjugate them to others; and if a human society is a war of wolf against wolf, then where will we find the peaceful wolf that will rule other wolves, with other wolves voluntarily agreeing to that wolf’s rule? </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">State apologists also use the foreign aggression excuse to justify the state and its depredation. One statist gang is basically fighting with other gang for geographic supremacy and to gain local support each gang is frightening their citizens by using the excuse of foreign attack in their absence! In reality the imaginary foreign aggression danger is not bigger than the daily exploitation done by the ruling statist gang. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The whole reason of the state’s existence </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">for our protection </i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">is a lie. The State isn’t protecting us. It is only protecting itself by exploiting us. As Hans Hermann Hoppe has demonstrated, a private property rights expropriating private property right protector state is a giant contradiction in terms. The State cannot loot us first, via taxation and inflation etc., and then claim to protect us! </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">And, in the absence of the state we are not going to rob and kill each other. As researchers like </span><a href="https://www.amazon.in/Evolution-Cooperation-Robert-Axelrod/dp/0465005640/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3F42I30QLVUB&dchild=1&keywords=robert+axelrod&qid=1627228525&sprefix=Robert+ax,aps,288&sr=8-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Robert Axelrod</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">and </span><a href="https://www.amazon.in/Origins-Virtue-Penguin-Press-Science-ebook/dp/B002VNFNY2/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=matt+Ridley+cooperation&qid=1627228569&sr=8-8" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Matt Ridley</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> have shown, cooperation among the members of human society is the natural norm. Over the course of time cooperation has evolved between humans to survive and thrive. Only a few </span><a href="https://www.amazon.in/Sociopath-Next-Martha-Stout-Ph-D/dp/0767915828/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=sociopath+next+door&qid=1627626976&sr=8-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">psychopathic</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">members among our society are exploitative in nature, and because some of them are so good at hiding their true psychopathic exploitative personalities they fool the public and become their rulers. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The state thus is a giant protection racket. It is better we realize this fact soon and start to develop alternatives so that one day the state can be removed from amidst us. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Schools as an education racket</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Another giant racket is the system of public schooling, and this racket is actually a part of the state racket. As amply demonstrated by true teachers like </span><a href="https://www.amazon.in/John-Taylor-Gatto/e/B001K7S0AE?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1627281848&sr=8-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">John Taylor Gatto</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> and </span><a href="https://www.johnholtgws.com/books-by-john-holt/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">John Holt</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> etc., the aim of the public education system is not to educate our children and make them an independently thinking individual, but to make them docile so that they can easily fit into the given power structure without questioning authorities. As H L Mencken so rightly said, </span></p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The most erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else.</span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Most teachers who teach in this system are doing that work only for their paychecks and nothing much else. I call them public servants and not teachers. Their job is to spread the statist propaganda and prepare the standard citizenry. Instead of changing the culture of the society for better, the government schooling system reimposes the same culture on every generation making any kind of change impossible. Children become rote learners who are focused on getting good grades instead of learning something useful. The whole system breeds idiocy. The public school system is a giant racket which we must immediately pull our children out of if we want to give them a better life. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Medical profession as a health racket </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">As doctors and scientists like </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Doctors-Dont-Joel-Wallach/dp/0974858102" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Dr. Joel Wallach</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">, </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Sick-Know-Why-therapeutics/dp/179211205X/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=cure+glidden&qid=1627565232&s=books&sr=1-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Dr. Glidden</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Or </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Upgrade-Your-Immunity-Herbs-Supercharge/dp/140196348X/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=joseph+mercola&qid=1627565450&s=books&sr=1-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Dr. Mercola</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> etc., have shown, the modern medical system is a monopoly created by billionaires like </span><a href="http://www.blissfulvisions.com/articles/Rockefeller-Carnegie-Big-Pharma-Scam.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">. Before this medical monopoly came into existence, there were many different alternative approaches to health care e.g., naturopathy, homeopathy, Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, ancient shamanic medicine etc. Once this medical monopoly was established, it outlawed all other alternative health practices. Since the last 100 years and more people are told that the only cure for their ailment is a drug being produced by the mainstream medical monopoly pharmaceutical companies – anything else is quackery. But the fact of the matter is that drugs are no cure of any ailment. These chemical drugs only help to suppress the symptoms of the disease and not cure it by eliminating the root cause of that disease e.g., if you catch cold then some drug will only suppress the immune response, which is necessary in the healing process, so that you do not experience the unpleasant immune response symptoms. Another huge problem with the mainstream medical approach is that it is reductionist i.e., instead of seeing the whole body as one biological, and spiritual, organism it looks at different body parts in isolation. So when you have a heart problem, the Cardiologist will only try to treat your heart instead of understanding the real cause of the heart problem, which may lie in some other parts of the body. The holistic approach is missing and so millions of people unduly suffer from chronic diseases like diabetes, blood pressure, asthma etc., which can be cured by using holistic treatment. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In this ongoing Covid-19 pandemic (sic) situation we clearly see the dangers of mainstream medical monopoly. Big Pharma companies and their ally governments and media are trying to force their vaccines on the world’s population by hook or crook. In their desperation they are now on the verge of outright mandating these deadly vaccines, which is a clear violation of God given human rights as well as their own medical ethic codes like the Nuremberg code. They are implementing draconian moves like lockdowns and vaccine passports. In the name of health care they have destroyed millions of lives around the world. They are deliberately suppressing information of all alternative cures of Covid-19 disease e.g., when former US President Donald Trump talked about hydroxichloroquine as a possible cheap cure of Covid-19, the deep state establishment went after him and the cheap and safe drug itself was shamelessly demonized by them. They are aggressively suppressing Ivermectin also; many Western governments have gone as far as to ban Ivermectin! Even many dissenting mainstream medical doctors are facing censoring, and many, like the inventor of the mRNA vaccine technology himself, are even facing death threats. Medical mafias of the world want us to believe that the only cure for Covid-19 is their vaccines. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The name of science itself is now tainted and misused beyond any imagination. In the name of science, they are doing all kinds of evil things. Science has been politicized today like never before. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Our mainstream health care system is another giant racket which exists for the sake or benefit of governments, a few billionaires, and big Pharma companies. Public health is just an excuse to control and rule over us with an iron fist. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Socialism as a welfare racket </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Another long running racket is the economic and political system of socialism. Socialism is touted by its proponents as the only system that cares for the poor and other such downtrodden people of our human society. They portray the competing system of Capitalism as pure evil which exploits the above mentioned groups of people. But history and theory both are evident that the fact of the matter is exactly opposite to what the proponents of socialism are saying. Socialism has single handily </span><a href="https://www.amazon.in/Black-Book-Communism-Crimes-Repression/dp/0674076087" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">killed millions of people</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> around the world in the past 20th century alone. Socialist dictators like Joseph Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara etc, have killed hundreds of thousands of people during their bloody regimes. This is the system which has systematically murdered all of its opponents and made billions of people poor, hungry, and desperate. All places where the system of socialism was implemented have turned into a living hell e.g., former USSR, former communist China, Cuba, North Korea, almost all Latin American countries and India etc. As </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Problem-Socialism-Thomas-DiLorenzo/dp/1621575896/?tag=boatagl-20" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Prof. Thomas DiLorenzo</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> has demonstrated, socialism is a system of misery and death as opposite to prosperity. It is the system that also systematically pollutes the environment and adds into the problem of environmental damage. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Directly opposite of the allegations of the socialist leaders, the system of Capitalism has lifted billions of people out of poverty. Before the advent of our modern capitalist era with its industrial revolution in England in the later half of the eighteenth century, most of the world was living in extreme poverty and low population equilibrium. It was capitalism that dramatically improved the standard of living of people wherever it was implemented. Capitalism made the sustenance of a bigger population possible. Against the claims of socialist labor unions, it was the system of capitalism with its individual liberty that improved the condition of laborers all around the globe. Capitalism is the only system capable of producing the vast surplus that is necessary to build civilizations. Thus, it is the system of Capitalism that makes human life possible. Without it, there will be no surplus production and we all will be living a primitive life in a jungle. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Thus it is Capitalism that is the real welfare provider of the world and not socialism, which only impoverishes and kills people. Socialism is not what it seems. It appeals to human emotions and that is why so many people are fooled by its propaganda. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Conclusion</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Our world is full of delusions. It is not what it seems. Most of it is an imaginary world created by those who rule us. The art of ruling is mostly in creating sense perception for the ruled. Our rulers have devised this Matrix to enslave us. Even languages are manipulated to create delusion. Rackets are everywhere, and above we only saw some of the major ones. The reason I talked about them is to expose them in front of all. It is important for all of us to see beyond these rackets if we want to free ourselves from our enslavement. Unless we take a heavy dose of the red pill of reality, our condition is not going to improve. </span></p><div class="blog-share text-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-align: center;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-82132106435034856292021-08-27T08:16:00.003-07:002021-08-27T08:16:49.353-07:00On India’s New Education Policy<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">After coming to power in 2014 the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is spearheading a movement to change India completely. He and his ideological backers RSS want a</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">New India </i><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">which is supposedly rooted in ancient Indian traditions. They want to discard the “Old India” which they believe was built by the British colonial masters.</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">In their effort to build this New India they have drafted a new <a href="https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/Draft_NEP_2019_EN_Revised.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">national education policy</a>. The vision of this policy is,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The National Education Policy 2019 envisions an </i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">India centred</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> education system (emphasize in original). </i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The implementation of this policy has slowly begun. In this brief article I am going to discuss this policy and some of its most important implications. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">First, before we discuss this new national education policy we need to discuss whether any such national education policy is required. We must question the very need of such national policies. Should education be centralized and provided by the state in a uniform fashion to everyone? Or should it be free market education where everyone has a choice of studying whatever subjects they want to based on their own curiosity? As Murray Rothbard and world famous teachers like John Taylor Gatto and John Holt, or self taught geniuses like Benjamin Franklin etc., have said, education is better left to the wishes of the learners i.e., students and their parents. This is necessary because nature has made us all in different molds. Every child is different with different educational needs. Rothbard puts it nicely, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">One of the most important facts about human nature is the great diversity among individuals. Of course, there are certain broad characteristics, physical and mental, which are common to all human beings.3 But more than any other species, individual men are distinct and separate individuals. Not only is each finger- print unique, each personality is unique as well. Each person is unique in his tastes, interests, abilities, and chosen activities. Ani- mal activities, routine and guided by instinct, tend to be uniform and alike. But human individuals, despite similarities in ends and values, despite mutual influences, tend to express the unique imprint of the individual’s own personality. The development of individual variety tends to be both the cause and the effect of the progress of civilization. As civilization progresses, there is more opportunity for the development of a person’s reasoning and tastes in a growing variety of fields. And from such opportunities come the advancement of knowledge and progress which in turn add to the society’s civilization. Furthermore, it is the variety of individual interests and talents that permits the growth of specialization and division of labor, on which civilized economies depend.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Since each person is a unique individual, it is clear that the best type of formal instruction is that type which is suited to his own particular individuality. … It is obvious, therefore, that the best type of instruction is indi- vidual instruction. A course where one teacher instructs one pupil is clearly by far the best type of course. It is only under such con- ditions that human potentialities can develop to their greatest degree. It is clear that the formal school, characterized by classes in which one teacher instructs many children, is an immensely inferior system. (Source: <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Education%2520Free%2520and%2520Compulsory_3.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Education: Free and Compulsory</a>) </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Against the backdrop of this human diversity, the uniform national education will kill the Individual and with it India. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">If national education policy will kill the individual then what is the real aim of this policy? The only true aim of national education policy thus can be what H L Mencken has mentioned, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The most erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This policy only makes sense from the state’s perspective. Our ruling masters want to breed a standard docile citizenry who will never question the government and its policies no matter how unjust or injurious they are. Public education always breeds mediocrity. It kills individual efforts and produces robot like zombies. Governments always hate those individuals who can critically think for themselves. Politicians don’t like anyone who dissents or questions their authority, and so this new national education policy. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">After knowing the above facts, for me there is nothing much else to discuss about this policy, but for the sake of discussion let us take up one central feature of this policy and analyze it.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Heavy centralization</span> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">As a recent Mises India <a href="https://misesindia.in/2021/04/12/india-centralize-or-decentralize/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">article</a> discussed, the process of concentration of power in New Delhi frim the Prime Minister’s office has been increasing since 2014, and this new national education policy is yet another step in the direction of centralization of power. The draft report says, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> organisational set- up and the coordination structures for the Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (RSA)/National Education Commission (NEC) will draw their authority from the highest political levels of the country. This highest body is being placed under the responsibility of the Prime Minister himself/herself so that in his/ her role as the highest functionary of the government of the country, the Prime Minister can bring his/her authority to create the necessary synergies and provide direction to this national endeavour, as a part of the country’s overall vision of a knowledge society. (p. 32)</i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">In fact, the whole national education policy is drafted to fulfill the wishes of prime minister Narendra Modi. The report says, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">India<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> aspires to take its place beside the United States and China as the third largest economy by 2030-2032, the same period during which this Policy will bring about the biggest transformation. India is the sixth largest economy now and we will reach five trillion in five-seven years taking us to fourth or fifth position. By 2030-2032 we will be the third largest economy at over ten trillion. Our ten trillion economy will not be driven by natural resources, but by knowledge resources. We have not looked ahead into the implications of being the world’s third largest economy. It will be a totally different environment. Ecosystems force us to think differently and achieving this milestone will have ramifications all across the country. Are we ready to take our place besides the USA and China as the top three largest economies of the world and be confident of sustaining it in the following years? To do this, we will need a knowledge society based on a robust education system, with all the requisite attributes and characteristics in the context of changes in knowledge demands, technologies, and the way in which society lives and works. In this context, </i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">the Prime Minister’s recent call to leverage the Fourth Industrial Revolution</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> to take India to new heights is particularly apt. (emphasize mine) (p. 33) </i></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">India doesn’t aspire to anything because India as a collective entity does’t exist. It is an imaginary entity in whose name state officials like politicians, bureaucrats, and technocrats who drafted this policy, are trying to impose their ideas of India on 1.4 billion Indians. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Conclusion </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">There is nothing new in this new education policy. Just like past policies, this is the same central planning exercise in education sector, and just like all other central planning systems this system will also fail in achieving its lofty objectives. True education is the one which is left to the learners themselves. The schooling system cannot provide education. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">As far as all the lofty goals are concerned, of critical thinking or quality education etc., that are <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>mentioned in the draft policy, all those goals can easily be achieved if education is left to the individuals instead of being centrally planned and provided by the state. In this regard, the education sector of India must be freed of any governmental/state interference. Public education should be dismantled and such national education policies, and the education ministry itself, must be scrapped and abolished. Alternative educational approaches like homeschooling or unschooling must be legalized and education must be left to the private affairs of learners. </p><div class="blog-share text-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-align: center;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-11192553527939588152021-08-16T22:40:00.001-07:002021-08-16T23:06:35.618-07:00 What is the fallout for India of Taliban's take over of Afghanistan? <p><br /></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Taliban has quickly taken over Afghanistan after an abrupt exit of USA and NATO forces from its lands. This was inevitable. In this short discussion I want to focus on the fallout of this surprising event for India.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">First, it seems Modi government is again caught napping as they have very little diplomatic talks going on with the Taliban at the time of take over. India's Hindu fundamentalist government was getting cozy with US government in their bid to control China. Instead of becoming trading partner of China by joining OBOR etc., Indian government decided to stay out and be an enemy of China, and with it Russia, Iran and Turkey etc., also. Pakistan is an arch enemy already. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">With Taliban's win now China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Turkey are altogether in a continuous landmass trading area. China will start diplomatic talks with Taliban soon if they behave well. I am sure new Taliban leaders are smart enough to see potential gains they can have by being part of this trading block. If they decide to be violent then their fate is doomed again. American deep state will surely try to throw a wrench in these trading block, but with its military going woke they have little leverage. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">By deciding to stay out of this trading block, India is a net loser here. Taliban will highly unlikely side with India because of its persecution of Muslims. Modi government banned Afghani muslims from becoming Indian citizen. Even if needed, such things are better done in clandestine fashion and not announced publicly like that. Such moves can please the local voters but not outsiders like the Taliban. Pakistan handles Taliban so now they are emboldened. Kashmiri insurgents will get a moral boost too and they will start to ramp up their attacks on Indian soldiers. I am sure many Indian muslims are feeling jubilious inside thier hearts too. I am sure Pakistan will now intensify the proxy war. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Still there is time for the Indian government to salvage the situation by joining this trading block. If Taliban behaves well then they can recognize them as a legitimate government as a gesture of friendship. America is a decaying power and it can't help India much. It is better to side with neighbours if siding is needed.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">But I see Modi and RSS trapped by their own jingoism. If they try to act little less tough then they will lose votes because Indian public is now high on nationalism opium. Hindu vs Muslim rhetoric is going to be a problem for the Indian government itself. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">In the end, as Lord Krishna said, Peace is the only solution of India's problems. With commerce will come peace and with peace will come prosperity and progress. If Indians decide to fight for theri Akhand Bharat then war will ruin them. If they decide to trade, like how they have done historically, then they will prosper. The ball is in their court now.</div></div>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-63987505583593328702021-07-31T08:36:00.001-07:002021-07-31T08:36:27.202-07:00How Politicians Exploit your Fear and What to Do to Stop them?<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">Book review:</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/098929126X/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Feardom</a>: How Politicians Exploit Your Emotions and What You Can Do to Stop Them by Connor Boyack. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Libertas Press (8 December 2014)</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Connor Boyack, the founder and president of Libertas Institute a libertarian think tank in Utah, has written an important book on the subject matter of the pervasive human emotion of <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">fear </i>and how different power mongering people utilise it to influence the actions of their victims to control and exploit them for their own benefit. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Since the beginning of the year 2020 and continuing into 2021, world population has been scared to death by the state authorities, medical pharmaceutical mafia world and their billionaire funders about the so-called new Coronavirus and a disease caused by it viz., Covid-19. Under the guise of Covid-19 disease fear, power mongers have acquired tremendous powers for themselves over the world population. Various governments, especially Indian, imposed draconian lockdowns on their population which destroyed economies, societies and killed scores of people; they have coerced millions of people to take their experimental drugs, which they call vaccine, without anyone being aware about what they are injecting in their bodies; people, especially kids, are forced to wear masks and do social distancing as well as draconian authoritarian ideas like vaccine passports etc., are in the making world over. Not in known human history power mongers were able to acquire so much of power in their hands by using <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">fear </i>of a virus, which isn’t deadly at all with a mortality rate of less than <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eci.13554" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">0.15%</a>. The frailty of human nature is on full display today. A false fear of death, which is manufactured by power mongers, has made world population submit themselves completely to despots. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">In such circumstance of global manufactured fear, Boyack’s book is important to study because he not only systematically analyses what fear is and what causes it, but also provides a strong antidote against it so that we can guard ourselves against fear mongering authoritarians. As Boyack says, this type of immunisation is of urgency today. Immunisation against fear is the need of the hour and his book provides that immunisation. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">To understand how to deal with fear, we must first understand what fear is. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Fear is what psychologist Daniel Goleman calls, an <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/stress/amygdala-hijack#overview" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Amygdala hijack</a>. It is a natural response to the threat situations in life. When Human beings are faced with a danger the emotion of fear creates a response of either flight or fight in them, which is a life saviour. This emotion of fear is a natural instinct that nature has put in our brain during the history of our evolution. It has helped our specie survive. But the problem with fear is, if it is irrational then it can make us do crazy things. In the presence of seen danger our fear is rational and it saves our lives, but when the threat is not seen or perceived clearly and risk assessment is not in our hands, and it is in the hands of very people like politicians or medical mafia who communicate it to us, then an irrational fear will make us do crazy things like submit our liberties to despots who are using fear to control and manipulate us. During such times, the overwhelming response of our emotions will overpower our rationality. Boyack describes irrational fear,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">When the evidence does not substantiate the threat – when there is no rational reason to produce a heightened emotional response and change your behaviour to avoid danger – then the fear is irrational. </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The on going Covid-19 pandemic depicts this irrational fear perfectly well. We have 1.5 years worth of data with us about the mortality rate of Covid-19 to be only less than 0.15% overall, but despite that there is overwhelming reaction by the world population of submitting themselves to all kinds of despotic policies of their ruling masters. There is an overwhelming evidence that measures like lockdowns or mask and social distancing mandates or vaccines etc., don’t do anything to stop the spread of virus, but still most people around the world demand these very steps to be taken by their ruling overlords. And this is nothing new. Governments and their medical mafia is at this game since last 50 years at least. For example, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">In year 2009, 152 people were infected with swine flu in Mexico. And the media manufactured a crisis out of this and people around the world where erupted into fear of an epidemic. We were warned that the threat was everywhere – that everyone was potentially at risk; however, the data showed this fear to be completely unwarranted. Weeks into the outbreak, there were around 1000 reported cases of the virus in 20 countries. The number of fatalities stood at 26 – 25 in Mexico and 1 in the United States. Yet schools were closed, travel was restricted, emergency rooms were flooded, hundreds of thousands of pigs were killed, hand sanitiser and face masks disappeared from store shelves and network news stories about swine flu consumed 43% of air time. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Not only this, in year 1976 a swine flu outbreak led (American) Congress to vote to vaccinate the entire country. 25 people died from the vaccination itself, while only 1 person was killed from the actual virus; hundreds, if not more, contracted Guillain-Barre syndrome, a paralysing neurological illness, as a result of vaccine. Nearly 25% of the population was vaccinated before the effort was cancelled due to safety concerns.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Not only politicians and other power mongers utilise natural crisis to instil fear in the populace to control and manipulate them, often they deliberately manufacture a crisis to fulfil their various goals like bringing people in support of their policies, like attacking some foreign country or for winning elections and reelections, for gaining more power, money, prestige, fame etc. In this evil affairs, <a href="https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/0820478938/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=AWKKPKP4FBRXQ&psc=1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">mainstream media is the crime partner</a> of the power mongers. H L Mencken very rightly described governments when he said, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">History provides us many such examples. For example, the American spy agency CIA and the Pentagon were involved in the <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Operation Northwoods </i>where the joint chief of staffs in the military themselves devised a plan to attack American citizens in American cities and blame those attacks on the Fidel Castro regime of Cuba so as to give them a pretext to attack and kill him. The Gulf of Tonkin boat attack was also a ruse which started the bloody Vietnam war. In India also it is very highly likely that the Pulwama attack, which gave Narendra Modi a thumping victory in his reelection, was a an attack which government either invited or never tried to stop even after knowing about it; the same is true about the Godhra train burning incident or false encounters in Gujarat. India’s present government is known to incite communal riots to win elections. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Reason why people are fooled by the fear tactics of power mongers is because they are not in a position to assess the imminent danger or the risk involved in the phenomenon that is being feared. The odds of risk are being communicated to them by the very same power mongers, like the government or medical mafia etc., who are going to benefit from fear mongering! This risk communication by the third parties is what causes the irrational fear and during this on-going Covid pandemic we see exactly the same thing happening. From the very beginning government and the medical mafia scared people about the coronavirus. Because information was and still not easily available to the common people, they are reacting in a very crazy manner submitting their life and liberty in the hands of these despots. And as usual, the mainstream media, especially the social media companies like Facebook, Google (YouTube), Twitter etc., are aiding these despots in their efforts by outright censoring any dissident and differing voices that are questioning their narrative of Covid-19 being dangerous pandemic that requires forever lockdowns and masks and social distancing as well the only cure of this virus is their vaccines. In their mad reach for power these companies are banning medical doctors, who are actually treating patients and know well, well known scientists as well as other experts. They are trying every bit hard to keep the populace uninformed. As Boyack explains,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">A point not to be missed here is that information – or the lack thereof – shapes public opinion. More specifically, a person’s beliefs and decisions are affected by the information at his disposal. If a person’s understanding is limited only to sound bytes conveyed by politicians and pundits <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>– risk communication – <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>then he will most likely believe what he is told. </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">This ignorance amongst the public is most dangerous because as, “Aldous Huxley, a writer best known for his dystopian novel Brave New World, once wrote, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">The greatest triumphs of propaganda have been accomplished not by doing something, but by refraining from doing. Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.” Ignorance, then, is fear’s greatest catalyst; predatory politicians prefer a blindfolded people who can neither see nor respond to what’s actually around them.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Ignorance breeds fear and fear allows despots to control and manipulate us. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Not only that lack of information and ignorance deceives people, the reason why fear is such a potent weapon in the hands of despots is because as Thomas Jefferson wrote, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Fearful people seek security over liberty—they want to be kept safe at almost any expense. Knowing this human reaction, those who desire power and gain exploit it to great success.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">We see the same phenomenon at display today. People who are fearful of losing their lives at the hands of a virus that is only 0.15% lethal are willingly submitting their liberties to <a href="https://www.weforum.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">one world order despots</a>. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Generally we relate the word despotism to the outright display of naked power by despots like Hitler or Stalin etc., only, but as Jefferson mentioned, more calmer type of despotism is even more dangerous. Despots like Hitler can be removed easily when they transgress their limits of abuse, but democratically elected politicians exploit their subjects for decades because their exploitation is much more calmer and disguised in public policies which the voting public itself overwhelmingly supports because they (falsely) believe that those policies will give them lifetime <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">security</i>. People enslave themselves willingly under the false pretence of safety. Safety from neighbouring countries like Pakistan or China who our politicians constantly tell us will attack us if we don’t enact policies that they are proposing or safety from economic and social scares like losing job (unemployment) or safety of income in old age (social security) or safety from abuse of employers (job security and work conditions) etc. In this on-going so-called Covid-19 pandemic they have literally imprisoned themselves inside their homes to safeguard their lives from some virus as if hiding in home is really going to make their lives secure and better! All politicians promise their electorate a safe and better future, Narendra Modi’s <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Acche Din</i>, and always the electorate end up being more chained in slavery of these politicians because all those policies enacted for supposed safety of electorate actually increase the power of the politicians. Looking at this phenomena one can for surely say that, whenever some politician is promising safety and better life in future we must expect worst days. But the fear of tough days in future makes populace keep on believing such deceiving politicians and keep on supporting them year after year. The emotion of fear is a very powerful force and political despots use it to its maximum effect. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Just like any other despot of democracy, politicians like Narendra Modi are willingly supported by most Indians because they all believe he will make their future better and safe and he will fulfil their heart’s wish of making India a Hindu Rashtra. We all have to understand this fact that if people will not support any of these despots then they can’t accomplish anything. The real power resides with people, but because most people are fearful inherently and that fear is being manipulated by the despots, people cheerfully enslave themselves for little (false) safety while remaining in a delusion that they are <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">free</i>. As Benjamin Franklin said, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Not just fearful people keep on voting and supporting democratic despots, people working for the government as bureaucrats, policemen, military men and other government servants also blindly keep on supporting the deadly policies of these despots under the excuse of <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">we are just doing our jobs</i>. As Boyack explains, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Politicians who propose policies such as this, and pundits who generate support for them, cannot act alone. Even after the public is convinced of the necessity of surrendering their liberty in the quest for security, somebody has to actually implement the policy. Despots need obedient subordinates to execute political opponents, imprison dissidents, fight protesters, collect taxes, and harass the citizenry. Indeed, they cannot be despots unless they are able to command countless other human beings to follow their orders. Whether democratically elected or not, those who exercise tyrannical power are at the mercy of those who decide whether to listen to them. Evil triumphs, as Edmund Burke observed, when good men do nothing.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Soldiers kill innocent people; NSA agents invade our privacy; police officers shut down lemonade stands; central bankers erode the savings of senior citizens; medical marijuana patients are incarcerated; legislators vote away more of our money—these and a list of wrongful acts too lengthy to fit in this book are regularly perpetrated by persons clothed in the authority of the state. They are, we must suppose, sincere people with good intentions and families to feed. We are told that they are just doing their job, and[…]</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Fearful people seeing authorities doing wrong things to them chose to remain silent or many who find it abhorring don’t have the courage to speak up against it. Such people think that they will wait for others to oppose the despot but by then it is too late. Gradual policy changes one day turns society and culture into something totally different under which one was born and grew. Take example of Nazi Germany. Most Germans didn’t realise when their country turned into a monster which killed millions of innocent jews so brutally. I see the same thing happening in India. A gradual decay that started mostly with Indira Gandhi has today turned country into a hotbed of Hindu fundamentalist who are hell bent on destroying its tolerant fabric. The poison has already spread in the Indian society. Personally I witnessed this slow poisoning of the society by Modi and his BJP party in Gujarat in last 25 years. Gujaratis have become fanatic Muslim hating society. This is a state where Hindus and Muslims can’t live together now. This is the state where municipalities like Surat has enacted laws where Hindus or Muslims can’t sell their homes to each other without government’s permission! People of Surat overwhelmingly voted for Modi and BJP party in local elections even when he has single handily destroyed Surat’s businesses with his demonetisation and GST policies. This feat Narendra Modi has achieved by using the old tactic of propaganda. He instilled the fear of Muslims taking over the Hindu society and raping and marrying their women, <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">love jihad</i>, as well as subjugating them. He presented himself as a saviour of Hindus who will vanquish Muslims and turn India into a glorious new Hindu Rashtra. That is how he was able to fool the Hindu heartland states which overwhelmingly decides national elections in his favour. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Propaganda is a very powerful technique in the hands of power mongering politicians. Boyack discusses propaganda,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the German statesman, once wrote: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are “free.” Successful despots create circumstances in which people voluntarily surrender their power, primarily through the use of weaponized fear, and those who are masters at their craft are able to accumulate power and wealth while the populace believes it is safe, happy, and free.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">This is the domain of propaganda, a psychological tool to manipulate thought and emotion in favor of a certain set of ideas. The word itself simply refers to the propagation of ideas—something to which we can hardly object. Public health notices, religious advocacy, business advertisements, and a host of other common marketing efforts can all be classified as propaganda. But the term has taken on a negative connotation since the mid-19th century, when it became associated with the use of misleading information to achieve political gain. Like fear, propaganda has been weaponized by those who seek to achieve, expand, and retain power over others.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Mainstream media again is the most important vehicle of spreading propaganda amongst public e.g., Modi government’s IT cell and what is popularly known as, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godi_media" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Godi Media</a>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">How to counter fear </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Given the fact that the emotion of fear is one of the most powerful forces of human nature and that politicians and other power mongers know how to manipulate it to subjugate population for their own benefit, what common people need to do to counter this manipulated fear?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">First, as Thomas Jefferson said, the sea of liberty is tempestuous and there is no calm or complete safety in life. That is why people should never expect absolute safety. They must understand that when they will trade their liberty for safety, they will end up with neither. Liberty requires education, integrity and vigour. Liberty comes with <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">responsibility</i>. And that is why people must learn to take responsibility of their lives on their own shoulders instead of believing that some politician like Narendra Modi will come and save them for all troubles. When one is having a job, he must save and provide for future unemployment episodes. One must save for his retirement so that life can be lived honourable without relying on anyone. If one wants to earn higher wages then he must upgrade his skills instead of asking government to pass minimum wage laws, which will only unemploy him in the end! We must build strong local neighbourhoods and communities for mutual support instead of relying on conniving politicians and other such power mongers. With our hard work, we can lessen future uncertainties as much as possible. These uncertainties are what bothers people. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Second, we must learn to assume risk. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">As I said above, life is full of risk. Risk is ever present whether we are in home or we step out of it. Hiding in home from the coronavirus is not going to make anyone safe; taking unknown experimental drugs called Covid vaccine is not going to make someone immortal or at less risk when scientists themselves are saying that the immunity given by vaccines is <a href="https://omaha.com/lifestyles/parenting/ask-the-pediatrician-how-do-the-covid-19-vaccines-work-and-are-they-safe-for/article_26262b0e-e66e-5ccd-a5e4-274f68229bf0.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">unknown</a>. We have to understand the eternal truth of life that death is inevitable. God gave us life to live and not to trample in fear and hide in the closet. Because death is inevitable, before dying we must live our lives fully enjoying it in all its richness. National security and personal safety are two major reasons for which despotic policies are deemed necessary. Liberty requires proper assessment of risk. Being reckless is also not good. A proper risk assessment requires information/data and that is why those who love liberty must remain informed. We must try to gather as much information as possible from alternative sources instead of solely relying on the government sources and its lapdog <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>mainstream media. We also need to properly contextualise the risk and fear. In this information age of Internet gathering information from alternative sources is not very difficult. We must gather information from those people who are not very mainstream and who are passionate about their work and have a truthful record. For example, in this ongoing Coronavirus pandemic people have completely freaked out listening to media fear mongering whole day. But instead of relying on always lying mainstream media, we should do our own research from alternative sources. There are so <a href="https://www.americasfrontlinedoctors.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">many doctors</a> around the world who are now coming forward and countering the mainstream narrative of COVID-19 being a dangerous disease. We must listen to them. We must listen to the dissenting voices and then weigh the evidence and properly assess the risk. All the data about the disease and its danger are available on internet. Looking at overall numbers in right context we can see that COVID-19 is not at all dangerous. 99% of people are recovering from this disease. The mortality rate of this disease is not more than 0.15%. There are many other diseases which are more dangerous than COVID-19 if we look and compare the data in the right context e.g., in India alone every year more than half a million people die because of tuberculosis. This disease is equally infectious as COVID-19 but every year we do not have government orders on wearing mask or maintaining social distance or even vaccinating ourselves against tuberculosis. There is no vaccine of tuberculosis. In fact, there is no vaccine of SARS or MERS also! The probability of dying on road accidents on Indian highways and roads is higher than dying with COVID-19. Once we see COVID-19 in its right context like this, the fear will disappear and we will no longer allow politicians to control and ruin our lives like how they are doing right now. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Liberty demands that we pursue the Truth at any cost. And once we know the truth it becomes our duty and responsibility to inform our fellow human beings so that they can also make informed decisions and assess risk in its right context. Spreading the message of liberty is very important because otherwise all our efforts will go to waste. Here is Boyack,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Truth-seekers must become truth-tellers. </span>Obtaining reliable information may benefit us individually, but it becomes more effective when spread widely to others who have not yet encountered it. In epidemiology there’s a concept known as herd immunity theory—the idea that the total effect of a contagious disease is reduced when the chain of infection is disrupted by immunizing a large percentage of the population. As more people become resistant, the likelihood that others will become infected is reduced. The same concept applies to fear: its potential for exploitation is significantly undermined when a large percentage of the population recognizes the hobgoblin for what it is. Determining the truth is important for our own sake, but we can have a much greater impact if we help to inoculate a large percentage of the public against the rampant disease of manufactured fear. (emphasise added)</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">Third, as the story of boy crying wolf teaches us we must abandon those people who are always trying to scare us from imaginary hobgoblins. This group of people include politicians from all political parties, the pharmaceutical medical mafia, government scientists/bureaucrats, like Anthony Fauci, who instead of doing proper science are busy helping governments spreading fear, celebrities who are known to be of dodgy character, business leaders who are in bed with governments and of course the mainstream media which is the main propaganda machine of all these power mongers. As villagers stopped listening to the boy who was always crying wolf, once we stop listening to these fear mongers they can no longer scarce, manipulate and control us. The moment we will call their bluff, their fear mongering power game will be over. Do not trust these people. As the popular American stand-up comedian George Carlin said, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don’t believe anything the government tells me. </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">That should be the rule of our lives too. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">And lastly, as Rumi said, Love is the cure. All that we need is love to defeat the evil. <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Love leads to liberty while fear leads to</i> <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">despotism</i>. We must spread love and peace everywhere. Instead of hating our neighbours like Pakistanis or the Chinese or fearing them because our politicians want us to fear them, we must visit Pakistan and China and get to know them. Once we will know them, we will know that they are also human beings like all of us. That will remove any fear that we have in our minds about our neighbours or our own fellow Muslim or Dalit beings in India. That love will dispel the fear and defeat the propaganda of politicians. Love will make fear mongers powerless. During this COVID-19 pandemic also, instead of mocking and hating our friends and family members who are fearful of this virus, we must try to understand their fear and their needs for safety first. We must empathise with them. With love and compassion then we must communicate the truth to them in a peaceful non-violent manner. This is the only way we can possibly make them understand that the fear is not real. If we will continue to mock and hate each other then the fear mongers and power mongers will be successful in dividing and ruling over us. They want us to fight. We must avoid this trap. Those who are vaccinating themselves are not our enemies. We must connect to their heart first understanding why they are vaccinating themselves and then try to explain to them the dangers of injecting unknown substances in their bodies. We must give them all the information that we have gathered so that they can make an informed decision. Whether they will remain in home under fear or they will take a vaccine or not is ultimately their decision. Helping them make an informed decision is our duty and we must carry out our duties. Truth seekers must become truth tellers. Compassionate reasoning is our only way to help our fellow human beings. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">At the same time we must not allow this fearful people to rule our lives. We must guard our liberty with our full energy. Mutual love and understanding is what will save all of us in the end.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">These are some of the anti-dots to the poison of fear. With Boyack I conclude,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px;">We live in a dangerous world, and threats abound: nemesis nations, debilitating diseases, or even the common crook can disrupt or destroy a previously stable and enjoyable life. Rational people will try to mitigate threats to the extent possible, but they will focus on the pursuit of their happiness, rather than being incapacitated by fear. They recognize and reject the irrational fear of hobgoblins, no matter how often they’re mentioned in the media. They understand the value of freedom and that the sea of liberty, while tempestuous at times, is well worth navigating.</p></blockquote><div class="blog-share text-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-align: center;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-60803649303826237412021-07-23T08:03:00.002-07:002021-07-23T08:03:19.548-07:00Time to Rethink the Idea of Nation State<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">Our world is by and large going left liberal and woke. These groups of people espouse ideas like gender equality or self gender identification, gender feminism, anti-racism, open immigration, multiculturalism etc. American social political groups like</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">Black Lives Matters </i><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">or</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> ANTIFA (Anti Fascist) etc., </i><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">represent such ideologies. Personally speaking, I see no problems with this type of left liberalism or wokeness as long as such ideas are not</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">imposed</i><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">by one group of people on others. But that is what exactly happens, all the time. One group of people hijacks the centralized power of the state and uses that state machinery to impose their ideas on others who don’t believe in those ideas. And herein lies the root of all our problems.</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Nation state’s centralized power structure allows one group of people to impose their ideas on everyone else, and that is the root cause of all our conflicts. State monopoly is the central problem. Originally the State was created by its makers like Thomas Hobbes and John Locke etc., to provide a negative centralized force in society to stabilize it from supposed internal conflict between its members. State’s original functions were to protect the life, liberty and property of its citizens, and nothing else. During the English civil wars, the times in which Hobbes was writing his Leviathan, the atmosphere was such that it looked like human society was a war of wolf against wolf. The day to day reality is actually nothing like that. As authors like <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Origins-Virtue-Instincts-Evolution-Cooperation/dp/0140264450/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Ridley+cooperation&qid=1624120580&sr=8-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Matt Ridley</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Evolution-Cooperation-Revised-Robert-Axelrod-ebook/dp/B06XCGTJQX/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=cooperation+axelrod&qid=1624120697&sr=8-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Robert Axelrod</a>have shown us, cooperation between ordinary members in human society is the norm throughout human history. Battles are a product of centralized power structure. The British Civil War itself was a result of centralized power structure in the hands of the king. This means Hobbes got it all wrong. The problem was a result of a centralized power structure. He tried to solve that same problem by erecting an even bigger centralized power structure in the form of the Nation State. He was influenced by the dire circumstances around him and created the monster Leviathan which just made matters worse with time. Historically all the efforts to tie down that state have failed e.g., constitutions everywhere today are just pieces of paper. The division of power between so-called competing government branches is just a myth because all government branches are, after all, government branches and not independent authorities which are actually competing with the centralized state and keeping it in check; all branches of government grab more power with every passing day. The original police state ensnared the whole society in the form of modern warfare welfare state. State was supposed to be kept separate of economy and society, science, Church/temple/mosque etc., religious institutions, social institutions like marriage etc., but today all these institutions of human society are in the clutches of the state officials. Neighborhoods, communities, and families no longer exist to provide refuge to individuals during their tough times. State systematically destroyed all these competing institutions and captured individuals to make them their slaves. We are the cash cow of the state during the time of intermittent peace and we are the beef cow during the periods of constant state wars. The political class robs and murders us daily in the name of serving us! </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Democracy makes these matters worse. It allows a majority to impose itself over the minority. And in most cases the winning political party is not even a majority e.g., in the last Loksabha election of India, the winning BJP party’s total vote share was only 37.4%. That means, more than 63% of people didn’t vote for BJP but they still came into power. So 37% of people are imposing their ideas/ wishes on the rest of the population of India via the centralized power of the state. As I said above, this is the root cause of all our problems. As <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Democracy-Economics-Politics-Perspectives-Democratic-ebook/dp/B07BYL6ZJ6/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=democracy+hoppe&qid=1624122318&sr=8-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Hans Hermann Hoppe</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Beyond-Democracy-solidarity-prosperity-government/dp/1467987697/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=beyond+democracy&qid=1624122215&sr=8-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Frank Karsten</a> have shown, democracy leads to social conflict, chaos, and poverty. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">We all have universal needs and when those needs are not met ill feelings of misery and pain are going to be the end result. When one group of individuals will impose their wishes/needs on others, chaos and conflict will ensue. Left liberals and woke people just need to be left alone like how we conservatives or libertarians want to be left alone. We all must have a chance to live our lives according to our own wishes/desires/preferences/needs, and this is only possible when we have political choices available to build and live in a society which fulfills our needs without coercing anyone else. If liberals and woke people want to live in a society where they can call each other <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">person </i>or <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">ze </i>instead of male/female or he/she or where they allow their kids to decide their gender or have common bathrooms in their colleges or hire a CEO just because he/she is a gay/lesbian or male/female etc., then so be it. They can build whatever kind of society they want for themselves, <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">but they must not be allowed under any circumstances to impose their society on others</i>. People must be free to choose to live in a society which better fits their needs. All these require decentralization of power in smaller independent political and social entities instead of today’s giant nation states. <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Breakdown-Nations-Leopold-Kohr/dp/085784430X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=breakdown+of+nations&qid=1624208814&sr=8-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Breakdown of nation states </a>is the need of the hour. Peaceful <a href="https://mises.org/library/secession-state-and-liberty" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">secession</a> is the solution of our human problems. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Today when every other person is trying to change their gender or how we are allowed to treat others and associate or disassociate with them, or what we can speak or not etc., I think we also urgently need to rethink the whole idea of the State. If we do that then all other changes will come automatically. The delusion and con game of the State has gone on for far too long. By now it is clear that the state, aka government, doesn’t exist or work for the public. It is a grand delusion created by state intellectuals so that they can continue their legal plunder and murder racket. All the talks of the state existing for our welfare is a ruse to hide its criminal nature. As Murray Rothbard said, the state is a gang of criminals, writ large. It is high time to recognize and accept this fact and do away with the state and its centralized power system. That centralized power is the root cause of our problems, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and removing that power and decentralizing it in smaller centers is our root solution. Any solution that doesn’t include this end goal will simply not work. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The state must go. </p><div class="blog-share text-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-align: center;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-44515508177231013762021-07-17T03:48:00.000-07:002021-07-17T03:48:22.941-07:00What is Inflation and why Price of Petrol is Rising in India? <p>Inflation is hitting not only India but the globe. Price of petrol in India has crossed 100 rupee per liter mark in many cities. What is inflation? What causes it? What is its solution? I discuss these questions in my below analysis. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="283" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-zfdU0UsUz4" width="341" youtube-src-id="-zfdU0UsUz4"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p> </p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-35393863903214729962021-06-28T08:01:00.000-07:002021-06-28T08:01:07.239-07:00Private Property Rights as the Pillar of Human Civilization<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">The fundamental question all human beings face is, how do we organize our society in such a way that leads to the achievement of ground norms of justice, peace, prosperity and civilization? Particularly, how to organize the society so it avoids conflict between its members and promotes cooperation.</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span> <span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">In this short essay I am going to discuss what lies at the foundation of human civilization. We must first begin by defining civilization.</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">What is civilization? </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Before we go and discuss how private property rights are pillars of human civilization, it is important to define what that civilization is. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">National geographic society encyclopedia entry defines it as:</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">“The word “civilization” relates to the Latin word “civitas” or “city.” This is why the most basic definition of the word “civilization” is “a society made up of cities.” But early in the development of the term, anthropologists and others used “civilization” and “civilized society” to differentiate between societies they found culturally superior (which they were often a part of), and those they found culturally inferior (which they referred to as “savage” or “barbaric” cultures). The term “civilization” was often applied in an ethnocentric way, with “civilizations” being considered morally good and culturally advanced, and other societies being morally wrong and “backward.” This complicated history is what makes defining a civilization troublesome for scholars, and why today’s modern definition is still in flux.” (<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/civilizations/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Source</a>)</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Now let us see how this civilization was built during the course of time. What conditions were necessary for its construction? This will also give us an answer to the question of why some societies like the West are civilized while some others are backward.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Why does conflict arise? </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Conflict arises because of scarcity of goods that we all want to consume to fulfil our needs. Scarcity is defined as lack of supply of some good compared to its demand by human actors. For example, suppose Robinson Crusoe and Friday are together on an island. While hungry they take a trip in the jungle to find food where they find a carcass. Immediately we can see that there is a chance of conflict because the carcass is only one while people who want to consume it are two. This conflict can only be resolved by two methods. One, establishing the ownership rights of one of the two individuals over the carcass by a peaceful method of argumentation, and two, by a fight between the two; whoever wins the fight takes the carcass. The first method is the method of civilization and the second of barbarism. If we choose to be civilized then it becomes important to decide who is the owner of that carcass using the peaceful method, because only the owner will have rights of utilizing it to fulfill his need of hunger. That owner can later share his property with the other out of genuine concern, or because we are social animals who live by reciprocity (i.e., you scratch my back and I will scratch yours when needed). But before that happens, one has to be declared a legitimate owner of that carcass. In light of this, the next issue to be decided is how to determine the ownership rights – I.e., whose <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">property</i> is that carcass? There are many ways of doing this and we see many ways below while checking if a particular way is proper for our purpose or not.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The first person to see the carcass is the owner</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">If we use this principle to establish the ownership right, and so property right, then the immediate question arises, how do we know who saw the carcass first? How do we prove it in the court where the case will ultimately go because one of the parties will challenge it? What objective criteria will establish who saw it first? We can see that even very sophisticated technique won’t be able to establish conclusively who saw the carcass first. There is no physical extension of two actors’ bodies to connect them with the carcass. A mere gaze doesn’t establish any such physical contact which can clearly show who saw it first. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">First appropriation </i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">If seeing doesn’t establish someone’s ownership right then physical appropriation definitely does because it establishes an objective physical link between the property and its acquiring owner. Anyone who first appropriates/picks up the carcass becomes the owner. This ‘original first appropriation’ criteria is the only one suitable for our purpose of establishing private property rights (see <a href="https://mises.org/library/right-property" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">this</a>). </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This criteria also implicitly assumes and accepts the fact that our two actors first own their bodies and only then whatever they acquire/appropriate using that body becomes their property. This is the principle of ‘self ownership’. If someone is not an owner of his body, e.g., a slave, then he can’t own any other property because he lacks the means of appropriating that property. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">So we have two main principles now with us for establishing property rights: 1) self ownership and 2) original or first appropriation of previously unowned physical scarce resources. Why previously unowned physical scarce resources? Because one cannot appropriate legitimately something that is already owned by someone. Doing so will be a theft of original owner’s property. To physically appropriate something that thing has to be physically extended in space e.g., one cannot own an idea because an idea is an intensive concept without any extension in space and so one can’t get a hold of it and appropriate it physically, but a piece of land can be physically appropriated. Also, something intangible that is not scarce doesn’t need to be owned because it doesn’t lead to any conflict situation e.g., oxygen in the air or earth’s gravity; we don’t have to worry about its use as long as they are abundant. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Why is conflict avoidance fundamental to building a civilization?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Conflict avoidance is fundamental to building civilization because to build a civilization we need peace. Civilization requires leisurely time which people can use to build high culture like arts and literature, philosophy, science, etc. Such leisurely time can only become available to people when they produce more than what they consume i.e., when they produce a surplus of all goods. Surplus production is only possible when there is a peaceful environment, and within that peaceful environment both internal and foreign trade is flourishing. Establishment of private property rights and its proper implementation ensures that conflict is usually avoided, and if it happens then it is quickly resolved. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Because private property is fundamental in resolving conflict situations, private property rights are the pillars of human civilization. The conclusion is simple: if you want to live in a civilized society then the foundation must be built on private property rights. Any other societal organization arrangement will result in chaos and misery for everyone. Without this foundation, both economy and society will never flourish. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Further considerations</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Unfortunately this matter is not as easy as it seems. This matter actually doesn’t stop at the regime of private property rights. The issue of establishment of private property rights further begs a question: how do we establish these rights? This work requires a sound base of cultural values; above all individualism, then hard work, responsibility etc., by the population which in turn are determined by genes and environment interaction viz., <a href="https://www.amazon.in/dp/1594206236/?coliid=I33VY4UX294GJK&colid=24Q4Q9SAUWT15&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">gene-culture evolution</a>. If people in the society do not understand the concept of property, and most importantly, an individual who will own this property, then establishing these rights becomes almost impossible. The concept of the <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">individual</i> and his inalienable rights is at the core of this subject matter. If a society is collective, like India, then no one will allow any individual to exclusively own anything and in that case material progress and civilization becomes impossible. If collective entities like family, society, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or the nation state/government etc., are reigning supreme over the individual then individual efforts to improve one’s lot will not be forthcoming or they will be frustrated. Thus, the cultural environment is the bedrock of any society and genes are a major factor in determining that culture. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Again this begs a question: what determines genetic make-up? Here when I say genes I am pointing at higher IQ and accompanying intelligence which is necessary for the development of higher culture. The <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Race-Differences-Intelligence-Richard-Lynn/dp/1593680198/ref=pd_sim_1/257-3922962-5864812?pd_rd_w=KaNln&pf_rd_p=875eb91f-f332-4a18-907e-b9a7d369d449&pf_rd_r=CEHMKARQFE484K0MCKRZ&pd_rd_r=bf0b8975-5fa6-4dc8-96b2-7e5bf2309507&pd_rd_wg=JQog1&pd_rd_i=1593680198&psc=1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">researches</a> into IQ and so genetic development, i.e., biological evolution, suggests that harsh colder environment of the North was the major environmental factor that determined high IQ genetic make up of the population living in those areas. The harsh environment of the icy north pushes inhabitants to use their brain in innovative way to survive in conditions which are not hospitable to human life. Extreme cold makes agriculture almost impossible. There are few domesticated animals or plants available in those areas. Such a challenging environment pushes the evolution of the brain. With brain’s development, the level of intelligence also increases and with that comes higher culture and civilization. Compared to those northern areas, life in the tropics is easy. Without much hard work crops grow on their own. Agriculture is easy because water supply is readily available and climate is amenable year around. Also a hot environment means the body uses most of its energy, leaving little surplus for brain development. This non-challenging environment means brain development up to higher levels is not necessary. That means lower IQ for people who evolved in tropics, and that lower IQ implies lower culture and civilization. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Conclusion</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">We saw above how the regime of private property rights is a must for civilization to develop. Without it there will be no individual efforts to better one’s lot and that means people have little time left to develop higher culture. Establishment of these property rights in turn depends on the gene-culture evolution process. People who evolved in the cold environment of the north developed high IQ and they were able to develop civilization and progress. IQ studies shows a very strong relationship between higher <a href="https://www.amazon.in/dp/1593680287/?coliid=I1PY3IMSQ8JWNS&colid=24Q4Q9SAUWT15&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">IQ and world income inequality </a>as well as other social, economic, political etc. outcomes. <a href="https://www.worlddata.info/iq-by-country.php" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">World IQ map</a> shows these outcomes clearly. Almost all countries with lower IQ are poor and abound with all kinds of other problems. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">What are the implications of this for India whose IQ presently stands at 81 as compared to 100 world standard? This means India faces an uphill task in achieving its goals of progress. With an unskilled population it is very hard to achieve development goals. As Thomas Sowell very aptly said, the most important factor determining any country’s progress is the quality of its inhabitants i.e., human capital. India lacks this human capital. Although it is touted as one of the youngest countries, and labor force, in the world by experts, as the latest <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/india-has-lost-its-demographic-dividend-mohandas-pai-chairman-of-manipal-global-education-1869153" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Mohandas Pai reports</a> shows, India’s so-called demographic dividend is actually a liability because around 20 crore young people in India do not possess any usable skills! Although IQ levels are not static and they can be increased with the help of good nutrition and education, I am not very hopeful for India’s future. The way Indian rulers are implementing one progress retarding policy after another, <a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/food/niti-ayog-s-sdg-report-flags-huge-worries-about-hunger-poverty-in-india-68636" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">poverty and hunger is only increasing</a> in India. A country where almost half of the adult and child population is suffering from <a href="https://www.globalhungerindex.org/india.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">malnutrition</a>, increasing IQ levels looks increasingly impossible. In fact, IQ levels will fall faster retarding progress further. Unless and until the government makes a U-turn and starts implementing policies that free up the economy and foreign trade, the situation in India is only going to get worse with every passing day. </p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-30652950606093280112021-06-18T03:27:00.001-07:002021-06-18T03:27:22.150-07:00On Government Digital Currencies<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">The latest issue of the Economist magazine (figure 1) discusses the coming digital currencies of the governments. It talks about how these currencies are risky but a risk worth taking and how they will transform finance as we know it today. Let’s see what risk we all are taking when governments are going to impose their digital currencies on us. Do they represent something fundamentally different or represent the same system but in the guise of new digits?</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span></p><figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3272" class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_3272" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 2em 1.5em; max-width: 100%; width: 274px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-3272 jetpack-lazy-image jetpack-lazy-image--handled" data-lazy-loaded="1" data-recalc-dims="1" height="362" loading="eager" sizes="(max-width: 274px) 100vw, 274px" src="https://i2.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/The-Economist-227x300.png?resize=274%2C362&ssl=1" srcset="https://i2.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/The-Economist.png?resize=227%2C300&ssl=1 227w, https://i2.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/The-Economist.png?resize=774%2C1024&ssl=1 774w, https://i2.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/The-Economist.png?resize=768%2C1016&ssl=1 768w, https://i2.wp.com/misesindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/The-Economist.png?w=842&ssl=1 842w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 1s; vertical-align: middle;" width="274" /></div><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-3272" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05); box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-style: italic; padding: 0.4em; text-align: justify;">The Economist</figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">To understand digital currencies we have to first understand what money is and then what is the difference between money and currency?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">What is money?</span> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">By definition money is a common medium of exchange against which every other goods trade in the market economy. Money’s evolution was gradual from the direct exchange barter economy to an indirect exchange money economy. Any commodity that was previously in use and highly demanded by everybody were potential money candidates. Historically this role has been played by precious metals gold and silver. Money comes into existence to solve the problem of direct exchange economy viz. the indivisibility of the good and double coincidence of wants of the barter economy. It also very importantly solves the problem of economic calculation. I will advise my readers to read the book <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Mystery%20of%20Banking_2.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">The Mystery of Banking</a> by Murray Rothbard to go into details of this subject matter. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">With the indirect exchange money economy, banks also evolved. People will deposit their money into bank and in exchange of that the banker will issue a deposit certificate, an IOU, to the depositor. As time went by this deposit certificate became money substitute that circulates into the market on behalf of actual money, and these money substitutes are called currency. So money is a common medium of exchange and currency is any token, it can be paper notes like today or the coming standard of computer digits, that circulates on behalf of it in the market for the sake of ease and safety. This means currency per se is not a bad idea because it provides useful function of ease and safety. Instead of keeping gold or silver into your pocket, it is easy and safe to keep paper notes that represents that underlying (unit weight of) gold and silver. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The present monetary system </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">As I discussed above, all currencies are good if they represent and are backed by actual money gold and silver or any other commodity that market participants use as money. The problem with today’s monetary system is that currencies are not backed by anything. What circulates into the market are simple paper notes which have no backing of gold or silver. They are currencies but not money. As we saw above, only those commodities can become money which have a previous use and high demand as well as they had all the good qualities, like divisibility, high value per unit weight, durability etc., of becoming money. We can see that paper notes have none of these qualities. They are money only because of the clever historical subterfuge of the governments and their legal tender laws which force us to use them as a medium of exchange. This monetary order is in place since 15th August 1971 when the American president Richard Nixon closed the gold window, Dollar convertibility into gold, to the world. Today’s fiat paper currencies are nothing but pieces of paper circulating as currencies unbacked by any real money. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">This nature of currency creates special problems. For example, because these currencies aren’t backed by real money gold and silver they are prone to inflationary policies of the governments which controls these currencies via its central banks. Paper notes are easy to produce and that is the reason why governments got rid of the gold standard in the first place. Government‘s central banks like the Reserve Bank of India can create these paper notes endlessly to generate inflation and fund government’s always increasing expenditures. This inflationary policy is responsible for three major problems in our economies viz., the <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Americas%20Great%20Depression_3.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">business cycle</a>, <a href="https://mises.org/library/how-central-banks-cause-income-inequality" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">inequality of income and wealth</a> and <a href="http://econforlife.com/assets/inflation-in-one-page.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">rising prices</a>. Central banks also <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Street-Banks-American-Foreign-Policy/dp/1610161920" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">fund the costly wars</a> of their master governments. Basically fiat paper currency is a major medium of our enslavement by our governments. By enabling the welfare warfare state, fiat paper currencies reduce our liberty. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Now the real question we all have to face is, will digital currencies change any of these outcomes associated with fiat paper currencies? Let us see. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">How will this new monetary order work? </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The answer of above question is, no. They will not. Digital currencies represent the same system of fiat paper currencies unbacked by any real money but just in a digital form, which is even more dangerous as we will see now. These unbacked digital currencies will not change anything. It will continue the same system but with even bigger advantages for our rulers, and that is the reason why they are bringing their digital currencies by hook or by crook. Why bigger advantages? Because the use of cash, fiat paper notes, at least can’t be tracked by our overlords. Digital currencies can be minutely tracked by the authorities. That means they will harass us for tax compliance purposes. Any chance of avoiding paying taxes for citizen will be minimised in the regime of digital currencies. Not only that, governments will have a complete control over our lives because at one stroke of a switch they can freeze anyone’s bank accounts for any reason e.g., government can freeze accounts of dissidents, their political opponents who are exposing government shenanigans or anyone with whom rulers do not agree or see them as a danger to their rule. Any kind of political debate or liberal democratic dialogue will simply become impossible in such a digital currency system. Governments can easily control populace when they can tightly control their money. Basically, civil liberty will be in full danger. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Inflation will run rampant because producing few computer digits will be even less costly than printing paper notes. Basically the welfare warfare state will go completely berserk and ruin the society. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">As I have discussed in my past <a href="https://misesindia.in/2020/10/18/is-cashless-economy-a-good-idea/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">article</a>, people who believe in world government are pushing this idea of a cashless economy since long under the guise of false excuses like removing corruption or terrorism/crime etc. The Indian prime minister already tried this policy unsuccessfully on Indian population when he demonetised 85% of Indian money supply in the form of 500 and 1000 rupees notes. And now RBI is readying its <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/breaking-rbi-reservations-regarding-cryptocurrencies-shaktikanta-das/story/432317.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">own digital currency</a> for our aggrandisement. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">If these digital currencies are backed by real money gold and silver then they can be beneficial, but we know that is not going to happen because it defeats the whole purpose of government. Gold and silver will tie hands of government and reduce its size to its minimum. Gold and silver cannot be produced ad Infinitum like paper and digital currencies and so they can’t be used by governments to produce systematic inflation which is used to rob us of our hard earned produces. Unbacked digital currencies will basically become the main vehicle of government’s legal plunder and totalitarianism. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Addendum: </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Few words about cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Bitcoin (sic) as a crypto digital currency is much in news since last few years when its price denominated in US dollars started to rise. As I have said time and again, I am not against Bitcoin or crypto digital currencies per se. I am all for the new technological innovations/inventions that ease our lives and give us more freedom. What I will like to see in cryptos is that because they are currencies so they must be backed by real money gold and silver or any other good that market participants decide to use as money. This is most importantly necessary for stopping authorities from inflating it endlessly. Money commodity is the only commodity whose supply must be scarce as compared to other consumer and producer goods. A limited supply ensures its high purchasing power per unit weight. Because money is a common medium of exchange it is important that it maintains its purchasing power. Looking at this economic fact there are major issues with a digital currency like Bitcoin. I list them below:</p><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;">Although right now the supply of bitcoin is limited to 21,000,000 coins, but if need required then the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/tech/what-happens-bitcoin-after-21-million-mined/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">protocol of bitcoin can be changed</a> to increase the supply. And that is a danger. If few people can change its protocol then it is amendable to manipulation just like fiats. </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;">The fundamental issue with bitcoin is that, can it stand on its own? Meaning, right now everyone is rushing to buy or invest (sic) in Bitcoin because its price, which is denominated in fiat currency dollar, is rising rapidly; it is mainly a speculative vehicle and not money which is a common medium of exchange. The important question here is, what will happen to bitcoin when dollar collapses? The collapse of dollars is a near guarantee. People are demanding bitcoin today not because of its own value as money but because they want to buy it at lower dollar prices and then flip it at higher prices making profit in fiat dollar terms. So the demand for bitcoin is not its own demand right now but a derived demand for dollars! What happens when these dollars collapse to lower values or stop being international currency? Can then bitcoin stand on its own i.e., can I go and buy milk or chocolate whose price is denominated or appraised in weight or unit of bitcoin itself where no fiat currency is involved? Remember, Bitcoin has no history of prior use on its own. It is an invention of one guy Satoshi Nakomoto whose identity itself is unknown. Bitcoin hasn’t evolved on its own as money from its prior use as some valuable commodity like gold or silver. Bitcoin is a computer code. Gold and silver are today demanded by people for its own use even when they are not playing their monetary role. Will people demand Bitcoin for its own sake? We don’t know and we have to yet see that. And so my apprehension. </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 1.3em; text-align: justify;">Although touted as a decentralised digital money as compared to fiats, Bitcoin today actually represents a <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/headlines/news/mining-pools-bitcoin-centralization-solution/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">centralised monetary system</a>. And because of this centralised management and control protocols it is amenable to same problems that exists with any centrally commanded system. Gold and silver or any other market based commodity money avoid this problem of centralisation. Because no individual decides which commodity to be used as money, no authority can capture and control it. </li></ol><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">These are some of the major questions that lurk in my mind and so far there are no answers. I have always believed that if cryptocurrencies are backed by real money gold and silver then they are a great invention which will definitely make our lives easier and better. Instead of carrying cumbersome paper notes in our pockets if we can safely carry currencies in digital form in our digital pockets then that is surely an improvement. International transactions will also become very easy with such digital currencies. They will definitely increase the volume of trade world over and thus will improve our standard of living. More trade means we have more choices and that’s human development. Market based gold and silver money backed crypto digital currencies will avoid all problems of government controlled fiat paper or digital currencies. In the end they will give us our most desired freedom. But until such important changes take place, we have the same exploitative system in new guise of digital currencies. </p><div class="blog-share text-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-align: center;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8203199447411906669.post-3066737324729997592021-05-24T07:47:00.000-07:002021-05-24T07:47:06.532-07:00India’s Government Created Covid Disaster<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">Since the month of March 2021 suddenly the cases of Covid-19 are increasing in India. So far close to 2 crore people have contracted this mysterious disease out of which 99% have recovered and 1% have sadly died (</span><a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/india/" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #144d7f; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Data source</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">). World over media is portraying this situation as a disaster because of the fact of hospitals running out of oxygen, medical supplies and beds and pictures are splashed in media where crematoriums are having queue of dead bodies supposedly of Covid patients; I am sure many of those dead are non Covid patients who died because of lack of healthcare for them in the frenzied time of Covid where all already scarce resources are unduly monopolised by the Covid-19 disease.</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">However looking at the data one can hardly say that Covid-19 is ravaging India. Out of population of 140 crore people, close to 2 crore people have so far contracted this disease, and that if we believe the incredibly f<a href="https://theinfectiousmyth.com/coronavirus/FDATestSummary.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">lawed testing regimen of RT PCR</a> etc. In relative terms, some 1% Indians have contracted this mysterious virus in last one and a half years. This is hardly ravaging or alarming. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The real problem actually is government and its <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/demand-up-67-as-22-states-seek-oxygen-7293089/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">centrally planned management of Covid</a> in India which has made things worse. The situation looks alarming because of the awfully inadequate and horribly inefficient Indian public health and centrally planned system not able to cope with the given situation of 1% people contracting this virus. The problem here is not Covid per se but the heavily monopolised centrally planned statist response to this disease in India. Government has taken over complete management of this so-called pandemic and that is why we see the <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">artificial </i>scarcity of oxygen supply and hospitals running out of beds etc., problems. These are all results of government management of this disease. Anyone familiar with the science of economics knows that socialist central planning never works whether that is planning of the economy or the health system. Government is an institution which can only create artificial scarcity when there exist no actual scarcity. As Milton Friedman so rightly said, </p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand. </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">And exactly that is what is happening in India right now. Modi government has put itself in charge of the whole Covid 19 pandemic and t<a href="https://www.rediff.com/news/report/centre-asks-hc-to-recall-its-delhi-oxygen-supply-order/20210502.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">heir management has created artificial scarcity of oxygen and other medical supplies</a>. Under the excuse of phony idea of <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">public health </i>central and various state governments have monopolised covid-19 disease management. And we know such socialist <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/why-are-some-states-getting-more-o2-than-they-need-while-delhi-gets-less-delhi-hc-asks-centre-to-respond-101619736148014.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">central planning can’t economically calculate where resources are needed </a>to be allocated. In the absence of market price and profit and loss system, <a href="https://mises.org/library/economic-calculation-socialist-commonwealth" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">efficient allocation of resources is impossible</a>. Government is also a giant machinery of wastage of resources. Whatever oxygen and medical supply is available is being squandered in the process of allocating them. Public health officials and politicians are involved in black marketing the scarce oxygen and drug supplies. Another way in which Modi government is creating scarcity of medical resources is their totally irrational insistence of their pet policy of <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Make in India. </i>Indian scientists are complaining about this to Modi government. In their appeal to Modi government, they said,</p><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(20, 77, 127); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px 1.25em 0px 1.875em; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">It added that restrictions on importing scientific raw materials ” to make India ‘self reliant’ is a key goal for Modi and his government ” was an obstacle.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">“Such restrictions, at this time, only serve to impede our ability to deal with COVID-19,” it said.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Not only this, central government is arrogantly <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/28/china/china-india-covid-relief-mic-intl-hnk/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">declining offers of help</a> from neighbouring countries like China. And that is adding in the scarcity problem. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">In such artificial scarcity environment, corruption is thriving, which is a natural response of the market. Remember such corruption is a natural outcome of government monopoly of the whole health system. In the absence of efficient market system for allocating resources, now corruption is doing that work at a higher price and with much less efficiency. Sadly that is the only alternative available in such heavily centrally planned Indian economy. And as is happens, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-28/india-covid-surge-sees-oxygen-medicine-sold-on-black-market/100099904" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #144d7f; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">a black market has opened up</a> to supply these scarce resources to the needy. Now because government controls have created artificial scarcity of oxygen supply, in black market prices have naturally sky rocketed. Prices only reflect the underlying scarcity of the given good. In a free market this temporary higher price will be necessary to attract fresh higher supplies of oxygen. We know the law of supply dictates that higher prices will prompt suppliers to supply more oxygen in India, and that will solve the problem of lack of oxygen and other medical supply. If we had a free market system in India then higher prices of oxygen and other medical supply would have prompted domestic and foreign suppliers to bring their supplies in India to make profit. And that would have removed the scarcity quickly saving many lives. But such market adjustments are not possible because government is in charge of the whole affair and they won’t allow price system to work freely. Also there is no profit and loss system working in the absence of truly free market in health sector in India and so suppliers have no incentive to ramp up their production of these scarce medical goods. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); color: #777777; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">All in all, the on-going Covid disaster in India is a complete making of the governmental central planning of this disease. Government involvement and monopoly has exaggerated this diseases beyond all proportions. You remove the government from the scene and Covid poses no big danger as market system responds adequately to fulfil needs of the patients. If government didn’t monopolise the management of this disease then I am sure many of those who died because of lack of oxygen and other medical supplies would have been alive today. As usual, government has blood on its hands. They not only bungled up everything, but exaggerated this problem by their horrible lack of response and insensitivity to the plight of people. Central and state governments were busy conducting elections when there was a need to ramp up their horribly inadequate public health system. In last one year when cases were not very high, they did nothing to prepare for any adverse situation. The whole affair is a clear example of the fact that the state aka government doesn’t care for people. They exist only for their own benefit of exploiting us for their parasitical living.</p>Madhusudan Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14494011712243326816noreply@blogger.com0