All Along The Watchtower - Of BABEL! Part 2

In the previous post, I used the metaphor of Babel to show how the government is speaking in "multiple voices" - and I felt I ought to continue on the same theme because other voices are making all the noises today: first, the Supreme Court, with a 5-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice taking a "decision" on "natural resources" - that auctions cannot be the only way to "allocate" them - and, further, that "policy-making" is the reserve of the government-of-the-day while its own role is to check "misuse in implementation." Before discussing the other noise-of-the-day, let us examine this very weighty decision from the country's highest judicial authority.

To begin, let us be very clear about one fact - that the term "natural resource" is an oxymoron. If anything is purely "natural" it is not a "resource." Only when man "mixes his labour and capital" with anything found in Nature does a "resource" come about: iron ore, coal, oil, gold, farms and fields, homesteads, radio spectrum - whatever. These are then not just "resources" - rather, they are "economic resources" and have economic worth based on the "exchange values" of whatever is produced in them. So we must come back to PRIVATE PROPERTY - without which exchanges are impossible - and the good ol' Lockean Principle.

There is a report on the Chief Justice of India's career in Mint today since he is retiring that is vital reading in the context of what I have written above on natural resources. It misses one important milestone in this CJI's career - which is his decision against allowing those who believe in Liberty and Property to form political parties and compete in this "socialist democracy." I have a post on this decision of his titled "On our "patriotic" Supreme Court."

Interestingly, the report above says the CJI was a judge of the Bombay High Court from 1991 - so he must have been instrumental in keeping the PIL from the Indian Liberal Group against the Representation of People Act pending so long. Even more "patriotism."

Other than these, the report above says it was this CJI who upheld the "constitutional validity" of the Right to Education Act - and I really wonder how anyone can interpret even our illiberal, socialist constitution such that it AUTHORISES FORCE for this purpose, as this "political right" enacted by Parliament is about "free and COMPULSORY education."

And doesn't COMPULSORY imply INFALLIBILITY of our The State and all its socialist- gandhian doctrines?

A VERY INTERESTING STATISTIC in the above report is as follows:

When he took office in April 2010 a total of 55,018 cases were pending in the Supreme Court. This increased by nearly 16% until August 2012, when 63,749 cases were pending, of which 42,583 have been on the books for more than one year. The numbers in the lower courts too, which, to be fair, are not directly under Kapadia’s control, have continued to rise.

The report on the decision-of-the-day on "natural resources" does contain many "opinions" from the "illiterate bar" - which monopolises legal education - and these are not worth discussing. 

What is truly worth my while is the opinion of an "economist" from the Indian Council for Research into International Economic Relations (ICRIER). This has been around since time immemorial - that is, since socialist-gandhian autarky began, and never have they opined against these policies and for free international trade. Its earlier chief was Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Montek's wife, and I have a post on how, to her, "Poverty is a Big Industry."

Anyway, this ICRIER economist is quoted as saying:

If revenue maximization is not an objective, then clearly auction is not going to be the best route for the allocation of natural resources.

The very idea that a "civil government" ought to MAXIMISE REVENUE goes against the very definition of "political economy," which means such a government should tax us as little as possible; it goes against all the canons of Public Finance; and it even goes against the meaning of "constitutionalism," which limited a government so established not only in its powers of coercion but also in its BUDGET.

NOTE: The State is about to begin borrowing 2,00,000 crore rupees RIGHT NOW (1 crore is 10 million). This is BUDGET MAXIMISATION. Which means a PREDATORY STATE maximising its TAKINGS from the people, who are predominantly poor. This itself is evidence of the fact that we as a people, because of miseducation for so long, have lost our "sense of justice" - without which there can be no "moral sense" at all. The complete absence of these senses in judges as well as economists has come about only because of socialist doctrines being taught for generations - and this CJI has ordered its continuation. In truth, both Law as well as Economics (at least when it started off) are "moral sciences." And it is a very old maxim that "possession is nine-tenths of the law."

This maxim implies that Property and the Lockean Principle need to be applied to all "natural resources" - which would have been a "constitutional question" for a Supreme Court to resolve. But they have avoided it - for now.

Anyway, today's news also contains another laughing-stock of a Supreme Court decision on the State-owned nuclear power plant about to be commissioned in Tamil Nadu despite fierce public protests: that this "plant can be stopped if not found safe." Well, it would have been stopped if this "constitutional court" had decided long ago that the LEGISLATION limiting the liability of foreign suppliers of nuclear equipment was UNJUST.

PROPERTY - and liability for damage to properties, including bodies, even if unintentional, these are PRINCIPLES.


Which brings me to the second noise-of-the-day: "West Bengal BANS stores with foreign ownership."

NOTE: This LEGISLATION was moved in their House of Horrors by their Minter for Commerce! And their Finance Minister happens to be a former head of an important Chamber of Commerce! And their "political party" ousted the commies! Without ideology - which means without PRINCIPLES.

This will only result in ARBITRARINESS in government decisions; in the "rule of will" instead of "rule of law"; and thus spread UNCERTAINTY in all decision-making, especially among investors.

Who can decide whether such legislation is valid or not - that is, perform the function of "judicial review"? And how can any such judicial authority decide this issue without considerations of Property and Liberty, tell you me?

Like, whether Proprietors of land and buildings in West Bangal are at Liberty to sell the same to foreigners, whose rights will then be protected under law.

Like whether these foreign shopkeepers who own their shops in West Bengal can stock imported goods in these shops.

Or even whether, to do a reductio ad absurdum, locals who acquire imported goods in foreigner-owned shops are possessed of legal rights over the goods they have acquired in free, consensual exchange.


But the Supreme Court of India REFUSES to discuss such "constitutional questions" precisely because these will DESTROY SOCIALISM.

Which is why I wrote, ever so long ago, that we have a "patriotic" Supreme Court - which salutes the CONgress Flag!


Let us now look at the RESULTS of these two posts: Babel Part 1 and this, Babel Part 2:

1. Mass poverty
2. Highest degree of disorder (including "Maoist" rebellions)
3. Failure of Judicial Review

What is really the ROOT CAUSE of these?

In my opinion - STATOLATRY, which is socialism, the "worship of the State."

This leads naturally to State Education - as a MONOPOLY, implying INFALLIBILITY.

So, Economic Theory, Public Finance, History, Law, Sociology, Political Science - this The State misteaches them all.

Yet, at least SUPREME COURTS ought to know that "open argumentation" between two opposing lawyers is their way of arriving at The Truth!

But they have allowed their own Illiterate Bar Council to MONOPOLISE legal education!


To conclude: The lyrics of "All along the watchtower": Bob Dylan, 1967.  

"There must be some way out of here," 

Said the joker to the thief.
"There's too much confusion,

"I can't get no relief.
"Businessmen, they drink my wine, 

"Plowmen dig my earth.
"None of them along the line 

"Know what any of it is worth!"

"No reason to get excited,"

The thief he kindly spoke.
"There are many here among us

"Who feel that life is but a joke.
"But you and I, we've been through that, 

"And this is not our fate,
"So let us not talk falsely now, 

"The hour is getting late."

All along the watchtower, 

Princes kept the view.
While all the women came and went, 

Barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance 

A wildcat did growl.
Two riders were approaching, 

The wind began to howl.

  

PS: Tomorrow is Ludwig "King" Mises' 121st birth anniversary. I will be penning a commemorative post, of course - on the ONLY WAY OUTTA HERE!