The Time has come,
These editors said,
To talk of many things...
Like why the sea is boiling hot,
And whether the PIIGS have WINGS!
Zeitgeist, eh?
In his Memoirs, Ludwig von Mises mentions the curious fact that the fellow heading the Austrian central bank in the 1930s had a "secret fund" at his disposal with which to "buy" all "opinion" on to his side.
Of course - with an UNLIMITED BUDGET, with the liberty to produce as much "legal tender funny money" as he needs for anything and everything - from buying opinions, to war, and to everything in between, like the Opposition (who "trade votes") and seats in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of India's bi-cameral Parliament - indirectly elected from members of the legislative assemblies of all the "quasi-federal states") as well.
Look around the Rajya Sabha and see for yourself - manmohan, jairam, anand sharma, bimal jalan, and other unmentionable "political entrepreneurs" are all there.
The central state, with its unlimited budget, funds all the states. All are CLIENTS. And all "national political parties" are centralised hierarchies.
OK - if, as the highly esteemed editors of the ToI have opined, direct cash transfers to the poor are such a great idea RIGHT NOW, let us look at the VERY POOREST right now: the DISPOSSESSED forest dwellers of Jharkhand, on whom Sudeep Chakravarti's latest "Root Cause" column is focused, describing how some 250 acres of their farmlands around the capital city of Ranchi has been "acquired" - or "legally plundered" - in order to set up three State-owned "institutes of higher learning," one of them a School of Law! Read also about all the other lands similarly "acquired" - for mining companies, including the Tatas.
[His latest column is not on the website yet!]
Do these DISPOSSESSED, POOREST CITIZENS require the Liberty to "homestead" their own Properties, and the Liberties to trade what they produce with their "traditional knowledge" - like mahua and handia, for example, or ganja, even, for TOURISTS who would surely love touring their hilly, verdant forests of PEACE prevailed. And peace - well, that requires JUSTICE! Legal plunder is NOT justice. And the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India was last heading the High Court in Jharkhand!
So, let's forget about justice.
Well then, do these poorest forest dwellers, dispossessed, unfree, tyrannised - do they need direct cash transfers as with the "right to work," the "right to food," or whatever?
Sudeep writes about a good Goan called Xavier among them - always in-and-out of jail, the brave chap - and if I ever get to join his Good Gang, then MY teachings to these POOREST would be: Go and tell every representative of The State -
1. Take yer paper rupee note - and SHOVE it!
2. Take yer "right to work" job - and SHOVE it!
3. Take yer Constitution, too - and SHOVE it!
Yeah, there is something called the "deliberate impoverishment" of the masses.
For example, if we look at English history, we find that the Royal Navy had to employ "press gangs" in order to KIDNAP able-bodied young men to FORCE onto their warships.
Of course, these able-bodied young men preferred risking their lives to scurvy and shipwreck in one of the "tall ships" of the merchant marine sailing to the Indies, because even if they returned with just ONE BAG of nutmeg they were assured of an extremely comfortable RETIREMENT - at the age of 25!
So, why do we see such an enormous RUSH of rural youth wanting to become sepoys in the Army?
Why does the government of Goa offer financial rewards to any Goan willing to join India's armed forces?
Why is there a chronic shortage of OFFICERS in the Indian armed forces today?
CONCLUSION: If the market is free, if money is sound, if liberty and property prevail - which is JUSTICE - every single youngster in India will SHUN State Employment.
Take yer job - and SHOVE it!
Remember: The very first question in "development economics" is, "What is the true cause of mass poverty?"
And the answer is: The National Border!
For, within this border is a BAD GOVERNMENT - keeping the people poor.
Examples:
East and West Germany
North and South Korea
Hong Kong and Mainland "Maoist" China
Singapore - and Old Malaya
Back to the lead editorial of the ToI of today - and Common Sense. Do read just the opening paragraphs of this little pamphlet dated 1776 sometime.
My questions are:
1. Is a "civil goverment" supposed to be a COST to the citizen-taxpayer? Or is it supposed to be a source of "financial benefits," like manna-from-heaven, a great big philanthropic organisation?
2. Are our democratic "representatives" supposed to faithfully represent all honest and hardworking taxpayers - or are they supposed to be representatives of "tax-parasites"?
3. What "services" do honest and hardworking taxpayers expect from any civil government?
So, I MUST say, to these esteemed editors of the ToI:
Take yer lead editorial - and SHOVE it!
Let us now proceed to Parliament - and both houses are to VOTE of allowing Foreign Direct Investments in, though only in "retail," by which they mean Very Big Stores, supermarkets, and all that.
So, let us look at the BENEFITS that follow if a very small foreign retailer were to set up shop here in India - like a German Bakery, for example, and you find many around, in Rishikesh, in Goa, in Dharamshala, and elsewhere. What about an Irish Pub? Any losers?
Foreign Capital, Foreign Knowledge - and Foreign PEOPLE - all these BENEFIT the "natives," STUPID!
Look at HISTORY - and how all the CAPITAL of the whole of Europe went into the solid and safe Bank of Amsterdam during the good ol' days when they maintained a 100 per cent gold reserve against note issue, and when their gold vaults were publicly audited annually as well.
Why? Because the money and the banks of England, France, Scotland and other parts were UNRELIABLE.
How do WE become a GLOBAL FINANCIAL HUB?
How do we attract the World's CAPITAL?
I'll tell you how Parliament thinks this is to be accomplished?
You "import inflation" by allowing all the Foreign Institutional Investors to BOOST the STOCK MARKET!
And you PASS each and every UNLIMITED BUDGET!
Remember: The second question in "development economics" is: How do we become a DEVELOPED NATION?
Below is the concluding paragraph of my old column (the date says "updated"?) advocating "A Return to the Gold Standard":
Any nation can unilaterally revert to the gold standard whenever it chooses. If we do so, our rupee, now pegged to gold, will always appreciate against the rest of the world’s fiat papers. This will help us become big importers. And cheap imports, including of capital goods and components, will make our manufactured exports competitive in terms of technology, quality and price. Our banks will attract the world’s savings, and we will possess capital, the vital ingredient of “capitalism”. All prices will steadily fall and the consumption of the poor will rise in leaps and bounds. This is the power of “sound money”.
When our manufactured exports are technologically competitive, and when the "consumption of the poor" shows constant rise - when they own and possess all the gadgets and stuff that citizens of rich rations do today - then we will be a "developed nation," and this requires SOUND MONEY, not this "inflationist-welfarism" that the ToI lead edit recommends so highly.
But they are NOT alone - I read the other Rajya Sabha wonder-boy, jairam ramesh echoing this point of view; and good ol' montek, of course.
What is "the wealth of nations"? - but the possessions, properties, and the consumption of the people? What else do people WORK so hard for? Why do they MIGRATE - but for better consumption, all those "consumer goods"?
Do read my old post, "On Working in Vain."
And then, think what the "mind" of the BJP - the main opposition party - is made up of, when they say that opening up to FDI in retailing will benefit the "international market mafia"!
Whatever - think for yourself - as a person who works - who earns - and who then goes to the market to make his economic achievements: Would you prefer a FREE MARKET or would you like a CLOSED ECONOMY and only swadeshi stuff on offer?
What is "the wealth of nations"? - but the possessions, properties, and the consumption of the people? What else do people WORK so hard for? Why do they MIGRATE - but for better consumption, all those "consumer goods"?
Do read my old post, "On Working in Vain."
And then, think what the "mind" of the BJP - the main opposition party - is made up of, when they say that opening up to FDI in retailing will benefit the "international market mafia"!
Whatever - think for yourself - as a person who works - who earns - and who then goes to the market to make his economic achievements: Would you prefer a FREE MARKET or would you like a CLOSED ECONOMY and only swadeshi stuff on offer?
Liberty, Property - and UNILATERAL FREE TRADE - and REPUBLICANISM instead of this centralised State, and its "quasi-federal" CLIENTS.
Let us now proceed to another Rajya Sabha wonder-boy - our Commerce Minister, anand sharma, in the news today saying, "Pakistan has to do more to enable trade connections."
Do read Bastiat's "A Chinese Tale" to understand how very STUPID the fella is.
And think about those "tall ships" of the English merchant marine?
Did they sail around local waters in search of tradables?
Or did they actually venture into "uncharted waters"?
Why?
Because the highest PROFITS made from foreign trade are those that come from imports coming in from very far away places.
Hence, NUTMEG - from the Banda Islands lost somewhere in the Indonesian Archipelago.
UNCHARTED!
Not pepper - there was enough of that stuff in London, anyway.
Or TEA - from China.
Or TOBACCO - from Virginia.
So, what can we trade with Pakistan - other than basmati rice, mangoes, and stuff we have so much of. Of course, an open border for trade is EXCELLENT for both nations - but it is like asking what does Srinagar have to trade with Gilgit, as compared with AMSTERDAM, where they could send HASHISH, and all their FLOWERS, too. And bring back lots of European GOODIES.
A South Asian Free Trade Zone - its NONSENSE.
We don't need any "foreign trade POLICY"!
Now, klutzes like these will be "voting" on FDI (only in retailing).
So, if we want FDI in something else - anything else! - we will need ANOTHER VOTE!
NO PRINCIPLES!
Just "vote trading," actually - in the language of "public choice" - the buying and selling of votes.
They "invest" in buying votes - from their "vote banks" - and now they will invest all this "legal tender funny money" while inflation rages, that too supported by a ToI Lead Editorial - and then they "sell" their votes within Parliament.
They "invest" in buying votes - from their "vote banks" - and now they will invest all this "legal tender funny money" while inflation rages, that too supported by a ToI Lead Editorial - and then they "sell" their votes within Parliament.
Vote Trading.
So, I would say:
Take yer VOTE - and SHOVE it!
What do you get for the vote anyway - but LEGISLATION?
It's all about "peaceable strangers."
As with TOURISM - the World's Biggest Industry.
FOREIGNERS - from anywhere and everywhere, the more the merrier.
No over-population problem at all!
Crowded bazaars, crowded beaches, crowded bars, crowded discos, crowded casinos...
And an EMPTY PARLIAMENT - so NO LEGISLATION, like the accursed Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1984.
No Gambling Act.
No fuckin' Acts of Parliament at all!
Think of the TOURISTS who will come then - hundreds of charter flights full of them landing every single day.
And now, think of the fuckin' Ministry of Tourism - and their loss-making 5-star HOTELS?
And their taxpayer funded "Incredible India" ads all over the world.
Now, suppose ONE tourist did come - after taking all the trouble to get a fuckin' VISA from an Indian Embassy, for which he must not only pay plenty, but also undergo much hassle - to smoke some cannabliss indica, say.
The tax-funded COPS would FUCK HIM!
Because of LEGISLATION!
So, I conclude:
Take yer whole fuckin' STATE - and SHOVE it!
