New Delhi: May 28, 2008: 0730hrs
I am planning to make a documentary for television on the fact – fact! – that the urban overcrowding we in India suffer from is caused neither by excess population nor a shortage of land.
The only real shortage is of roads.
Next time you fly, take a window seat and keep looking down at the fantastic amount of land available for human settlement – and this is true of every overcrowded Indian city or town.
If there were proper roads into the surrounds, if the market for land was free, even the middle class would live in bungalows with garages for their cars, quarters for their servants, and even a large garden.
Poorer people would live in flats and apartments.
Further, there would be an increased supply not only of urban land and residential property, there would also follow an abundance of commercial property like shops – and this would benefit all trades.
Poor villagers would also benefit from good roads: the value of their lands would rise, there would be real estate instead of all this “unreal estate” – and good transport connections to city markets are good for the poor, period.
The liberal vision of a prosperous India rests squarely on private several property, unilateral free trade, complete economic freedom – and roads.
This means every shop is a duty-free shop – no customs.
This means everyone has a car – the poor buying imported second-hand ones.
This means all dhandas are khulla – and it is noteworthy that the word dhanda has its root in ‘dhan’, which means wealth.
It also means bungalows for all – an excellent “habitat” in a vast country of continental proportions.
Complete and total privatization can fund an excellent public roads and highways system – and this will mean that the public treasure is well invested in “collective property” that all Indians can use and profit from. Even visiting foreigners can use them for free – a boost for tourism, the biggest industry in the world. Public investments in roads are investments in true “common profit”.
Note that I have said nothing about “education”.
So how about some sloganeering by our own cheerleaders:
Duty-free shops for all!
Cars for all!
Bungalows for all!
And a roads network better than the German autobahns.
Under these favourable conditions, all Indians will live well, producing more and more wealth for themselves.
We must first contemplate such a future.
And if it seems realizable and doable, we must go for it.
I am planning to make a documentary for television on the fact – fact! – that the urban overcrowding we in India suffer from is caused neither by excess population nor a shortage of land.
The only real shortage is of roads.
Next time you fly, take a window seat and keep looking down at the fantastic amount of land available for human settlement – and this is true of every overcrowded Indian city or town.
If there were proper roads into the surrounds, if the market for land was free, even the middle class would live in bungalows with garages for their cars, quarters for their servants, and even a large garden.
Poorer people would live in flats and apartments.
Further, there would be an increased supply not only of urban land and residential property, there would also follow an abundance of commercial property like shops – and this would benefit all trades.
Poor villagers would also benefit from good roads: the value of their lands would rise, there would be real estate instead of all this “unreal estate” – and good transport connections to city markets are good for the poor, period.
The liberal vision of a prosperous India rests squarely on private several property, unilateral free trade, complete economic freedom – and roads.
This means every shop is a duty-free shop – no customs.
This means everyone has a car – the poor buying imported second-hand ones.
This means all dhandas are khulla – and it is noteworthy that the word dhanda has its root in ‘dhan’, which means wealth.
It also means bungalows for all – an excellent “habitat” in a vast country of continental proportions.
Complete and total privatization can fund an excellent public roads and highways system – and this will mean that the public treasure is well invested in “collective property” that all Indians can use and profit from. Even visiting foreigners can use them for free – a boost for tourism, the biggest industry in the world. Public investments in roads are investments in true “common profit”.
Note that I have said nothing about “education”.
So how about some sloganeering by our own cheerleaders:
Duty-free shops for all!
Cars for all!
Bungalows for all!
And a roads network better than the German autobahns.
Under these favourable conditions, all Indians will live well, producing more and more wealth for themselves.
We must first contemplate such a future.
And if it seems realizable and doable, we must go for it.
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