Say Happy Birthday to the Maruti 800 folks. She turns 25 today. And in that time, many, many Indians have become car owners. This is something to celebrate.
I remember Delhi before the Maruti 800. Only diplomats had decent cars then – and how we lusted after them. Wee the people had scooters – and these came with a 10-year waitlist. DDA flats had “scooter garages” for all residents. And the roads of Delhi were pretty much deserted.
Today, the streets of Delhi are awash with great cars: the Maruti 800 is not that common. DDA flatowners have 2 or 3 cars per household – and they fight wars over parking space.
Yet, the nationwide average is still very low: we have less than 15 cars per 1000 people. This figure jumps to between 60 and 150 in the big cities. The USA averages 850. This is the promise and potential of free markets and Capitalism: that most Indians will own cars someday soon.
As a blogger, I know full well how technology has empowered me. The car is empowering to its owner. Which is why the 3Cs of today are Car, Cellphone and Computer. Everyone should own all three.
But there are legions of people hell-bent upon ensuring that automobile ownership in India does not rise; that our people are not empowered thus. At the top of the list are the climate change wallahs. The ToI carries a story on their dream scenario. The headline says it all: “Climate Plan Wants Drastic Cuts In Private Cars.”
Yes, of course cars need parking space – but in a free market, entrepreneurs will supply parking towers in city centers. Yes cars need roads – so build them, you morons who monopolize the supply of roads. But this is the precise area where our The Moronic State fails miserably. As this report’s headline says: “UPA Fails To Finish A Single Highway Project.”
Note that we do not possess any real highways in India. A real highway exists not to provide access to roadside properties. That is a function of ordinary roads. A real highway exists to provide movement between two points, by-passing all roadside properties. By that token, our national highways are all “notional highways.” This is State Failure, a failure of central planning, and a failure of public goods theory – of which the Great Czar of Education is miserably ignorant.
There are two ways in which this country can head. One is the “universal opulence” Adam Smith wrote about. The other is back to the central planner, his public transport, and his “climate plan.” Note that the newspaper report says that the climate planners are “alarmed” at the rise of car ownership. They are not “delighted” – as I am, by the good fortune of the ordinary man. They have the “evil eye.” They hate progress. They want to entrench poverty. And they do not realize that the most important problem facing the nation today is transport. We need a transport revolution. They are just standing in the way.
Read my “The Car… And The Planner,” recently published in Mint, by clicking here.
I also found this article linking green technology with free trade quite convincing.
My take on the climate change wallahs - the Al Gore - IPCC agenda - is available here. It is entitled, "Just Hot Air."
Go ahead, read it.
The Golden Quadrilateral project has delivered some good results in making world-class highways. Also look at the Mumbai-Pune-Kolhapur expressway.
ReplyDeleteThe Golden Quadrilateral links 5 mega-cities. What about a India-wide Web Network of roads? - so that every city and town is connected by world class highways. This is basic to our vision of universal automobile ownership, and also to our urban vision of hundreds of free trading and self governing cities, and thousands of such towns. This means expressways in a "hub-and-spoke network."
ReplyDeleteThe central planner's Golden Quadrilater with the NSEW links is totally inadequate. And anyway, they charge tolls on the completed stretches - while we pay taxes, including a petrol and diesel cess that goes to a dedicated Central Road Fund. This is nonsense.
True, a lot more needs to be done on the highways front and the GQ project is a decent beginning. The toll could be justified by the fact that the roads are build by private companies on a build-operate-transfer basis, so it is only for a few years that the toll is charged.
ReplyDeleteThis is DOUBLE TAXATION - the lowest form of theft that any government can indulge in.
ReplyDeleteDear Sauvik, I broadly agree with your point. But don't you think this will lead to a glut of vehicles,that too at a time when there are concerns over their environmental impact ? Moreover, studies show that even a half full bus is more efficient than a car running at full capacity.Given this, don't you think it would be a good idea to encourage people to share their mode(s) of transport(something like car pooling)? If we can build a good business model around this concept, we can expect good participation from private enterprises. And ofcourse, the government stays out of all this! Your take ?
ReplyDeleteI would first insist that there should be no use of force, to force people to give up cars for buses, or force them to car-pool. The automobile, as the name suggests, empowers the INDIVIDUAL. This individual can also use public transport when he feels like. He can bus it to office and back and use his car at other times, for shopping, for recreation, for holidays.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to distinguish between private sector public transport and government-provided public transport. I would favour the former. Do see my "Four Wheels For All: The Case For The Rapid Automobilization Of India" available from Liberty Institute and also from the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung Fur Die Freiheit.