Elections are good news for the helicopter industry. According to this news report, over 180 helicopters have been leased by politicians for the month-long polls.
The most obvious conclusion to make is that helicopters must be used for electioneering because roads do not exist.
This also means that these politicians will never visit these constituencies again. Once polling is over, these inaccessible locales will be out of the politician’s radar. The politician will be back to making money, spending money, and helping his cronies do the same.
It is therefore no surprise that private “industrialists” are picking up the bills for the helicopters.
What can the people do?
Well, one thing they cannot do is sing “Hit the road, Jack” to these politicians, because there is no road for them to hit!
Note that the surest way to keep a locality poor is to cut off all access to urban markets – what military strategy calls a “scorched earth policy.” During war, roads and bridges are blown up for this reason. But no one implements a scorched earth policy on their own people.
Why are there no roads in India?
The only reason is bad policies, which fritter away our revenues on government consumption, ensuring nothing is left for capital investments. Roads are a capital investment.
As I had written once, in a thundering denouncement of Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi’s “employment guarantee scheme,” the opportunity cost of this “politics” is roads.
That article is available here, without my name, but the brief profile of the author at the bottom of the page clearly identifies me as the culprit. Do read it; it is one of my finest yet.
Song of the day: Why? “Hit The Road, Jack,” of course!
Here is the Ray Charles original.
Obviously you see revenue spent by governments on capital investments as more acceptable than revenue spent for bureaucratic consumption. But do you also see capital investments by governments as necessary? In an ideal world where there is no taxation, where would revenue for capital investments come from?
ReplyDeleteThe point is that taxation exists. Indeed, taxation is huge in India, growing stealthily every year - like the new "education cess" or the "service tax" or the "VAT."
ReplyDeleteAll this money is squandered.
I therefore advocate complete privatization along with the abolition of all taxes.
The money raised from complete privatization can fund an all-India roads network of high quality, giving universal connectivity through toll-free roads.
The balance left over can be used to run a barebones, "limited government" - limited, that is, by Law.
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