On Their Top Professor... And Second-Class Citizens

Thanks to Hayek Order providing the link, we have the Swaminathan Aiyar-Jean Dreze debate on the NREGA (rural workfare scheme) – the Flagship of the Chacha State – as the first topic on our agenda this misty morning.

Although Aiyar concludes against this corrupt idea, nowhere does he use the term “economic freedom.” Both of them concur that the “Tamil Nadu model” is best, where good roads have made villages into towns. Yet, neither talk of aggressive urbanization as a solution to poverty; indeed, nowhere do they talk of Property for the urban poor. Their entire focus is on the rural poor. A village-centred idea of poverty removal – via The State. In the meantime, villagers are moving in hordes to our cities, where they get fucked by the cops, the municipal authorities and all the other parasites – and end up living in slums without titles to their Property.

What I would like to draw my reader’s attention to is the following extract from Jean Dreze, who is, I believe, Professor Emeritus of Delhi University. He says:

State governments now have an incentive to maximise labour intensity, because the government of India pays for all the wages, but only part of the material costs. And climate change may increase the value of labour-intensive environmental protection works. So, there may be lots of hidden possibilities here.

The man is a Luddite. He champions “labour-intensive” workfare – which means more labour and less capital, so lower productivity and lower wages. And all this at State cost. The man is nutts. And he’s a climate change wallah too. And he’s the State’s top professor. Now do you see why I advise all our youth to drop out of this State Education System?

Next: I would also like to draw my reader’s attention to a news report that says the Orissa government has shut down 64 mines. There seems to be something seriously wrong with the mining sector in India – and the only cure is Property. And this is also the only Law that will deliver Justice to poor rural- and forest-folk who should be the real owners of their mineral-rich lands, and are now turning to Naxalism. I have an earlier post on mining.

Anyway, I do not just surf the web to find interesting things to write about for my reader’s enjoyment; I also surf the city. This morning, I discovered a huge market inside my nearest slum, Govindpuri. From the main road, where I was parked, you cannot see a single shop. But once you step inside, and walk down the extremely narrow pathway, there are shops, shops, and more shops. Someone told me there are over 150 shops – excluding the fish market. I found a music CD shop, and also a VCD DVD shop. There was a barber shop, a sweet shop, some “general stores,” a shop selling cloth. All kinds of little, little shops, in a place where all have little, little rooms to live in. I made inquiries about the cost of these shops, and was told that “property” on this hidden “main street” went for over 200,000 rupees. I advised the people to develop their own Property title system. Perhaps they do have something like that already – for these properties are bought and sold, and rented.

I am back home now, and here we have roads, property titles, sewage lines – and I hate it. I do not believe in cities where over half the population are second-class citizens. There is enough unowned land around Delhi for all these people. If this land was colonized, property prices would fall, for the benefit of the poor.

I too have the interests of the poor at heart. I too go to their slums to actually see things for myself. And my prescription varies significantly from that of the State’s Professor Emeritus:

My prescription is Aggressive Urbanization powered by good roads; colonization of land around cities for the urban poor; Property titles; sound money; free trade; and total economic freedom – the “system of natural liberty.”