On Misplaced Sympathy, Ignorance, And Hope

My recent post on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which I dubbed “Flagship of the Pirate Fleet,” has drawn many comments, and some of the points raised there, I thought, should be addressed on the main page, because they concern fundamental issues in political and economic philosophy.

In particular, Anusthubh, in a series of comments, demonstrated his deep-felt concern for the rural poor and the undernourished children – and the firm conviction that the Chacha State should do something about this. He is opposed to “free market fundamentalism” and favours “the right kind of intervention.” Towards the end, he wrote that what matters is that the “efficiency” of these right kind of interventions be increased, and “pilferage” reduced.

In response, Anoop Verma, who seems to be on my side, said:

“…leftist ideology happens to be the illegitimate offspring of altruism. And majority of the people are born with an altruist gene. They are compassionate and have a sense of pity. They want to help others, be charitable. But the thing is that altruism is the most evil concept.”

First, let us not shoot altruism. We have so much of naked selfishness all around us that some altruism could do a lot of good. Compassion and a sense of pity are also good, essentially human qualities. Adam Smith said that Sympathy was a “moral sentiment.”

Leftist ideology is not an “illegitimate offspring of altruism”; rather, it is the illegitimate offspring of Sympathy. Anusthubh sympathizes with the poor and the undernourished. Who wouldn’t? When I see the miserable conditions in the slums of Mumbai and New Delhi, I too feel that something needs to be done urgently to improve the living conditions of the majority in our cities of joy. Fortunately, I have studied a little Economics, and a little Law, and my knowledge leads me to oppose rent control, to uphold Property, to champion road building, to advocate aggressive urbanization, and to call for complete economic freedom.

Unfortunately, the vast majority have never studied these subjects; and, if they have, they have been mistaught. Thus, their moral sentiment of Sympathy leads them towards completely erroneous prescriptions. They call in the Chacha State. For the rural poor they champion a “right to work.” For the undernourished they champion a “right to food.” For the illiterate they champion a “right to education.” This makes the personnel of the Chacha State very happy, because they have public sanction for more and more “schemes” – that is, more and more “pilferage.”

Further, as Frédéric Bastiat tellingly wrote, socialist politicians, who are essentially demagogues intent on fooling the people, do not tell their unenlightened supporters that The State has two hands.

There is one hand that takes (the tax-man), and there is the other hand that gives away (the spending programme).

They only show the hand that gives, while completely concealing the hand that takes away.

If a thorough audit was to be conducted on any government programme, from the food distribution system to their schools, it would become apparent that The Market could perform these functions at a far lower cost. How much does it really cost the Chacha State to purchase foodgrains at high “support prices,” store the same in huge godowns (where rats eat up most of the stock), and distribute these grains through their “fair price shops”? How much does the Chacha State spend per student in a government school as compared to a private school?

Sympathy is not the problem. Sympathy is there within us. Altruism is not the problem. True altruists are the salt of the earth. The real problem is ignorance – in the absence of the faculty of being able to think things through to their logical conclusions. It is this ignorance, this lack of thinking correctly, that we must fight against. And in this fight, there is hope. There is hope precisely because The Total Chacha State is such a Total Failure.

So don’t be so pessimistic and cynical, Anoop.

All the forces of history are on our side.