The pig-circus has passed the Finance Bill, so a monstrous Union Budget is to be foisted upon the poor people of India - and my favourite newspaper, Mint, has goofed up real bad. And the two are related. Let us begin with the Budget.
Why did I oppose this Budget so vociferously? Answer: Because the Total Chacha State doesn't have the money. I opposed the huge amount of borrowing.
Why are they borrowing? Because they want to finance welfare schemes for the poor. I opposed these welfare schemes because they amount to "capital consumption" - which is even worse for the poor.
Let us now turn to Mint. Their lead editorial of today strongly endorses the biometric ID card project of Nandan Nilekani. The only argument that they have in its favour is that this will allow welfare money to directly reach beneficiaries, by-passing corrupt administrative intermediaries.
But then, where is all this welfare money going to come from? Do we need a Welfare State? Or do we need a Capitalist State? The two are certainly not the same. The Welfare State might need biometric ID cards for all citizens, in order to pay them (fiat) money. The Capitalist State only wants Property Titles to make markets work. The "mystery of capital" is the Property Title. Once this mystery is solved, people make money on their own, in markets, and do not ask the State for handouts.
Mint should also be aware of events abroad. The USSA and their dollar are headed down the tubes because of welfarism, interventionism and corporatism. In Europe, things are not much better - for the same reasons. The lesson for India to learn is that sound money matters. It is noteworthy that Bill Clinton has pinned the blame for the current mess in the USSA on their departure from the gold standard. Sound money is what we in India need - not welfare. We do not need huge State borrowing to fund welfare. We need Property Titles, not biometric ID cards.
Mint is therefore befuddled in their thinking. Their problem is inconsistency. They strongly support free markets. They stoutly stand for Capitalism. They have raised important questions on the "rights" agenda of the Total Chacha State - right to miseducation, right to dig ditches, right to rotten cereals etc. But today, in the final analysis, they goofed - and stood for Welfare.
The Welfare Principle and the Market Principle are two entirely different things. And all welfare is about consumption - not production. The Market Principle is about Production and Exchange. The two can never meet. Therefore, on this issue, which is of critical importance, I part ways with Mint.
to think these handouts are coming out of my taxes!!
ReplyDeleteMy car rattles louder than my sub woofered music system thanks to great roads! have to rush to fill water when I get home and before leaving for work! electricity - which city is that?
these days an educated fool like me is thinking how do i change vocation to something cash based and non TDS!
why would i want to persist in a relationship where all they do is take take take and all i can do is give give give - or else!?!?!