More Singers Of "Immigrant Song"

Two more voices have been raised in favour of free immigration. These are important to take note of in view of the strict legislation Arizona has just passed. From the USSA, there is Steve Chapman, writing in Reason, that the Arizona idea sucks bad. Chapman concludes, most realistically:

If there is any lesson from recent experience, it's that foreigners are going to come here one way or another. The best option is to admit far more of them through wider legal channels. The alternative is to keep Arizona's southernmost ranches as the front line of a war the immigrants don't want and we can't win.

The article is short, and well worth a read.

The second singer of "Immigrant Song" (the original is by Led Zeppelin, and if you haven't heard it, you must) is our very own Shanu A of Liberty Institute. Shanu takes a principled libertarian stand. He supports free immigration and answers its critics on their principal objections: that it would increase crime; that it would lower wages (how nice!); that it would cause unemployment; that it would increase the burden on taxpayers and the Welfare State (why not abolish Welfare?). This is a great article from a young Indian libertarian, one that I heartily recommend.

I am reminded of the time I visited Kargil in 1985. I was taken up a mountain to a border outpost manned by Indian soldiers. They had their guns pointed at a similar Pakistani outpost just metres across a deep chasm. And the two sides were busy hurling choice Punjabi abuses at each other. Quite disgusted at all the foul language, I ventured out and looked down the chasm that separated India from Pakistan. A river flowed below. And villagers from both sides, with their goats and sheep, were happily going this way and that, crossing the border that tax-funded soldiers were defending with so much passion. Reminded me of that song:

All that you protect,
All that you defend,
Is just a borderline,
Another borderline.

If you have missed the thread of previous discussions on immigration, here are two recent posts: the first on Walter Williams vs Lew Rockwell on the subject; and the second on Kane, a US wrestler, and a principled libertarian, who also sings "Immigrant Song."

Good Morning, America! Anyone not read that yet? It is the greatest "Immigrant Song" ever, by the great Baba Pagal Nath Charsi. To read, click here.

Cops Are "Civilians": Take # 2

The Barkha Dutt Show last night was on Maoism, and featured a very senior IPS officer with a huge handlebar moustache; a very "military" mien. During the show, this dude said something so stupid and wrong that I decided to comment on it today, to be read along with yesterday's post. The IPS officer said that policemen are like soldiers in the armed forces, because they too wear a uniform. Barkha too kept referring to constables of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) as "soldiers."

Nothing could be further from the truth. Policemen are "civilians" and this IPS officer was himself recruited through a "Civil Services Examination."

Indeed, what has gone wrong with policing in India is that it is increasingly becoming a "military police." This is just another sordid aspect of socialist totalitarianism. The Central State has over 200 battalions of the CRPF under its command and control, and they are used at will to supercede the local police. This is a development in our polity that should be a cause for great worry.

We in India, because of State Socialism, have lost the essence of "civil government." Our politicians are all "party animals" who never earn their keep in The Market. They just live off the fat of the land. Our "civil servants" are all party workers too - and this means that our government is a "party government" - of the socialist party or parties. The very word "civilian," in India, does not apply to any government functionary.

It was the Honourable East India Company that brought civil government to India. There were three "services" to which a recruit could belong - the civil service, the military service, and the opium service. The lowest rung of their civil service was that of "writer," and he was known as a "civilian" - to differentiate him from the military man. There was no separate police service till 1861, by which time the administration of India had been passed on to the Crown. But the Imperial Police was still civilian. George Orwell worked for this branch of the government - in Burma. The officers of the Imperial Police would have been aghast had anyone considered them at par with the military.

When India first got its police forces in 1861, the idea was still quite new in Britain itself. Robert Peel had created the London Metropolitan Police a few decades earlier - the "Bobby" is named after him - and it is unthinkable that these unarmed constables could be likened to recruits to the British Army. They were, and still are, civilians.

The very fact that a senior IPS officer, on prime-time television, could call his office "military," and the added fact that the CRPF "military police" are seen as the solution to our law and order problems, illustrates how horrible our "civil administration" has become. Especially the police.

In yesterday's post I had outlined my solution to Maoism: Withdraw the State Police from all tribal areas. Let the tribals "self-police." For a long-term solution to our problems, I suggest DRASTIC police reforms. We don't need a military police. We certainly don't need a politicized State police. At worst, let us have local constabulary under the control of city and town mayors, to perform duties of riot control only, where necessary. Nothing more.

For more on my views on criminal justice, see the relevant chapter in my Natural Order: Essays Exploring Civil Government & The Rule of Law, free e-book here.

Crises Are Good For Them, Barkha

Barkha Dutt of NDTV has written an article on the latest Maoist outrage - derailing a train in Bengal, causing over 100 deaths - that advocates strong State action to neutralize the Maoists. To quote:

Like in any conflict zone — with the Maoists too— we seek a deft combination of battle strategy and smart politics operating on parallel tracks. When we see civilians under attack or poor jawans forced to be at the frontline of danger, we certainly expect our government to use force — both preventive and offensive — against brutal, senseless terror. Whether this force takes the shape of the paramilitary or the army; whether air support should be deployed to speed up the ferrying of troops and weapons — we may leave to the strategists.

Note the royal "we."

My friends at the Natural Order Blog have a thought for today that all of us should ponder over:

“Fear of disorder and love of well-being unconsciously lead democracies to increase the functions of the central government,” said Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville in a warning that should be heeded by all freedom-loving people.

Barkha Dutt's column is titled "Call a spade a spade." She wants to call the Maoists a spade. What about the Total Chacha State? Shouldn't we call the King of Spades a spade too?

In reality, such crises are great for the King of Spades and his minions in North Block - the "strategists" Dutt refers to. I recall a senior IPS officer from Assam telling me, in the early 1980s, that "law and order problems are good for us." He added that "we get more powers, more personnel, more jeeps and more wireless sets." Barkha laments the fact that poor jawans die on the field - but these senior strategists in North Block just shuffle files and make hay.

If I may pen my sincere thoughts on a "solution" to Maoism, then it is this: Get the State Police to entirely withdraw from any involvement in tribal affairs. I briefly served as District Superintendent of Police in Arunachal Pradesh in 1987 - and the great thing there is that I had powers only in the towns. The hinterland was beyond my control - and the tribals lived happily in their "natural order." That is why there is still peace in Arunachal Pradesh. This should be the model for all forested areas inhabited by tribals. Give them full powers over their lives and properties. Give them Liberty and Property Under Law. And then tackle the "ideology" of Maoism politically.

What will happen if the Maoists "take control"? (Actually, they are already in control.) They will then have no "enemy" to fight. They will have to govern under Law. With the right politics educating the tribals on their rights and liberties, the natural order will be speedily restored. Of course, this will require The Market - a social institution that no political party in India says anything in favour of.

Something Good

There are over 800 posts on this blog, but never have I had anything good to say about anything that our Total Chacha State has either proposed or done. Let today be different.

It seems that a new bill has been proposed on land titling. The Express has written an editorial welcoming the move and is also carrying an article by DC Wadhwa, the greatest champion of clear property titles in India. Both the editorial as well as the column are worth reading - especially if you have ever tried to buy land anywhere in India. Of course, the bill has to be passed in Parliament and then our administration has to implement its provisions. However, this may not be too difficult because we now have satellite maps. It was done in British times the hard way. So kudos to the Total Chacha State. They have finally woken up to the fact that Private Property matters. Chacha has finally woken up to Hernando de Soto's message.

My question to Chacha: Why did it take you so long to realize that land titling is the MOST important job of any administration?

The answer: Chacha was too busy looking for identity cards for all citizens. This is a bogus idea Chacha has been chasing and funding all through his second term.

On this, there is some excellent news from the UK:

ID cards scheme to be scrapped within 100 days

Bill abolishing ID cards and national identity register will be the first piece of legislation introduced to parliament by the new government.

Chacha has done well to think of land titles. He could do better by abolishing the biometric ID card project. He could do even better by recognizing that "collective property" is a myth - and sell off the entire State-owned industrial sector. At long last they could run a bare-bones administration - a minimalist State - with zero taxation.

And talking of taxation: The ToI has a nice editorial on the subject today, saying that we in India need a "Tea Party Movement" just like the one in the US that is protesting against taxation. They quote Rand Paul.

Good idea. After all, most of the tea in the US Tea Party Movement comes from India. Ha ha.

US Wrestler Sings "Immigrant Song"

A few days ago, I blogged about an eminent “libertarian” professor at George Mason University, Walter Williams, and his “bipolar” views on US immigration: how he salutes the words inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty to start with, but ends up recommending strict enforcement of legislation on immigration.

Today, I have for you the views of a professional wrestler on the subject, and this man, Kane, whose real name is Glenn Jacobs, has indeed successfully wrestled with all the issues involved, proving himself to be a principled libertarian.

The most potent argument Kane uses is the inviolability of Private Property, which is the hallmark of libertarianism. But he goes further: He also shows up the hollowness of the idea – one that Williams espouses – that America “belongs” to the US government and they are therefore authorised to decide who will enter this nice piece of “collective property.” Kane sees no reason why, if he invites a friend from Mexico over for dinner, that friend should not be allowed to attend by State decree. He sees no reason why the US State should be able to decide which human being is “illegal” and which “legal.” As he sees it, illegal immigration is just another “victimless crime”: the only people objecting are the minions of the State. A great article, well worth the read.

Kane’s enlightened views are totally in agreement with my friend and alter-ego, Baba Pagal Nath Charsi, whose Good Morning America many of you have enjoyed. If you haven’t already read this “immigrant song” you can read the free e-book here. The Baba tells me that he has placed the manuscript up for sale on Scribd in the USSA, and I recommend it to all courageous libertarian publishers who would like to scandalise America on this important issue.

The only “visa” I need is the one on my credit card.

That, indeed, is what I call Liberty.

Kamal D Nutt, Sher Shah Suri, Manipur, Tolls - And TAXES!

The ToI has done well by drawing our attention to the neglected and unsettled North-East in a thoughtful editorial. There has been an economic blockade of Manipur for 45 days. What struck was the conclusion:

A lesson from the ongoing economic blockade is the urgent need to improve connectivity. More and better highways must be built across these states to end their political and economic isolation.

There is no better way to pauperise a people than by denying them connectivity to urban markets. This is why the word "remote" means "poor". When we say "remote village" we imply that it is distant from urban markets, and that getting there is tough. This word, "remote," applies to the ENTIRE North-East. Indeed, why only the North-East, the entire country needs modern highways - inter-city, inter city and peripheral towns, coastal expressways, all in a "hub-and-spoke" design. This should be top priority. Not ditch-digging, miseducation, or free rotten cereals.

Autocrats in the past understood well the importance of roads - for without them there would be no trade, and without the trade there would be no taxes. There are economically rational reasons why autocrats invest in "public goods" alone - so that they can pocket the surplus for themselves. Sher Shah Suri was one such autocrat, yet it is he who built the Grand Trunk Road from Peshawar, now in Pakistan, to Dacca, now in Bangladesh. This road is the lifeline of North India till today. Imagine North India without the Grand Truck Road. You cannot.

The late Mancur Olson, looking at autocrats in history providing public goods - "all roads lead to Rome" etc. - concluded that there cannot be "predatory states." But his analysis falls flat in India, where a Central Planner has employed a "scorched earth" policy on his own people. Read my very old column proving that our Total Chacha State is predatory, here.

Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi's vision of roads is well reflected in the views of his roads and highways minister, the great Kamal D Nutt, WTO-wrecker. This minister is looking to "contract-out" highway-building to private companies who will charge tolls. He is looking for ways to quadruple toll collections.

Hey, Chacha!

Why the FUCK do we pay (so many) taxes?

These include a ROAD TAX.

Chacha's Madness... And Mises' Method

Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi deigned to meet the press the other day. Mint has a long editorial on that, well worth reading, but what I would like to focus on are the "scientific" basis of two confident forecasts Chacha made. Mint says:

...he chose to disclose some gravity-defying numbers: inflation to be brought down to 5-6% by December and 8.5% growth rate this fiscal. These numbers ignore a wider reality of a world economy in turmoil and assume that India can quietly pass this storm.

How does Chacha forecast inflation and growth rates? His method is to measure economic variables, plot them on a chart, apply "econometrics" and voila! He has his forecast.

Ludwig von Mises called this "scientism." Chacha mimics the method of Physics and calls it "science." Mises said that this method cannot be applied to Economics at all, especially since there are no "constants" (there are only variables). He outlined an alternative epistemology for Economics, based on logical deductions from a priori axioms. What does this mean?

In Physics, all hypotheses have to be "empirically tested." But in Economics, this is quite unnecessary, as we begin our journey with self-evident truths that need no evidence from real world facts to prove them. Rather, these truths are embedded in our own minds, and are founded on our inherent logic. Just as in Arithmetic we do not need empirical testing to prove that 2+2=4, or in Geometry we do not need to go about measuring the sides of triangles to prove Pythagoras' theorem, so too in Economics. Logic is sufficient. Empirical verification is unnecessary. Let us take a small example, the Law of Marginal Utility, which says:

Whenever the supply of a good increases by one additional unit, provided each unit is regarded as of equal serviceability by a person, the value attached to this unit must decrease. For this additional unit can only be employed as a means for the attainment of a goal that is considered less valuable than the least valued goal satisfied by a unit of such good if the supply were one unit shorter.

This is a very important law in Economics. But to validate it we only need to apply our own logic to its statements and conclusions. We certainly don't need to go about "measuring utility."

Mises' writings on method are numerous - and mainstream economists hate them, for it challenges their competence at the most basic philosophical level, by asking them the inconvenient question of epistemology: How do you obtain "knowledge"? I once found an eminent economist advising his students to "read Human Action, but skip the first 90 pages." These first 90 pages, of course, concern method. My advice to all of you is to read Human Action beginnning at the beginning, paying special attention to the discourse on method.

Today, however, I have a treat for all of you: a short lecture by Hans-Hermann Hoppe on the Austrian Method in Economic Science. You can find the PDF here. The file contains two lectures delivered on the subject in 1987. I suggest you read just the first lecture to begin with - and read it many times over to grasp the underlying issues thoroughly. It is only 40 pages, and highly readable too. You will be forever enlightened.

There is method - and there is madness. Empiricism in Economics is madness masquerading as science. It is the chosen method of Central Planning, Keynesianism and Welfarism - and all three are pillars of modern Totalitarianism. Our Total Chacha State practices all three.

The opposition in Parliament call Chacha and his CONgress party "pseudo-secular." I would prefer to call them "pseudo-economists."

Don't believe in inflation and growth rate forecasts - they are nonsense.

On Catallaxy, Civilization, And Persuasion

My column titled "Catallaxy: Key to an Open Society," has been published in Mint today. In this column I downplay the political value of "community," which is collectivist and closed, and has brought down the West. I trace the word "catallaxy" back to its roots in ancient Greece, showing how their success lied in openness and not xenophobia. The article is on the side of civilization and open borders, on the side of cosmopolitanism, against "narrow domestic walls." I favour free immigration and free trade and assert that tourism must be India's biggest industry.

Read the column here.

As I surfed the web this morning, I found a post from Aristotle the Geek that ought to be read along with my column. It is titled "Persuasion" and carries the following quote:

“The creation of the world — said Plato — is the victory of persuasion over force… Civilization is the maintenance of social order, by its own inherent persuasiveness as embodying the nobler alternative. The recourse to force, however unavoidable, is a disclosure of the failure of civilization, either in the general society or in a remnant of individuals…

“Now the intercourse between individuals and between social groups takes one of these two forms: force or persuasion. Commerce is the great example of intercourse by way of persuasion. War, slavery, and governmental compulsion exemplify the reign of force."

The Geek then goes on to say:

Professor Whitehead’s vision of civilized society as the triumph of persuasion over force should become paramount in the mind of all civic-minded individuals and government leaders. It should serve as the guideline for the political ideal.

Let me suggest, therefore, a new political creed: The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society.

I couldn't agree more.

Williams Vs Rockwell On US Immigration

LRC said: "Walter E. Williams is the John M. Olin distinguished professor of economics at George Mason University, and a nationally syndicated columnist." So I clicked and read his column titled "Immigration and Liberty."

Williams starts off saying:

My sentiments on immigration are expressed by the welcoming words of poet Emma Lazarus' that grace the base of our Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free".

But his conclusion reads:

Here's Williams' suggestion in a nutshell. Start strict enforcement of immigration law, as Arizona has begun. Strictly enforce border security.

He calls himself a libertarian and addresses his audience in these terms:

Libertarian Fellow Travelers

What are the factors that led this libertarian's "welcoming sentiment" to such a bizarre public policy prescription?

Williams begins with a completely alarmist question, aimed not at fellow libertarian travelers, but at fellow small-town Americans:

There are close to 7 billion people on our planet. I'd like to know how the libertarians answer this question: Does each individual on the planet have a natural or God-given right to live in the U.S.?

Williams seems to be imagining that the California Gold Rush is still on. I don't think the USSA is such an attractive destination - and certainly not for ALL the 7 billion people on this huge planet. I'm heading for Jamaica myself.

Lew Rockwell's recent column titled "Renounce American Citizenship" offers Professor Williams a reality check. This most eminent libertarian, founder of the Mises Institute, an institution that teaches libertarian fellow travelers around the world, thinks that the Gold Rush days are long over, and that it is time to quit the USSA. He concludes:

[We] advise the young and successful families who ask us, to get out while the getting is good.

Rockwell, an Austrian economist, writes of the US economy today:

Far more frightening is the sense that financial calamity is around the corner. A look at the data seems to suggest that. Vast reserves are sitting in the banking system, waiting to be unleashed to create what could be total destruction of the dollar. The deficit is rising so fast that it is hard to chart.

The jobs situation is terrible, especially for young people (and adults often make decisions based on what is best for their kids' future). Personal income is falling and falling. Investment is not recovering after its cliff dive in 2009. The social welfare state is broke. Private debt is rising even though lending has not restarted.

Rockwell goes on to say:

The policies of the fiscal and monetary authorities are absolutely terrifying. The Fed is keeping rates at zero. The government is spending and spending beyond belief. Tax receipts are falling as never before, unleashing the greedy hand of the predator state to extract every last dime.

And look at what the US congress and president are doing about this terrible mess: they are working to socialize health care, start a war with Iran, impose tariffs on China, and otherwise tax, regulate, inflate, and control more more more. An economy that is heavily capitalized and driven by the entrepreneurial spirit can stand a surprising amount of abuse. But that reserve capital is being drained away into new bubbles, and the entrepreneurial spirit is being crushed at every turn.

I strongly commend both columns to my reader, a study in contrast. Professor Williams says of libertarians who believe in the Inviolability of Private Property that we have some "blind spots." Perhaps it is he who suffers from such spots. Seven billion people rushing to the USSA! What nonsense!

Private Property includes a hotel room. It means that if a foreign tourist has a coco-hut on a beach in Goa, paid for, all local property owners should unitedly protect his unfettered enjoyment of his Property. This is the very foundation of local Justice. This is the way of openness and a big tourism industry. It is how to develop local property. It is the path to prosperity.

But then, in Goa, I am preaching to the converted.

Ha ha.

Identity Theft - By The State

My favourite politician, Ron Paul, has an excellent article up on LRC today, where he accuses the State of systematic identity theft. This should make Nandan Nilekani squirm. Ron Paul says:

If someone incurred debts against you as an individual, without your knowledge or consent, you would call it identity theft. You would call your bank for a full accounting of the debts incurred in your name, and after some verification, those debts would be declared invalid and you would not be held responsible for them. Furthermore, if the culprit was found, they would be prosecuted and sent to jail.

Not so with governments and central banks. Governments that are supposed to be of the people and for the people routinely incur debts against the people. Some governments even borrow money to oppress their citizens, and then expect them to pay for their own oppression with interest. With a fiat monetary system, the sky is the limit for how much debt a government can place on the backs of the people.

Bravo, Dr. Paul! Well said.

Read the full article.

After reading the article you might wonder what "deficit financing" is all about. If so, here is Ludwig von Mises himself on the subject, in an article scripted from lecture notes, so he appears to be talking to you. Mises says deficit financing should be called "printing money." It causes inflation - as he explains. And that is also a kind of theft the State routinely commits.

Conclusion: Our Total Chacha State is a thief. Period.

Ashamed

My "soul sister" in Germany, Srilatha Neitzel (I have a "soul brother" there, too), has sent me links to three articles in Der Spiegel on drugs. The articles are in English.

The first says that as far as ganja-charas are concerned, Berlin is set to become freer than Amsterdam, with possession of 15 grams being legally permissible. Great news. But why do I feel ashamed?

I feel ashamed because this herb is of Indian origin. Its botanical name is cannabis indica - and we in India have outlawed it in favour of the miserable Tata Indica. In India, the State Police harass anyone possessing even the smallest quantity. And in India, the poorest people in our cities smoke ganja, while the wealthy drink whiskey. I have smoked ganja with rickshaw-wallahs and with day-labourers. In Karnataka, the State Police harassed me endlessly merely because I am a smoker of the Noble Herb.

I am ashamed that no one in India speaks out against this tyranny. Our media circus harps endlessly about Democracy (ugh!). Even their ring-master never utters the word Liberty. Our Hindoo chauvinists never speak of the Lord Shiva - and this is his favourite high. We are speedily becoming an alcohol culture. Foreign tourists appreciate our ganja and charas. Our own people are all alcoholics. And our Total Chacha State is nothing but an ugly tyranny. I am ashamed of our government; I am ashamed of our State Police; and I am equally ashamed of our spineless society. Kudos to the Germans - and the Dutch, who showed Europe the way.

The second link Srilatha sent me is on the failed "War on Drugs" in Latin America. The author asks: Is De-Criminalization the answer? This war on drugs is a war sponsored by the USSA. I am ashamed that our government has kissed the ass of this corrupt and evil State in order to oppress our own people. Just as our ancient culture is about cannabis, in Latin America the indigenous people have been using coca leaves for millennia. The USSA must be put in its place. If Americans want to live under oppressive legislation, it is up to them. But their government cannot be allowed to interfere in the affairs of other sovereign nations. I am ashamed that our own sovereign nation has bowed so low before Uncle Sam.

As in Latin America, where the poorest people grow coca, so too in India, poor people grow cannabis. These are important cash crops. I am ashamed that in a country whose peasants are wretchedly poor, and where they have dozens of political "leaders" claiming to represent them, none has spoken one word about State oppression on ganja and charas farmers.

The third article Srilatha sent me is on a curious situation that is developing in Europe, as millions of foreigners drive over to the Netherlands to smoke cannabis. There are many who want the Dutch to stop selling holy smoke to these foreigners. But this goes against the free trade principles of the EU, and the matter is soon to come up before the European Court. May Liberty prevail.

I am ashamed that our nation does not want to be a Holland of the East, and is complicit in the oppression of the Afghans, who grow fine charas.

I am totally and thoroughly ashamed of India and Indians.

Caste, Cyclones And Petty Politics

I enjoyed Barun Mitra's article on caste in Mint today. He hits the hammer on the nail when he says:

As time goes on, economic growth is eroding strong caste distinctions. Indians who want to escape restrictive social customs in their villages can find economic opportunities and upward mobility in cities. Urbanization has also provided an opportunity to remain anonymous in a sea of humanity, in contrast to small towns or villages where it was easy for residents to know each other’s ancestry and caste.

He is equally forthright when it comes to condemning those politicians who are calling for a caste census:

Thus, the only people who would advocate a caste census would be the people who personally benefit from it: namely, politicians who depend on identity politics to win votes. They hail from mostly smaller parties such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar or the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Marginalized from the halls of power, they think a caste census could facilitate the flow of more money and affirmative action programmes to their political constituencies.

His conclusion rams the point home:

India’s politicians face a clear choice: They can side with the old social order and try to secure their own political future through patronage or they can discard it, like the rest of the country is doing. Indians are on the move and their many identities are becoming optional. It is the politicians who are in danger of being left behind, exposing the true nature of their own identities.

Which brings me to the cyclone that is to hit the East Coast today. Already, 12 people have died. Many more deaths and much more damage is expected - especially to the shacks that poor people on the coast call homes.

Why should the coast be poor? If there was free trade, coastal areas would be rich. There would be solid buildings to take refuge in when cyclones hit - as in Hong Kong, where residents are advised to sit in the bars and while away the time till the typhoon abates.

Thus, as with caste, so with cyclones - it all boils down to petty politics. This is the petty politics of reservations and protection. Both must go.

Chacha And His Chaalis Chor

There is news today that the Cabinet has approved of the compulsory taking of all 10 fingerprints, plus an iris scan, for the multi-multi-crore ID card project headed by their IT industry crony, Nandan Nilekani. The news report I have cited is worth reading in full, because it justifies this huge expenditure and invasion of privacy on the ONLY ground that this will help implement "welfare schemes." Indeed, fingerprinting and iris scanning of little children is deemed necessary to implement the right to miseducation. Millions of ditch-diggers will be fingerprinted and iris-scanned so that their "right to work" is well implemented. I wonder whether Nilekani's men can get so close to a Naxal, a Maoist, a North-Eastern underground rebel, or a Kashmiri separatist, as to take a look at his iris. But let that pass.

Yet, as the tax payer shells out towards this administratively useless high-tech wizardry of Nilekani (all that good government requires is property titles, for which we have Google maps) the FACT is that our Total Chacha State is causing high inflation. You cannot have welfare and inflation together - for this means that the poor are being cheated by the State that purports to help them. No one has made this FACT clearer than Ludwig von Mises and I strongly recommend you read this article of his, taken from lecture notes, titled "Inflation Destroys Savings." Mises especially mentions Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" which continued simultaneously with inflation. Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi is doing much the same. The hypocrite. The CONman. The pseudo-economist.

I also recommend Niranjan Rajadhyaksha's column in Mint today, titled "India's Rentier State," where he says they are just monopolist exploiters of "natural resources" - including the radio spectrum. They are using these gains to buttress their budgets. They are not imposing strict discipline on their expenditures. This is a "Rentier State," Rajadhyaksha concludes.

My conclusion must be much stronger, for this is my personal blog and not a corporate newspaper. I conclude that this Cabinet that approved of universal fingerprinting and iris-scanning while simultaneously causing high inflation comprises the legendary "chaalis chor" (forty thieves) of Alibaba. Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi and his boss Sonia are in cohorts with open enemies of our society. The country has gone to the dogs.

Against The State Police

The Maoists have struck once again and blown up a bus. Some "special police officers" (read "informers") were the specific target, but some 50 people have died. On the idiot box last night, I watched the Central State Police ministry's secretary lament the "loss of innocent civilian lives." This is humbug.

In India, the innocent civilian is always the target of police brutality. He is harassed at every turn. He hates the police. In these Maoist badlands, it is police atrocities upon "innocent civilians" that have turned the average tribal into an armed guerrilla. It must never be forgotten that in West Bengal the rebel organization is called People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA).

In this news report, the Central State Police Minister is quoted asking for the intellectual support of independent journalists and civil society groups. This should be denied him. In the same report he talks of using "air support" against the Maoists. Wow! We now have an internal civil war going on. Same in Kashmir. Same in the north-east.

All these internal problems require "politics" to solve them. Tax-funded rifles, grenades, bullets, drones and air support can accomplish nothing - except to turn this malfunctioning socialist democracy into a Total Police State. This is in the vested interest of the top brass of the State Police - the denizens of North Block. For them, persistent law and order problems means bigger budgets and more powers. They must be defeated.

What I would like to ask the Central State Police Minister is this: Does he think the State Police are liked and respected anywhere in India?

On the streets, ordinary innocent civilians actually hate and despise the police.

We need drastic police reform. We need to defang the police by making all voluntary trades legit. We do not need to take the opposite direction - which the Police Minister is urging upon us. No independent journalist, no civil society group, should come out in favour of the police.

Actually, why only the police? What about our politicians? Does anyone in the entire territory of India like a single politician?

Much fuss is being made now about the hanging of Afzal Guru, the mastermind of the (unsuccessful) armed attack on Parliament some years ago. I remember that day. I was then on the editorial team of a major business daily. At the morning edit meeting, I asked my colleagues what they thought about the attack. One guy replied: "They should have got at least a few MPs." He was quite serious, I do believe. It was I who was surprised to see how much our MPs are hated.

These are dangerous times. One wrong move and we could end up with Police Totalitarianism. The National Intelligence Grid, the biometrci ID card project, the caste census - these are all steps in the direction of totalitarianism.

You are warned.

Between Lawrence White And Me

Lawrence H White, FA Hayek Professor of Economic History, University of Missouri, St. Louis, has responded to my post of this morning in these words:

Sauvik, why in the case of banking do you uncharacteristicly want to prohibit peaceful voluntary practices? I fear that you don't understand them. The premises on which you found your prohibitionism are false. In fact, (1) Free banks CANNOT issue fiduciary media at will. They have to be prepared to redeem them, which is costly. Read up on Mises' theory of what limits the extent of note-issue under gold redeemability. (2) Under a gold standard, fiduciary media (banknotes, checking accounts) ARE backed by gold. Banks do hold gold reserves to redeem them. They don't hold 100% reserves of gold, but any solvent back does hold sufficient other assets in addition to gold to buy all its liabilities back.

I think he should respond to Joseph T Salerno’s article that I citied in my post of this morning.

However, even on this point of his, I am fortunate to have Doug French, President of the Mises Institute with me today, in an interview to the Daily Bell. I quote:

Daily Bell: We have an interest in free banking here at the Daily Bell. We think any kind of financial system is allowable in a free market and that competition will sort them all out so long as government is not involved — and we do think in a free market that a gold and silver private market standard would evolve as it has historically. Do you think this is an intellectually defensible position?

Doug French: Certainly freely competitive banking is far better than the state-regulated, fractional-reserve, fiat-currency, central-bank-cartelized banking system we have now. However, in practice, in a free market, I don't believe that the market would accept fractional reserves. It would be regarded as embezzlement at best and fraud at worst. Fractional-reserve systems have fallen apart since the ancient goldsmiths issued more gold receipts than they had gold for. I can appreciate the theorizing, but when the rubber meets the road, the sternest task master — the market — would just not allow it.

Fractional-reserve banking depends upon hope and prayer: hope that not everyone shows up for their money all at once and pray that the borrowers pay their loans back. That's not a sound basis for a banking system and requires the force of government to keep it propped up.

Daily Bell: Do you think Mises's position might have evolved toward free banking if he was alive currently? Was Rothbard's position evolving toward free banking before his untimely death?

Doug French: Murray wrote in an article that now is the appendix to his book The Mystery of Banking "Ludwig von Mises was one of those believing that free banking in practice would approximate a 100 percent gold or silver money." Mises believed "that demand deposits, like bank notes beyond 100 percent reserves, are illicit, fraudulent, and inflationary as well as being generators of the business cycle." I believe this was also Murray's view when he passed away.

Daily Bell: Is there anything wrong with fractional-reserve/fiat money in a free-market environment?

Doug French: You couldn't have fractional reserves and fiat money in a free market. It would not last one day. Fractional reserves require a central bank to cartelize the banking system. In a free market, demands on deposits would instantly shut down banks who engaged in fractionalized banking by lending out their customers' deposits.

No one would accept paper money with no backing but for the power of government to require people to accept it through legal-tender laws.

I rest my case.

Three Excellent Reads

Today I have three excellent reads for you.

The first is for EVERYONE:

The Natural Order Blog has a superb post today titled "Public Sector Debt Is Immoral." Yes, indeed it is. It is the height of State corruption. I hold that it should be entirely repudiated. Murray Rothbard thought the same.

The second read I have for you today is from LRC, on Germany. This article by Michael Kreiger titled "The Selling Out Of Germany" tells you what goes wrong if public sector debt mushrooms. Germans are a very hard-working people - and most enterprising. They are being let down by their government - and by their own misplaced faith in welfarism. Putting an end to public sector debt means putting an end to "redistribution" by the State. It means an end to welfare. I hope Germans get that message.

Further, if united Germany has conclusively rejected Socialism for Capitalism, then Germans must also realize that Capitalism means "sound money" - defined by Mises as something with which human beings cannot interfere. Germans have experience with the horrific effects of hyper-inflation (Americans do not). This article says they are now buying gold in droves. This is a good thing. Gold is sound money.

Finally, I have an important article especially for serious students of Economics. It is by Joseph T Salerno on "fiduciary media" and the differences between Ludwig von Mises and Lawrence H White on the issue. Salerno classifies White as a member of the "Neo Banking School" and says that he misrepresents Mises' teachings.

It is important to note that "free banking" has serious moral and economic consequences if these free banks can issue fiduciary media at will. Fiduciary media are paper "money substitutes" that are NOT backed by gold. If this is legal, then, just as central banks cause business cycles today, so will free banks cause them tomorrow.

I stand with Mises and Jesus Huerta de Soto on the matter. This makes me an adherent of the "Neo Currency School."

In my column on the gold standard I have said the issuance of fiduciary media should be outlawed. It is indeed a great pity that Lawrence White's comment on the article, and my responses to it, have been deleted by Mint.

Big Quacks, Little Quacks, And Adam Smith

There is interesting news on the medical profession:

President Pratibha Patil on Saturday gave her assent to an ordinance dissolving scam-tainted Medical Council of India (MCI) and replace (sic) it with a seven-member panel of eminent doctors.

The MCI oversees medical education with a view towards preventing quackery. But their top chaps turned out corrupt, accepting bribes from an institute that turns out quacks.

Adam Smith would have called it “a squabble between big quacks and little quacks.” In his time, some Scottish universities were turning out quacks – “men who didn’t know a vein from an artery” – and John Rae’s Life of Adam Smith (1895) [Chapter XVII pages 271-280] contains a long letter Smith wrote on the subject of medical education. Smith wrote strongly against government interference in the matter and rallied against monopolisation of medical education by the universities.

John Rae introduces us to the occasion that led to this famous letter:

While living in London, Smith, along with Gibbon, attended Dr. William Hunter’s lectures on anatomy, as we are told by a writer who was one of Hunter’s students at the time, and during that very period he had an opportunity of vindicating the value of the lectures of private teachers of medicine like Hunter against pretensions to monopoly set up at the moment on behalf of the universities. In a long letter written to Cullen in September 1774 Smith defends with great vigour and vivacity the most absolute and unlimited freedom of medical education, treating the University claims as mere expressions of the craft spirit, and recognising none of those exceptional features of medical education which have constrained even the most extreme partisans of economic liberty now to approve of government interference in that matter.

The letter was occasioned by an agitation which had been long gathering strength in Scotch medical circles against the laxity with which certain of the Scotch universities – St. Andrews and Aberdeen in particular – were in the habit of conferring their medical degrees. The candidate was not required either to attend classes or to pass an examination, but got the degree by merely paying the fees and producing a certificate of proficiency from two medical practitioners, into whose qualifications no inquiry was instituted. In London a special class of agent – the broker in Scotch degrees – sprang up to transact the business, and England was being overrun with a horde of Scotch doctors of medicine who hardly knew a vein from an artery, and had created south of the Border a deep prejudice against all Scotch graduates, even those from the unoffending Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The letter from Smith to Dr. Cullen, Professor of Medicine at Edinburgh and a close friend, is too long to be quoted in full here, but this portion of the text is quite pertinent – and hilarious. Smith asks:

Do not all the old women in the country practise physic [medicine] without exciting murmur or complaint? And if here and there a graduated doctor should be as ignorant as an old woman, where can be the great harm ?

Indeed, I have just been cured of an ailment on the advice of an old lady untrained in medicine. She prescribed an ointment for a skin ailment, and it worked. If para-medics could practise with just two years training, they would benefit the poor and treat common infections easily. I hope, now that the MCI has been abolished, such para-medics are allowed.

However, medical education is not my subject, which is Economics. In this vitally important discipline, 90 percent of practitioners are quacks. Many hold PhD degrees and call themselves “Doctor” – like Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi. Adam Smith’s letter to Cullen contains strong words against this imposing title. Although he himself held the degree of LlD, Smith never called himself “Doctor.” He was known always as “Mr. Adam Smith,” Here is what he writes about the coveted title of “Doctor”:

The title of Doctor, such as it is, you will say, gives some credit and authority to the man upon whom it is bestowed; it extends his practice and consequently his field for doing mischief; it is not improbable too that it may increase his presumption and consequently his disposition to do mischief. That a degree injudiciously conferred may sometimes have some little effect of this kind it would surely be absurd to deny, but that this effect should be very considerable I cannot bring myself to believe. That Doctors are sometimes fools as well as other people is not in the present time one of those profound secrets which is known only to the learned.

I rest my case.

Kishenji Is A Nehruvian Socialist

The Maoist supremo, Kishenji, has called for a 48-hour "bandh" in 5 states - Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. A bandh is a shutdown of all economic activity and all markets - a general strike. It is not voluntary. Force is invariably misused to shut all businesses down.

What is generally overlooked is that bandhs are terrible for the poor, especially daily-wage earners. On bandh day they cannot sell their labour, nor can they procure their needs. Kishenji is flexing political muscle. But he is not helping the poor.

All political parties in India employ bandhs - especially the CPI(M), whom the Maoists hate. Thus, Kishenji's political tactics are indistinguishable from the mainstream socialist and communist parties.

But it gets worse.

Why is Kishenji calling for a bandh?

Answer: "To protest against the Centre's decision to sell ten percent government's stake in 10 profit-making Public Sector Undertakings."

Read the full report here.

What have PSUs got to do with the welfare of tribals? We have had PSUs for over 60 years and the conditions of our tribals has only worsened.

Kishenji has some other demands:

=> Shut down IPL

=> Throw out foreign banks

Does cricket matter to tribals?

Won't tribals benefit from foreign Capital?

So what is Kishenji, I ask?

It seems to me that he is a confirmed Nehruvian socialist. With his political ideals, he would be welcome in Parliament. He is just like any other pig from that pigsty. He probably studied in JNU - or Presidency College. I wonder which.

Anyway, I hope some tribals somewhere will read my solution to their problems - Liberty.

And I recommend a re-read of an earlier post on the Maoist vs Nehruvian phony war.

Sad, but true: We are faced with MORONS on all sides - in the State and out of it.

The fault lies in State education - which creates these uniform mindsets.

Homeschool your children. Save their minds.

The Cart... And The Horse

There is an interesting video I have for you today, of the Central State Police Minister, speaking to CII - the cronies of the Total Chacha State - on how their help is needed to "develop" the forested and mineral-rich tribal areas of Central India now dominated by armed Maoist rebels. The minister starts off asking: "How can we take development to these areas?" He then confesses that the "government development model has not been successful" and he asks his cronies of they can provide "another delivery mechanism."

The minister is nuts. He is putting the cart before the horse. Development can never occur through either State or corporate handouts. There is no "delivery mechanism" required.

Rather, The Market is about "production and exchange." Production comes first. These people must be free to produce for the market, and then be free to exchange their produce for procuring their needs. This is how the horse comes before the cart.

What do these people produce?

First and foremost, they produce an excellent alcoholic drink called mahua, named after a jungle flower from which it is distilled. This is illegal today. This ban must be immediately lifted and mahua plantations encouraged in the jungles. This mahua must be freely sold throughout India, and it should be seen as the patriotic duty of all Indians to patronize this drink.

Second: every tribal household is able to produce a rice beer called handia. For this too I prescribe Liberty.

Thirdly: In many of these jungle areas, especially in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, the tribals are growing ganja. This must be legalized too.

Fourthly: These areas are rich in minerals. These minerals do not belong to the Central State; they belong to these tribals. Private Property must be respected in law. Let all the royalties from mining go to these tribal communities. Let their local governments be fully empowered to allow (or disallow) mining. There is an interesting interview with Bianca Jagger in today's ToI where she speaks of tribal exploitation by mining giants in cohorts with the Central State. This must stop.

Lastly: As with minerals, so too with forests and wildlife - these belong to the tribals and they must be free to utilize them for their own benefit. They must be free to grow and sell timber. They must be free to farm and sell wildlife products - like venison. Our 5-star hotels should serve venison steaks with mahua to wash them down - and we will soon find these very people buying cars, computers and whatever else the cronies of CII produce.

This is how we put the horse before the cart.

These very questions plagued the British parliament in the 18th century, when the debate over free trade for Ireland arose. Ireland was then the poorest province of Europe. People were starving. And the British government denied them the freedom to trade. As public anger mounted, and volunteers were armed to resist the State, the government asked many eminent people for their opinion on what should be done, among them Adam Smith, whose Wealth of Nations had just been published - and hugely praised.

Adam Smith called for free trade for Ireland, even though it would hurt English and Scottish monopolies. He rallied against these "most absurd monopolies that we have most absurdly instituted against ourselves." He placed the cart before the horse. He saw that if the Irish sell their produce, they will accumulate Capital, and they will increase their consumption. They will survive. Public anger would recede. The Irish would focus on production and exchange, instead of spending their energies and their lives on insurrection.

To paraphrase Smith, we could today, in India, on the question of the Maoists, speak of the "most absurd RESTRICTIONS we have most absurdly imposed upon ourselves - and also upon these tribals." Liberty is the answer. All these absurd restrictions must go.

Further, Private Property must be the Law.

To conclude: I once met an Englishman at a rock concert in New Delhi who had arrived there after a stint in Kabul, where he had gone as a humanitarian volunteer. When asked about conditions in Kabul he told me:

Where there is no economy, what can a young man do but pick up a gun and join one predatory gang or another?

This is the situation in our tribal heartlands. There is no economy. The minister himself admits that the government model of development has failed. They put the cart before the horse. Government action can NEVER lead to development - but it can thwart it, and it has. The answer is to get The Market working - by giving these people the Liberty to produce and exchange.

There is no other solution.

Recommended read: My earlier post on Adam Smith on the Irish question.

On Information... And Knowledge

The illustrious libertarian wit, HL Mencken, once said:

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

I read these wise words on LRC this morning, where they have compiled a collection of Mencken quotes, and immediately proceeded to surf the newspapers to gather "information" on further black deeds that our Total Chacha State - which all decent Indians are thoroughly ashamed of - is committing. It did not take long to find another horror in the offing.

The news has it that the Cabinet Committee on Security has approved the setting up of a National Intelligence Grid that will gather "information" on wee the sheeple. The report says:

The agencies will also have access to details of phone calls, credit card transactions, visa and immigration records, property records and driving licences of all citizens in the country.

It is time that wee the sheeple looked upon these keystoned kops of our dumb "intelligence" agencies as equivalents of the Soviet KGB, wedded to a socialist State. If this socialist State must go, then these spying agencies of theirs must go as well. That is precisely what has happened in the former Soviet Union, where most former KGB-types are now forced to run honest businesses in order to survive. I was pleasantly surprised to see, a few years ago, a photograph of General Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle, launching his own brand of vodka in London.

Similarly, in reformed Red China, many, many PLA operatives are now running honest businesses. Much fuss was made by our dumbo intelligence agencies over a Chinese telecom equipment company that employed a lot of former PLA-types. Jairam Ramesh got into trouble over his remarks that these dumbo agencies were "alarmist" and "paranoid." But Jairam was right. Every denizen of North Block must be on the "hit list" of the Maoists - and should be paranoid. They should be able to clearly see the widespread failure of their god, the Total Chacha State, what with all the "information" they collate. Seeing this widespread State failure, they should indeed be "paranoid" about their own future. For if this State goes, they go as well.

Yet, as Adam Smith once said: "There is plenty of ruin in a nation." Perhaps this State will not go, and the nation will be ruined more and more. If that happens, things will only be worse for these keystoned kops. Their work will become even more hazardous. They would be better off quitting and joining business. In The Market, they might be able to afford Mercedes limousines. Today, they ride the miserable Ambassador.

I will not enter into a discussion on the "privacy" of citizens. What I would like to focus on is whether a huge nation of a billion souls, a mammoth sub-sontinent, can be run efficiently and effectively with "information." Note that the USSA, with its CIA, is heading quickly to State Failure too - because the USSA is not run with "knowledge."

In the ultimate analysis, running an effective and efficient administration requires "knowledge," not "information." With sound knowledge, we have sound policies. There is peace, prosperity, easy taxation - and citizen contentment. This nation is a mess because this sound knowledge is missing - just as it was missing in the Soviet Union or Red China, despite their legendary "intelligence."

So this National Intelligence Grid is just nonsense. It will achieve zilch. And these keystoned kops of ours will get "information" that they will use to harass chosen enemies of the regime, blackmail innocent people, or worse. There will be more oppression and repression. They will NEVER be able to prevent any crime. Indeed, all this "intelligence" could not prevent the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi.

Look at it this way: How much can Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi read every day? I hope he reads a few newspapers. I guess he reads files from various ministries and the planning commission on State projects. I hope he reads reports on his ditch-diggers, his miseducators and his stock of rotten cereals. Will he be possessed of time to read voluminous "intelligence reports" too? I sincerely doubt it. In the final analysis, knowledge matters much more than information. I think the nation would benefit greatly if Chacha read Human Action - and dumped all the reports prepared by our unintelligent keystoned kops.

I began with Mencken and will conclude with him. Another quote from that collection goes:

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.

Thus, we must not only be ashamed of our government, we must also conclude that those who occupy public offices are devoid of "common sense, common honesty, and common decency." Decent people do not make gigantic plans to snoop on other people.

I am strongly opposed to this National Intelligence Grid. I hope you are too.

On The Eurozone Crisis

The Natural Order blog has an excellent post on the financial crisis in Europe, which is brief, so I will publish it in full below. The title of the post says it all:

Corrupt EU public officials use “sleight of hand” to evade Rule of Law.

The post goes as follows:

Founding principles of the European common currency area require each euro-zone country to manage & be responsible for its own fiscal affairs. And EU treaties contain a “no-bailout clause” that forbids the currency bloc or any member to “be liable for or assume the commitments of” another EU country.

Following this thread, the European Central Bank (ECB) is barred from lending to countries or buying their debt directly.

EU public officials apparently view treaties as obstacles to be averted rather than honored. As such, they applied slippery “interpretations” of the documents so they can do whatever they please.

And so it is that the ECB said it will buy euro-zone government & private bonds “to ensure depth and liquidity” in markets. Now “bilateral loans” involving loans between countries will be permitted under the guise that lending countries do not purchase existing debt.

Anticipating challenges to their arguments, they have offer a strained interpretation of a clause permitting assistance under “exceptional occurrences”. This allows spendthrift governments overseen by irresponsible public officials to remain unaccountable.

When will European citizens rise up against the corruption of treaty obligations that were intended to stop such flagrant abuses?

Indeed, when will citizens rise? Why should common people take on the debt burdens of profligate, corrupt, wasteful States?

The great Murray Rothbard had given us all the right response to such situations:

Repudiate the National Debt

That's right. The national debt is not something that "we owe to ourselves," as its apologists and propagandists say. It is money borrowed by corrupt public officials for their own gains. If citizens forced the repudiation of sovereign debts, never again would public officials be able to borrow money. In any case, this is money borrowed from their clients, for interest that is paid out of tax revenues. In the final analysis, both socialism and Keynesianism are to blame. The final solution is an International Gold Standard that will put an end to fiat paper currencies and place "golden handcuffs" on all finance ministers.

But we were talking about the great Murray Rothbard. Luckily, LRC has his article advocating repudiation of the national debt available online for the entire world to read. It is here. My advice to the entire world is to study it carefully. In times like these, when governments worldwide have gone crazily corrupt and predatory, it is essential to read the advice of a true "economist" - defined as one who wishes to "economize" on scarce resources, which governments are wasting. So go right ahead. Read Rothbard. Again and again.

Evil, Corrupt, Anti-Poor

I have even worse news on the Total Chacha State's doings today. These evil rulers of ours have banned cotton exports - so that cotton mills can increase their profits by buying their principal raw material cheap. It is alleged in this column that mill-owners have paid for this favour. Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi and the CONgress are corrupt to the core.

Note that cotton farmers are among the poorest in India. In the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, there has been news of cotton farmer suicides for many years now. I recently drove through cotton-growing areas of North Karnataka - the Hubli-Gadag area - and was struck numb by the sheer poverty there, as compared to sunny Goa.

Now, these poor cotton farmers should be possessed of the Liberty to sell their crop to the highest bidder - in this case, overseas buyers. Banning cotton exports hurts cotton farmers badly. It also ruins their export markets permanently, because they will be viewed as unreliable suppliers.

Thus, all the Chacha-Sonia talk about being "pro-poor" is pure bullshit. NREGA ditch-digging enriches the bureaucracy, not the poor. As does miseducation. As does cheap rotten cereals. All these policies are in the interest of fat cat IAS baboons, who get to spend all the (fiat) money. Inflationism, which funds all this sham welfare, is also a means of making poor people poorer.

Chacha and Sonia talk endlessly about "helping the poor" only to legitimize this colossal loot in the eyes of the gullible. When it comes to brass-tacks, this Total Chacha State always acts to entrench poverty. The machinery of the Total Chacha State works non-stop to make the poor poorer, by trampling on their Liberty to buy and sell.

Freedom to trade by land and sea is the only way by which all this corruption can be ended and the poor farmer can climb out of poverty - on his own.

Freedom to trade by land and sea was one of the clauses of the Magna Carta. The Englishmen of 1215 AD gheraoed their King and made him sign on the dotted line that he and his State would not interfere in their Liberties. We need to do the same in India. Sharad Joshi should amass his troops upon Raisina Hill and get Chacha to sign a Magna Carta for all Indians. His farmers' organization, Shetkari Sanghatana, is already very big among onion and cotton farmers. I hope he will now enlist ganja farmers in his mission too.

Liberty!

Recommended read: The chapter on the Magna Carta in my Natural Order: Essays Exploring Civil Government & the Rule of Law, free e-book here.

A Maoist Kangaroo Supreme Court

The lead editorial in Mint today is on the Ambani gas dispute, and the decision of our Supreme Court on the subject. The subtitle is apt:

The Ambani feud showed how far India is from liberal capitalism and a free market economy

However, the real reason for this malady is to be found in the petroleum minister's comments on the matter. He says:

“These (oil and natural gas) are sovereign assets. The gas belongs to the nation and people…not to any company or individual.”

This is Maoist nonsense about "collective property." In truth, anything designated such belongs to and is under the control of individuals and groups "who claim to represent the people." In this case, the minister himself, and the Total Chacha State, which also "owns" the Supreme Court.

This supreme court must be seen to have fallen off its high pedestal. Such courts are meant to decide on "constitutional issues" only - and the price of gas is definitely not such an issue. The court has also backed the claims of the Total Chacha State to the hilt, which means it is an arm of the State and all the propaganda in our Civics textbooks about a "separation of powers" is nonsense. This is a Total State - a totalitarian one.

The lead editorial in the ToI is also on this gas dispute. This para swings both ways:

Ruling that KG basin gas should be sold at a government-approved price, the court has said natural resources belong to citizens. As the custodian of these resources, government has to ensure gas utilisation maximises general welfare. While this is unexceptionable, issues concerning service delivery remain. It's not clear if official interventions in pricing and/or allocation of natural resources have in all cases helped the public by serving economic logic. In gas, fertiliser and power producers are designated priority customers. Yet, so far as common people are concerned, we're still a long way from building a modern gas distribution infrastructure in the form of an efficiently run national gas grid. Nor have piped gas services been extended beyond its present limited reach. These areas need urgent attention.

But they are dead right on the fact that the common people don't get gas easily. Why? Basic economic theory says that a monopolist will increase price and lower the quantity sold. He will profit from an artificial shortage. The only solution: Competition. Which means Private Property. Let there be hundreds of privately owned gas fields competing for custom. Maoism - which is also Nehruvianism - must go.

The supreme court must go too. Bruno Leoni, the great classical liberal legal philosopher, often writes that such courts are unnecessary in a "private law society." There are no "constitutional issues" then for it to deliberate over. The law is possessed of "certainty." How would such a dispute be decided in such an order?

Very simple. The gas, firstly, would be seen to be belonging to Mukesh Ambani. There would be no question of "collective ownership." The gas would be Private Property.

Secondly, when it comes to exchange, the trading of this gas, all that would matter is the Contract. In a private law world, the unbiased judge would enforce the Contract. The judge would never attempt to alter the terms of the Contract. Thus, legislation on wages, or on rents, would not exist. We would be free. And all our contracts would be secure.

In a private law society, Mukesh Ambani would be secure in his Property and Anil Ambani would be secure in his Contract. Now, both are insecure. This is Unlaw - typical of a kangaroo court. With Private Law, they could still be brothers, not enemies. Both brothers would focus their energies on running their businesses, to the benefit of their shareholders, employees and customers. The nation would prosper. What is happening with socialist Unlaw is the "politicization of economic life" - something Lord Bauer always warned against. This is a waste of entrepreneurial energy, and only fattens socialist lawyers - another evil vested interest.

The English say that all a good magistrate must be possessed of is a "sense of justice." They add that such a sense is based on a fine recognition of what is "mine" and what is "thine."

In the present instance, the highest court in the land has not been possessed of the qualities of a humble magistrate. I am therefore in agreement with Leoni. We don't need supreme courts. Let us think about abolishing it. Ordinary magistrates can surely deliver better Justice that this Maoist kangaroo court.

On An Anti-Indian Bill... And Torts

The Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi government has re-introduced the Nuclear Liability Bill in Parliament. The bill provides for a maximum liability of Rs 500 crore [1 crore is 10 million] on the part of the operator in the case of a nuclear accident. 500 crore rupees is peanuts; about 100 million US dollars. I see no reason for a capping of liability. Where the damages can be unlimited, liability should also be unlimited. In effect, this amounts to selling Indian lives cheap to the USSA. This should be viewed as treason - a very serious crime.

Just the other day, in New Delhi, there was a death due to radiation - and it was the State-owned university that had caused it. The university sold its radioactive waste to a scrap dealer. The government announced compensation. The university teachers' association demanded the sacking of their vice-chancellor. None spoke of torts - that those directly culpable should pay: in this case, the Chemistry department of Delhi U.

Torts are an essential pillar of the "rule of law." When you are liable for damages, you are very careful. Torts are why it is standard practice in every MacDonald's restaurant worldwide to display a "Caution! Wet Floor" sign whenever the floors are being swabbed. There is a strong disincentive against carelessness - of the kind displayed by Delhi University's Chemistry department, for example.

Similarly, in the case of nuclear plants, there must be unlimited relief in torts for any damages they may cause to the lives and properties of the public. Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi is preparing the grounds for a hundred Bhopals - and do note that no compensation has been paid to victims in this 25-year old case of industrial negligence as yet. Our Total Chacha State is not known to learn from past mistakes.

The Nuclear Liability Bill is being opposed by the Left and the NDA - but for all the wrong reasons. Ultimately, there is no solution but a "private law society" based on Property, Contracts and Torts. We don't need this mischief in our lives called Legislation. We need Law - ancient law.

Torts are the oldest laws of the Anglo-Saxons. Once upon a time, these happy tribes never had any notion of "crime." Their only laws were torts - that is, all crimes were crimes against the individual, and the tortfeasor had to pay. Professor Bruce Benson, in his The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without The State (buy the book here) relates the sad story of how torts were replaced by crimes - that is, crimes against the individual became crimes against The State. From then on, victims remained uncompensated. And The State took on the tax-funded task of legislating, investigating, prosecuting and punishing crimes.

True Justice can only transpire when a wrong is righted, with the victim being adequately compensated by the unjust party. This is the "doctrine of restitution." There is no justice when the "criminal" is sent to jail by the Total State - the "doctrine of retribution" - while the victim gets nothing.

We in India have much to learn from this historical work of Professor Benson's, if we are to find that elusive value of Justice. Right now, with the Total Chacha State, we are getting its very opposite.

Thus, by capping nuclear damage liability at 500 crore rupees, Chacha is giving US firms the incentive to sell us sub-standard nuclear equipment. Horrors!

I trust the importance of a robust system of torts is now clear.

Recommended read: My old column titled "Ring In Torts: Making People Pay For Negligence."

Giant Step Backwards

The decision of the Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi government to include caste in the Census should be seen as a giant step backwards for the nation. What most people expected from this government was "reform"; what they are getting is "deform." My advice to all sensible citizens is to refuse to co-operate with the Census. Tell them to get lost.

As this news report says, this decision has been taken on the behest of the Yadavs - Laloo, Mulayam and Sharad - whom Sonia wants to keep happy. Why do these people need caste information? Only one reason: Because they are party managers, they will be able to field the right caste candidate in every constituency. Caste will remain forever politicized, and the nation will go far, far back in time. Further, these Yadavs will also possess all the information necessary to "play politics" with caste-based reservations, demanding "fair shares" for each caste. The future scenario is horrible.

Note that the three Yadavs, like Sonia and Chacha Manmohan, are all "socialist." Thus, they believe that strong State action is required to "help the poor." NREGA ditch-digging, compulsory miseducation, right to rotten cereals and reservations are all supposed to help the poor. Actually, these only help these socialists buy votes - while the poor remain oppressed by the State machinery and repressive Legislation.

What the poor really need is Liberty. They need the freedom to buy and sell. They need cities and towns they can move to in order to participate in the division of labour. They need roads. They need a transportation and urban revolution. And they need to be actively encouraged to engage in "self-help" - so that they rely on themselves and not The State. Welfarism is dependency - which is good for the socialists. It is bad for the poor - especially for their self-esteem.

In my belief, a census is unnecessary to sound policy, which requires theory and not statistical data. Sound theory tells us what the good policies should be. Chacha does not possess this sound theory; he is a confirmed central planner, forever looking for statistical data. Sir John Cowptherwaite oversaw British Hong Hong overtaking her colonial master. He did this without statistics. He refused to waste revenue to set up a government bureau for collecting statistical data.

We in India need a Cowptherwaite, who was a true blue classical liberal, committed to free markets and free trade. Hong Kong was full of poor refugees and their shanty towns when Sir John first came there. By the time he left, the colony had a higher per capita ownership of Rolls-Royce cars than (socialist) Britain herself - and this statistic came from the Rolls-Royce company. Hong Kong till today ranks #1 globally on "economic freedom." Hong Kong showed China the way forward, out of Maoism.

India needs administrators like Cowptherwaite. We need thorough market-based reforms. With the socialist Chacha Manmhoan S Gandhi, all we are getting is deform, deform, and more deform.

Throw the census guy out when he comes to your door.

The Pot... And The Kettle

It is an ominous sign of the breakdown of our uncivil socialist government that the Central State Police ministry has issued a warning that all those who "speak in favour of Maoist guerrillas will face legal action and 10 years imprisonment." This is not Law, nor is this Legislation. This is just administrative diktat.

I wonder what these monkeys who wield the Sword of State (bandar ke haath mein talwar) will do to the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities? The PCPA is the spearhead of the popular rebellion against the Communist State in West Bengal, and are sympathetic to the Maoists.

Perhaps these apes wearing the "uniforms of brutality" will begin by arresting every JNU professor. Jawaharlal Nehru University, after all, produced the chief ideologue of the Maoists in Nepal.

Meanwhile, it is reported that the Maoists in Jharkhand are opposing a project of ArcelorMittal - in precisely the same manner that they are opposing projects of the Steel Authority. The "authority" upon which the legitimacy of this mammoth State-owned undertaking rests is Maoism, or "collective property."

Commenting on Maoism in the journal of the Centre for a Stateless Society, Kevin Carson writes that the "economically illiterate have no property rights." We thus have economically illiterate Maoists on all sides - in the State and against it.

So the pot is calling the kettle black.

Meanwhile, there is news of the Supreme Court's decision on the price of Reliance gas. This is not a "constitutional issue" - which should merit the attention of such an elevated court. Rather, the matter has come to the court because the State is Maoist - and believes it "owns" all the gas in the country: collective property once again. Perhaps all the judges of this Maoist kangaroo court should be arrested too.

What about the Director of the IAS Academy? - which instructs the elite bureaucracy to govern using collectivist principles, violating Private Property (as I have earlier reported). There is big news today that the current IAS exam topper is an MBBS doctor from Kashmir. Precisely! What does an MBBS doctor know about civil administration? If the Academy teaches him Maoism, he will be a Maoist.

Pot calling the kettle black once again.

Let us not forget that in Chacha Nehru's time, the "evil professors" of Delhi U were all admirers of Chairman Mao and his totalitarianism. The Communists parties who are now in Parliament, opposing the Maoist rebels, then claimed that "China's Chairman is our Chairman." Forgotten?

In sum, this is a clientelistic State. Client Commies are OK; rebel Commies are not. Commie professors hold sinecures; Commie Supreme Court judges decide gas prices; Commie politicians are in cohorts with Chacha Manmohan and the CONgress; Commie administrators rule the land. Everything is about The Collective. The rebel Commies are a disturbing element to them. They, and their supporters and sympathizers, must be destroyed, according to the Central State Police.

Ultimately, good government is based on sound intellectual understanding of social and economic issues. In India, this understanding is faulty - and the Total Chacha State wants to COMPULSORILY teach us all. Arrest every teacher!

Why not arrest Chacha Manmohan too! - I say. Can't this "collectivist" (who refuses to privatize Air India) also be called a Maoist? He's the pot calling the kettle black. Lock him up. And throw away the key.

On Burqas... And Catallaxy

While thinking about the proposed ban on burqas in some European nations, I was reminded of a time when I visited a Lucknavi chikan kurta shop in Delhi. These embroidered kurtas (shirts) of superfine cotton are ideal for the north Indian summer. The shop was full of Muslim women in burqas buying kurtas for their menfolk. But the shop itself was owned by a Hindu. There were images of Hindu gods and goddesses on the wall, and the words "Shubh Laabh" (which translates to "profits are auspicious") were prominently inscribed underneath, alongwith the Hindu swastika. Looking back, I think this Hindu shopkeeper was smart. He didn't want to see his customers' faces; all he wanted to see was their money. This is the right attitude to possess in a "catallaxy," where strangers trade with each other.

Europe is headed the wrong way (and the Euro is headed the wrong way too) - but India should aim to be a catallaxy. In any Indian city or town you come across women in burqas, just as often as you come across Christian nuns in their habits. And none complain. Mangalore is one such catallaxy - and its multi-religious culture is something I loved while living there. In Mangalore you have Muslim restaurants serving beef, Hindu restaurants serving pork, and Christian restaurants serving both beef and pork.

Similarly, Goa is a catallaxy - even moreso because of foreign tourists. The girl who cleans our house here refers to all foreigners as "guests." She once looked at a self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh hanging on the wall and asked who he was, saying that he looked "just like a guest." In Europe, foreigners have always been much hated - the German word auslander is filled with hatred. In India, foreigners have always been much loved. There are many Bollywood songs expressing love for the pardesi - the foreigner. India possesses the ideal social climate to become a catallaxy.

In Goa, foreigners often do things that locals frown upon - like taking off their tops on the beach. But no one really complains, because the topless white woman is an honoured guest. Actually, statues of topless women are to be found on all our ancient temples. And in Bastar, where Maoists rule today, the local women have always moved around topless. India is a multi-cultural civilization; India is a catallaxy.

Europe is headed the wrong way - but European nations have always been closed, warring tribes. It is indeed a pity that they are hell-bent on demonizing Islam these days. Much is being made in the media of the New York Times Square bomber being a Pakistani - but the man who alterted the police to the bomb was a Muslim immigrant too, from Senegal. (Thanks to Lew Rockwell for the link.) It is indeed a tragedy that the most advanced societies of the world are retreating towards mindsets that motivated the Crusades. I think Europeans should hear the CSN song "Winchester Cathedral." The chorus goes:

Open up the gates of the church and let me out of here,
Too many people have lied in the name of Christ
For anyone to hear the call,
Too many people have died in the name of Christ
That I can't believe it all,
Now I'm standing on the grave of a soldier that died in 1799,
And the day he died was a birthday, and I noticed it was mine...

Enough of religious rivalries. As a wise friend once told me, religious chauvinists are people who claim "my imaginary friend is better than your imaginary friend." God has become a problem in the modern world because of such attitudes.

Enough of all this nonsense.

Let's focus on peaceful trade and commerce.

Let's all aim to be catallaxies.

Liberty Preserves Your Precious Capital

Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi is actually expanding the role of the State with his compulsory miseducation, rural employment ditch-digging scheme and cheap (rotten) cereals for the poor. All this costs money. His monstrous budget includes some 3,50,000 crore rupees of borrowing. His passion for miseducation led to the Education Tax. All this causes "capital consumption." Nothing is produced with this money; all is consumed.

Now contrast this with Liberty.

All that Free Trade requires is that the Customs Department be abolished. Thus, there are less taxes to pay.

All that a free market for alcohol requires is that the Excise Department be abolished. Thus, there are less taxes to pay.

All that a free market for ganja requires is that the Narcotics Control Bureau be abolished. Less taxes to pay once again.

Indeed, to institute Liberty all that is needed is the repeal of repressive legislation and the closure of meddlesome bureaus. This is entirely costless.

If we institute Liberty, we save our precious Capital. We don't pay excess taxes. The State does not borrow and consume. The citizens have more to save and invest - and the economy grows and grows. Wages rise. An abundance of goods and services are made available for all. There is widespread Prosperity.

I read the story of a ruler of a coastal Princely State in British times who ran his 13-gun salute kingdom without taxation. The King himself was a simple, frugal, ascetic and austere man - not greedy for his subjects' wealth. He ran a minimalist administration that looked after Justice and public order. Being a coastal state, he could impose customs duties - and these were imposed only on those goods headed for the rest of India. His own kingdom was tax-free and duty-free. Paradise! A good model for an independent republic of Goa, what?

This is the essence of "political economy." The term implies that just as private individuals "economize," so should the State. The classical political economists established the case for "the system of natural liberty." By doing so, they also established the case for the minimalist State - one that would cost the least in taxation. Socialism, welfarism and Keynesianism derailed this grand project of theirs. It is time to put it back on track.

So raise a toast to Liberty once again - the Utopia that costs you nothing, saves your precious Capital, and leaves you free to get rich and get high and do your thing.

And say "Boo!" to Chacha and his sneaky plans of expanding the Total State through the back door, thereby consuming all our precious Capital.

Boo!

[This is the fourth part of a series on Liberty as a political value. You can read the others by clicking on the label "Liberty" on the right-hand bar.]

Liberty Matters More Than Education

As Friedrich Hayek pointed out, in a market economy, knowledge is "fragmented." Each participant comes to market with his own little bit of knowledge - and much of this knowledge is not formally acquired. As the classic song goes:

Never learnt to read or write so well,
But he could play his guitar like a-ringing the bell.

Thus, for a really poor kid, all that he needs is knowledge in one specialized area. This can be easily acquired by apprenticeship. What he does NOT need is COMPULSORY "generalized education" for 10 years, during which he is prevented from entering the market, and further prevented from learning useful things.

Thus, compulsory Total Chacha State education is harmful for the poor.

What they really need is Liberty.

First, the Liberty to escape school and learn whatever one wants to. I met a kid the other day here in Goa who had dropped out of school and was learning the art of baking from the local baker. He said that all school gets you is a government job. He didn't want to end up a tax parasite after 10 years of school. Good kid. I congratulated him on his wisdom.

Second, the Liberty to compete with adults in jobs. The prohibition of young people from jobs, in the name of "child labour," is harmful for poor kids. As Sudha Shenoy said, referring to India's low life expectancy:

Where life ends early, it must begin early.

Wise words, indeed.

Third, a Free Market enlarges opportunities for all, including poor kids who have specialized knowledge. Thus, a license-free regime for bars and pubs is essential for kids who have learnt music and dance - and not learnt how to read and write. Let us not forget that unlettered blacks in the USSA made it big in music, entertainment and sports. There should be IPL-type scenarios in every sport - not just cricket. Further, every Indian city should be a New Orleans. Thus, Liberty matters.

People who know only how to read and write have always been poor - look at the "scribes" of yore, or the Malayalee stenographers. Kerala has high "literacy" but is poor.

Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi is promoting free and COMPULSORY education only in order to fuck the minds of the entire population. He should be put in his place - the naked propagandist and State Agent.

Say "NO" to Chacha-style education.

And raise a toast for Liberty.

Liberty!

What a sweet word.

[This is the third of a four-part series on Liberty. You can read the others by clicking on the "Liberty" label on the right-hand bar,]