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.]