The poorest members of the working classes, labouring under the meanest conditions, that I have observed in all these days on Main Street, Hassan, Karnataka, are the municipal workers who sweep the street and take away the garbage. Yet, my overall impression is that the authorities are employing mere labour, without any Capital to aid it, to improve productivity, and thereby raise wages. Once again, it seems that our socialist The State has no idea of Capital, and its vital importance for the prospects of those who labour.
Every morning, a large number of these street cleaning workers land up, both men and women, and all without any tools and equipment. They are poorly dressed, poorly shod, and work with their bare hands. Some wield long brooms - but that's all. Sometime later, a tractor-trailer combine arrives, with half-a-dozen men perched dangerously on the tractor. They pick up the garbage and dump it on the open trailer. The garbage itself is kept on the roadside in small, open plastic containers - not proper bins. In other words, no Capital has been invested in this task. The entire exercise is extremely ugly and unsightly. It seems apparent that no serious thought has ever been expended on how this important task of any local government is to be carried out.
But then, hats off to these poor labourers, for they manage to accomplish something - and the garbage vanishes. They are doing a far better job than the policemen I also see, who are all well-dressed and well-shod, possessed of Capital like walkie-talkies, motorcycles and jeeps. Indeed, my observations over the weeks indicate that the police department here has no shortage of either manpower or equipment. I see many big police buses passing every day, full of tough guys equipped to fight battles on the streets. They seem to be a "law & order" fighting force at most; not a civilian organization supposed to deliver important "services" to the community. The constables on traffic duty are totally helpless. They have been given the impossible task of securing order on a street where the "science" of traffic management has simply not been employed. This, too, is "knowledge failure." Otherwise, the only cops we see here are the bunch that come every night at 10:30 pm, honking and blowing maddeningly loud whistles, closing down everything. "All sound and fury signifying nothing."
Thus, there are privileged workers in India. And there are the rest. My guess is that the rural ditch-diggers of the NREGA must be in the same pitiable position as the street cleaners - employed without Capital. And they are paid for by consuming capital! Makes no sense whatsoever. I think that the policy wonks in New Delhi have false theories of "surplus labour" in their heads - that there exists a "labour army" that The State must employ towards "social" ends. Ultimately, there is no hope for India's labouring poor unless the idea of Capital is firmly embedded in the national psyche. This is a big task, for the Gandhians have also messed up our minds with their insane hatred of machinery.
Yeah, there is work, and there are workers. But the work itself is just a disutility. It is but a means to an end. We seem to be a nation employing wrong means towards wrong ends.
I could have stayed on much longer in Hassan, but I have decided to travel on. The ganja here is simply awful, and I cannot stay long in a town where you do not get good ganja. It sells quite freely here, in plastic sachets, but the stuff is probably poisonous. This is because of some "work" that our policemen have been assigned. Oh, give us Liberty!
I know of a small town in the nearby hills where I might obtain some good smoke. Perhaps I'll head there. Two songs playing in my head:
Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't wanna live here; and
It seems like I gotta travel on.
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