My numerous posts from Main Street, Hassan, Karnataka (which can be read by clicking the label "Hassan" on the right-hand bar) are mostly based on common observations of a busy city street. In other words, the "sensations" that my eyes conveyed to me are commonplace; everyone sees such scenes everyday.
What distinguishes me from the common herd are the "perceptions" I drew, and which I conveyed to my readers. These perceptions, it is obvious, are based on certain "theoretical concepts" that I have deeply embedded in my brain; and I used these concepts, like Capital and Property, to make sense out of what the eyes conveyed. This is the Power of Theory.
It may be noted that I did not "measure" anything. I collected no "statistics"; I offered no "numbers" to back my analyses. In New Delhi, they are always found busy measuring things - growth rate, inflation rate, percentage of poor people, census. All the "field studies" of State economists are about data collection devoid of theory. This is not "knowledge"; it is a mere pretension to Science.
It may be further noted that my mind was also not despoiled by false theories that The State teaches our young: like the evil philosophy that children should not be born, that births should be mourned and deaths celebrated - the "population problem." To those whose minds have been corrupted by such horrible ideas, the same busy street scene and the same overcrowded city would have appeared as evidence of the need for forcible "population control." Instead, I sang the song of tourism - Hey! Let's invite more people here.
In New Delhi, they are still talking about population control. Here is a fresh, new column on the population problem by a CONgress "intellectual," Dr. Karan Singh, spreading a totally false alarm. He confesses in this piece that he was The Minister in New Delhi who "introduced the National Population Policy in Parliament in 1976." Yes, this Parliament even passed an unanimous resolution saying India's people - their constituents - are the nation's biggest problem. In Singapore, a crowded place, they say that their people are their greatest resource.
Further, it must be pointed out that visual examination of the countryside around India's overcrowded cities and towns does not indicate that there is any "shortage of land." You can find lots and lots of totally undeveloped and unowned bushland around New Delhi. My travels in the Western Ghats have revealed an area with superabundant land - and a shortage of people. There are at least 100 virgin beaches between Bombay and Goa and I saw them all, looking out of an aircraft window.
There is a shortage of roads.
You can download my brief monograph, "Population Causes Prosperity," here.
Thus, theories matter. The wrong theories can be fatal, for they distort perceptions. My numerous posts on Main Street, Hassan, are scientific field studies, but based on a different methodology and epistemology as compared to our great "central planners" sitting in New Delhi, studying reams and reams of statistical data and little else.
So, be warned. It is this "socialism" that has infected all our "education." If you want to save your mind, or those of your children, from complete destruction, get out while the going is good. The mind is the greatest resource human beings possess, not "labour," and each must take steps to nurture it, and preserve it from harm.
If you seriously seek knowledge in the Science of Economics, I suggest self-study. We are fortunate that everything and more is right there on the internet. The Mises Institute has done a remarkable job at providing all the literature on the "Austrian School" online. It is only this school of thought in Economics that deserves the honour of being called "science." The works of Ludwig von Mises are pure science. And, whereas an apple fell hard on Newton's head, the Science of Economics requires the thinker to perceive "what is not seen." It is Theory, nothing else.
Sciences are extremely useful knowledge. The Science of Economics is not about colliding atoms or invisible microbes. It is about living, acting human beings - about us. It is about the pith of life, the pith of civilization - about exchange in markets. I hope my reader will be inspired to take an interest in this Science, so vital to his existence. I am confident that the intellectual journey will be thoroughly enjoyable and richly rewarding.
PS: There is a Part 2 to this post, here.
Population growth is a sign of prosperity. But only if that growth is brought about by free market forces. The kind of growth we have in India is far from the result of free market forces at work.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a family of 3 - father, mother and a child and if this family hardly makes enough to meet their needs for each day (on their own, without any assistance from outside), then naturally they will not think of another child. They will concentrate on providing better quality of life to the lone child. Enter the eternal 'do gooders', The State. Now the family gets assistance in the form of subsidies on food, energy, education, bicycle for the child, fee mid day meals at school, free uniform, etc., All due to courtesy of taxes from the working class of the society. Does anybody think that the family will now not think of bringing few more children into their family? All that has increased is the population of the parasitic class of the society. More mouths for the state to feed. Yay! More taxing of the working class to sustain them!! Or more use of printing press to fund these altruistic plans. Again, I've no problem if the size of family increases as long as the family can sustain themselves without any special assistance from state.
So yes, we have population problem in India. Only way to convert this into prosperity is cutting down the government to its bare minimum. Market has all kinds of checks and balances built in. Thats the beauty of it. We don't need policies, laws, regulations to steer the society to prosperity. Just let the market work.
Ethics is a science. Economics is an off shoot in the study of ethics. Morals are not subjective. And economics cannot be expressed in numbers and equations for you have to take into account the human actions and motivations and that cannot be measured in numbers. That's why Austrian school is the only one which gets its predictions right tine and again.
Viva la liberty!!