The CONgress - And Liberty

The Times of India "believes" in the CONgress: today's lead editorial, "Down with corruption," begins with a crisp salute to the Party High Command:

As tough rhetoric, it was music to the public's ears. At the Congress plenary session, Sonia Gandhi demanded zero tolerance for corruption, listing steps needed to fight it.

These steps include "State funding of elections" - and the editors do not object to the use of the taxpayers resources to fund even the advertisement campaigns of "unknown" candidates from umpteen "parties"?

Music to our ears?

The music of the CONgress is playing itself out at a town in Haryana quite close to Nude Elly and we can tune into this music directly through this Rediff report of a journalist who actually went there - and spoke to CONgressmen from here and there - one of whom opined that this was just a "tamasha." At the end, two choppers took off - and Chacha Manmohan left with his "ten-car cavalcade."

Then there is the music of those who are watching all this - and this opinion piece from Yahoo India is written as a reaction to Rahul Gandhi's election tour of Bihar, during which he kept telling the assembled poverty-stricken crowds that the CONgress is the "party of the poor" - that the CONgress is "their party."

In reaction to this claim by Rahul Gandhi, the author says:

...someone in the crowd should have stood up and hurled a chappal in utter disgust. Or some editor should have used the pen [or keyboard] to prise open some very bare and basic questions.

Since the editor of the ToI will not do it, allow me to "prise open some very bare and basic questions."

First, is it even conceivable that all our poverty-stricken masses are going to improve their economic well-being because of the actions of politicians and bureaucrats? Or with "foreign aid"? Or with IMF-World Bank loans?

If poverty is be meaningfully tackled, what all poor people need is the Liberty to buy and sell in markets. Now, markets are never in "villages"; they are always in "towns." And then in "cities."

And how do poor people who go to cities and towns fare?

How are transport connections between villages and town markets? And between towns and cities?

What are all the "land scams" in all the cities and towns?

Instead of "rural land reform," would the poor be better off with "urban land reform"? - and with aggressive urbanisation?

Choose between a room in a city and an acre or two in a village? is a question I have often posed to rural youth - and they have always refused the rural acres.

What about "economic freedom"? Bars and taverns in Europe have traditionally served poor people. In cities there is "nightlife" - an "entertainment industry," a "performing arts industry" and all that. City economies are 24-hour economies. In this area, the plain fact is that The State is an "obstruction."

If the urban market economy is free, lots and lots of poor people "get jobs" - thus, they provide for themselves and even pay taxes. They need no "welfare." They need Liberty! The blanket solution is constitutional Inviolability of Property.

Economic freedom is also about Consumption - for we "produce" only in order to "consume." We work all day for the pleasure of spending our earnings. A free, internationally competitive market arena is good for each citizen in his capacity as Consumer. Cheap Chinese toys mean that poor kids will have toys.

We are a Protectionist country. This goes against the interest of every citizen in his capacity as Consumer. This especially impacts the poor - because they possess even less to exchange. It is a heartening sight to see that the consumption of our poor people has improved because of many multinational companies. Free trade, free capital flows, a free market for the widely divergent skills of our poor workers - these are all in the interest of poor people.

But our The State insists it wants to give them "welfare"! And, we the taxpayers have to foot the bill. To make matters worse, The State, in its eagerness to buy votes, even engages in the criminal insanity of inflationism to fund it.

I think Self-Help is the best help. I think dependency is awful. I think the very idea that The State exists to "help the poor" takes away from human motivation the positive encouragement that poverty-stricken societies need. Deng famously said, "To be rich is glorious." The best way to help the poor is to give them the freedom to succeed - as producers and consumers - in urban market economies. Encourage each and every business and industry.

I could list 1000 viable businesses that are simply "not allowed" in our cities and towns - beginning, of course, with ganja-charas cafes. In much of India (outside Goa) you cannot even open a bar! Delhi is a horrible place to live for any drinker of moderate means. Poor people in our cites drink really sad stuff. And you don't get feni outside Goa! Internal free trade, anyone?

Don't forget about mahua.

And the dance bars of Mumbai - a city where "stars" get extremely rich because of dancing skills. And think also of the musicians who backed them up, the bartenders, the waiters, and all the other staff, and their suppliers - like the booze wholesaler.

We need Liberty - not The State, which is an "obstruction." And we need this Liberty in our urban market economies.

Liberty matters greatly to port cities - which could immediately emulate colonial Hong Kong's unilateral free trade policies and prosper. Tariff walls, by their very name, are "obstructions."

With unilateral free trade, all our port cities could become duty-free shopping areas - and compete for shoppers and tourists. But these guys are an "obstruction" to the supermarket business as well!

Note that all "welfare" is about villages.

The best way to attain liberty is to make Private Property constitutionally inviolable. This is the surest guarantee from State interference. This will preserve Liberty and create Capital. And, with capitalism, Civilisation will proceed. There will be more and more cities and towns. More markets. Fewer people will live in villages.

Very few do even today. An exodus from rural to urban environs has been an ongoing story in modern India - a phenomenon the CONgress never understood. Their "economic development" ideas are all centred on villages, rural development, and welfare.

The CONgress represents just one thing: ORGANISATION.

This is an organisation that is a principal participant in this "democracy" - which is central to the control of State organisation, and a centralised State at that.

There is a crucial difference between a "business organisation" that produces "goods" and a State organisation that produces "bads" - like obstructions. The lesson is that the former must be encouraged while the latter must be severely restricted - and this is the key lesson that our ancestors had never been taught. They created this "organisation" to fight for "freedom" - and now we must wonder what exactly has happened to that freedom. It is a very deep philosophical error.

So you can "vote" - for the CONgress or some other "political organisation," all of whom produce "bads."

On the other hand: you cannot open a beer bar or a hash cafe! Or dance. Or sell mahua.

This vote will get you more of "them."

With Liberty, you can attempt to do anything you yourself want to do - and have the greatest chances of succeeding.