The Science of Economics begins with an understanding of the "logical structure of the human mind" and the mental "categories" embedded within it. The first of these categories is Property - or the ability to distinguish what is "mine" from what is "thine." This, indeed, is the basis of trade - for when we trade we trade properties - and this category is exhibited by all good little children when they say to one another, "give me some of YOUR chips and I will give you some of MY cola."
With the onset of maturity, this mental category of Property develops into the category of Capital - and is exhibited even by illiterate nomadic herdsmen who carefully oversee the size of their herds to ensure that their Property, which is their Capital, does not decrease. In other words, a third category is also present, and that is Income. The human mind naturally possesses the ability to distinguish between Capital and Income in order to ensure that capital is not being consumed; rather, it is being accumulated. This accumulation of Capital is the basis of civilisation.
This "economic calculation" is nothing but basic Arithmetic. Nothing more advanced is required in The Market. Advanced math is for the physical sciences - not the Science of Economics.
When trading individuals interact in busy markets, it is the category of Property, embedded in each human mind, that ensures perfect order prevails. No posses of armed policemen are required to "maintain order" in any crowded bazaar because everyone knows what is "mine" and what is "not mine" and that in order to obtain desired objects, he must trade some Property of his own.
This is the Human Being. And this is Capitalism - embedded in all our minds.
Let us now turn to our closest cousins - the apes.
Apes cannot trade. If a horde of monkeys descends upon a fruit market, widespread plunder will ensue. This is Thomas Hobbes' "war of each against all." Poor Hobbes. He had never seen a monkey ever. And he was a mathematician to boot. Dangerous people, these mathematicians. Both Mises and Hayek studied Law - that is, the "rules of the game." That is how we understand how society works.
Let us now turn to Socialism - which is the "ideal" upon which the Constitution of India is based. Socialists believe in the nationalisation of all Property. They despise markets and traders. Thus, they do not possess the mental category all decent little boys and girls are blessed with by their Creator. They have been created without this mental category - and thus, they are exactly like our closest cousins, the apes. They are NOT human.
The nationalisation of private property, the forcible acquisition of private lands, the cops and other State functionaries who prey on businessmen - they are all ape-like. Of course, they are supposed to be "trained." But then, as I found out to my utter shock and disbelief some years ago, the Professor of Economics at the elite IAS Academy at Mussoorie is a Marxist! An ape.
Let us now turn to the Law.
In the "natural order" of decent human beings trading peacefully in markets, where Property is respected, no outside Law is required. No "legislation" - which would be an interference. Of course, in our more advanced times, other facets of Property would have to be upheld in Law - and these are Contracts and Torts. All three - Property, Contracts, and Torts - are "private law." Human society can happily exist, and human civilisation can gallop along, without any "democratic legislation" at all - such as the prohibition of ganja, or gambling, or alcohol, or anything else. People are free to harm themselves, but they are not free to harm others or their properties - which would be a Tort, for which compensation would have to be paid. Thus, in such a private law world, there would be no "crimes"; or, in effect, all crimes would be torts; that is, they would be crimes against individuals and their properties. There would be no "crimes against The State or its interfering parliaments."
The ape-like character of democratic legislation is best demonstrated in India by the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) - which many called "draconian" but it was I who first deemed it to be "immoral." When the central banker cannot convert his paper note into money, it is he who ought to be in prison: a "debtor's prison," where traditionally such plunderers have been kept on a diet of bread and water until they repay their dues through the auction of their assets. Thus, the Enforcement Directorate, which murdered Rajan Pillai, harassed Ashok Jain to death, jailed and humiliated KL Chugh - these guys belong to the planet of the apes. The judges who tried cases under FERA, the lawyers who pleaded before them - they are all apes.
Lawyers are very dangerous people, too. Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, Patel - they were all lawyers. So was Abraham Lincoln - and look what he did to the USSA. Lawyers are a "self-regulating profession" just like medical doctors. Lawyers teach lawyers, and lawyers alone become judges. So, just as we have "medical malpractice" we also have "legal malpractice." This is our precise condition.
Now, the Central State's Minister for "Free and Compulsory" Education is a socialist lawyer!
Wanna go to his schools?
So what should a Constitution of Liberty look like?
I will expound on that tomorrow. It will be very brief - unlike the socialist Constitution of India, which is the longest written constitution in the world.
Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment