Mumbai Musings # 5: Alternative Nation

It was still many hours to dawn as I left Juhu – but the city of Mumbai was up and about. An autorickshaw was easy to get; there were taxis on alert looking for customers, and at the platform in Dadar station, fresh samosas were being fried. I had a hot vada-pau.

There were two young lads sleeping on the platform, on cardboard. It was still dark when they woke up, folded their cardboards, and got ready for another working day.

I was reminded of the classic Bob Marley song Rat Race:

“You got a horse race,
You got a dog race,
You got a human race,
But this is a rat race.”

Everyone seems to be working very hard in Mumbai – and they pay the most in taxes.

But the conditions in which they work are horrible.

This is only because the city itself is in such a bad shape.

So what’s new?

Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore… every Indian metropolis is in extremely bad shape.

Working in any of these cities is not easy.

Life in these hell-holes is tough; very tough. Especially for the poor.

Of course, fixing these cities is not going to be an easy task either.

Even if these cities elect very good mayors, there will be little that a mayor can accomplish in one term – and it is therefore unlikely that he will be re-elected.

I am of the opinion that the best solution lies in building entirely new cities. The British built all our cities (and countless ‘hill-stations’) from scratch. We should now do likewise.

The Konkan coast offers many alternative locations for setting up new coastal cities. (see map). Karwar, for example, has a deep-sea port – and can easily become a Hong Kong with the right policies. Ditto for Mangalore.

And there over 20 such locations available on the Konkan, in both Maharashtra as well as Karnataka.

Our eastern seaboard too can accommodate dozens of new free-trading cities.

Many new cities can be built from scratch along both our coasts, to compete with these ruined metros. These can attract the hard-working people of these metros, whose lives are blighted by civic failure – and civic failure alone. All the bhaiyas of UP and Bihar can be welcomed to these new cities.

And a New India can arise.

Recall Bengal when Job Charnock founded Calcutta. Murshidabad was the Nawab’s capital then, and the leading city. Within decades, Murshidabad went into terminal decline and all the notables of Bengal shifted to Calcutta – not only for better living and better business opportunities, but also because property was secure and the Company’s justice was more predictable than that of the Nawab.

Way to go one more time, again.

Mumbai Musings # 4: Unsprawled

They say that “every great city sits like a giant spider on its transportation network” – and so we know why not one of India’s metropolitan cities is “great”. They are all like blobs of jelly on the map, nowhere near the nimble spider.

My Konkan railway train from Goa to Mumbai reached Panvel early in the morning, then traveled onto Thane before terminating at Kurla. Between Panvel and Thane, all that one saw from the window were wide open spaces: “unreal estate”.

Indeed, if you fly Goa-Mumbai you see miles and miles of virgin beaches, and acres and acres of what seems to be unowned and unoccupied land. If we want to use these spaces, instead of overcrowding our cities, we must have fast transport connections from the cities (and their business centres and markets) to all these outlying areas.

My hostess in Juhu showed me photos of her cottage in Alibaug – and the place seemed quite like our own tile-roofed one in Goa. There was also a lovely garden - something absent in Juhu. But we could not visit Alibaug – because of poor transportation. The map shows Alibaug to be just across the waters from Mumbai.

If we want Alibaug to “develop”, an undersea tunnel between Mumbai and Alibaug is all that is required. It will also help the citizens of Mumbai to “sprawl” over a far wider area, rather than cramming themselves into a tiny strip of coastal land. There is lots of land along the coast. The undersea tunnel will pay for itself from the property boom that will ensue in Alibaug – and the consequent revenues that will accrue to the State from property taxes. It is all win-win.

American environmentalists hate America’s “urban sprawl”. In India, we need it. There is more than enough room to do so.

In my book, transportation is the key.

We don’t need socialist education.

We need a transportation revolution.

Mumbai Musings # 3: Brutalism

My rides in Mumbai’s suburban trains were “brutalizing”, to use an exact word. Civilized people, I am sure, cannot ever enjoy the experience of being forced into extreme physical contact with complete strangers. In India, most people do not even shake hands, preferring to do a “namaste” from a distance. It is astounding that in such a civilization, politicians get votes for running a railway system in which everyone is crushed into everyone else.

This brutalism is also exhibited in the politics of the city – aggressive and hostile to outsiders. Civilized people who earn their keep in markets know that the secret to success of any market order is to keep on adding more and more “friendly strangers” into the overall order. But politicians in India do not survive via markets. They survive via coercion. And such a political system is bound to be brutalistic.

Spent a couple of days in Juhu – on the sixth floor of a posh apartment building. Spent some time on the balcony looking out at the uniform ugliness outside. Reminded me that there is also an architectural style called “brutalism”, pioneered by Le Corbusier, Nehru’s favourite architect, who designed the colourless concrete blocks of Chandigarh. Brutalist architecture was patronized by the welfare state in Europe, contributing to great ugliness there. In India, Delhi’s DDA colonies are an example of brutalism – and nothing can beat them in terms of sheer ugliness.

Viewed from the 6th floor of a Juhu flat, it seemed like all our cities are being brutalized in the most fundamental way – the way we build the houses in which we live. That is, the “character” of our cities.

Of course, there must be civic authorities in Mumbai with the powers to pass building plans. I suggest doing away with them. With all their powers, they have achieved nothing but ugliness everywhere. All that is required in a state of “natural liberty” is relief under torts – so if a building collapses, the builder has to fork out huge compensation. Builders will therefore insure, and insurance companies will pass their building plans. With freedom, a much more beautiful urban India can be built. Civilized, not brutal.

Mumbai Musings # 2: Subsidies

We discussed taxation in the previous post. The critical point to remember is that the total losses caused by the tax are greater than the total revenue earned by the State. Thus, the very idea that government spending stimulates the economy is absurd: it goes not only against the teachings of Economics, it is also blind to the eternal verities of Political Science.

Let us now turn from taxes to subsidies – in this case, the low fares on Mumbai’s suburban trains. I took a ride Andheri-Churchgate 1st class at about 75 rupees. I returned 2nd class at about 7 rupees. This is a hugely subsidized fare. Anything that is under-priced is over-consumed – and the huge crowd in the train at 4 pm, long before the office rush, proves this point. There is the added fact that when something is provided by the State so cheap, private alternatives cannot compete – like buses or tramways.

But the most important loss caused by this subsidy is to the Mumbai suburban railway itself, which does not earn as much revenue as would be necessary to expand services and improve them as well. The coaches I rode in were horrible. Getting out was an incredible adventure, what with the fact that the coaches have no doors.

The assumption behind these subsidies is that the people are poor and cannot pay for an essential service. Or, what is more likely, is that the people will vote for politicians who keep this service cheap. This politician with the ‘vote motive’ is helping a section of the population with money that is not his. The poor people of Mumbai pay market rates for electricity, gas, telephones, water and everything else. They work hard (and the pace is furious) to earn the money to do so. But they are taxed to the bone, and there is the attendant inflation.

I do believe if private entrepreneurs were to take over this suburban railway, improve and expand services, charge market-based rates, compete effectively with other modes of transport (including the underground railway that is under construction), Mumbaikars would be much better off.

Better to leave such an important service to the ‘profit motive’ rather than the ‘vote motive’.

So we can all sing:

I Shot the Tariff

And I also Shot the Subsidy!

Mumbai Musings # 1: Taxation

Living in Goa, one is used to paying small change for a small beer, so it came as quite a shock when, on a hot Bombay afternoon, a cold beer in a perfectly ordinary establishment frequented by backpacking tourists – Leopold's in Colaba – a beer came for 170 rupees.

Of course, it is taxation (and licensing). But what is more important to understand is the fact that ALL TAXES CAUSE ALL-ROUND LOSSES.

If this high tax had not been there, I would have had 2 or 3 more beers – so I lost.

If I had had 2 or 3 more beers, Leopold's would have gained, but they too lost.

So did the Kingfisher company, and all their employees, distributors and shareholders.

Everybody lost.

Taxation is theft – as it too is dependent on coercion.

The purpose of democracy is to 'represent the taxpayer': "No taxation without representation" has always been a rallying call of democrats.

Who do our chaps represent?

Check out the meaning of Tax Freedom Day – and fight against this despoliation of the people.