The Fascist Threat Is Real - And Everywhere: Part - 2

In yesterday's post, the first of this series, I discussed Lew Rockwell's speech on the growth of fascism worldwide, and provided my reader with the 8 points he outlined as the signs of this ideology. I also said why India has turned fascist - because Gandhi and Nehru were wrong.


Today, let me begin by quoting Lew again, on why fascism is "invisible":

"It is true that fascism has no overarching theoretical apparatus. There is no grand theorist like Marx. That makes it no less real and distinct as a social, economic, and political system. Fascism also thrives as a distinct style of social and economic management. And it is as much or more of a threat to civilization than full-blown socialism.

This is because its traits are so much a part of life — and have been for so long — that they are nearly invisible to us.

If fascism is invisible to us, it is truly the silent killer. It fastens a huge, violent, lumbering state on the free market that drains its capital and productivity like a deadly parasite on a host. This is why the fascist state has been called the vampire economy. It sucks the economic life out of a nation and brings about a slow death of a once-thriving economy."

We now see why India's "Vampire State" is essentially Fascist - because it stands for NO CLEAR IDEOLOGY. It is a little Gandhian, a little "socialist," a little "capitalist" - a little bit of everything. However, when trade unions as well as syndicates of capitalists combine with the State - then this is what we call "corporatism," which is nothing but fascism. In a free market economy, there is no "producers' policy" - and the consumer is always the king.

Now, politics without any clear ideology cannot be "democratic." A political party must be based on CLEAR IDEAS. We do not find this anywhere in the world today - and certainly not in India. In our country, the Representation of People Act says all political parties must swear by "socialism" - but are the BJP and the Shiv Sena "socialist"? All that is intended by the legislation is that pro-market parties be kept out. The voter loses choice. And "politics" is bereft of those with a clear ideology - a "world view." Their "voice" is not heard. The "battle of ideas" which is democracy does not happen - at least not in India. 

Not that there is much hope in democracy. In the USSA, which is definitely a corporatist State, what with the nationalisation of General Motors, the Republicans and the Democrats are much the same. There is not much difference between George W Bush and Barack Obama on war, on the Fed, and on foreign policy. Ron Paul sticks out like a loner - and do recall that Bastiat's biography is tiled A Man Alone. Ron Paul stands like that. All we can do is hope and pray that he wins.

Similarly, in the UK, where the "mother of all parliaments" sits, they have just announced another round of "quantitative easing" - a pseudonym for printing paper money. Disaster looms. But the last round was under Labour! Corporatism in the UK?

In my "Austrian" view, there is NO REASON why a few people should not go bankrupt. That is far better than inflating a whole nation - and then, the whole world. In a free market, no one can be insured against bankruptcy. And, anyway, that is surely NOT the "role of the State." Repudiation of the "national debt" is the Austrian solution - not "austerity."

But then, the question remains: Why is democratic politics all over the world devoid of clear ideologies, devoid of clear principles? The answer must lie in State education - which has sowed the seeds of confusion in the minds of the people, who are the voters. Yesterday, I suggested an uprising against the RBI. Today, let me suggest another against the Ministry of Education. 

Indian democracy is really peculiar in that there is NO DEBATE. Sonia is quiet, Rahul seldom speaks, chamcha manmohan is always silent, and the opposition - if we can call them that - never take up vital issues. They just play the fool - in parliament and out of it. And as for the TV channels... I would call them "yellow journalism."

In India, officially a "socialist" nation, with a democracy restricted to socialists, our biggest mistake as parents has been to agree to State Education. For twenty years, the Market has proven its efficacy - but the "ideology" of this Market, this "world view," is unable to penetrate the syllabii of schools and colleges. Under these circumstances, voters will remain as confused as the politics. All these so-called political parties will go on with this fascistic system masquerading as democracy, and as a welfare state.

Wake up and smell the Fascism, dudes!

This is a Vampire State, and a Vampire Economy. That is what inflationism is all about. This is the "Reverse Robin Hood" at work. We must wake up the masses to their plight.

Bastiat Demolishes The MGNREGS: Take #2

To understand why chacha manmohan’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is an extremely screwed-up idea, it is best to begin with Frédéric Bastiat’s “Broken Window Fallacy” – found in his essay “What is Seen and What is Not Seen.” Hayek considered this essay a work of “true genius.”

Even in France of the 1840s, there were socialists who had the idea of running State-owned “National Workshops” with the intention of providing employment to all. In their case, they employed city mobs and used them to beat up dissenters. A dangerous notion, that The State should employ all.

The Broken Window Fallacy runs as follows:

A mischievous boy hurls a brick into a shop-window and smashes it. He runs away. Local people gather and conclude that this is GOOD for their city, as now the glazier has got some business.

Bastiat points out why these bystanders are dead wrong. They see that the glazier has got business. They do not see that the shopkeeper had saved money for a new suit, which he will now have to use for a new window: that is, the tailor has lost business. This is “what is seen and what is not seen.”


As far as the shopkeeper is concerned, if the boy had not smashed his window, he would have possessed a suit and a window; while now, after the repairs, he has just the window, same as he had before, minus his savings, minus his suit. The city has actually LOST.

Thus, reconstruction after a war is NOT good business. Destruction is never good business. Epidemics are not good because doctors make money. Potholes are not good because mechanics gain by them; our cars get destroyed.

Similarly with MGNREGS: We see the district collector – or should we now call him “District Spender”? – spending MGNREGS money. We think the countryside will be better off. But do we do not see where the money came from.

If we look into that, we would see that the money came from us – the taxpayers. And if we had spent the money ourselves, we could have generated “useful employment” (instead of “tax parasitism”). For example, if we had drunk beer with that money instead of paying taxes, brewers and bartenders would have been employed usefully.

Indeed, even if we had saved the money with commercial banks, they would have lent it out – and even better employment would have occurred. Maybe a borrower would have invested in a brewery.

Further: chacha manmohan is also spending freshly printed rupee notes to fund this MGNREGS: “Inflationary Finance.” This erodes the Precious Capital of all citizens. It makes no sense at all. It makes all of us poorer. The value of the currency unit declines. All prices rise.

Lastly: What kind of stupid idea is it that our The State must employ all? Is that a role of the State? Is not our The State already too bloated with employees? Should they not be cutting down on State employment instead of adding yet more tax parasites?  

And is not this same State misusing force to shut down many, many trades – from ganja-charas to dance bars to nightclubs, discos and casinos? Indeed, in India, there is NO nightlife industry.

If all these trades were free, would not “real, useful employment” occur?

Thus, chacha manmohan is NOT an “economist.” He is best called a “diseconomist” – for he is a “dissaver.” He is consuming capital. His State is always in “deficit.”

All this MGNREGS money is best invested in Capital Goods like roads, sewerage, drainage and the like. With MGNREGS, all this money will just be “consumed,” with NOTHING to show for it – except a huge entry in the Union Budget.

Miseducation - In Pondicherry

I simply HATE phonies like Amartya Sen who insist that "the poor need education" and then add that this education must be provided by our The State. Amartya Sen NEVER says that the poor need FREEDOM FROM THE STATE.


It is thanks to such phonies that chacha manmohan s gandhi has enacted legislation mandating "Free & Compulsory Education" for all kids in India.


But what is the "content" of this education?


I found out yesterday when a young boy was passing my perch, carrying his very overloaded school bag. I ordered him to show me his school-books. He showed them to me - and they were all published by our The State in Chennai. Why Chennai?


Anyway, I went through a few of these textbooks. The one on "social studies" was awful - with a major part covering "Civics," in which not a word was mentioned as to what Liberty and Property mean to the Citizen.


The section on Economics was just two pages - and it began by saying "agriculture is the oldest occupation in the world." What about "hunting and gathering"? What about "nomadic herdsmen"? The book then went on to say how "Society" is formed when "weavers and farmers depend on each other" - without one word on the "Division of Labour." Finally, it concluded that the study of Economics is extremely valuable, because "only economists can prepare government budgets." At the bottom of these two pages was a colour photo of Amartya Sen with the heading "Great Scholar of Economics."


I also went through the textbook on English and found it quite repulsive, because it contained many essays on "nature worship" - like a reported speech by an American Indian Chief. But the American Indians were wiped out by the Superior Whites, who built cities. America has over 200  Big Cities - while we, with three times the population, have only five. What utter nonsense!


At the end, I threw the boy's schoolbag out onto the street. His mother was horrified. I told her to get the boy lessons in playing the guitar. Hope she listens to my sincere advice. Music is a great career. While the best that can happen out of State Education is a Government Job.


I think the greatest patriot ever was Frederic Bastiat, whose manifesto of 1848    contained the following "Profession of Faith" on the subject of education": 

If you want to have theories, systems, methods, principles, textbooks and teachers forced on you by the government, that is up to you; but do not expect me to sign, in your name, such a shameful abdication of your rights.

Parents and students must realise that our The State suffers from Complete Ignorance - otherwise this vast sub-continent would not be such a mess. The IAS-IPS know nothing - other than how to hold up files. They cannot even fix the TRAFFIC. They cannot produce accurate Land Ownership Records. 

Anyway, how can they TEACH?

Teaching requires people who have spent years and years acquiring KNOWLEDGE. Have IAS baboons done that?

So let us conclude with what Ludwig von Mises said: 

There is, in fact, only one solution: the state, the government, the laws must not in any way concern themselves with schooling or education. Public funds must not be used for such purposes. The rearing and instruction of youth must be left entirely to parents and to private associations and institutions.

  
In such a scenario there will be DEBATES between scholars of different schools of thought. And the students will be attracted to the TRUTH.


And Truth Will Triumph.


Satyameva Jayate?


Not with State Education.

The Trial Of chacha manmohan s gandhi - Part 4: Take #2

Today, I will discuss the Corruption of The Law; and this is particularly relevant because chacha's hand-picked, chosen "human resource destruction" minister is a socialist lawyer. In any case, what "human resource" are they talking about when all the minds of all the kids are being poisoned with the gloom  of the "population problem"?

It has been my proud privilege to have influenced some students of Law from SDM Law College, Mangalore, who invited me to lecture there. One of them, in fact, won the All-India Moot Court Competition, and would certainly have made an excellent lawyer. I gave them much to read, including, of course, Frederic Bastiat's classic essay The Law, with my foreword. None of these good boys joined the legal profession. They said the profession itself was corrupt.

The Law is corrupted when we confuse it with Democratic Legislation. Law is eternal, and universal; and true Law is all about Property. Legislation is man-made, passed in a "house of representatives" by the majority of the day; and legislation is forever changing. There is no "Certainty of the Law" with legislation. Indeed, our Constitution itself has been amended some 100 times in 50 years; likewise, even the Representation of People Act is not what it used to be. 

And this Socialist Constitution does not uphold Private Property. Thus, instead of protecting Property, our The State engages in ceaseless violations of what is ours. This is how The State becomes a thief. As Bastiat put it in his opening remarks, "the Law becomes guilty of the very crimes it is supposed to punish." This is what Socialism is all about: what Bastiat called "legal plunder." Indira Gandhi legally plundered Air India, banks, insurance companies and coal mines from their "rightful owners." And Parliament passed all the Acts of Nationalisation.

But it doesn't stop there.

Legislation is the Instrument of Socialist Interventionism. Each and every piece of legislation aims at "social engineering." Thus, the license-permit raj was based on an Industries (Development & Regulation) Act. Similarly, it is the Telecom Regulation Act that has caused the 2G scam. Regulation, as Professor Deepak Lal pointed out, is their "New Dirigisme." 


Similarly, the evil prohibition of ganja is because of some such Act of Parliament. All this evil socialist legislation is in violation of Property. All this legislation takes away our Liberty. 

And things get worse: these corrupt both the bureaucracy as well as Democracy itself. Bureaucrats get "empowered" to intervene in The Market. They call it "regulation of the market" but it is really "regulation of people." In effect, these socialist-democrats do not know what "civil services" are meant for. It is noteworthy that they renamed the Indian Civil Service and it became the Indian Administrative Service. There is nothing "civilian" under Socialism. There is no "civilisation" either, as we can all see.

Democracy is likewise corrupted. No longer are Members of Parliament "representatives of constituencies." Rather, they all become representatives of some "special interest group" or the other. One represents steel, another represents mining, another fertilisers - and this is how they corrupt the working of all the "parliamentary committees." Constituencies lie neglected - and we can see this all around us. Votes are bought and sold. The public choice literature calls it "log rolling" - but it might be better to call it "vote trading." 


This is particularly true of the Democracy of the USSA. PJ O'Rourke's Parliament of Whores is a must read. O'Rourke is HL Mencken Fellow of Cato Institute and also Foreign Affairs editor of Rolling Stone magazine. All you rockers out there should read all his books. In particular, Bono, who is being misled about Third World poverty by Jeffrey Sachs. 


Serious students should read both the books Ludwig von Mises has written against interventionism, pointing out how it leads inevitably to Socialism and also how it corrupts Democracy. It is because of interventionism that the USA has become the USSA. General Motors has been nationalised!

Now, lawyers are themselves a "special interest group." And they are particularly dangerous because they are a "self-regulating profession" - like MBBS doctors. Lawyers teach lawyers, and only lawyers become judges. And what do you think they teach? They teach the ugly lie that democratic legislation is true Law. This is "legal positivism." Utter crap. It is this that corrupts the Law and empowers all the interventionists. Predators, all.

And chacha has chosen one of these miseducated socialist lawyers to teach all the kids; that too, by FORCE.

Is he not guilty of the very crime that poor ol' Socrates was executed for by Athenian Democracy: "Corrupting the minds of the youth"?

Stay tuned for the concluding part of this Prosecution. Part 5 will appear tomorrow, Inshallah.

Students! Rise Against This Tyranny

What is an "adult"? Whereas in older times puberty was considered a sign from Nature confirming adulthood, nowadays, with the curse of Legislation, all is arbitrary. You can drive at 16, you can vote at 18, you cannot marry till 21, and you cannot drink alcohol till 25 - the last, according to the State of Maharashtra.

At the London School of Economics, the Students' Union runs a pub on campus called "The Three Tuns." Even undergraduates are welcome there - and the booze is cheaper than in the market. In India, I have seen many post-graduate institutions - like IIMs - where booze is banned. This is nonsense. Students should rebel against such tyranny. 

The news report on the new Legislation in Maharashtra ends with these words:

Fine would be imposed for under-age drinking and there is a provision of more dry days every year. No liquor shop will be allowed within one kilometre of educational and social institutions, government offices, religious places and highways. There is also a limit on bottles allowed per individual and a liquor shop or bar may be shut down if 25 per cent of the residents of a municipal ward demand its closure.

This is Total Tyranny - designed to ensure that the police and excise officialdom prey on the alcohol trade, as do local "residents' associations" - thereby politicising everything. The cops will also prey on young people who might want to enjoy a drink. And what will happen to tourists who desire a beer on a hot "dry day"? That is why there are no dry days in Goa. I know one such tourist who came to Calcutta on a dry day - and took the next flight out!

What, indeed, is an "adult"? Murray Rothbard answered the question is his The Ethics of Liberty - a book all students, especially of Law, ought to carefully study (pdf here). Rothbard begins by asserting that all legislation on the matter must necessarily be arbitrary, while Nature gives its signal - puberty - most clearly and without bias. He adds that every child has the right to run away from home - and if he sets himself up in life, as a self-supporting individual, the Law ought to treat him as an adult. By that standard, while students are usually dependent on parents till very late in life, the "working children" of our streets ought to be considered as adults and allowed the free liberty that all adults enjoy.

The "ethics of liberty" do not inform this abominable piece of Legislation that has emerged from the Maharashtra Assembly. It ought to be struck down by the courts as not only arbitrary, but also as one that tramples on the rights of all young voters - who must be presumed adults, which is why the vote is entrusted to them.

It was Bastiat, of course, who said it best - of "democrats" who praise the "wisdom of the voter" before the elections; but after they are elected, they think the voter is a numskull and enact all manner of legislation to "protect the voter from himself." In reality, if the voter is so dumb that he cannot handle his drink, then he is unfit to vote, too. Thus, such Legislation takes away the legitimacy of those elected, for they have been voted into office by persons who cannot handle Freedom.

This nasty alcohol policy of the Maharashtra State is anti-student. It is anti-youth. The youth must protest.

And may The Force be with them. 

Here's to Students' Union Pubs on all campuses!

Money, Taxes, Prices - And A Parade

The governor of our central bank, the RBI, has assured the Sheeple that he "will do everything to bring inflation under control." The strategy he will adopt: "restrain demand pressures." As though inflation is demand-driven. Oh! We poor sheeple.




Similar sounds are also emerging from Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, the chaps who print US dollars:

In his first press conference as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke discussed rising gasoline prices, blaming higher demand from emerging economies and Mideast oil-supply disruptions as the cause of the zooming prices. Bernanke did not mention the US government's role in the higher energy prices, and he explicitly absolved the Federal Reserve of any blame.

As Mark Brandly points out in this article (in which the above quote is the opening paragraph) on why the US Fed ought to be shut down:

Bernanke's deceitfulness is appalling, although not unexpected. He knows that Federal Reserve monetary policy plays a significant role in gasoline prices. Expansionary monetary policy leads to more dollars being available in world currency markets and weakens the dollar. The weaker dollar results in higher import prices. More than half of the oil consumed in the United States comes from foreign producers....

The word "deceitfulness" is noteworthy. It must be applied to our RBI governor, too. Inflation is a deliberate policy used to finance State expenditure - a very deceitful policy. More dollars or more rupees - the result is the same: the value of the paper note declines. Gold has crossed 23,000 rupees for 10 grams - only because the value of the rupee has fallen. Similarly, in the US, when Nixon de-linked the US dollar from gold, the yellow metal was priced at $35 an ounce. It is more than $1500 an ounce now.

Inflation is nothing but a purely monetary phenomenon - caused by an excess supply of money resulting in the fall of the purchasing power of the monetary unit. To end inflation we must end central banking. Money must be "private money." The country must be put on the gold standard.

In other words, The State must be denied the power to fund its programmes through the deceitful means of printing paper notes to pay for them.

No more MGNREGA, no "right to food" and no "right to free and compulsory education" - that is, no more welfarism to buy votes - and inflation will be ended for ever.

Remember - inflationism robs the poor of their Capital - thereby rendering them poor for ever. Welfarism never benefits the poor in the long run - see the poor in the welfare states of Europe that are now going belly up. Welfarism paid for by inflationism is NONSENSE! It is precisely the "false philathropy" combined with "legal plunder" that Frederic Bastiat warned us about in The Law. This is not socialism; this is anti-social. So much Capital Consumption will destroy our civilisation.

**********************

But we also pay taxes! Should we continue to do so?

I was discussing taxes with a local entrepreneur here - pointing out that all we get in exchange for them is the State Danda: all manner of "inspectors" land up to collect bribes, which are an "illegal tax." We pay taxes in exchange of these bribe-taking inspectors. This is all that is "real" about our The State.

These are not just from the State Police, but also come from the labour department, the health department, the CRZ administrators, the excise department and so on and so forth.

This danda (Hindi word for "stick") is REAL. This is ALL we get for our taxes. We certainly don't get good roads, footpaths, clean cities and towns, scientific traffic management and suchlike. Over 200,000 of us are killed on our unsafe and horrible roads every year - more than get killed in a small war. Why should we pay taxes - that is, after money has been privatised and The State can no longer print paper notes to fund itself?

Think about it!

If we do not pay any taxes to The State - if business is laissez faire, if we inhabit a "private law society," and if everything is privatised, all we would have to pay for whatever we need are PRICES: for electricity, for water, for expressway tolls... The local entrepreneur here affirmed that he would be happier paying prices than taxes. "Starve The State," he cried out loudly.

Yes, in exchange for prices, businessmen will supply us with "goods." All that we get in exchange for our taxes are "bads." The Danda!

***********************

I HATE the danda of our The State - a State that does nothing right. A State that leeches on the people. A Predatory State.

As you all know, one danda I really hate is the Narcotics Act. It denies me good ganja. That drives me even madder. Especially in the morning. Like right now.

I therefore propose a Great Ganja Pride Parade in Goa. Let all smokers of the Holy Herb assemble, smoke and shout slogans for Liberty. And march. Let us show them our numbers. Let us show them our Anger. Let us show them our Pride - and our determination to be free from Tyranny.  

The Great CONgame

While discussing State spending with a passing stranger last evening, I posed this question:

The budget of the Goa government is Rs.3,320 crores. Would you be richer if this budget was Rs.10,000 crores? Or would you be richer if the budget was just one crore?

The man hemmed and hawed for some time and finally arrived at the truth:

He said, "We would be richer if the budget was just one crore, because we would obviously be paying less in taxes.

"Not just taxes," I said, "We would also not be paying for their inflation and their borrowings."

The fact is that big spending governments are BAD for us. I have written a recent post on this, titled "Against State spending: The more they spend, the more you lose."

It is indeed a GREAT DELUSION that increasing the quantity of money produces prosperity. It is only because of this great delusion that all central bankers can freely practice inflationism. They gain; we lose.

How can we be rich? We need Property - and Liberty. And money must be sound. Hard money is also Property. Gold is Property.

That is all we need. When we have Property and Liberty, we can raise Capital, save and invest, and carefully tend to our businesses. There is no short-cut to prosperity - and printing money is certainly not the way. The only way to be prosperous in a market society is to satisfy one's customers.

Of course, if you want to take this path, you will have to reject State Education. They deliberately spread the Great Delusion - and you succumb to their CONgame.

Bob Marley got it right:

Here comes the CON-man,
Coming with his CONplan...
We build your penitentiaries,
We build your schools,
You brainwash education,
To make us the fool....

Though Bastiat put it most forcefully:

If you want to have theories, systems, methods, principles, textbooks and teachers forced on you by the government, that is up to you; but do not expect me to sign, in your name, such a shameful abdication of your rights.

Reject State Education!   

Why Socialism Is Anti-Social

What is a "social institution"? I would insist that pubs, bars, chai shops, cafes and the like, where people "hang around" and chat, meet passing strangers, exchange news, discuss politics and so on, are the true social institutions - and they come from The Market (if they are allowed to). It is The Market that is the "foremost social institution."

Note that no one goes to a government office to just hang around and enjoy some beers and suchlike; to "socialise." The government is not a social institution. Its function is something else.

What is the function of government?

To answer that, ask yourself the question: What will happen if we abolish The State? Most ordinary people will be horrified and think they will become prey to murderers, rapists, looters and dacoits who would run riot. This is the "excuse" why The State exists - in the mind of the common man.

Now, murderers, dacoits and the like are "anti-social" - and The State is supposed to act against them. That is its ONLY real role - act against anti-socials. But don't be anti-social yourself.

Something else happens under Socialism. Under the socialists and welfarists and their crony inflationists, The State takes on such a huge role and consumes so much of society's resources that it becomes "anti-social" itself. A long gravy train, a huge basket of spoils. All these resources are sucked out of the people - and that is surely extremely anti-social in a predominantly poor country.

The State-owned Industrial Sector - Air India, the Railways, Electricity Boards, steel plants and hotels - is our nation's "common loss." Though ministers and baboos gain.

Democratic Legislation is another big spoiler - for it outlaws innumerable exchanges, and sends the State Police to act against market society, and therefore be "anti-social" itself; predatory. Instead of going after the murderers and dacoits, they go against businessmen. Like ganja-charas farmers and dealers. Tyranny ensues.

Further, the vast maze of bureaucratic regulation established by "subordinate legislation" ends up in reality as "predatory" on all peaceful market activities. 

According to their professors and intellectuals, it is The State that is Society - and parliament is the "social institution." Not The Market. It is all about the State, the vast Nation, the Party and their Leader. And their Central Planners. And all their 5-Year Plans.

This is not a picture of happy people peacefully creating wealth for themselves in free markets. Rather, this is a State that consumes huge amounts of the precious Capital of the people in order to achieve "social objectives." These objectives are decided within the black box of The State - education, rural employment generation, free rice and wheat. Tax parasites consume all this wealth via The State - and this is "anti-social." In Nehru's time, the social objective was "a socialistic pattern of society" - for which purpose our The State built steel plants!

And as far as pubs, bars, chai-shops and cafes are concerned - I am lucky to be in Goa, but in much of the territory these are discouraged by State diktat.

In the meantime, Justice has been forgotten. Indeed, "social justice" is anti-social as well.

Thus, the Science of Government indicates that this is a very dangerous institution if it ever exceeds its narrow limits. Then, The Market is stifled. And all-round predation results. Bastiat called it "universal plunder." To him, such a vast State was "a grand fiction by which everyone tries to live off everyone else." The only solution, he said, was NO PLUNDER. That requires Liberty and Private Property - and not socialism.

Sociaism is not about Society as it really exists, which is the Market Society. Socialism is the glorification of The State - and using State Force to create a New Society (like Nehru's "socialistic patterm"). Socialism is really Statism. It is deeply anti-market. Hence it is anti-social.

The idea of "government" (which is "local") is thus very different from the idea of The State (which also happens to be centralised).

But even here, I champion the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.

On Crimes Against Parliament

My new-found chillum-yaar, a young Englishman named Matt, offered the term "victimless crime" to define the illegal deed we were so joyfully indulging in.

I pointed out that this crime is not victimless, for there is a body purporting to be injured by the act - Parliament. It is Parliament that says this is a crime - against its own majority.

Later in the day, we were joined by a young English girl who had studied political phisosophy at university and now worked at treating crack and heroin addicts. She called herself a "cannabis girl" - and believed this Holy Herb ought to be legal.

I was more interested in her political philosophy and found it surprisingly statist. And a quote from Mises just appeared to drum the point home:

The [social democrat] dictator does not aim at conditions that keep the people happy. Rather, he aims at conditions that keep him - the dictator - happy, even though the people may be miserable. The cattle rancher is also a benevolent despot.

Think about it.


Socialist democracy is dictatorship - because of "inflated legislation."


Liberty is a "private law society."


NO LEGISLATION!

You're Crazy, Mr. Customs Man!

Mint has had a conference on "luxury" - and two reports I read on that set me thinking. I have often written that our Customs Department ought to be closed down unilaterally and free trade instituted with all nations. But these reports - and other sundry observations - make it clear that those in charge of this massive power over the domestic economy are completely crazy. Mad.

Let us begin with the interview with Armando Branchini, executive director of Fondazione Altagamma, a trade body of 74 Italian luxury brands such as Gucci, Bulgari, Fendi and Valentino among others, having collective sales of €45-50 billion. He says that the customs duties on his products are so high in India that people prefer to buy them in Singapore and bring them in - by simply wearing them on their person, like a luxury bag or a watch or shoes or whatever. He says something on the regulation of "luxury brand retail" (some famous 51-49% scheme) - and it sounds ridiculous when you hear that they are willing to invest 100% in their own retail stores @ US$ 3 million per store for 50-60 stores a year! The interview concludes with the statement: "This market and economy is over regulated by the government." Betcha! They're nuts!

The second report is on luxury yachts - and since I have been living on the coast for a long time, it is my view that as the roads and highways are so horrible, free imports of all kinds of boats could allow our coastal cities and towns to decongest and let property and real estate be developed along the coasts. This report says that the Italian luxury yacht-maker interviewed sells 60 a year in Brazil, but only 2 or 3 in India - because of customs duties. We have a 3000 mile coastline! We can have many, many free trading port cities on these coasts. Where are we headed?

Actually, the same applies to luxury cars, to liquors and wines, and to everything else we desire to import. The import duty on cars is over 100% - and this makes no sense since so many MNCs have already set up base here. Does it make sense to charge 100% duty on an imported BMW or Mercedes while charging less for a locally assembled model? Certainly not to the consumer. Nor to the poor manufacturer. Is this some kind of return to the ghastly days of "import-substitution industrialisation"? As with boats and yachts and other luxury goods, the idea of automobilisation should be to see maximum ownership - that more and more Indians own good cars. And by "good cars" I don't mean Tata Nanos. I mean second-hand Mercedes or BMWs. They'd make great taxis - especially when a Bajaj auto-rickshaw costs over 4 lakh rupees (US$ 10,000).

Similarly, we could be big importers of wines, beers and quality liquors - which we don't produce domestically. There are 600 brands of beer in tiny Belgium, for example. What about Bohemian beers? There are so many beers of so many kinds in Germany. And Guinness? Irish pubs, here?

All this could be big business - for importers. A 100% duty on these merely makes the IMFL peddlers rich - while the poor Indian consumer gets screwed. A gourmet restaurant owner once told me she is forced to sell $5 wines for $30! A wine producer from California I once met in Nude Elly complained about our "tariff walls."

The term tariff WALL reflects the craziness of our rulers.

Obviously, with such high tariffs there is little or no trade, so there is little or no revenue. Why do they do it? Obviously, for bribes from domestic cronies. Or perhaps these are called "political contributions" to their parties. All this goes against the "national interest."

Frederic Bastiat was the greatest free trader ever. He put it squarely when he wrote way back then that a State can pursue either the "producers' interest" or the "consumers' interest." In the former case there will be shortages and scarcities. In the latter case, there will be abundance. Then, there will be Supermarkets all over the place with their shelves overflowing with goodies from all over the world, from Japanese saké to everything else that can be called "exotic." Thus, only the consumer interest coincides with the true national interest.

Socialists and communists - who lead trade unions - fool their followers with deluded ideas of a "workers' paradise": but workers are consumers too! Only Capitalism - which is mass production for mass consumption - makes ordinary workers enjoy consumption standards medieval monarchs would be envious of. Socialist, "centrally planned," and communist nations were hell for all consumers - especially their workers, who had to queue up for anything and everything, and where smuggled electronic toys were the rage. India was like that - and North Korea still is. The North Korean ideal is juche - which means nothing else but swadeshi.

Ludwig von Mises added the insight that protectionist producers are all "schizophrenic" - they exhibit "divided selves." They do not see themselves as both producer as well as consumer. They do not realise that while they sell just one thing, they buy everything else. It makes no sense to lose out as consumers. After all, we produce in order to consume. What is the point producing, say, a Bollywood blockbuster - and not being able to buy a yacht or speedboat and zipping off to Alibag after work every evening, just half an hour by sea? Makes no sense to drive 4 hours on a crowded, broken road - in a luxury car!

With unilateral free trade - the abolition of the Customs Department - all Indians will be better clothed, better fed, they will smoke and drink better, drive better, sail better. Everything they do, they will do better. Swadeshi is nonsense - another of those crazy Gandhian ideas that has resulted in Gujarat closing down all her port cities, including Porbandar, where Gandhi was born. Including Surat, where the East India Company first landed.

Gandhi is amazing in this sense, for both Bastiat as well as Adam Smith realised the vital importance of free trade because they lived in port cities: Bayonne in the case of Bastiat, and Glasgow in the case of Smith. And Gandhi was a bania!

I checked the Internet for our list of customs duties and found they have "98 Chapters" on these - different duties for different goods. And there are additional levies on these duties as well - including the famous "education tax"!

We Don't Need No State Education!

We Don't Need No Customs Department!

Song of the Day: Arlo Guthrie's "Coming into Los Angeles" - watch the video here.

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Deal of the Day from Amazon: The Best of Arlo Guthrie.

The Big Idea

While enough people - especially all those who worship at the altar of Democracy - are out looking for the "perfect ruler," there are others like me looking for the "perfect rule." Indeed, the Golden Rule of Private Property is just that - a perfect rule that we all unwittingly follow; this includes not only the unlettered masses, but also all our "learned" communists with PhDs from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

For example, let us take any bazaar anywhere in India, where illiterate vendors line up on the roadside with their wares arrayed before them. Even the PhD-holding card-carrying member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will be forced to accept, while wandering about that bazaar, that the goods arrayed before each vendor belong rightfully to him; that anyone who violates this Golden Rule will be considered a thief and thrashed; that nothing is "collective property" except for the road or footpath (which is why the "huftha brigade" comes in as "representatives of the collective"); and that along with Private Property, there sits the Principle of Exclusion, by which those who do not agree to a favourable "deal" are excluded from those goods. Once again, this shows "collective property" is a myth, a hoax.

How did this Golden Rule come to be adopted by all? Simple - it all happened by imitation. A child who wants something - say, a bar of chocolate - will see his father go to a shopkeeper and buy it for him. Thus, the child will learn how "desired objects" are obtained - by trade. He will practice this - and teach his children, too. 

Civilisation is "learned behaviour." It means we are NOT "born to be wild." Civilisation is learnt restraints that are self-imposed. If we were wild, we would snatch-and-grab at all that we desired and there would be "chaos." That chaos, indeed, is what the Constitution of India is all about - read on on to find out why.

It is because of the Golden Rule of the Inviolability of Private Property which we all unknowingly follow that "perfect order" reigns throughout all our bazaars. This is why, without any policemen, magistrates, judges or lawyers, transactions worth billions take place in informal markets throughout the Third World. This is the "natural order." This indicates that a "private law society" is eminently feasible. And desirable as well.

This applies especially to India. Here, our The State is a pirate and a predator. Its policemen and its bureaucrats violate Private Property every single day - armed with the might of "democratic legislation" issued by a Parliament that rules because of a Constitution that does NOT recognise our rights to what is our own. 

"Legal plunder" - like "nationalisation" - emanates from this immoral Constitution. And I don't use the term "immoral" lightly. If robbing a street vendor of his wares is "theft," then robbing JRD Tata of Air India is theft too, as is robbing X of his bank or Y of his coal mine. "Land acquisition" is nothing but theft. Legal plunder. Tyranny!

If you read Frederic Bastiat's The Law - which you must - you will find two phrases ringing loudly through the text: "legal plunder" and "false philanthropy." As far as the false philanthropy is concerned, it is financed by new issues of vast quantities of fiat paper money - which is inflationism, and ought to be called "social injustice."

This is allowed to occur because we do not see money itself as Property - that it cannot be mere paper with a State emblem stamped upon it; that it must be something tangible; something "hard" like gold or silver. So, legal plunder and false philanthropy remain with us today, despite Bastiat's warnings of over 160 years ago. I discuss some of these legal issues pertaining to money in this column advocating a return to the Gold Standard. And in this other column calling for Private Money.

Thus, the Big Idea is nothing but the Inviolability of Private Property - the very opposite of our socialist Constitution. The private law society is based on this - and so it includes Contracts, by which transactions in property are lawfully conducted between two or more private parties into the future. It also includes Torts - which apply when damage is caused to Property, even unintentionally or by negligence. 

Legislation is "public law" - and it invariably interferes with the natural order of the private law society. It ought to be rejected in toto. 

In this long interview with The Daily Bell, the philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe examines many of the issues involved in depth. What he proves are three  important truths:

First - that Democracy and Freedom are two different things;

Second - that Law and Legislation are also different things, hence different words are applied to them. Law comes from the past, along with Civilisation - like Private Property. Legislation is "new public law" that is manufactured by democratic assemblies - like the Constitution of India.

Third - that fiat paper money is a swindle. As Hoppe says:

More paper money cannot make a society richer, of course, – it is just more printed-paper. Otherwise, why is it that there are still poor countries and poor people around? But more money makes its monopolistic producer (the central bank) and its earliest recipients (the government and big, government-connected banks and their major clients) richer at the expense of making the money's late and latest receivers poorer.

This may be contrasted with the views of kaushik basu, chief economic advisor to the government of india, that I quoted and critiqued in yesterday's post.

Commenting on people like kaushik basu, who is a "Servant of our The State," Professor Hoppe says:

Thanks to the central bank, most "monetary experts" and "leading macro-economists" can, by putting them on the payroll, be turned into government propagandists "explaining," like alchemists, how stones (paper) can be turned into bread (wealth). Thanks to the central bank, interest rates can be artificially lowered all the way down to zero, channeling credit into less and least credit-worthy projects and hands (and crowding out worthy projects and hands), and causing ever greater investment bubble-booms, followed by ever more spectacular busts. And thanks to the central bank, we are confronted with a dramatically increasing threat of an impending hyperinflation...

Yes, it is a huge, big, ugly Predatory State.

The Big Idea is not the "perfect ruler."

Rather, it lies in the "perfect rule."

The Inviolability of Private Property is just that.

All I did was articulate a rule we all follow. This is what enables Liberty. It is the foundation of Classical Liberalism. As John Locke put it, in 1691:

Where there is no Property, there is no Justice.

And as Ludwig von Mises put it in his exposition of classical liberalism:

Private property creates for the individual a sphere in which he is free of the state. It sets limits to the operation of the authoritarian will. It allows other forces to arise side by side with and in opposition to political power.

These are all old ideas. Very old, indeed. Just that we lost them along the way, thanks to learned PhDs from JNU - and all our "constitutional lawyers," of course.

We Don't Need State Education!

Or, as a t-shirt I saw put it:

I was born intelligent, but education ruined me.

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Deal of the Day from Amazon: Hans-Hermann Hoppe's Economics and Ethics of Private Property.