Your Crisis, My Opportunity

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, the State-owned intellectual, has concluded his latest column, titled "This moment of crisis," on the Occupy Wall Street movement, with these words:

The terms of the social contract have to be rewritten. Capitalism has to justify itself in terms of social gains, and democracy in terms of empowerment. But at the moment no one quite understands what all of this might mean.

First, there is NOTHING called a "social contract" - because contracts are private law. Individuals sign contracts with each other - like rentals or labour. I did not sign any contract with any MP to outlaw ganja. And anyway, these guys had MGNREGA right to work, right to education and right to food - and this "social contract" - which I did not sign up for - did not work, did it? Note - no right to property!


Second, only the Market can deliver private gains - out of which taxes can be paid for security and roads. Government does not produce "social gains." Government is a cost. The Science of Economics is best defined as the study of market transactions based on money. Government is something else - to do with Law, with Politics, with Public Administration. Since Economics has nothing to do with government, laissez faire is best. Private gains are what we all need, without any State interference. Money must also be private - GOLD.


Third, democracy has NOTHING to do with "empowerment." Democracy means nothing but more and more legislation - which empowers bureaus and bureaucrats. Democracy gives them fat budgets and draconian powers. The voters get screwed. India is very low on "economic freedom." What empowers the voter is LIBERTY. This requires the Inviolability of Property. Put that in a New Constitution, Professor Mehta, and all will be well.

Boycott the Civil Services Examination!

I have noticed that some aspirants for the Indian Civil Services are joining my blog as regular readers and followers. This post is especially for them.


First, I advise you all to carefully study Ludwig von Mises' Bureaucracy - which you can buy in India here.


One point Mises makes made me happy I quit 25 years ago - the fact that bureaucracies sacrifice youth to age. In bureaucracies, Mises says, youth spends its entire life working according to rules framed by older superiors. There is no chance to shape things anew. There is no chance to be the "architect of your own destiny."


But there is worse: In "democratic" systems of government, bureaucrats are NOT "public servants." On the contrary, they are but "servants of the minister." You wanna be a minister's servant in India?


And there is even worse: In "socialist democracy," where the market is hampered by State interference, there is nothing called "civilian" about a "civil servant." Rather, he is just a "bureaucrat" - and there are two lines of control imposed upon him, to both of which he must subordinate himself. One is The Party Hierarchy. The other is his older superiors in the service. The young man is just a puppet in a giant, unworkable machine. And he is no "civilian" at all. There were civilians in Indian administration - in the days of the Honourable East India Company - and you must read Philip Mason's The Men Who Ruled India, available here.


And things get even worser: In the IAS Academy at Mussoorie, you will be trained by Marxists and other socialists. This was not the case of the "civilians" of the HEICS (Honourable East India Company Service). You must also read the late Professor S. Ambirajan's Classical Political Economy and British Colonial Policy in India - which is available here.


Those of you who are honest, clever and talented have the entire market economy open for you these days. How lucky you all are! Things were so horrible in my time. But I am so happy I left it all and made myself into what I am - an independent intellectual, a philosopher of freedom, an independent media publisher. I am sure if you good guys and gals quit the UPSC Exams and try hard to be the architects of your own destiny in The Market, you will do even better than me - and I wish you God Speed, and Good Luck.


Avoid State Service - like the plague.

Abolish The Ministry Of Commerce - And The Customs Department, Too

This news report makes it apparent that our Commerce Secretary, Rahul Khullar IAS, knows NOTHING about the Science of Economics, and is essentially a "mercantilist" who believes exports are good for India and imports are bad, because he is focused on managing the "trade deficit." In this report, Khullar says that India's markets are open to foreigners, because the trade deficit is rising. Really, dude?


What about the trade deficit of Karnataka or Goa or Pondicherry? How come we never think of that?


In reality, if money were GOLD - which would be "private money" - each Individual would manage his own trades, and ensure he is not in deficit. As far as the nation-state is concerned, in such a scenario, if there was a trade deficit, and gold was being exported, domestic prices would fall - and the deficit would correct itself as exports automatically increased.


In the current scenario, Khullar is deliberately misreading the signs: our trade deficit is rising not because we are open to foreign trade - we are not - but because the prices of some of our crucial imports are rising, like crude oil. Gold imports are also showing a steep rise. Otherwise, we are a closed nation: the ports of the West Coast export iron ore of low grade - and import nothing. This is mercantilism. Mercantilists look upon a positive balance of trade as "good," whereas the Science of Economics looks upon imports as the most beneficial thing about foreign trade - because what we import we cannot produce domestically at the same advantage.


International trade is best understood through the Law of Human Association - a law that has been developed by a correct reading of David Ricardo's famous Law of Comparative Advantage (or costs). According to this law, even in non-market situations, human beings associate gainfully with each other even if one is worse than the other in all respects. Thus, although my girlfriend is a better cook than me, and she also washes dishes better and faster than I do, we both gain if I do what I am "least worst" at - which is washing dishes. 


This law of human association, when taken into market situations, is even more telling - like the case of a surgeon and the man who looks after the cleanliness of his equipment. Even if the latter is much, much slower at the job, the surgeon gains by hiring him, so that he can focus of surgery, where he earns much more. I have a column explaining this vital Law of Human Association here.


The lesson to learn is that the "international division of labour" - which means "international specialisation" - increases the wealth and productivity of the whole world, including those who are the least competent and least skilled.


Thus, there can be either free trade - or there can be barriers to trade, which is what we have around our borders: protectionism, based on mercantilist fallacies. If we opt for free trade, then the customs department and the commerce ministry can both be abolished - and not only India, the whole world will gain. Say's Law of Markets will come into play - internationally.


If you understand the theories of free trade, you understand that the whole world will gain by such a policy - and there will also be international peace.


If you are a mercantilist, you keep your own people poor, you make the whole world poorer, you wage political wars over trade - and, what is worse, you convey the false impression to your citizenry that you are somehow doing something useful for the "national economy," like looking after the "trade deficit."


Which is why my t-shirt on the right-hand bar says "Private Economies."


I do NOT believe in the National Economy - nor do I trust those who purport to be its caretakers, like Rahul Khullar, IAS.

Nilekani's UID - Passport To Totalitarianism & A Police State

Before assessing Nandan Nilekani's UID (Unique Identity) Scheme for iris-mapping and fingerprinting each one of us for Police Records, it might be useful to read Wendy McElroy's recent article against passports titled "Passport to a Total State." UID could be a means to convert our totally failed The State into a Total Police State. McElroy, a US citizen, begins thus:

"Your papers!" In old movies, the demand is barked at trembling travelers by a Nazi with a guttural accent. If the demand is made in the opening scene, then the audience knows immediately that they watching a totalitarian state in which travelers are in danger.

"Your papers!" now rings out at every American airport and border crossing. The accent is different but travelers need to recognize with equal immediacy that a totalitarian state is playing out in front of their eyes, and they must be careful.

McElroy asserts: "It is the mandatory nature of any travel document that converts it into a violation of rights." UID will be mandatory, too.

  

She adds: "With the exception of trespassing on private property, people have an absolute right to travel in peace and at their own discretion." 


And she ends her piece with these ringing words:

The passport has grown into what is arguably the single most powerful tool of totalitarian America, second only to law enforcement [read "legislation-enforcement"] itself. It no longer pretends to protect individuals; not a single terrorist has been apprehended as a result of passport checks. But it does cement the totalitarian state. The mandatory passport should be reviled and rejected as an abuse of human rights and common decency. A nation that requires one cannot be free.

 In my life I have never suffered more than at the hands of passport officials and, of course, their counterparts, the visa officials. And The Police, of course. 


The question is: Do we strengthen these bastards? Or, do we get RID of them?


In my book, in a market economy, citizens must have secrets, including especially business secrets. Bank accounts must be secret - as they were in Switzerland once-upon-a-time. 


On the other hand, whatever is done in the political-bureaucratic sphere must be completely OPEN. No "official secrets."


Think about it.


Song of the Day: Mr. Bob Marley, of course, singing:

Why can't we roam,

This Open Country?

Why can't we be

What we want to be?

WE WANT TO BE FREE!

Hey! Mr. Cop,

Ain't got no Birth Cerfiticate (sic) on me now...

You can watch the video of this great song here.

Bye Pondicherry, Thanks For Everything, And Some Final Reflections On The Problem That Is The State: Take #2

Dylan once said, "I have new eyes to see the dawn." And Cat Stevens sang, "Morning has broken, like the first morning." 


[Though the only black birds that speak here in Pondicherry are CROWS. I have never seen a town with more crows and more garbage littered all over.]


This morning, I went to see the dawn as usual - but I am leaving today, so I was bidding good-bye to the dawn across the sea.


And how many spectacular dawns I have witnessed here these past many weeks. Sometimes, it is like the picture above - a Gold Sun, with the Gold reflecting across the waters right to your feet. Sometimes, if there are specks of clouds, dawn begins with fiery red hues. And once, only once, did it appear like God had sprayed oil across the sky, for there were speckled rainbows all over! 


Today, it was different: just pastel shades, of pink and blue, over a deep blue sea, the sun itself a pale orange. But it was beautiful.


Good-bye Pondicherry. Thanks for the good times. Hope to be back again someday.


To conclude, some observations that reveal that The People are a Resource, and it is The State that is The Problem.


The tea-shops open here at 4:30am. By that time, I am always bathed and changed, on my cycle, heading for tea - and then, the dawn. By that time, Pondicherry is wide awake, and many, many people are getting organised for their Daily Work. Hard-working, enterprising people of Pondicherry. 


Let us now turn to The State. First, they TAX you. The restaurants charge a 12% local sales tax. That's a lot. What do they do with the money? I have already written about the useless departments they open - like Fisheries! Imagine, every dawn I see REAL FISHERMEN trying to net a catch in tiny craft dating back to 3000BC - no OBM at all - and The State runs a Fisheries Department. Do these guys catch and sell fish? Or do they just live off Tax Revenue? Tax Parasites, all.


Today, let me also talk about the Public Health Department. They have a HUGE BUILDING right opposite my tea-shop. And if you sit there sipping tea in the early hours, MOSQUITOES chew you up! And there are FLIES all over!


Today, I took an early morning walkabout in a pretty park - and mosquitoes bit me there, too. Right opposite was another Public Health Department building.


Incidentally, our The State has banned DDT - the cheapest way to kill mosquitoes. I once published an interview I conducted with Roger Bate of Africa Fighting Malaria for The Economic Times - and he argued furiously against this ban, one that was killing Africans by the million. Shortly after this interview appeared, an Indian DDT manufacturer whose business had been closed down came calling on me at my editorial offices, and told me all about the corrupt politics behind this senseless ban on DDT.


Now, tell you me: We cannot breed. If we do so, Sanjay Gandhi comes and vastectomises us BY FORCE. But mosquitoes and flies can breed freely.


And tell you me: Is General Pervez Musharraf sucking your blood? Or is the RBI Governor doing that, with his "counterfeit notes" that do not honour his SIGNED CONTRACT? All this "funny money" that depreciates in value every day?


The pretty park where mosquitoes bit me in broad daylight right opposite a Public Health Department building must have been built and laid out by the French - but, today, our fellows have built two "children's parks" on the lawns! The equipment there looked like it doesn't work, and is probably dangerous. Your kids might get hurt playing there. They might be better off playing with General Pervez Musharraf.


They are spending YOUR money - on NONSENSE.


Why can't entrepreneurs build parks for kids? Like the guy I met who said he is building a skating rink.

EVER HEARD OF DISNEYLAND?

They have privatised garbage collection - but they don't supervise the work, and much of the equipment is shoddy: little Mahindra trucks that won't carry more than a few kilos at a time, and are OPEN on top. 


The ladies who work at street-sweeping in their uniforms are all sweet and very hard-working, but they have No Capital Equipment.  Thus, their wages can never rise.


We need FOREIGN EXPERT FIRMS to do these jobs - like an ad I saw of an Australian Garbage Company that went:

We Talk Garbage

That's why I like the Philips Slogan:

Let's Make Things Better

The State can NEVER think like that.


The State's slogan is:

Let's Make Things Worse

They have made every city they inherited from the Brits or the French or the Portuguese - worse. Much, much worse.


Because they produce bads, not goods.


Bads like taxes.


Bads like inflation.


Bads like Air India.


Bads like the Indian Police.

Abolish The State.

Replace it with Honest Civic Corporations 

for each and every city and town.

The Trial of chacha manmohan s gandhi - Part 5

Yesterday, I discussed the "Corruption of the Law." Today, I shall conclude this Prosecution with a discussion on the natural fallout of legal corruption - and that is Corruption of the Police. They become a "legislation-enforcement agency" - and all these amoral and immoral pieces of legislation passed by our Socialist Parliament are essentially Predatory, like the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. In any case, the Indian Police are known to be Predatory on every city and town street pan-India. They only protect the VVIPs; they prey on the rest of us.

Let us begin with some History. The modern State, equipped with a Police Force and a Central Bank, is very new. Sir Robert Peel set up the London Metropolitan Police - the unarmed "Bobby" - only in the 1830s. They used to be jeered at on the streets when they first made their appearance. 

In India, the Honourable East India Company ruled without any police force. They had an army - but no police. The "civilians" of the HEICS roamed their vast districts unarmed and unescorted, maintaining land records while sitting among the peasants, settling disputes on time, providing Justice, collecting taxes in exchange for Property Titles - and, of course, building "roads, bridges and canals."

The Indian Police Act is dated 1861. This was immediately after the horrors of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, and the Government of India had passed from the Honourable Company to the British Crown. Victoria was now "Empress of India." It is an interesting coincidence that Rabindranath Tagore was born that very same year, in 1861. While Tagore dreamt of an India "where the mind is without fear and the head is held high," the motto of the Indian Police is "Fear is the Key."

Let us fear them not - if we want to be Free.

In this post, I will relate some anecdotes. The first of this is especially for the Free Press, because these events occurred on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, the Fleet Street of Nude Elly. I was then working with The Economic Times, and my offices were in Times House. One afternoon, Professor Christopher Lingle came calling - and I invited him out for lunch. There was an Udipi restaurant nearby. The alternative was the vast array of "street food" on the opposite side of the road. Cris is adventurous, and he opted for the street food. We ate all kinds of stuff, like the delicious papaya salad one guy makes, and we washed it all down with a nimboo masala soda prepared by a guy whose masala is his own secret formula. The sign on his stall says he has been in operation since god knows when.

A few days later, I bumped into Cris again at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute, where I had gone to attend a seminar. After the seminar was over, I had to rush to office to pen my editorial of the day, and Cris tagged along  with the special purpose of trying out the BSZ Marg street food once again.

But lo and behold! When we arrived we found that every single hawker and vendor had been evicted!

Cris, who is a very widely travelled man,  then made a remark that I have never forgotten. He said:

"The poor people of India are exceptionally honest. In any other country if such things happened, the people would have turned to crime."

That is the moral choice we all face - to survive through moral, voluntary and gainful exchanges in The Market, or to live off plunder and theft.

Continuing on the same theme, my second anecdote is about India's "super-cop" KPS Gill. Around 1999 or thereabouts, Professor Madhu Kishwar raised a big stink about police predation on street-hawkers and vendors, particularly in Nude Elly itself. She even made an excellent - and blood-curling - documentary film on the subject, which I hope, if she is reading this, she will put on YouTube. 

As a columnist and editorial writer with ET, I supported Madhu to the hilt. Finally, she called me for a meeting at the India International Centre. And who should be there but KPS Gill. We briefly discussed the matter of police predation on the poor - and Gill thundered, "You cannot stop it." As if on cue, Renana Jhabwala of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), whose members include women street vendors from all over India, retorted, "In my lifetime we will stop this." It was quite a sight seeing Renana, a tiny woman, say this to this huge, big super-cop. One can only wonder what "commands" such cops issue to their subordinates. There must be come "corruption of the mind" that makes them, in reality, not super-cops, but super-thieves.

My own horrible experience with the Karnataka cops is well known: arrested repeatedly, harassed, and even an assassination attempt. They serve their political masters. Just as KPS Gill killed thousands of "Sikh terrorists" without trial for Indira Gandhi and her CONgress. The Free Press hailed him as a "hero" then; in particular, Chandan Mitra of The Pioneer.

My concluding anecdote is not about cops, but it is extremely relevant nonetheless. While I was working with ET I had to give up writing in the "white papers" as I used to do while a freelancer. Thanks to Jug Suraiya I finally managed to edge myself onto the ToI edit page - and my monthly thunder began. One such monthly thunder was titled "Predatory State: The Black Hole of Social Science." The article has been preserved here. 

A few days later, I received a phone call from Professor ML Sondhi, a former Indian Foreign Service officer who became a JNU don and was then Chairman of the Indian Council for Social Science Research as a BJP appointee. Sondhi invited me for dinner - at the IIC, of course. I took Parth J Shah along as witness. During the course of the meal, Sondhi made me the following indecent proposal:

How can we co-opt you?

My stern reply: 

"I have studied too much Political Science to allow that to happen."

I am most certainly NOT getting aboard this Pirate Ship of State.

It is my firm belief that this Predatory State must be dismissed in toto, cops and all. And by all I include all their "co-opted" professors.

Let us live in the "natural order" of The Market. As a "Private Law Society." Let us also abolish the corrupt Reserve Bank of India, which funds all this corruption with its fraudulent paper notes. Inflationism must be ended permanently - especially so in a country where millions and millions are so desperately poor. I recommend my column on the Gold Standard, and another on Private Money.

Some people might want to be "conservative." To them I address the following question:

Which Department of our The State would you like to see conserved?

And as for the cops, they are nothing but what Bob Marley called "uniforms of brutality." Gandhi made a fatal error after Chauri Chaura. Let us be a wiser nation today. A wise nation that knows what Freedom really means. And where both order as well as morality come from: which is, The Free Market.

Shubh Laabh to all of you.

[PS: On the "natural order," I recommend my column defining "catallaxy." And on how the world can live happily without police forces tyrannising us, I earnestly recommend Professor Bruce L Benson's The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without The State, of which, I have just learnt, a new edition has appeared.]

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.

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

Continuing from where I left off yesterday, let me now draw my reader's attention to an excellent and brief essay by Friedrich Hayek that none have ever noticed, titled "Two Kinds of Mind." This essay is to be found in his New Studies in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and the History of Ideas. In a nutshell, this Nobel laureate says that the "education system" currently in place all over the world - and this applies particularly to India - promotes and encourages those whose minds are good at memorising stuff. The crammers and muggers top the schools, enter the best colleges, and so on. Hayek says that he himself did not possess such a mind. He confesses to having not done too well at school. And he adds that whatever he did cram, for the examinations, he promptly forgot afterwards.

The other kind of mind, Hayek says, is one that assimilates "concepts." This sort of mind is slow. It is no good at memorising. Instead, it slowly and painfully assimilates concepts within it, building one on top of the other. Hayek says that his mind is of this sort. Such minds are NOT encouraged today - and certainly not in India.


Hayek has a chapter in his popular book, The Road to Serfdom, titled "How the Worst Get on Top." The education system is an integral part of this process. Good minds do not rise; the muggers do.

In India, the schools are all meant for muggers and crammers. The "education" youngsters receive is full of "formulae" that must be remembered. This is particularly true of advanced mathematics and statistics. It is also true of physics and chemistry, including organic chemistry. The study of History is NOT conceptual; rather, it requires the mugging up of chronological data: dates. Muggers top the exams. As for the rest, they forget everything they learnt soon after school.

The same continues in college. The study of "Indian Economics" is nothing but the mugging up of useless statistical data. The mathematisation of Economics is likewise. There is zero conceptual learning - that which leads to an "understanding" of the vital issues concerning market exchanges. The higher one climbs up the educational ladder, particularly in Economics, the more bizarre the curriculum becomes, and the more mathematical. And I mean highly advanced mathematics, extremely complex, which requires the memorisation of formulae. 


It is important to note that basic arithmetic is a part of every human being's mental construction. Our language contains numbers - and so we know how to count. In the Market Economy, we need nothing more than Arithmetic: addition, subtraction; and, maybe, division and multiplication. The chairmen of the biggest companies in the world use nothing more to understand their balance sheets. It was Goethe, no one less, who said that double-entry book-keeping was one of the greatest inventions of the human mind. These bastards have given us weirdo maths instead - for all to learn. This is the mathematics of The Devil.

I attended one year of the Master's degree programme at the Delhi School of Economics (and quit!) in 1977-78. We had 8 papers in all; but we also had a Course Zero, titled "Mathematics for Economists." And just the other year, I came across a bright young girl from the DSE - one who had attended some of my privatseminars - who cried on my shoulder and said, "I had come here to study Economics, but all I seem to be studying is mathematics." In my time - and things must surely be the same - the toppers at the DSE were those who took "Six Tricks": that is, six papers in Econometrics  (out of 8). Most of these muggers came from Presidency College, Calcutta. Note that it is easy to "score marks" in mathematics if you get your formulae right. This is how the worst minds get on top.


I also pursued and acquired a Master's degree in Business Economics from Delhi University between 1981-83 with specialisation in International Trade and Transport Economics. Both were taught in mathematics. We in India have NO international trade. All our sea-ports export mineral ores and import nothing. And as for our transport system, it is FUCKED. This is the result of mathematics. To pass the examinations, I even had to take tuition in math! Of course, I have forgotten all that shit.

Engineering students and medical students must, of course, mug formulae. But so do students of Law - and this is particularly harmful. They study "positive law" - that is, the written law - and they mug it all up clause by clause, article by article, Latin maxim by Latin maxim. I have personally seen the room of one such student of Law: he had written all the articles of the Constitution of India, and all the sections of the Indian Penal Code, on the walls of his hostel room, so that he could mug them all. 


It is noteworthy that chacha manmhoan's "human resource destruction minister" is a socialist lawyer. Lawyers are extremely dangerous people - especially when they are in possession of political power. Good lawyers are engaged in "private law." That is, property, contracts and torts. In India, we have NONE of these PROTECTIONS under the law. Even the BJP spokesman, Arun Jaitley, is a "constitutional lawyer." In other words, he possesses political power. He is not in the "enterprise of law." Rather, he has simply mugged up the Constitution of India, much amended, article by article, and beyond that he knows nothing. This is how the "worst get on top" and this is why there is no Justice in socialist India.

The "education system," now in the hands of CONgress lawyer, has always been engaged in the encouragement of "rote-learning." It is a "deliberate device" by which our The State, which controls and monopolises all education, makes the youth dumb and dumber. They memorise everything that our The State wants them to, but they "understand" nothing. The examinations are only a memory test - almost 90 percent of which is unnecessary in a Free Market Economy. In such an economy, where knowledge is "fragmented," people specialise, and only need to know the knowledge relevant to their calling. Just as we save on labour by specialising, so too do we save on knowledge. We do NOT need to know all there is to know. We need to be competent only in one chosen field. Thus, almost 90 percent of schooling is superfluous, and a burden. 


It is particularly shocking that the length of schooling, which was 10 years in the 50s, became 11 years in my time, and is now 12 long years. In the good old days children were only taught the 3R's - that is, reading, writing and arithmetic - after which they were encouraged to "find their calling" and acquire the relevant knowledge, either through apprenticeship, or otherwise. Apprenticeship was paid - and kids earned money, entered the Market Economy early in life, got married early, and so became self-supporting citizens by their mid-teens. Today, most kids cannot afford to marry till their 30s. This is part of the evil designs of our The State, which has delayed marriage deliberately, by legislation, in order to "control the population." It is this State that is the REAL PROBLEM. Not the kids.

Almost all of this protracted education our kids receive from The State is useless. I have simply forgotten all the higher mathematics, trigonometry, algebra, physics and chemistry I studied in school. It is NOT required for all. We need to drastically alter and cut down on education. Instead, our Great Leader, chacha manmohan s gandhi, is conspiring to inject this deadly venom into every innocent child's mind pan-India; and that too, by FORCE.

If a perfect example of the kind of bozos created by this "miseducation system" is required, it is our elite bureaucracy: the IAS-IPS-IFS types. They all cram for a tough examination in their youth - BY MUGGING - and never study anything again. They spend the rest of their lives studying government files. In their "academies" nonsensical Economics is taught - deliberately - thereby dumbing them down even further. They mug up all the "positive law" - including the Constitution of India - and the end result is that nothing from the government works; there is no "functional legitimacy" of our The State; and even the judicial system is a failure. The entire legal system is corrupt. Many judges have been found to be corrupt - in both the High Courts as well as the Supreme Court.


I have myself passed the UPSC examinations to qualify for the "public services" - not once, not twice, but three consecutive times - with Economics and Psychology as my elective subjects. Since then, after over 25 years of daily study - and public writing - I feel that the UPSC examination is nothing but a test of "how well do you know our bullshit." I have lectured twice at the IAS Academy in Mussoorie. After one of my lectures, the then Deputy Director, Yaduvendra Mathur IAS, told me: "We are knowledge-proof." They are also, interestingly, bullet-proof. They have VVIP security. And I have no gun to defend myself against them.

Thus, all the corruption we find in our society is nothing but the "corruption of the minds of the youth." It is for this great crime that chacha must be prosecuted.

This "miseducation system" is designed by our Great Leader, chacha manmohan s gandhi, who is nothing but an "intellectual bodyguard of the House of Nehru," and has served as Chairman of the University Grants Commission. In my book, all schools and colleges in India supported by our The State, or whose curricula are imposed by our The State, must be closed down immediately. This miseducation system will kill every single intellect. It will destroy this bright new generation. Even more importantly, it will WASTE TIME. The years of one's youth are precious. It is then that the mind is keen. As they say, "You cannot teach an old horse new tricks." The flower of Indian youth will be destroyed if our chacha is allowed to pursue his evil plot.

I will continue on this theme tomorrow. Stay tuned for Part 3.

Pondicherry's Hideous Big Government

My intellectual journey began right here in Pondicherry - and it all came back to me as I strolled leisurely down Beach Road last evening. I used to walk up and down this road every night in the mid-80s, accompanied by my dog, who was never on a leash. Then, as now, most of the buildings in this prime part of town are State Property. First you pass the huge office of the Tourism Department. Then comes the Central Excise and Service Tax Department. There is the office of the Legal Services Authority. There is a memorial to BR Ambedkar. Tucked away is the huge office of the Inspector-General of Police. And finally, at the other end of this short road, is the gigantic, and ugly, Chief Secretariat.

Even then, I used to ponder over a little building that used to house the Mayor's office in French times. Then, it was being used as a State-run cafe. It still is.

But the huge big government of Pondicherry doesn't stop here. Just behind Beach Road is the Democratic Assembly. They put up a Chief Minister and his big Cabinet.

Heading all this is a Lieutenant-Governor!

All this - and no Mayor.

Then, as now, the town is a mess. And all the taxation is predatory. While I was breakfasting at a roadside stall this morning, a motorcycle drew up and the woman running the stall paid him some money in exchange for a tax receipt. Upon inquiry, I learnt that he was from the Municipality. What "service" does the Municipality provide for which they extort this tax? Indeed, what "service" does the entire Indian State provide us that we pay them "service tax"?

In 1988, I finally got the chance to study Comparative Local Government at the London School of Economics. Interestingly, they didn't teach me about the Lord Mayor of London - which I found out about and studied myself. I have been studying and writing ever since 

I left the LSE in 1989 - and my concern has remained the same: To solve the riddle that Government presented. In time - and intellectual evolution takes time - I finally came back to the realisation that all we need are mayors. Nothing more. This idea first came into my head 25 years ago - right here in Pondicherry. It all came back to me last evening. It  felt good to be back.

At the LSE, I learnt about William Niskanen's theory of the "budget-maximising bureaucrat." This is evident in Pondicherry. The IAS and the IPS have simply multiplied government departments, expanding staff and budgets - this, while providing no real service to the citizenry at all. On the way to Beach Road, there is a huge office of the Traffic Police. And on Beach Road itself, another of the Tourist Police. Now, that's a new one, ain't it?

Being a Sunday evening, Beach Road was milling with people. The road was closed to traffic, but a Maruti van belonging to the Tourist Police was being driven up and down. Seated within were some cops with guns. A few plainclothes guys mingling in the crowd would have sufficed, I thought. You rarely see uniformed cops in Amsterdam.

Last evening, I saw a tent at one corner of Beach Road housing a handicraft exhibition-cum-sale. It was stifling inside. But the stuff on display was quite good. And varied. No space for private commerce on this road. All the space has been taken up by The State - and the Aurobindo Ashram, of course, about which more later.

What do all these government big-wigs do here? I found the answer at the air-conditioned ATM. There was a uniformed guard inside. I told him he had a good job - sitting in air-conditioning all day, with nothing to do. He smiled happily. Then I asked him how much he earned - and he said 5000 rupees a month. I told him he could earn much more if he got off his butt, got out of the air-conditioning, and did some "real work." The roadside vendor who provides me with breakfast every morning earns many times more.

Like the guard in the ATM, our IAS-IPS chaps are just sitting in air-conditioned offices, doing nothing. Shuffling files around.

I am therefore of the firm opinion that Pondicherry should drastically reduce the size of its government and revert to French times, when all they had was a Mayor. That is all this little town needs. This huge big government is just a burden created by budget-maximisers, funded by rapacious tax collectors, and also by the "funny money" of the inflationist Reserve Bank of India.

I have a lecture ready and waiting to be delivered - Powerpoint presentation and all - on the subject of "Free Cities: Theory, History and Practice." It is scheduled to be delivered in Mangalore in July, but I would be more than happy to deliver it right here in Pondicherry, preferably under the aegis of Lions Club International, whose advertisements I saw all over town. If anyone wants to contact me for the purpose, I am available at the L'Ocean Guest House.  

Liberty - From Here To Eternity

The State does NOT create wealth; rather, it destroys it. In the England of old, the King was never rich, but the merchants of the Olde City of London were fabulously wealthy. They were not selling computers, cars and the like those days. But the fishmongers, the grocers, the vinters who imported and sold wine - these were rich beyond belief. Edward II once had only 2 shillings in his treasury. And as for Henry V, when he went to battle at Agincourt, he had to pawn his jewels with the merchants of the City to raise the necessary funds. Thus, during the send-off ceremony organised for him, the Lord Mayor sat on his right - which is why, till this day, the Lord Mayor of London is second only to the King.

In India, we think the King - or The State - will create the wealth. He will make steel. He will give us "employment." This is a great delusion. This great delusion is multiplied by the fact that The State produces the money - paper notes. Today, Mamata Banerjee is running to the Centre for funds - from Pranabda. The Centre has no funds; all they will do is print more and borrow more. Similarly, here in Pondicherry, I just read that the government of this tiny city has borrowed 4,400 crore rupees (44 billion) from the Reserve Bank of India - and cannot pay it back. With so much money, the city could be built anew. Here, there is so much commerce on the streets - too much commerce, too little street. A sum of 4,400 crore rupees could have built so many miles of broad thoroughfares. Where has the money gone?

In my view, everything begins with "self-help." We must NOT look to the Centre, to Nude Elly, for its "funny money." The merchants of London gave the King his taxes; they did not seek his assistance in running their affairs, building their streets, or other civic facilities. So, each city and town must raise its own internal resources - in gold - and elect its own Mayor, an honest and honourable man, to perform the essential tasks of maintaining a city so that commerce can transpire peacefully. The purpose of a city is commerce.

There were no "political parties" in England - not until the 17th century. In India, our political parties are all gangs of anti-socials - which is what socialism is all about. The Lord Mayors of London were all wealthy merchants themselves, among the wealthiest men in the world. But if you look at chacha manmohan, sonia gandhi, beta rahul, advani, sitaram yechury - none are creators of wealth. They are all wealth destroyers. All these parties must be abolished.

There is only ONE legal principle required to obtain Liberty for all - and that is the Inviolability of Property. If Property is violated by private persons, it is either theft or trespass. Ditto for whatever local government the people set up to run their cities and towns. The local government is established to protect Property, not to violate it. If this Principle is followed, all will be well. Perfect order will prevail along with perfect Liberty. 

The Principle of Property applies even more so to money - for money must be tangible Property and not a paper note.

As far as public thoroughfares are concerned, they are "public property" and they should not be obstructed by private persons. It is the task of the local government to ensure that all thoroughfares are kept clear of obstructions. This is not happening now. Not in Nude Elly - and certainly not in Pondicherry. Every city and town mayor must focus on this issue - roads and traffic regulation. This is much more important than the RAW and IB and their "security concerns." Over 200,000 people die on our unsafe streets every year, and many times more are injured. The IPS are as much a disgrace as the IAS. Both "services" must be abolished.

Outside the cities, lies the countryside - and here, apart from roads, what matters most is the provision of clear Property Titles. This must be done by the people through their own, new agencies, using GPS technology. The patwari system is a complete failure under IAS maladministration. It must be abolished. 

Since cities are NOT self-sufficient, and all the needs of the city come from outside, it is in the interest of the city to see that outlying farmers, for instance, can easily bring their produce to market. These arrangements can be organised by collaboration between each city and its outlying villages. In this manner, real estate development will also occur in the rural areas, benefiting all. Satellite towns will also develop.

It must be noted that England till date does NOT possess a "written constitution." Such a device is totally unnecessary. A bunch of jokers crowded into a room cannot agree on anything - and the end result is disaster for a billion people. A written Constitution is required to establish and then "limit" the government set up. This has not happened anywhere in the world - including the USSA. 

All that is required is the Principle that Private Property is Inviolable by all. If this is "public opinion" then none can use force to take away either the Liberty or the Property of anyone else.

A city mayor - and some "aldermen" or "councillors" - are not rulers. They do not "make law" as legislatures do. They are just like the governing body of a club. That is all each city and town needs. They must find their own people - because everything depends on the use of "local knowledge." If it is your city, then your people must look after it. I also believe trained and experienced city administrators can be hired from abroad - and they should.

This, in brief, is all that a "constitution of liberty" is all about. Private property, private law and private money. Liberty - and perfect order. Peace. Prosperity. Of course, foreign trade should be unilaterally freed - and the cities and towns on the coast should do this on their own. It is in their own interest to do so. The Customs Department should be abolished.

I am also of the view that all the tax arms of the socialist State should be done away with. Local taxes should be raised in each city, from owners of Property - and they alone should be entitled to vote for the mayor and aldermen. Universal suffrage is a disaster. In either case, you need Liberty more than the empty vote. No one in Nude Elly can open a beer bar - but they can vote! What sense does that make?

The motto of the Olde City of London is domini dirige nos, which translates to "Let God be our Guide." That is the motto of Liberty. They did not say "let the King be our Guide" - as we stupid Indians did.

Here in Pondicherry I awoke to the sweet sound of the muezzin's call of prayer - "Allah ho Akbar." This, too, means much the same. That God is Great, that God is our Guide, that no King and no Man can order us around. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, like the Lord Mayors of London, was a merchant, as was his wife Khadija.

With this, we can rid our nation of the pernicious disease of "politics" - and those who call themselves "politicians." Like the word "democracy," all these words are meaningless these days; or their meanings have been completely distorted. These words come from Ancient Greece, and they meant other things there.

I delivered a lecture once at the YMCA in Mangalore titled "Politics: The Root of all Corruption." When we chose Socialism and Statism, we politicised everything, and thereby corrupted everything. 

Virtue comes from The Market. When markets are free and Competition is fierce - everyone tries harder and harder to keep his customers happy. Towards this end, they "study the happiness" of the public. This is something no State ever does. All the State does is give you the Big Stick - up your ass. Get rid of that stick - and you will be free. Fix your cities and towns, free your markets, and you will slowly but surely be able to rebuild this shattered civilisation - if that word can still be applied to this sub-continent. Just keep one Principle in mind - that Property must be inviolable.

There arises the question of "unowned" things - and these should be free for "homesteading" on  a first-come-first-served basis. This includes things like radio spectrum, virgin forest lands, oil and gas fields etc. The principle here is "finder's keepers" - something all schoolchildren know only too well. 

And as for me, I have no interest in the "trappings of authority." I am awaiting for the members of my reggae band - The Ganjeras - to arrive so we can start rehearsing for an album and maybe even a show. Our first number planned is "Veeru Was A Good Man" to the tune of Bob Marley's "Johnny Was A Good Man." Let the sandalwood tree be Free!