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! 

My Sympathies Are For The Poor Alone

The June 11 issue of Outlook Business dedicated to "corporate social responsibility" (CSR) to which I had contributed against the motion was not available anywhere in Orissa, and I managed to find a copy only in the swanky Rajiv Gandhi Airport in Hyderabad. Yesterday, I read through the issue and quite frankly must confess that I have never read such a load of patronising and condescending tripe in my life before. You can find the entire issue here.

To begin, the proponents for CSR assert that "hunger is India's greatest problem" and they quote the fucking World Bank "measurement" that since 90 percent of Third World people survive on less than $1.25 a day, they must be hungry. I wonder if any of these bozos have ever walked the streets of our cities - like I do. This morning, for instance, here in Pondicherry, I breakfasted on 5 steaming hot idlis and one fat dosa for just 15 rupees (20 cents) from a roadside stall opposite the railway station - and that should keep me going till sundown. Lots of poor and hungry customers were being fed via the "division of labour." None had to buy "cheap rice" from our The State, nor did they have to grind it, steam it, fry it, or make coconut chutney. Just 15 rupees - and clean, healthy food at that.

But if we were to really examine the conditions under which these businessmen and women work to stave off real - and not imaginary - hunger, we will surely discover that the "health inspector" (there was a huge Public Health Department building nearby) preys on them, as do other predatory government agencies. This is a Predatory State - from Top to Bottom.

There are other problems such people face as well. For example, these food stalls never get water supply. They have to carry water from far distances. Further, if commercial space was increased, its value would fall - and these stall-owners would graduate to shops. 

Nearby was a very wide open drain that the French built to separate the "white town" from the rest. Even in the 1980s when I lived here I often told people that this should be covered and the space gained thereby used for shops - because the commercial areas were, even then, overcrowded. No one has thought of this during these 25 long years - while fools fed on fucking World Bank data feel concerned about "hunger."

Every single "philanthropist" arguing in favour of CSR has a deep desire to "educate the poor" - but these people do not need to be taught by Anu Aga or Shiv Nadar how to make idlis and dosas. Anu Aga - who sits on the National Advisory Council (NAC) that hangs around sonia suggesting ways and means of widespread "capital consumption" writes that she wants to educate the poor so that her engineering firm can hire trained people. In which case, she ought to set up a Thermax Engineering College - which is all that Thermax knows. Shiv Nadar writes that he is setting up a Shiv Nadar University to teach "arts & sciences" - but he doesn't say that State Universities should be shut down and top-notch foreign universities freely allowed to set up shop - for shop it is, and education, we all know, is a Big Business, and has nothing much to do with philanthropy.

There are some goras on their side as well - the head of Dell computers, some woman from Hewlett-Packard, and some "management guru" totally ignorant of even the basics of Market Economics. I recently bought a Dell laptop and threw it into the sea! Shouldn't these people focus on creating better products - as Steve Jobs of Apple is doing. I have earlier written how both Azim Premji as well as Bill Gates are engaged in "false philanthropy."

Then there is Mahindra Motors writing about how they renewed a forest near their plant in Nashik. But forestry and timber could be Big Business for the poor. Imagine sandalwood, ebony, teak, rosewood and mahogany being freely grown instead of being State Property. And shouldn't Mahindra's own products be better? I recently drove a Mahindra Scorpio jeep my friend owns - and gave up! Felt like a bloody truck!

There is also a "measurement" of CSR provided by the Tata Institute of Social Science (and another by KPMG). What has this Tata Institute ever contributed to our understanding of society? And have you ever taken a ride in a Tata Indica - as I did from Madras Airport to Pondicherry? Incidentally, the library at the Delhi School of (Mathematical) Economics is named after Sir Ratan Tata.

We have also had a Birla Institute of Technology co-existing with the Ambassador car. Not to mention a Bajaj Institute of Management.

To understand what can really help the poor, you must read ALL of Peter Bauer, who was a "development economist" who toured the entire Third World, observed the poor in markets - especially "informal markets" - and wrote about what he saw. It was he who said something very important about Third World poverty - and that is:

Poverty indicates just one thing - the absence of economic achievement.

He then went on to add:

Economic achievements are made in markets.

All these corporate types who profess to being philanthropic ought to read Samuel Smiles' Self-Help, written in Victorian England - a book that outsold the Bible, and fired the Japanese in their catch-up with the West. It tells the stories of many, many people of humble origins who struggled against great odds - including poverty - and rose to incredible heights through sheer effort, perseverance and dogged hard work. Such books are positive motivators - and I am proud to say that I personally edited and wrote a foreword to an Indian edition of this great book, published by Liberty Institute many years ago.

Poor people need Liberty. They need Property - including commercial property: shops. They need roads. They need modern modes of transportation, especially urban transportation. And they need encouragement. They do NOT need this patronising and condescending CSR bullshit - that too, from a bunch of CRONIES of our The State, who do not want to compete with foreigners themselves, and want to keep on selling second-rate "capital goods" to our poor people. Such people deserve to be DISGRACED.

We have had endless people faking concern for the poor - from Nehru to Manmohan to Sonia to all the NGOs put together; and now we have these rich bozos who know nothing and want to "educate" poor people who are already possessed of knowledge valuable in the market. They never utter the sweet word LIBERTY! - only because they fear it. They thrive on the misuse of State Power: the "customs barrier." Which is why I tell all poor people - never buy swadeshi; always buy videshi. Buy the best. Unilateral free trade - for the poor, against all these bozos. I have no sympathy for these bozos. All my sympathies lie with the poor.

The only true friend of the world's poor was Peter Bauer - and do read my eponymously titled tribute to him.

In the end, if there is anything that everyone needs to understand, it is Economics. It is this vital subject that is being mistaught by our The State in India, as I pointed out yesterday. If these CSR bozos go about "educating" our people, with State support, it will be DISASTER!

To conclude, let me quote Ludwig von Mises:

Whether we like it or not, it is a fact that economics cannot remain an esoteric branch of knowledge accessible only to small groups of scholars and specialists. Economics deals with society's fundamental problems; it concerns everyone and belongs to all. It is the main and proper study of every citizen.

I hope you get the reason for my strong moral outrage.

The Sun No Longer Shines On Konarak

Took a taxi ride to see the Konarak Sun Temple, 40 km from Puri. Within a couple of kilometres we were out of city limits - and the slums.

Then, we passed some "residential localities" of the middle class - but no markets there, and poor inner roads. No space for the automobile. Or servants. 

And then, the JUNGLE started. All jungle between Puri and Konarak. Forest Department warning signs about deer crossing. Casaurina trees, cashews too - but all jungle.

Finally, reached a sort of roadside town - quite a shambles - with a statue of Biju Patnaik pointing in the general direction of The Sea. But there is no promenade for tourists. A municipal functionary operating a roadblock took 10 rupees tax from me.

A few minutes later, we were near the famous temple - and a cop had to be bribed to drive inside. Another 10 bucks for a ticket - and I made the fortunate decision to hire the services of a guide. 

The Sun Temple in Konarak is built on 24 "spoked wheels" - each with a massive "hub." That is, two hub-and-spoked wheels for every month, representing the phases of the moon. They worked as "sundials" too, my guide told me, and you could tell the time by them.

The temple is elaborately carved - but not too well maintained. Scaffolding all over the place, and many "new stones" that are out of place and ill-designed, obviously by our The State. What is interesting is the representation of the "stages of life" - with animals cavorting for the children, sexual enjoyment for the adults, and metaphysical speculation for the aged. Metaphysics has been the bane of Indian philosophy.

One interesting mural showed a day in the life of a noblewoman - she wakes up and stretches, bathes, helped by servants, and then rides out on a horse to hunt! 

No hunting allowed any more  in Orissa - a heavily forested State of the Federation. Why not deer ranching in the private sector? Barun Mitra is going gung-ho about tiger farming; but I think we should begin with deer. And ganja farming, of course.

I enjoyed a venison steak at the Ikea showroom in the outskirts of Frankfurt-am-Main. The photo accompanying this post is of deer hunters in the USSA.

I must mention what the noble-woman did after the hunt - well, she enjoyed her man. The Good Life! In three or four different positions.

My guide smoked ganja - and we shared a couple of chillums in the unkempt temple gardens. Some other chaps joined us - sellers of precious stones, which seems to be a big "street business" here. This is also "knowledge" not taught in school. The gemstone sellers commented how ganja was a "good nasha" - and how alcohol was killing the people. My guide scored some ganja for me - which did the trick this morning, somewhat.

But the Sun is not shining on this Tourist Destination. The crowd at the Sun Temple was immense! That too, on a Monday evening. All along the road, people have opened dhaba-type shacks. I even found a Cafe Coffee Day - and enjoyed a cappucino. I thought of Goa, where, all along the NH 17, you find establishments calling themselves "Bar & Rest" - the Goans are too susegaad to use the full word "Restaurant"! - but here on this jungle highway there are no bar & rest signs. No Freedom. No road. No wheels. Abundant Space.

I thought a Great Idea would be to rig up a private consortium that would build a sea-side train ride between Puri and Konarak - and develop commercial property all along. The crowd of Bengali tourists would love it. Maybe some would buy Property here for their retirement. This would be real "development" - coming from The Market, an Institution of Free Society that socialists like Biju Patnaik could never comprehend. And they never looked towards The Sea; they only looked towards Nude Elly - for "planned development funds": all the "funny money" of the RBI. Funny money that loses value even as I write.

You might as well burn your Macroeconomics textbook too.

It rained on the return journey - and all was cool. Not violent rain like the Goan monsoon, but a gentle drizzle, with blowing gusts of cool wind. It was nice driving through The Jungle, but when we reached The City all was a mess. Can't enjoy the weather in The City. 

Saw a guy with a t-shirt saying "My idea of a Balanced Diet is a Beer in Each Hand" - but I find the beer here prohibitively priced. For the price of one beer I bought a 180ml bottle of Seagram's Royal Stag IMFL whisky. It costs much less in Nude Elly. It costs even less in Goa. So the poor drink chullu. Smoke bidis. And horrible ganja. And their savings are eroded by Inflationism.

What the fuck!

You might as well burn your Microeconomics textbook too.

It is the Science of Economics you need to know - as developed in the Tradition of the Austrian School.

So stay tuned to this blog, where I will elaborate key principles each day.

Jagannath Puri - Revisited - On The Ganja Juggernaut

I am now in Puri - the premier beach resort on the East Coast. Here, the oldest hotel is the BNR - named after the private Bombay-Nagpur Railway that first connected wheels to this place, and the rich people of Calcutta built their holiday homes here. Then, in those early days, BNR built a hotel in Puri. Now, it has been privatised, and my driver said it belongs to a relative of the former railway minister, Laloo Yadav.


There are many ancient holiday homes near my hotel - one, in fact, owned by the CONgress MP from this area, the son of Nandini Sathpathy.  Yet, this place is a mess. This dude ought to be made Mayor of Puri - instead of MP. And, he smokes ganja. All Oriyas do. They have a festival when all three gods are worshipped - Brahma, Visnu and Shiva - and the offerings are paan, betel and ganja. The ganja is for Shiva. There are many Shiva temples here.


I got ganja from a legal shop just 5 minutes ago. You cannot do this in Goa. Orissa can compete - positioning itself as the Ganja Capital of the Free World. Also, there is no Coastal Zone Act here - my hotel is right on the beach, as is the MP's, just around the corner from mine. But the place sucks. Goa is far, far prettier. Here, they have made a mess of their city. 


The mess starts from Bhubaneshwar. My taxi ride was slow and uncomfortable. Many a traffic jam. And there was no bridge over the railway crossing that must date back to BNR times.


No road to the beach resort.


And no beach road either.


No Marine drive.


The city needs a Mayor - like all Indian cities do.


But I love the Freedom - to be able to buy and smoke ganja without police harassment.


Freedom!


Tomorrow, I will watch the sunrise across the sea. 


And smoke a chillum while doing so.


Enough of Goan sunsets.

A Fisherman, That Nut Gandhi, And Other Nuts I Hate

It was late last evening, and we were both tired, so instead of embarking on our regular stroll to one of the beaches, we decided to stop at a sheltered cove. There, sitting on the rocks, we watched the angry colours of the sunset reflected upon the calm waters of the Arabian Sea.

A man appeared – a man wearing nothing more than a ragged pair of shorts, carrying nothing more than a small fishing net bundled up under one arm. He stepped into the shallow waters and waded out a few metres, after which he cast his net. When he hauled it in, there was nothing in it, so he waded out a little further and cast it again.

“This is a fisherman with no Capital,” I commented, “all he has is a net – but no boat.”

She replied, “So what? He doesn’t want to catch too many fish – just two or three for himself and those he has to feed at home.”

And I said: “That’s what you call ‘self-sufficient’ – without any marketable surplus; producing for one’s own consumption, unable to perform any exchanges in The Market by which to obtain even a small portion of the surpluses of others. Thus, he is condemned to eternal poverty. This is Gandhianism for you.”

I  continued: “Actually, in reality, it is worse than that. It is Gandhianism combined with Communist-Environmentalism – for, on the one hand, the poor chap has no Capital; and, on the other hand, he has no Property either because of the Coastal Zone Regulation Act. Property by this shaded cove would be extremely valuable today and who knows which rich Western tourist would decide to buy it for Big Bucks and build himself a winter holiday home.”

“You and your eternal Economics,” she said, “Can’t you ever talk about something else?”

“It’s not Economics,” I replied in my defence, “It’s actually Anti-Economics. Economics is my Passion. Anti-Economics is my Hatred. I hate Gandhianism, Communism, and Environmentalism.”

“Talk of love, not hate,” she said, quoting the Cohen song.

"Men are from Mars and women are from Venus," I thought of saying, but didn't, for it is a cliche. But there might be some truth to it, to do with hormones. Chemicals matter - like good old THC, or alcohol. Ha ha.

Delhi's Treason Against The Konkan

The nuclear disaster in Japan has brought into sharp focus the fact that the nuclear power plant slated to come up on the Konkan Coast, in Jaitapur, just north of Goa, is fraught with grave risks. No wonder both the prime minister as well as his environment minister are making noises about "additional safeguards." This is pure bull, of course. In truth, Nude Elly is guilty of treason against the people of the Konkan.

The word "treason" is defined as "breach of faith or disloyalty." So, there can be treason by the people against their sovereign. Or, as in the present case, it can be the other way around - treason by the sovereign against the people. Let us begin with the facts of the case.

The nuclear power plant slated to come up in the Konkan is in an ecologically sensitive area. The plant was hurriedly cleared ahead of the visit of French president Sarkozy - because the principal supplier is the French firm Areva. The environmental clearance was also hurriedly given.

And there is more: Parliament has passed a Civil Liability Bill pertaining to nuclear accidents that limits the damages nuclear suppliers have to pay in case of accidents. Thus, the lives of the people are being sold cheap - to foreigners. If anything, this is High Treason.

As far as the local people are concerned, they are all up in arms against the project - they are opposed to the forcible seizure of their lands, and they are opposed to the project also because of the grave threat of a nuclear accident in the future. As far as the latter is concerned, their fears seem totally justified today.

Jaitapur is in the Ratnagiri area, famous for its Alfonso mangoes - the world's best mango. If there is an accident, there won't be any Alfonsoes for 100 years. Tourism in Goa will also be affected.

As far as the central ministry of environment is concerned, its principal activities in the Konkan are:

1. The Forest Department, that owns all unowned land, and

2. The Coastal Zone Regulation Act, by which central bureaucrats virtually own and control all beachside property.

In view of the High Treason committed by the Central State's environment ministry against the people, it is my view that both the Forest Department as well as the CRZ personnel should be thrown out of the area.

All unowned land should be opened up for "homesteading" - so that the region urbanises, and develops. There are no cities here between Mumbai and Goa (550 kms), nor any cities between Goa and Mangalore (350 kms). This, while there are three cities in the 150 km stretch comprising Goa.

Thus, there is immense potential for many more cities, towns and beach resorts. This includes many free trading port cities. This is surely preferable - to have human habitation and real estate development instead of low-grade iron ore mining.

To achieve this urban and tourism potential, the Konkan region should also practice unilateral free trade - and send the Customs Department back to Nude Elly, where they get their orders from.

Let us not forget that the central State's highway project completely bypasses the Konkan Coast. Today, because the existing "notional highway" is is such bad shape, loaded trucks are carried up and down the coast on the Konkan Railway! This itself is proof that a "truckway" dedicated to freight-hauling trucks can easily come up in the private sector - on "free land." Further, a regular highway for passenger cars and buses - for the tourists - can also be built for profit by entrepreneurs. Thus, this region does not need anything from the Central State and its "planners."

I am also of the firm opinion that the Central Legislation prohibiting narcotics should be annulled in this region. Then, tourism will boom because tourists will be made blissfully happy - "cannabliss," as they say. Ganja farmers will also prosper, with a new, legitimate cash crop.


Recommended readings:

1. My previous post on the need for fully empowered mayors running all cities and towns.

2. Another post addressed to the bourgeoisie of urban India, recommending New Public Management for the provision of civic services, and also suggesting that we must seriously re-consider paying taxes to the Central State.

Gujarat, Maharashtra, And Goa - Observed

I travelled by bus from the southern tip of Goa, via Bombay, to the Gujarat city of Baroda. Then, I travelled a fair bit within Gujarat, by road. Finally, I returned to Goa via Bombay, entirely by road. Below are some of my observations - and I'll bet these offer a better picture of these parts than statistics - mere numbers collected by government clerks - can ever do.

Gujarat is an urban as well as rural mess. In other words, the human habitat has been destroyed. Apart from Baroda, I saw Surat, Valsad, Ankleshwar and Rajpipla. They are all disasters. I saw poverty-stricken villages made up of rickety hutments, and I saw lots and lots of messed up small towns.

The taxi ride to Bombay took me through wide open spaces with low hills. Greenery. For hundreds of miles on end. Quite pretty. Totally "unowned." Of course, no land is really unowned in India. All such land is by default State Property. My point is that all this State Property is out of bounds for the citizens. It is thus sheer waste. We need to be free to "homestead" unowned lands like these.

I finally arrived in Virar, a far-flung suburb in northern Bombay - and it was a mess. I trained it to Bandra - and that was a mess too. I then took a taxi to Colaba - and on this ride I passed some well laid out areas, surely dating back to British times. I was driven through Marine Drive - built because then there were no environmentalists who preferred mangroves. In Colaba, I saw many splendid old buildings, now in disrepair, surely because of rent control. This legislation violates both Property as well as Free Contract - and destroys buildings because, with rents frozen, landlords can no longer maintain them. For the tenants, it is "legal plunder" - as with all such "socialist" legislation.

I then took the bus to Goa. The bus left at 5:30 pm - and it was quite dark by the time we were finally out of the city! All along, the city stretched on and on, endlessly - and all through everything seemed an almighty mess. Old, dilapidated houses, shops, shops, and more shops, dirt and filth, a uniform greyness, crowds bustling around. Commerce, yes; but civilisation, no.

Finally, when we were out of city limits, I saw a sign saying Panjim, the capital of Goa, was 560 km away. I was awake right through the night, much of the time in the cabin upfront, alongside the driver, smoking and looking out. One observation: There wasn't a single urban settlement of any size or quality the entire 560 km distance between Bombay and Goa. Except for Sawantwadi, which we reached at dawn. But Sawantwadi is not an "Indian city"; rather, it is another of those Princely States that Sardar Patel and Lord Mountbatten took over for IAS administrators. Sawantwadi borders Goa from the north.

Goa stretches 150 km from north to south - and there are three big cities: Mapusa, Panjim and Margao. These are all Portuguese-built, but today all face overcrowding and over-building. Then, there are lots and lots of little towns. Of course, they too are quite unkempt today.

All visual observations, however, strongly suggest that life in Goa is much, much better than anywhere in Maharshtra or Gujarat - including Bombay. The chief reasons for this are: far greater urbanisation and also a far greater degree of economic freedom.

There are bars in Goa everywhere, including in the villages, and even for the poor - and I mean the very poor. There are casinos. Gambling on numbers is an open business - for poorer people. The economy is also diversified, especially because of tourism. But this tourism occurred after the Portuguese had been chucked out in 1962 - and then the hippies came. Tourism ought to have urbanised the coast, but this has not transpired under IAS administrators who love panchayati raj. The beaches may be great, yet the settlements on the beaches are but overgrown, overcrowded villages. The Coastal Zone Regulations legislated by Nude Elly are only worsening things for human beings. Long live the mangroves, eh!

It is in the area of housing that Goa really stands out as compared to both Gujarat and Maharashtra. Here, everyone owns a small cottage, quite pretty. Tiled roof. Property is secure. Titles, at least to newer properties, are clear. But then, urban overcrowding is leading to a Bombay-like situation - and ugly apartment blocks have mushroomed. With so much free land around, and with better roads, Goa could urbanise in a far better fashion, spreading itself out. There could be little cottages everywhere. Towns everywhere.

Maharashtra and Gujarat - and, I daresay, the rest of India - have a lot to learn from tiny Goa. What I discovered, to my delight, is that you also get GOOD ganja here.

Boom Shankar!

4 Idiots

Take this, from a news report, for starters:

"Shopping malls are vulgar display of wealth and a vulgar wastage of energy and space," minister of state for urban development Saugata Roy (Trinamool Congress) said at a seminar, agreeing with environmentalist R K Pachauri who also described the malls as "energy guzzlers".

This minister - and Pauchauri too - ought to have been asked some very hard questions. There is surely more to reportage than dumb reportage.

The Central State ministry for urban development, which this fellow now heads, has always been in charge of the "planning" of Nude Elly - which is a planned, "new" city. This ministry controls the Delhi Development Authority (DDA - on which I wrote yesterday) which is a land and housing monopolist. They have built DDA housing - a very vulgar display of socialist architecture. Over half the city's inhabitants live in slums and "unauthorised colonies": should we applaud this vulgar display of poverty?

Note that these "central planners" who planned the very city they live in, never thought of physical markets. In the older parts of the city, there are huge markets: Chandni Chowk, Daryaganj, Sadar Bazaar, Connaught Place, Karol Bagh... But look at the tiny market places in the newer localities of swank South Delhi: Defence Colony, Panchsheel Enclave, the four Greater Kailashes, and all the rest. These planners have, however, dedicated huge spaces for "parks." They don't know anything about cities as market centres, as commercial engines. After all, they are "socialists": IAS officers and CONgressmen. Contrast Saugata Roy's CONgress mind with that of Sir Stuart Hogg, who built Calcutta's "New Market" - still "The Shopping Mall" of that city. Every British hill-station has a central shopping mall - the "maal road," as locals call them.

Let us turn to Dr. RK Pachauri, Nobel laureate. He thinks malls are "energy guzzlers." This seminar was held in the Habitat Centre, where TERI occupies a few centrally air-conditioned floors. The reporter ought to have asked Pachauri if the Habitat Centre was not a guzzler of energy too.

The same report says that the Central State minister for environment is also very upset about energy guzzlers on wheels:

Recently, environment minister Jairam Ramesh termed sports utility vehicles (SUVs) as diesel guzzlers and called their use in the country "criminal".

If you are seriously concerned about wastage of energy, you would fix the roads and the traffic chaos first. Bad roads and choked traffic cause even tiny Marutis to waste enormous amounts of fuel. You cannot drive 25 metres in Nude Elly without having to change gears thrice. Just as land is a DDA monopoly, so also roads are a State monopoly. Both are therefore being "undersupplied" to benefit the monopolist State and its functionaries. India's roads and highway system - a State monopoly - causes a huge amount of energy wastage. When I drive the 35 km stretch between south Goa and my nearest city on the National Highway #17, I encounter at least 25 speed-breakers each way. Some positivist ought to measure how much fuel is wasted because of the speed-breakers and pot holes all over the country's highways.

I have another report on what the Communist MP Sitaram Yechury said in another seminar in another city. For example, this commie called for:

a powerful people’s movement against this crass consumeristic culture unleashed by market forces...

Yechuri studied his communist theories in Nude Elly's Jawaharlal Nehru University in the good old days when everyone worked and the shop-shelves were all empty - as were the streets. If you really "care" for the working classes, do you not feel happy when they consume better in exchange for their hard work? Why do people labour? - if not for the sake of enjoying whatever fruit that labour yields. Consumption is the purpose of production. The word "crass" means "vulgar." These union bosses want higher wages, but oppose "wage goods" as vulgar!

Not much difference between the minister, Pachauri, Ramesh, and Yechury- all a bunch of commies.

What is decidedly dangerous is what the minister is aiming at, which Pachuri, an intellectual bodyguard of The State, is strongly supporting:

"It is high time the society steps in and puts certain regulations on shopping malls which are energy guzzlers," Roy said.

Society never steps in anywhere; society is just a myth. Parliament will step in and pass Legislation - and then armies of baboos will step in, all answerable to this minister, and to all his successors - these self-styled "representatives of society." This is the root of all the "delegated totalitarianism" I wrote about yesterday, which connects bureaucracy with democracy in totalitarian states. This is precisely how Jairam Ramesh's baboos in Goa are going about "implementing" the Coastal Regulatory Zone Act - an invasion of Private Property I wrote about the other day.

The minister should be told to disabuse himself of the notion that private citizens and businessmen are in the habit of wasting energy - or anything else. On the contrary, it is The State that wastes, and wastes, and wastes. In the energy business, all the electricity companies monopolistically owned by our The State "waste" trillions of rupees of our money every year. Because of erratic electricity, all of us "waste" trillions on inverters, generators, UPS systems etc. Such regulations as the minister and his ally Pachauri desire will waste time and human energy.

Notice how statists of all hues inevitably turn into totalitarians, hungry for power. Commies!

My message to these 4 Idiots is:

1. Get our The State out of the energy business.

2. Get our The State to fix the roads and regulate traffic - not business.

3. Get out of the highway business.

4. Get out - period.


Quite frankly, I don't know what exactly a "vulgar display of wealth" is. If you've got it and you flaunt it, who is a minister to complain about your aesthetics?

What I find offensive are "vulgar displays of power" - like the 12-car motorcades of our socialist ministers, complete with "commandos" openly carrying machine-guns. How much energy does that guzzle?

Choose Between Property And Legislation

The Coastal Regulation Zone Act, passed by a socialist Parliament in Nude Elly, a city over 2000 miles from any beach, effectively hands over ownership of every Indian beach to our The State. With this Act, passed on "environmental" grounds, building and construction 500m from the tideline have become "State business" - not the business of the respective Property owners. Like all socialist legislation, this too is violative of Private Property.

Where I live in South Goa, the CRZ Act has meant that poor people who "own" traditional cottages on the shore cannot obtain the Capital value of their properties. Shacks on the beach are allotted annually through auctions - and the structures allowed to be built are by force "temporary." According to this article I just found in Tehelka, the Goa hotel industry is suffering because of all the bureaucracy and red-tape "empowered" by this Act.

The first question to ask is: Who owns the Property on the beach?

The second question is: How can the coastline be "protected" from environmental damage? The waves of the ocean cause constant erosion - and nothing can stop that. Because of erosion there is sand - and the rocks on the shoreline are rounded and smooth. What is so horrible about buildings on the shore - like Mumbai's Marine Drive?

This "environmental protection" on the part of our The State is nothing but a new kind of "permit raj" purporting to serve some "public interest." Note that the "environmental permit" has been enthusiastically granted to a huge nuclear power plant bang on the Konkan Coast, just miles north of Goa. Meanwhile, away from the coast, in all the verdant hills of the Western Ghats that are "unowned" - and hence State property by default - the red mud of iron ore is being dug out and exported. And if someone wants to build a casino atop a hill he is being told that his casino can only be established aboard a ship floating on the sea!

Property is the "name of the game" called Capitalism.

Socialism - the very anti-thesis of Property - is nothing but "legal plunder." It seeks to loot the property owner, not protect him.

We in India must choose between these two ideologies.

We Don't Need Jairam Ramesh

As a libertarian, I have been a long-time critic of the Ministry of Environment & Forests. Our forests, of course, are disappearing under their control; and as for the people who live in these forests, the denizens of this ministry are their sworn enemies - otherwise there would be no Maoists and Naxalites. As far as "environmental clearances" are concerned, I have always viewed them as a new form of the "license-permit raj" - and I fail to see what good they can do when all our cities and towns are dirty and full of disease.

My views have only been confirmed during my recent years in Goa - where the poor people on the coastline possess no rights to their ancestral Property because of environmental legislation from Nude Elly: the Coastal Zone Regulation Act. There is constant erosion on the shoreline - no one can stop it - and all that this nasty piece of legislation does is empower a corrupt bureaucracy. Whereas fisherfolk who "own" beachside property all along our 2500-mile coastline could have been rich beyond belief, this evil anti-property legislation keeps them poor - permanently. And Jairam Ramesh, our current central minister of environment and forests is on record lambasting real estate development on the Goa coastline. Meanwhile, they allow mining all along the coast. And Jairam Ramesh has personally approved of the Jaitapur nuclear power plant on the Konkan Coast just north of Goa - on which I have just commented.

I wonder what would have become of him in Florida or California. But then Ramesh is not really a "politician" - if you read what Wikipedia reveals about him you will discover that he is just another backroom boy of the CONgress party, a wheeler-dealer, and only a Rajya Sabha member of Parliament. He represents "interests" - not "people."

I was particularly horrified when Jairam Ramesh declared SUV owners "criminals" the other day. In my book, those who design and build our roads are the real criminals - and SUVs are a lifeline for all who can afford them. Would you like to go back to the bad old days when all you could buy for off-roading was a Mahindra jeep with three gears?

Jairam Ramesh is playing to the environmental gallery - and this is a great big global gallery. This is a New Religion that worships Nature and hates Man. In India, they are made up of city-dwellers. We are extremely fortunate that our rural masses and forest-dwellers don't buy this bull.

Jairam Ramesh is very much in the news these days because of the "climate change" nonsense going on in Cancun, Mexico. Quite frankly, I don't trust weather forecasts of even the day ahead - so what to speak of 100 years hence. Anyway, it has already been proved beyond doubt that the "science" supporting Al Gore and RK Pachauri is totally false. To me, these global "clubs" of governments are always anti-people, and must be distrusted - like the World Bank or the IMF. If their ideas are put into effect, our poor people will never be able to avail of modern energy. Throughout India, women can be seen carrying firewood. Throughout India, one of the biggest health hazards facing poor people is smoke inhaled from indoor wood-burning stoves. In Cancun, they are not solving the energy needs of poor people today. That, in any case, cannot be accomplished by a club of governments. This can only be accomplished by competing private energy suppliers in a free market. In Cancun, they are busy trying to solve "climate problems" of the very distant future - and these, in my view, are all "imaginary problems."

Fortunately, I am not alone in this opinion. I am joined by Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, who has penned this powerful article against the global, governmental, environmental agenda - the people who are now meeting in Cancun. But he does better than that - for he equates them with the "save the tiger" freaks. Barun argues that the tiger can only be saved by The Market - and the right to Property. In the same vein, he argues that the real energy problems of poor people in poor nations can only be solved by The Market - and not by the politicians and bureaucrats meeting in Cancun. His conclusion is apt, and to the point:

It is the economics of development that should determine the climate of politics, rather than the other way round. It is only with economic development that environmental quality will improve as well.

This is so very true! The Soviet Union was the world's biggest environmental disaster. Rich countries boast great environmental quality - clean cities and towns, well looked after forests, clean lakes and rivers, great beaches (with fancy real estate on them). The air in London is cleaner than the air in Nude Elly. So, do read Barun's great piece.

We don't need the ministry of environment and forests in Nude Elly, and its minister, Jairam Ramesh, who is supported by a bunch of bureaucrats and all the crazies from Pachauri's TERI.

We need economic development - and that can only come from The Market.

Predatory State Writ Large

The central government's ministry of environment has given its clearance for the setting up of a nuclear power plant in Jaitapur, Maharashtra, on the Konkan Coast. This is an ecologically sensitive area, with fragile bio-diversity. Jaitapur is close to Ratnagiri, where the world-famous Alfonso mangoes come from. A nuclear accident here would be an unmitigated disaster - affecting even Goa, which lies a little south. It is also a fact that Parliament has passed legislation to the effect that, in case of nuclear accidents, liabilities will be "limited." So, if Ratnagiri mangoes and Goan tourism are wiped out, no one will bear responsibility.

But is a nuclear accident possible?

First: If such an accident was impossible, why would Parliament be so keen to pass legislation limiting liability - and why would the suppliers of equipment insist on such legislation? Indeed, such legislation provides them with the incentive to supply sub-standard equipment.

Second: The news report on the environmental clearance for the Jaitapur nuclear power plant contains this chilling sentence:

Jairam Ramesh, central environment minister, "pointed out that his ministry has no jurisdiction over radiology emission — a major concern among locals and environmentalists."

I also found this statement nonsensical:

"We need to change our fuel mix as 35 per cent of our carbon dioxide emissions come from electricity,” said Ramesh.

According to me, what we in India need to do urgently is change our electricity supplier - from The State to private businessmen. Let these private businessmen decide on the fuel. And let there be full liabilities in case of accidents - thereby giving them the incentive to take full precautions.

When I was in Mangalore many years ago, I was pleased to find that a barge-mounted power plant had come up on the sea, built and operated by a private company, using naptha (or was it gas?) as fuel. This is the way to proceed - especially in this ecologically sensitive Konkan Coast. If barge-mounted power plants become the norm, there would be no need for what the Maharashtra government has just announced: that "a group of ministers was working on the compensation package for the 2,335 farmers who are expected to be affected by the project." 2,335 farmers means more than 10,000 individuals if we include their families - and many thousands of hectares of precious land. This is, once again, a violation of Property.

The news on television mentioned that this nuclear power plant was being hurriedly cleared with an eye on President Sarkozy's visit to India - as this plant is to be built by the French company Areva.

This is a very big black mark on the CONgress-led government of Chacha Manmohan. His emphasis on nuclear power plants operated by The State is flagrantly anti-people - and anti-business as well. It is also anti-growth - because chronic power shortages are crippling economic activity throughout this vast sub-continent. Privatisation of power ought to have been top priority.

I found another black mark against Chacha's government this morning, in this editorial in Mint, which comments on his management of State finances. I quote:

The second supplementary demand for grants, tabled in Parliament in this session, when combined with the first one, pushes up the government’s spending plans by Rs74,400 crore, close to 1.1% of GDP, roughly 7% higher than the original budget. Much of this expenditure is on account of food and fertilizer subsidies, oil under-recoveries, defence and internal security expenditures. This spending will practically wipe out all the surplus revenue garnered from the 3G spectrum auction. In effect, recurring expenses have been met by the sale of a one-off item. There are plans to fund future expenditures of this kind by selling the government’s stake in public sector undertakings.

As the italicised portion in the quote above shows, our The State is WASTING the money it has received from the 3G auction - and it is this that should be considered a scandal. The huge amounts 3G operators have had to pay for spectrum is affecting consumers, who have to pay more for 3G services: lose-lose. Further, the manner in which 3G revenue has been wasted indicates that the "corruption" in 2G spectrum allocation was a "good thing" - for private businessmen saved money that The State would have wasted anyway. This ToI blog post by Rajeev Mantri echoes my sentiments.

Whereas Chacha Manmohan's record in misgovernment speaks loudly for itself, I found Ratan Tata's endorsement of his premiership most surprising. In this long interview, one that was broadcast on TV yesterday, here is what the chairman of the Tata Group said of Manmohan:

...he [Manmohan Singh] is a tremendously good man, we’re very lucky to have a prime minister like him.… he is one person who is truly above the allegations that have been thrown at him, a person who we are very lucky to have because it is his face that has been the face of a transforming India. And it is this person who has commanded the respect of leaders in major countries.

Let us now turn our attention to how poor people and very small entrepreneurs view our The State. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, editor of Mint, has written a brief column on this today, from which I quote below:

The poor live with corruption as a fact of life. Almost every transaction they have with the Indian state involves payment of a bribe. The Indian chapter of Transparency International published a study in 2008 on corruption faced by below poverty line (BPL) households across the country. Eleven government services were rated according to the prevalence of corruption. Transparency International points out that the highest corruption is in need-based services that are monopolies (police) or involve asset creation (land records or housing).

Rajadhyaksha calls for police reforms and computerisation of land records. I would have preferred the words Liberty and Property. That is - not "police reform" but "constitutional reform."

Thus, to me, there is no doubt about it. Ours is indeed a Predatory State. Even the ministry of environment is a predator. If "environmental clearances" have to be given, these should come from local institutions - and not the central State.

To poor people, the police and the land administration are predators.

We Indians must think of another way - Liberty, Property, Localism, Catallaxies.

India's Urban Future - On The Coasts

Met some guys from Delhi (and Gurgaon) yesterday, and we recounted the horrors of urban India in today's times: the chaotic traffic; the overcrowding; the terrible housing etc. During the discussions, I pointed out that if you drive out of Delhi - on the Gurgaon-Faridabad road, the Rohtak road, the road to Sonepat, or Meerut, or Agra - you witness the fact that there is an abundance of land, but this has not been colonised by roads. The State is a monopolist of both urban land (DDA) as well as roads - and it is this misuse of power that is responsible for the mess. I pointed out that it was indeed strange that, in New Delhi, the centre of town consists of colonial bungalows occupying one-acre plots, while 30 km away, in Gurgaon, the middle class lives cheek-by-jowl in a swarm of high-rise apartment blocks. We talked about how things are much worse in the other four "metros." I then made some points, which I will summarise in brief below.

First, that it is the "artificial order" of State controls that has made two land-locked cities - Delhi and Bangalore - the fastest-growing in India. In a free trading "natural order," all the action would be on our twin coasts, which is precisely what happened in the times of the East India Company.

Second, as far as the State and its "central planners" are concerned, the much hyped Golden Quadrilateral highway project remains mired in a 5-city vision. These highways will only serve to link the existing metros.

Third, the Konkan Coast between Mumbai and Mangalore is possessed of the potential for the building of many new cities and towns. This area has historically been a region of sea-borne trade. Yet, all the ports here are nowadays engaged solely in iron ore exports - with no imports. Further, the hills are bereft of human settlements - and, all this "unowned" land being State Property by default, what is happening is iron ore mining, and not Property. I think the "environment" would be better looked after if humans built settlements on the hills, rather than the State digging up the ground to export red mud, as at present. This is a region blessed by Nature, simply beautiful, and the weather is great too - unlike Delhi. We could "live" in this environment, instead of just digging it up.

The East Coast too is possessed of similar urban potential.

There are a few things that will have to be done to see that a new urban India is built along these twin coastlines.

First, we will require twin coastal expressways. The Golden Quadrilateral project ignores the coasts. The highway on the West Coast is a disaster. It is no wonder that I regularly see the trains of the Konkan Railway carrying fully-laden trucks up and down the coast! This RO-RO facility for trucks is a big money-spinner for the railway. This is proof that private businessmen can profitably build good highways in this region, charging tolls.

Second, we must institute a policy of unilateral free trade. This will unleash the economy, spur urbanisation, and also bring business to the private highway developers. Win-win-win.

Third, we can experiment on the ways in which these new cities and towns are administered. There can be elected Mayors. There can be private "company towns" run by the private companies that establish these - as in the cities built by the East India Company. There can be "city manager" systems. As long as these cities compete for citizens and Property owners, things will work out fine. In the 5 metros, each a thousand miles or more from the other, there is "monopoly." There are DDA-clones in each of them. Thus, there are land scandals galore.

In the meantime, the political news from our country is instructive in one way - that we must think of a way out of State control. Free trade and free cities and towns, linked by private highways, offer that way out.

On Scarcity... And Abundance

I discussed some of the differences between the natural world of "biological competition" and the free market's "catallactic competition" in my post of yesterday. Today, I shall continue on the same theme, and discuss yet another important difference between the jungle and the urban catallaxy.

The world of nature, characterized by pitiless "biological competition" and the "survival of the fittest," is so because of the simple fact that all resources are strictly limited by nature itself. On the other hand, what characterizes Man in the market order is that he is a "producer." The market order is about "production" and "exchange" - and we are all producers first. Each participant in the market catallaxy produces a "surplus" above his needs - and all these surpluses are bought by the same people in their capacity as consumers. Thus, the resources available for consumption far exceed what niggardly nature would have produced. The best example is chicken.

Not very long ago, before the advent of modern poultry farming, chicken was a rare and special treat in Indian homes. Today, we have chicken coming out of our ears - it is abundant. This is not chicken supplied by Nature; rather, this is chicken we have "produced" through farming. In the jungle, we all would have to hunt chicken - to extinction. Now, because of the market, chicken will never become extinct. Farming is good for endangered species. Ostrich, crocodiles and even the tiger (in China) are surviving well because of farming.

Thus, whereas nature has been niggardly, and only the fittest survive there, the urban catallaxy has literally poured the fabled "horn of plenty" onto mankind. There is scarcity, of course, because of nature, and all "economic goods" are so because of natural scarcity, but what the market economy does is create conditions of abundance. The needs satisfied by modern markets far exceed what could be extracted from nature by primitive man. In all "developed" nations, agriculture is just a small fraction of the overall economy - and, it is noteworthy that we now have a "leisure industry" larger than the food industry. Tourism is the world's biggest industry.

Modern capitalism is "mass production for mass consumption." This is what has dramatically improved the conditions of the masses in the West - they succeeded as consumers. In the market system of "production" and "exchange" the production part is the "disutility." The real "utility" comes from the goods we purchase after selling what we have produced. Consumption is the goal of all our efforts. And it is here that we need modern Capitalism and unilaterall free trade. This is especially important for the masses and the workers - the social classes whose cause our socialists profess to champion.

Recommended readings:

1. Frederic Bastiat's essay "Scarcity and Abundance" available here. Bastiat shows how governments that support producers create scarcity; whereas if all economic policy favoured consumers, there would be abundance.

2. There is also a published debate between Julian Simon and the environmentalist Norman Myers titled Scarcity or Abundance? that is truly worth reading. Simon establishes the case that the planet Earth is a huge place, that all "natural resources" are abundant in the catallactic sense, and that the environmentalists' who spread fears of the earth "running out" of everything because of human "overpopulation" have got their facts wrong. Simon, of course, is the author of The Ultimate Resource, which first established the fact that the human mind is the most precious resource we have. It is this mind that seeks out and makes available all the "natural resources." You are a possessor of one such mind. Take good care of it.

Interventionism For The Environment

Why do politicians the world over love environmentalists and hate libertarians? Why is environmentalism taught in schools and libertarianism never? If you carefully look into the reasons behind this phenomenon, you will find that politicians and bureaucrats hate libertarians because libertarians wants to cut back the State, get rid of arbitrary powers, abolish many taxes and so on. Libertarians talk and write about all the wrongs the State does to human society.

Now look at environmentalists. They hate human beings – the “population problem.” They see all human activity as a threat to the world – and they call upon the State to fix things. As with “global warming” and “climate change” – the environmentalists have thought of a new tax, the “carbon tax.” No wonder Al Gore loves to be an environmentalist.

Next: look at the different “utopias” of libertarians and environmentalists. Libertarians idealise the most perfect freedom. Environmentalists idealise “pristine” Nature. They are all from cities – but they love the jungle. They love beasts – the tigers and the elephants – and never consider what life must be like for someone who lives near wild elephants and tigers. These forest-dwellers are enemies of the environmentalist. Their greatest friends are the State forest guards – the very people the forest-dwellers hate.

Environmentalists are therefore enemies of Man, enemies of Freedom, and friends of the State. This should always be borne in mind. They are all “watermelons”: green outside, but red inside.

This is not to say that libertarians are against the conservation of nature and energy. But the approaches chosen by the libertarian are very different from those of the environmentalist. To the libertarian, forests and wildlife are best conserved (and trees are best looked after) under a system of Private Property. Environmentalists want the State to take over the forests and wildlife (and minerals). Their policy prescriptions are the root cause of Maoism. It is they who murdered Veerappan, who could have well been a sandalwood farmer. In Goa, every beach belongs to the State because of the environmentalists: the Coastal Zone Regulation Act passed by a Parliament 2000 miles away from the coast!

As for conservation of energy: libertarians believe man naturally conserves energy if market prices hold sway. We buy fuel-efficient cars to conserve petrol. We stitch off lights, fans and air-conditioners when we leave the house. We turn off the taps.

On this score, too, the environmentalists suggest strong State action. In India, they want to BAN ordinary filament bulbs in order to FORCE all the people to buy expensive, new-fangled fluorescent lamps. Truly laughable in a poor country. Do not forget that Laloo Yadav’s electoral symbol is the kerosene lantern, far more energy inefficient than Edison’s bulb.

Thus, environmentalists want to impose heavy taxes on certain sources of energy in order to promote “clean” energy – that which is still not “economically feasible.” No wonder the State loves them and hates us.

Environmentalism is thus a new sort of Interventionism that has been sanctioned by gullible public opinion. It is this opinion that must be changed. In the final analysis, what the public must consider is this: Do you love human beings? Or do you love the State? In India, at least, the answer should be obvious. In India, environmentalism should be thoroughly rejected in favour of the idea that human beings are the “ultimate resource”; that Liberty from the State is what we all need; that cities are our natural environment; and that jungles should belong to those who live there.

Finally, it must be noted that Nature is a merciless enemy of man. My garden would be overrun by weeds and bugs if I did not protect it from nature. The history of civilization (cities) is but a story of man’s conquest over the forces of nature.

Even pretty birds are a threat to man. Notice the scarecrows on every farmer’s field. Yes, look at scarecrows most carefully next time you see one. They tell a story about the romantic delusions of environmentalism.

[This is the concluding post of a 5-part series on Interventionism. To read the others, click on the label "Interventionism" on the right-hand bar.]