Congress president Rahul Gandhi Monday pledged to give Rs 12,000 per month to every family in India if the Congress is voted to power in the 2019 elections.
The biggest problem with such ideas taking center stage in India’s political economy is that it distracts attention from the more pressing task at hand — creating high-quality jobs.
The last time this matter flared up was when Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, in a very similar directive in April, called for the relocation of stray dogs in the capital.
Finance ministry says the proposed revamp will focus on structural reforms, rate rationalisation & ease of living, & will be deliberated upon in the coming weeks.
The project is meant to be a ‘protective shield that will keep expanding’, the PM said. It is on the lines of the ‘Golden Dome’ announced by Trump, it is learnt.
Now that both IAF and PAF have made formal claims of having shot down the other’s aircraft in the 87-hour war in May, we can ask a larger question: do such numbers really matter?
Now to those bleeding hearts who are crying about the financing of such an arrangement – the easiest financing option is that the top 10% families sacrifice about Rs. 144K per annum for the bottom 20% families so that the bottom 20% can get INR 72K per annum for a few years till the bottom 20% gets to feed themselves, educate their children and starts to become more self-sufficient. It would not be more than 20 years. Is that a big deal in a country where we have more than one multi-billionaires? It is a ‘sacrifice’ that would not hurt the top 10% or jeopardise the future of their children. Combine it with the public investment (and not make education so expensive that even an upper middle income fellow has to take loan to educate a child – not even two children) in quality of education, better sanitation in slums and poor population areas (not the redevelopment schemes of different coloured politicians) and public investment in primary health care (not PPPs of Gujarat and Punjab kind), we will be done in less than a generation. I have seen that happen and that is what businessmen like Mr Murthy have been telling us that they come from very middle income families and have become billionaires in less than a generation. We don’t have to worry about the poor becoming even millionaire. it is enough if they can feed and educate their children and remain healthy. We can achieve this, if our politicians and their cronies stop stealing and we stop worshiping ‘thugs’ who are pretending to be reincarnation of our gods.
15 lakh in every body’s account. Modi couldn’t fulfill it and he will be thrown out this time. If Rahul Gandhi cannot fulfill his promise he will be thrown out the next time. But the initial reactions to the promise of 72000 per year suggest that now people are afraid that Rahul Gandhi will definitely implement it. I welcome the promise. That money will be used by the poorest for food and education. Will it not give a boost to the economy?
Absolutely, Govind. It is indeed expected to help the economy grow. The poor will definitely spend on basic needs. Since the government does not produce goods and services for various basic needs, the spending will, of course, help private enterprise as well as our fat cat corporate honchos who have no problem in lobbying with the government for producer subsidies – SEZ has turned out to be one of the biggest rackets of all times. The same fat cats lobby for tax breaks of all kinds, but have problems if the government offers a helping hand for the poor. The idea that people will stop working is the dumbest – how can some one who does not have work (or has no chance of getting work – unemployment at the highest level in 45 years – refuse to work and become lazy? Our biggest failure has been that the large corporates have enjoyed subsidies and have created low quality jobs, at best. The fact is that the large corporates don’t do a lot of work themselves, they outsource and it is MSMEs who do work and create jobs. A large number of low value-adding government jobs have also been outsourced through contractors – who are obviously influential people themselves. our educated become consultants to the government and get paid hefty fees for saying subsidies are bad.
Some of our professors and thinkers have themselves benefitted from subsidies, as they have studied in publicly funded institutions. They would still argue that the poor don’t need the helping hand. I find that to be sickening. I can have the subsidy but not the ones who have no chance in life.
our educated elite and businessmen have become so unthinking that their arguments have become completely predictable. I can save Jet Airways by using public sector funds and public money, but I must not help people who are so disadvantaged that they can’t even afford to feed themselves or their families.
It is like saying that if you give free money, I will build a great business. But if you give to the poor, he/she will become lazy. As if the rich don’t become lazy, if they get free money.
People like Mr Jaitley or Mr Modi will not relate to a person’s life. Mr Jaitley is a successful lawyers after having studied at a publicly funded university and Mr. Modi does videos in fancy dress – exercising in a publicly funded large property in the middle of national capital. The poor must live in slums and their children should die in those slums with water-borne or airborne diseases. Same Mr Modi will spend INR 5000 crore+ on self-promotion and Air India will do ads with his face on the boarding pass, funded with public money.
We will all be told that India will become great now. How, when you have starving people, who have no chance in their life? Ideology must win over empathy, dialogues must win over reality, lies must win over truth – that is the New India where the well-fed intellectuals and darbari media will tell us people will become lazy if they get a chance to feed themselves – sickening at best. Is it not?
On a more somber note, the political class seems to be giving up on unlocking India’s economic potential. If job creation is dismal – in fact, hugely negative – we will offer tiny quotas by way of reservation. If high growth is not pulling ten to fifteen million Indians out of poverty each year, we will go for direct income transfers. Inevitably, this will impact India’s place in the world. We will be bracketed with Pakistan and Bangladesh, not China.
In terms of ordnance, this is Spice 2000. In gentler times, we would have said, Setting the cat among the pigeons. All the channels are covering it. How accurate the GPS coordinates are, how the scheme will be paid for, woh sab baad ki baatein hain. 2. In 1991, Shri Murli Deora, who stood for the Lok Sabha from South Bombay, promised the tenants staying in dilapidated buildings that they would become owners by paying 100 months’ rent to their landlords. The constitutional validity of that scheme has still not been ruled upon by the apex court, but he won the election. In 1995, the Shiv Sena promised four million slum dwellers in Bombay that they would get free houses. It captured Mantralaya, although the scheme for slum redevelopment continues to meander along like a river in its floodplain. 3. Criticism of this promise will have to be muted, nuanced, because the incumbent was equally expansive on the campaign trail five years ago.
Now to those bleeding hearts who are crying about the financing of such an arrangement – the easiest financing option is that the top 10% families sacrifice about Rs. 144K per annum for the bottom 20% families so that the bottom 20% can get INR 72K per annum for a few years till the bottom 20% gets to feed themselves, educate their children and starts to become more self-sufficient. It would not be more than 20 years. Is that a big deal in a country where we have more than one multi-billionaires? It is a ‘sacrifice’ that would not hurt the top 10% or jeopardise the future of their children. Combine it with the public investment (and not make education so expensive that even an upper middle income fellow has to take loan to educate a child – not even two children) in quality of education, better sanitation in slums and poor population areas (not the redevelopment schemes of different coloured politicians) and public investment in primary health care (not PPPs of Gujarat and Punjab kind), we will be done in less than a generation. I have seen that happen and that is what businessmen like Mr Murthy have been telling us that they come from very middle income families and have become billionaires in less than a generation. We don’t have to worry about the poor becoming even millionaire. it is enough if they can feed and educate their children and remain healthy. We can achieve this, if our politicians and their cronies stop stealing and we stop worshiping ‘thugs’ who are pretending to be reincarnation of our gods.
15 lakh in every body’s account. Modi couldn’t fulfill it and he will be thrown out this time. If Rahul Gandhi cannot fulfill his promise he will be thrown out the next time. But the initial reactions to the promise of 72000 per year suggest that now people are afraid that Rahul Gandhi will definitely implement it. I welcome the promise. That money will be used by the poorest for food and education. Will it not give a boost to the economy?
Absolutely, Govind. It is indeed expected to help the economy grow. The poor will definitely spend on basic needs. Since the government does not produce goods and services for various basic needs, the spending will, of course, help private enterprise as well as our fat cat corporate honchos who have no problem in lobbying with the government for producer subsidies – SEZ has turned out to be one of the biggest rackets of all times. The same fat cats lobby for tax breaks of all kinds, but have problems if the government offers a helping hand for the poor. The idea that people will stop working is the dumbest – how can some one who does not have work (or has no chance of getting work – unemployment at the highest level in 45 years – refuse to work and become lazy? Our biggest failure has been that the large corporates have enjoyed subsidies and have created low quality jobs, at best. The fact is that the large corporates don’t do a lot of work themselves, they outsource and it is MSMEs who do work and create jobs. A large number of low value-adding government jobs have also been outsourced through contractors – who are obviously influential people themselves. our educated become consultants to the government and get paid hefty fees for saying subsidies are bad.
Some of our professors and thinkers have themselves benefitted from subsidies, as they have studied in publicly funded institutions. They would still argue that the poor don’t need the helping hand. I find that to be sickening. I can have the subsidy but not the ones who have no chance in life.
our educated elite and businessmen have become so unthinking that their arguments have become completely predictable. I can save Jet Airways by using public sector funds and public money, but I must not help people who are so disadvantaged that they can’t even afford to feed themselves or their families.
It is like saying that if you give free money, I will build a great business. But if you give to the poor, he/she will become lazy. As if the rich don’t become lazy, if they get free money.
People like Mr Jaitley or Mr Modi will not relate to a person’s life. Mr Jaitley is a successful lawyers after having studied at a publicly funded university and Mr. Modi does videos in fancy dress – exercising in a publicly funded large property in the middle of national capital. The poor must live in slums and their children should die in those slums with water-borne or airborne diseases. Same Mr Modi will spend INR 5000 crore+ on self-promotion and Air India will do ads with his face on the boarding pass, funded with public money.
We will all be told that India will become great now. How, when you have starving people, who have no chance in their life? Ideology must win over empathy, dialogues must win over reality, lies must win over truth – that is the New India where the well-fed intellectuals and darbari media will tell us people will become lazy if they get a chance to feed themselves – sickening at best. Is it not?
On a more somber note, the political class seems to be giving up on unlocking India’s economic potential. If job creation is dismal – in fact, hugely negative – we will offer tiny quotas by way of reservation. If high growth is not pulling ten to fifteen million Indians out of poverty each year, we will go for direct income transfers. Inevitably, this will impact India’s place in the world. We will be bracketed with Pakistan and Bangladesh, not China.
In terms of ordnance, this is Spice 2000. In gentler times, we would have said, Setting the cat among the pigeons. All the channels are covering it. How accurate the GPS coordinates are, how the scheme will be paid for, woh sab baad ki baatein hain. 2. In 1991, Shri Murli Deora, who stood for the Lok Sabha from South Bombay, promised the tenants staying in dilapidated buildings that they would become owners by paying 100 months’ rent to their landlords. The constitutional validity of that scheme has still not been ruled upon by the apex court, but he won the election. In 1995, the Shiv Sena promised four million slum dwellers in Bombay that they would get free houses. It captured Mantralaya, although the scheme for slum redevelopment continues to meander along like a river in its floodplain. 3. Criticism of this promise will have to be muted, nuanced, because the incumbent was equally expansive on the campaign trail five years ago.