Egotism ....a lifelong romance

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Into that heaven of Freedom my father, let my country awake

Only this time round, it's freedom from the Permit-Raj.

If there were a time when economic freedom for India seemed more important than ever before, it is now. And who better than a Cambridge trained economist who comes closest to my definition of an Indian libertarian holding political office.

About a decade ago, I remember watching with a great sense of appall, his almost anarchic liberalization of economy. But of course, back then I was an ill-informed, idealistic, die-hard Marxist.

Ten years and two Ayn Rands later, I am older and wiser. *grin*

And I couldn’t choose a better time to say this. Outsourcing, I think, is one of the best examples of a free market economy-the rich growing richer and the poor becoming richer- in essence, the monies multiplying.

India excels simply because it has all the makings of a skilled and educated workforce.
And the US gains cause its putting it’s money in the right place (literally!).

Anarcho capitalist? So be it. Imperialist Capitalism. Couldn’t get better!

Those are, after all, the ideals that capitalism is based on. The rich and the successful are the power players. Reason why the US outsources to India. Also the reason why it invades Iraq.

Manmohan Singh’s ideology of “get the government off peoples’ backs”, his simplification of taxes and minimizing of regulations is exactly what the country needs right now.

Let’s begin to 'ask not what your country can do for you, but what it should not do to you' (with all due apologies to John Kennedy).

De-centralize and privatize should be the mantra of a Singh-led Congress party. At this stage of a flourishing economy, it sure could work some wonders.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

btw, singh's first declaration is that he's going to stop privatisation of PSU's...so much for decentralisation

Anonymous said...

yeah, one of the many unfortunate consequences of coalition governments, i guess...

Anonymous said...

Iraq invasion...wellll...I guess what else can a xenophobic government do?
Outsourcing is fine. The sad part is, even people like the republican Paul O'Neill -- once US treasury secretary, and perhaps the likes of whom the government is now missing -- had to pay "the price of loyalty" (his book in which he supposedly tells the inside story) for his "un-republican" stance on the Iraq invasion.
Moral of the story: The rich and the successful are justified to outsource, but when it comes to invading countries and killing helpless people, plain psychosis is the only justification I can think of.

Karthika said...

sure, but you cant cherry-pick what they can or cannot do. if it's in their best interests they are going to do it. would i give up economic liberalization to the very real possibility of unchecked power by a super-power?

i dont think so...