Today marks the end of 10 years of this blog and the first day of the second decade of “Atanu Dey on India’s Development.” On Sept 12th, 2003, I had started this blog with the first post “Inspiration“.
Today is also the start of the first step in “Transforming India.” Not too shabby, if you ask me. Good luck to us all.
Wanted to wish you all a quick happy Ganesh Chaturthi. I have to run for a talk at the Center for Civil Society in New Delhi right now but later in the day I will do my traditional post on Ganesh. See Ganesh in Ireland for now.
Let me tell you a funny story about young Albert and Wallace the lion. The final lines of the poem surprisingly express a profound economic truth which gets too often ignored by government officials. As it happens, we can learn quite a bit if we care to look below the surface of simple tales. So here’s the story.
We all know that politicians by and large are corrupt. They steal from the public by a variety of means, ranging from kickbacks on purchases (defense equipment is a favorite) to allocation of scarce resources (radio spectrum and land are examples.) But as I have argued before on this blog, public corruption is a consequence of government control of the economy which is mandated by Nehruvian socialism. Being in control of the economy is hugely privately profitable. The profits from public office are well publicized. That’s one side of the equation of profit and loss. What about the loss?
The topic is “Comprehensive Freedom and Economic Prosperity.” I will post the presentation and if I get a good audio recording, perhaps that too.
Like last year in September, I am once again in Bangalore. Once again I am going to be speaking at Infosys on Wednesday. This week’s presentation (not yet composed) will be on the relationship between positive rights, freedom and prosperity. These are some of my thoughts related to last year’s presentation.
Robert Lucas Jr, Nobel laureate pondered India’s lack of economic prosperity and asked, “Is there some action a government of India could take that would lead the Indian economy to grow . . . ? If so, what exactly? If not, what is it about the “nature of India” that makes it so? The consequences for human welfare involved in questions like these are simply staggering: once one starts to think about them, it is hard to think about anything else.”
Source: On the Mechanics of Economic Development. Journal of Monetary Economics. July 1988. Read more at the Library of Economics and Liberty.
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 