Jayant Bhandari in Liberty Unbound:
“Now, as I travel through India’s smaller towns and villages, I gather many impressions, both of change and of continuity.
I stay in rooms that cost me $2 a day, and purchase all-you-can-eat food for 50 cents. I pay my driver the princely sum of $7 a day. To Westerners, these prices will appear astonishingly low, but inflation of food prices in India is close to 20%. Food is very expensive for regular folks, and speculators are being blamed. I am constantly amazed that there is never any mention of the fact that the Indian government still runs one of the most efficient printing presses in the world — printing money, of course. The only thing that limits inflation is the high rate of real economic growth. Yet the Indian government is getting extremely addicted to increasing expenditures. The government’s fiscal deficit is about 12% of GDP. To me this is like addiction to heroin. What will happen if the growth rate falters?
In an isolated place, a woman sells me a 15-kilogram bag of fruit for a total of 60 cents — fruit worth about $15 in Bhopal. Her companions think she’s won a lottery. These wretched women chase me and beg me to buy some from them. I feel sorry for the little girl who had tears in her eyes. Yet I am repelled by the fact that so many Indians easily grovel and beg. The worst is when well-off people do this. A visit to a government office in India is essential if you want to understand the degradation that the Indian public accepts even today.
I meet the top management of a company constructing a major highway. The highway was deemed uneconomical, so the government and the company agreed that they would use eminent domain to confiscate a lot more land than was necessary from the farmers, at 5% of the market value. The extra land would be converted into condos or commercial space. The poor people would subsidize development. Why should they subsidize the development of the country? This is socialism in practice, although the farmers are branded communists when they rebel. Meanwhile people in the West believe there is something romantic about poverty — a view that is not only hypocritical but pathetically wrong..…”
This is very interesting. I was just telling a friend yesterday that I believe the reason the people here are so friendly,
layed back, and non aggressive is because of the long history of socialism. In the countries where I have lived and worked
where the governments did virtually nothing for the people the people were more independent, ambitious, and aggressive. When
you know you are getting no help from your government, you go about the job of surviving on your own and try to avoid contact
with the government as much as possible. Three examples of this are Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras. These are
the countries where I had the best employees. They had never had help and did not expect any. On the other hand in
socialized countries or countries that have been influenced by socialized countries the people are used to and expect to be
supported at some level. As the old Marley song says, “A hungry man is an angry man”. If the government can at least feed
the people, it can retain some level of control. Examples of this are Cayman and Belize (influenced by Britain) and Panama
(influenced by the usa). In these countries it is extremely difficult to be an employer because the employees have an
expectation of entitlement. I have seen the same change in the usa from the 50’s where people were independent and ambitious
to today where virtually everyone expects to be and is supported at some level by the government. It sounds like the same
thing happened in India thanks to the British influence.
Hi Barry –
I don’t know that you can fault the British for the amount of begging in India. I haven’t studied the matter, so this is just an off the cuff remark, of course, but I think that has more to do with religion.
I think that all kinds of swamis and sadhus have an honored place in Indian society, where non-action or meditation is accorded a higher philosophical position than action (not in the Gita, but elsewhere). So, of course, you get plenty of charlatans who pretend to be swamis who do nothing but claim their support from the community on the grounds of their being religious mendicants. That sets a negative example for other beggars.
Then, there is a high level of crime which makes use of begging….gangs kidnap young children, maim them, and set them to beg. Because the children are mutilated, it’s hard not to feel sorry and give money, but actually that’s what incentivizes the gangs to kidnap in the first place.
My personal insight into this is that we in India have not protected private property strongly enough. Laws are on the side of tenants versus landlords, for instance. When property laws are not iron-clad, then the incentive to work or invest and make money is reduced. People find it easier to extort through bribery or through aggressive panhandling.
There has to be a clear link between work, value, and reward….when that link is broken, as in the US now for instance, the civic bond – the trust between people – is broken – they won’t work, because they know work is overtaxed and that you can do better not working.
When people don’t work, then they become wards of the state, or look to gambling – casino capitalism – to enrich them. Either way, the real economy comes to a standstill.
I was reading Gary North the other day and he wrote no one is translating Mises for an audience in India… are you going to be a part of something like that? It just seemed like your kind of deal, especially after what you just wrote, seems they could use the info over there,… don’t know how much good it would do or not, but…
People treating people worse than animals, more like plants… those gangs kidnapping children and… wow, I didn’t know about that tactic.
Hi Clark..
I think Indians are natural libertarians, despite the country’s socialist past….
Everything there is all about “me and my family” – the heck with society.
But I do believe if property rights were more protected, civic consciousness and respect for “the other” might grow.
But which comes first, I am not entirely sure…I honestly don’t think libertarianism works in societies where fundamental ethical principles aren’t held to…
Here too, I see that ethics has been destroyed in many ways and that’s why I don’t see libertarianism lasting very long here, either…it will inevitably devolve into criminality that will need a despot or a police state to control. But Ron Paul’s popularity with young people argues against me…so let’s hope I’m all wrong on that.
Re the criminality in India…it sounds much worse than anything in the west..because conditions are much worse and more extreme. But honestly, you can read about similar things here too…there’s a flourishing sex-slave trade in the US, for example. It’s just much more hidden and there is far more social support for victims..
The murder rate in the US is higher (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita)…the US is about 24th in the world, for per capita murder, India is about 26th
And you know, there is a higher level of rape…
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap_percap-crime-rapes-per-capita
(the US is 9th whereas India is 56th)
As for kidnappings, it’s the UK at the top of the list, and India isn’t even on the list.
On the list for overall crime, out of 60 countries tabulated, the US is at number 9, whereas India is 59, with only Yemen lower down…
(There may be some underreporting of rape for cultural reasons, although I’m not sure that’s factored into these statistics)
Remember, India has well over a billion people (four times more than the US), in an area that’s only about the size of a few American states…
Child beggars
Mutilated child beggars in India
In India thousands of children are being mutilated annually. The joints of their bones get injected with bleach. Infection is the result and amputation follows. Eyes are stuck out as well.
Afterwards, the children are sent out on the streets where they have to beg for money, 15 hours a day or more. The proceeds of the begging goes to the torturers, which are organised gangs specialised in mutilation and exploitation of defenceless children.
Visibly deformed children invoke pity and sympathy, and thus these children are lucrative beggars. Especially western tourists appear to be sensitive; they give money generously. Therefore, tourism is one of the most important causes for the growth of this horrible practice.
Fear and subjugation
The child beggars are kidnapped as a baby or a kid. Often they are bought from very poor parents by false promising. Hereafter the new ‘owners’, mostly the gang leaders, mutilate the children with possible help from corrupt physicians.
As soon as the wounds get healed, the lame child is sent out on the street. To struggle means to get maltreated. Especially the threat of further mutilation appeals to enormous fear and subjugation. This is why the children beg for seven days a week, especially at the places which are visited by tourists. During the day you will find the children close to hotels, souvenir shops and tourist sights. In the evening they go to expensive restaurants and nightclubs. Although tens of thousands of children must suffer this horrible fate, perpetrators rarely get arrested.
Chase for new victims
These gangs exploiting children are well organised and have hardly anything to fear from local authorities. Their activities are extremely lucrative; the gang leaders make use of many dealers who strip the country for new children.
Nevertheless the gang leaders present themselves as ‘benefactors’, who take care of disabled children and who provide them with food, beverage and accommodation.
How can you help the Indian child beggars?
Do not give any money
At the advise of well informed local aid organisations we inform Dutch tourists in India and Bangladesh not to give any money to deformed child beggars. The children do not receive a penny of it.
How can you help the Indian child beggars?
Do not give any money
That is some tough love… hard to see any other way though. Kind of like with relatives, don’t give them any money, but maybe offer a meal, a bath and a place to sleep?
What happens two weeks later though?
While reading this, I kept thinking of the ivory trade for some reason, how, isn’t it somewhat government caused and such? Outlawing ivory raises the price making the problem worse, the solution is to legalize the ivory trade and encourage elephant farming? How that is similar to the chicklet beggers in India I don’t know,… I doubt there’s a minimum wage there making things worse. Hmmm, tough puzzle.
“…I honestly don’t think libertarianism works in societies where fundamental ethical principles aren’t held to…”
What *would* work without fundamental ethical principles? Is it that, when such a condition exists, a slide into a fascists vampire economy complete with vampire-acting citizenry is unavoidable? I suspect that’s what you meant by, “…devolve into criminality that will need a despot or a police state to control.”
The young people (the population larger than the Boomer generation?) it’s all theirs it seems via that whole “Fourth Turning” event and everything. And here I am stuck in the middle…