The poor in India are victims of state indifference and corruption; somewhere between a quarter and a half of all subsidized food meant for them, for example, is stolen by corrupt government officials. And yet if one asks the poor what jobs they would like their children to have the number one answer is to work for the government. (See also my earlier post on Regulation and distrust for a model.)
To the poor the state is both an enemy and a friend. It tantalizes them with a ladder that promises to lift them out of poverty but it habitually kicks them in the teeth when they turn to it for help. It inspires both fear and promise. To India's poor the state is like an abusive father whom you can never abandon. It is through you that his sins are likely to live on.
“And yet”?
Isn’t that kind of obvious, if that’s where more than a quarter of the food ends up?
Isn’t this true for most nations through out history? Farmers, craftsmen, and merchants, and most entrepreneurs not only had to work hard and pay taxes, but were also seen viewed as low status jobs. Courtesans, lawyers, military officers, and all manner of government officials were associated with nobility and/or high status. This is still true in Latin American countries to some extent.
I once took a test for the post office, their were 3 job openings but there must have been close to 1,000 people taking the test. I had gone to an all college prep High school and I saw a few people that I knew for that high school taking the test, they were obviously over qualified and could have been much more productive in some other line of work. Dare I say that few would have said that service at the post office was good. I would say that we have a similar problem to India to a small degree.
Previous comment made me think of investment banking and management consulting.
Wonderful book . The last 4 pages are some of the most enjoyable I have ever read.
However things are increasingly better ( see this week’s TIME article)and there have been significant use of Right to Information type acts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Information_Act ) to shed light on and mitigate some of the corruption
AM : Great comment ; not much difference between AIG and All India Government.
C : Andrew was being sarcastic.
Does india deserve better? a people who keep voting the congress party back to power over and over again in spite of 60 yrs of failure, incompetence, extreme corruption, and mindboggling mismanagement and complete destruction and enslavement of all institutions of governance for the sake of keeping The Family in power have forfeited the right to ask for anything better.
The Left wing establishment in india has never tolerated opposition and its stranglehold on power in india is back to where it was before the hindutva rebellion. The reform movement of the hindu right has failed, so best of luck saving india. India works, suffers and exists for The Family, and only The Family.
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The Left wing establishment in india has never tolerated opposition and its stranglehold on power in india is back to where it was before the hindutva rebellion. The reform movement of the hindu right has failed, so best of luck saving india. India works, suffers and exists for The Family, and only The Family
Well in any society the poor are always the ones who get the raw deal. I’m sure in India it isn’t any different.
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