‘Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die’
– Mel Brooks
Somehow the above quote came to my mind when I started thinking about how much I have been subsidized!
If I remember right my father paid tuition fees for the first two years of my elementary education (at MCTM, Purasawakkam, Chennai). Later on, elementary education became universally free, subsidized by the government. I am marking that as the first instance of a lifetime of subsidies I had enjoyed from the state. (I was born in a private nursing home, and I am not aware of all the other subsidies I had received till I started going to school.)
Let me put down what I understand by the word “subsidy”. It is the offer of a product or service below cost. This is in pure economic terms. Should sociology enter the picture? I started with the idea that it should and that is precisely when the opening quote came to my mind. That way leads to tragedy.
I refuse to see all the economic subsidies I have received – school and higher education (IIT, Madras and Kanpur), road space, water, sewerage, waste disposal, rail fare, power, health (I was in Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital ICU in Delhi for a day and in the general ward for two more days after an accident), police protection, defense, fuel for cooking and motoring, and what not – as subsidies. The reason? These are available to everyone. I could not argue with myself that I am paying less than the cost of these services and hence they are subsidies. (I know I am ignoring the taxes I am paying; that is just as well, because I get tax subsidies too!).
That is, a subsidy is one when others get products or services at a price lower than the cost of production. If I get the same, then it is not a subsidy.
As an aside, even libertarians leave out defense in their calculations, to be provided by the government. All the rest at cost, nay profit, they say. I am not sure I agree with that.
I hate subsidies. I want to remove them from the economic sphere, once and for all. Ironically, to accomplish my goal, I want to start a movement for subsidies, universal subsidies. When the movement reaches a sustainable threshold I will call the philosophy subsidarian.
A subsidarian is one who acknowledges no subsidies because they are offered to everyone! Subsidies, in a classic Catch 22 situation, does not exist because it is universal.
Subsidarians transcend libertarians.
Raghuram Ekambaram
P.S As the reader surely understands, this was not written with any seriousness. This is simply a frivolous look at people’s ways of thinking.
– Mel Brooks
Somehow the above quote came to my mind when I started thinking about how much I have been subsidized!
If I remember right my father paid tuition fees for the first two years of my elementary education (at MCTM, Purasawakkam, Chennai). Later on, elementary education became universally free, subsidized by the government. I am marking that as the first instance of a lifetime of subsidies I had enjoyed from the state. (I was born in a private nursing home, and I am not aware of all the other subsidies I had received till I started going to school.)
Let me put down what I understand by the word “subsidy”. It is the offer of a product or service below cost. This is in pure economic terms. Should sociology enter the picture? I started with the idea that it should and that is precisely when the opening quote came to my mind. That way leads to tragedy.
I refuse to see all the economic subsidies I have received – school and higher education (IIT, Madras and Kanpur), road space, water, sewerage, waste disposal, rail fare, power, health (I was in Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital ICU in Delhi for a day and in the general ward for two more days after an accident), police protection, defense, fuel for cooking and motoring, and what not – as subsidies. The reason? These are available to everyone. I could not argue with myself that I am paying less than the cost of these services and hence they are subsidies. (I know I am ignoring the taxes I am paying; that is just as well, because I get tax subsidies too!).
That is, a subsidy is one when others get products or services at a price lower than the cost of production. If I get the same, then it is not a subsidy.
As an aside, even libertarians leave out defense in their calculations, to be provided by the government. All the rest at cost, nay profit, they say. I am not sure I agree with that.
I hate subsidies. I want to remove them from the economic sphere, once and for all. Ironically, to accomplish my goal, I want to start a movement for subsidies, universal subsidies. When the movement reaches a sustainable threshold I will call the philosophy subsidarian.
A subsidarian is one who acknowledges no subsidies because they are offered to everyone! Subsidies, in a classic Catch 22 situation, does not exist because it is universal.
Subsidarians transcend libertarians.
Raghuram Ekambaram
P.S As the reader surely understands, this was not written with any seriousness. This is simply a frivolous look at people’s ways of thinking.
7 comments:
Raghuram, I'm all for a welfare society which may give subsidies as necessary. For example, the 2.5 lakh farmers who committed suicide in the last 15 years in India [ref The Hindu, 29 Oct 2011]could have survived with the help of some subsidies.
Subsidies become absurd when they are given to people who don't deserve them. India today is giving subsidies to the rich and the powerful and taking away the little beneftis that the poor could get!
Back then, during the campus days, when the protest against the new quota of reservations, I wasnt much keen to participate in the protests. But was influenced by the environment. Then a lazy thought, something very similar hit me. If reservations are about providing a much needed opportunity to social group to bring them to a level where they might not need any, subsidize all the basic amenities like education and food grains so that even the most depraved could afford i.e. provide it for free of cost.
It took a little bottom up thinking to understand why this idea would not be a solution even under a prioritized taxation system.
Bharath
very interesting way of looking at subsidies...enjoyed the contents and style of writing..
"Subsidies become absurd when they are given to people who don't deserve them." Matheikal, the rich grab, on per capita basis and perhaps in aggregate also, more subsidies than even the not-so-rich, not to mention the poor. Look at the blinging guy of Kingfisher Airlines. Whatever one may say, finally it will be the govt. that will be left holding the bag.
RE
"Subsidies become absurd when they are given to people who don't deserve them." Matheikal, the rich grab, on per capita basis and perhaps in aggregate also, more subsidies than even the not-so-rich, not to mention the poor. Look at the blinging guy of Kingfisher Airlines. Whatever one may say, finally it will be the govt. that will be left holding the bag.
RE
Bharath, It is nice to see you had come in here. No issue should be taken to its logical conclusion because that will necessarily be impractical at the least and absurd at the worst. One should come to an equilibrium within the context of what is feasible while working to enhance the solution space.
RE
Thanks DS sir.
RE
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