“Our
woollen manufacturers have been more successful than any other class of workmen
in persuading the legislature that the prosperity of the nation depended on the
success and extension of their particular business”
-
Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations
First
off, acknowledge that you had not read this statement of Adam Smith earlier.
Secondly, note the sarcasm in the above.
Napoleon
seems to have said that England is a nation of shopkeepers, taking his cue,
only partly at that, from what he thought Adam Smith said. But, Smith actually said
that England is a country not of shop keepers but is one governed by
shopkeepers. Napoleon did not catch the nuance but I did.
May
be I am wrong but when I read this my thoughts immediately switched to NASSCOM
and its pronouncements.
This
is where NASSCOM comes in. There is no end to the lobby group’s breast thumping
propaganda about how the IT industry (euphemism for the horde of coders) is
pulling India out of its poor past. We shall not discuss the truth of this
boast. To clarify, I would like to point out that India is not a nation of
coders but one of coding salesman in governance, NASSCOM, for instance. The hand-outs
the industry gets from the government are proof enough.
Well,
this is not the place to go into an argument about whether such boasting is
justified or not. It is here necessary only to point out the unmistakable
parallel between what the wool lobby did in England in the 18th
century and what NASSCOM is doing in India in the 21st century.
As
usual we are way behind! But sarcasm ignores long time spans, even across
centuries.
Raghuram
Ekambaram
2 comments:
I found it fascinating.Thankhs for letting us know the parallels of wool and IT . How are you ,sir ? Recently I learned about one Thomas Piketty, and started going thru.
http://resistir.info/livros/piketty_capital_in_the_21_century_2014.pdf
Keep going.
Mritieunjay Kumar.
mkumar1352@gmail.com
I am doing fine Mriteunjay sir, enjoying retired life! I have read a number of reviews of Picketty's book, many of them kind of nitpicking, though with Somalis criticism. But the subject is too high brow for me to comment on. Thanks for appreciating the post.
Raghu
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