I am sure as, Dr Khushwant Singh and Chidambaram, revel in the headway that India is making, their foremost wish is Malthus be gone. Unfortunately, the spectre of Maltus will follow both India and China well into the next century.
One of the economic magazines is carrying a story, about how China's economic boom is confined to the neon lights of Shanghai and Beijing. Outer China is mostly disenfranchised, living in dire poverty, with disparities at their widest. China is an experiment in various forms of economic governance. Most of which have been futile. It remains to be seen where their latest quasi-embrace of capitalism will lead them. There is a school of economic thought that believes large populations are actually a viable asset to an economy. I've never belonged to that school. Large populations are nothing more than serfs that provide cheap labour to the industrialised world in one form or another. The manufacturing jobs of America, that sustained a middle-class income in America, once exported became nothing more than sweatshops in China, where poor peasants sell their souls to the sweatshop "massa", and work into the wee hours of morn. The shiny BPO offices of India today will, once the demand flattens out and supply increases, become nothing more than cubicles for clerks who mindlessly churn out data for businesses fattened with the profits of cheap labour. No, no, I am not against liberalisation and outsourcing. I am against this euphoric proclamation that the Second Coming of India is at hand. India has a severe population problem and it has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world because of this. It has to come to terms with this reality. It has to have a polity that addresses this situation. It has to beg, borrow or steal technology to reduce its ever growing dependence on oil. And it has to invest intensively in R&D. It cannot be a peddler of second-hand technology, it must be the originator. For India to overcome the Maltusian conundrum, it has to have a pronged approach. A proclamation that India has arrived based solely on advances made in limited sectors, is premature to say the least. As an Indian I sincerely hope that India has a linear growth progression, I really do. Elisabeth --------------------------------------- --- cornel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Mario > Ah! So there are impediments in India's way to > imminent super economic > status. This is what I kept saying and you were so > dismissive. Have you > woken up? > Cornel > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mario Goveia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" > <goanet@goanet.org> > Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 12:26 AM > Subject: Re: [Goanet] India gobbling the world > > > > --- cornel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >> Hi Gilbert, > >> As you know, I have felt some scepticism about > >> India's rapid growth to super economic status in > >> the imminent future but I dearly hope it is true > >> and that we will not be disappointed. > >> > > Mario observes: > >> > > India's rapid economic growth can be plainly seen > by > > anyone open to the facts. What is lagging in > India > > march towards super-power status is corresponding > > growth in the transportation and communications > > infrastructure, and most sadly in the area of > civic > > sense, due to a perplexing lack of civic respect > for > > rules and regulations and for others, particularly > > strangers. > >> > > > > _____________________________________________ > > Do not post admin requests to the list. > > Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org) > > > > > > _____________________________________________ > Do not post admin requests to the list. > Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org) > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org)