Further evidence that governments should be as limited as possible in their access and control of our lives. Nearly everything they touch has ugly short and long-term consequences spanning from financial to millions of people dying.
I know that the issues in India are far more complex than this. I am over-simplifying in a gross manner. That said, I can't help but feel that "civilization" has degenerated into the lunatics running the asylum world-over. I don't know what the solution might be, but it is almost unthinkable to see millions of people dying rather than millions of people mounting a revolt to take control of what is rightly theirs: Their country, their land, their resources and their very lives.
Here's a case where the actions of a few in power are likely a huge part of the reason for millions dying every year. What is wrong with humanity?
For reference: soon after being formed, India was given 0 chance of survival, with a common theme being that the country would soon break up into a million different states.
That country with more languages, cultures and dialects than Babel is still here.
Further, for the longest time India depended on foreign aid to feed its people. Until they finally did something about it and ushered in the green revolution which turned Punjab and many other states into bread baskets. India has gone from a place where people died in famines to a place where they can actually worry about improving nutrition standards.
And the subsidies being reviled today played an important part before to make this discussion happen in the first place.
India built the IITs. Which went on to power companies across the globe.
They built their own space program, and they also built the Non Aligned movement during the cold war, which was a pretty nifty achievement.
They currently supply some of the larger contingents to the UN. (And some of those contingents are mired in corruption charges.)
India is a stupidly complicated country. I could go on for pages about its ills, at the same time point out genuine accomplishments it has achieved.
I would go farther and say that mine was a grotesque over-simplification.
One has to admit that there is something wrong with the way governments are working world-wide (not just India or the US). Examples abound of everything from flat-out government corruption to governments making decisions which often-times have consequences that affect millions in very negative ways. It's a weird time because we are so connected that it is easy to see these things happening all across the world. Fifty years ago it was very hard for the average citizen of any country to get a play-by-play account of what was going on around the world.
Today you can get a good picture within an hour of sitting down at your computer. One of the pictures I am getting is that we have all allowed governments to do more than they should. And we are all paying for it in one way or another. To be auto-critical, the disastrous economic downturn that we have been navigating through was nearly 100% caused by the US government deciding that it was politically important to put into place a framework that allowed almost anyone to own a home. Yes, private enterprise and Wall Street took it from there. It was government that enabled and promoted this and provided the ecosystem within which the disaster was created. Other examples of this are wars nobody wants, military bases all over the world and foreign aid that often ends in the hands of dictators and questionable characters.
Being hopeful, I see a future where the Internet connects people to the point where governments simply won't be able to cause so much damage at the local or global level. I think that era is slowly coming to an end.
I know that the issues in India are far more complex than this. I am over-simplifying in a gross manner. That said, I can't help but feel that "civilization" has degenerated into the lunatics running the asylum world-over. I don't know what the solution might be, but it is almost unthinkable to see millions of people dying rather than millions of people mounting a revolt to take control of what is rightly theirs: Their country, their land, their resources and their very lives.
Here's a case where the actions of a few in power are likely a huge part of the reason for millions dying every year. What is wrong with humanity?