The non taste practical position is based on recent observation.
If you do recall there have been more than one incident recently of police being caught on camera nearly flogging people what do you attribute that to?
There is a social contract most indians have agreed to wrt the gand pe danda when it comes from the mamas and the taus.

What i see happening is another outspoken kid
being whipped and flogged for questioning if Indira gandhi was great rather than a movie actor being showed with a chinkaras horn.

Atanu’s BELIEF or OPINION is that prices should never be mucked with. This is clear from his argument against politicians who try to “legislate prices”. Fair enough. That’s his opinion. But, it does NOT mean supply-demand is a LAW of nature like gravity. It is a policy TOOL. Now, whether or not legislating prices results in good or bad, depends on case by case basis. We may call it a “law” in so far that, when supply and demand alter, the prices will adjust. But, there is certainly no law-of-nature that prices of something should NEVER be legislated.

I’ve brought up the point because its a favorite ploy by free-market enthusiasts to project supply-demand as a law-of-nature, to justify their policy positions.

Lets take a simple example. Suppose governments wanted to cut the usage of paper for environmental reasons. They could heavily tax paper, and that would alter the supply & demand of paper in the marketplace. We can argue whether legislation of this kind results in desired goals or if it has any side effects, but there is no god-given-law that price of paper should never be altered for policy goals.

Now, coming to the issue on hand, which is poverty, and whether governments should legislate wages, i don’t have any comment. Obviously, the issue is discussed so much in policy circles and always much more complex that it appears.

Didn’t know you hob-nobbed with sharia-lovers. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read on your blog. Next you’ll be advocating for death-penalty like it is in China.

What is the last “S” for? Is it like “It’s the economy, stupid!” slogan?

“I am very much in favor of public flogging as punishment because it is equitable and wealth invariant.”

I am not surprised. Talibans of every flavor think alike!

“Indeed, if the wages go too much above the subsistence level, the supply is sufficiently wage elastic that the higher wages would induce an increase in the supply so that the price is once again driven down to the subsistence level.”

Now I am really surprised! Did your study of economics never teach you using your brains beyond coming up with cookie-cutter explanations? Where did you get the idea that supply of labor is “sufficiently wage elastic”?

Let us revisit your arguments:

When price increases, supply of goods also takes the upward trend to maximize profit. Fine. Now, goods in this case is labor. So, per your profound analysis, if price of labor increases, people will start having more children so that supply of labor will increase. Really? Open your eyes, dude. Price of labor is high in developed countries. Do you see people producing army of babies in developed countries?

It is the price of labor that adjusts to supply, not the vice versa. Supply of labor i.e. population depends on lot of factors most important being education, not the price of labor.

Law of gravity is inviolable. That does not mean you can use it solve some problem of anthropology. It has its jurisdiction. When you use supply and demand to explain overpopulation, you will keep deriving such stupid conclusions.

Then we can all live in a delightful utopia where everyone gets their guaranteed income in the mail and sits on their butt all day.