Comments on: The Banality of Corruption http://www.deeshaa.org/2007/12/19/the-banality-of-corruption/ Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:41:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Notsure http://www.deeshaa.org/2007/12/19/the-banality-of-corruption/comment-page-1/#comment-112998 Notsure Tue, 25 Dec 2007 07:53:35 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2007/12/19/the-banality-of-corruption/#comment-112998 Who is a feudal beneficary and who is a serf in indias case. The situation is convoluted as who is plugged in. Semi government organizations like SAIL, nearly all of banks, corps like Fertilizer corp of India and nearly all of government employees manage to tap into better educational infrastructure for their children and then even manage to get the government pay for higher education like IIT/RECs. So who paid the fair price? The not plugged in indian whose family did not have a government connected job..... Also "sacred duty", reminds me of the trite "temples of modern india", forget that nonesense and do look at the WHOLE world. A decent stable state has access to "flow of money" . "flow of money" to the government is not the problem. If the process id fair, if there a social consensus. India is on its way to address those issues or so I think as a not so impartial observer. Who is a feudal beneficary and who is a serf in indias case.
The situation is convoluted as who is plugged in.
Semi government organizations like SAIL, nearly all of banks, corps like Fertilizer corp of India and nearly all of government employees manage to tap into better educational infrastructure for their children and then even manage to get the government pay for higher education like IIT/RECs.
So who paid the fair price?
The not plugged in indian whose family did not have a government connected job…..
Also “sacred duty”, reminds me of the trite “temples of modern india”, forget that nonesense and do look at the WHOLE world.
A decent stable state has access to “flow of money” . “flow of money” to the government is not the problem. If the process id fair, if there a social consensus. India is on its way to address those issues or so I think as a not so impartial observer.

]]> By: idlinginc http://www.deeshaa.org/2007/12/19/the-banality-of-corruption/comment-page-1/#comment-112822 idlinginc Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:32:49 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2007/12/19/the-banality-of-corruption/#comment-112822 Atanu, It is not evident to me why: "Everyone wins in this game–except the economy." Perhaps there is something I am not seeing. Let me take a stab at explaining. We have these three levels: 1. Feudal Lords - Politicians 2. Bureaucrats - execution arm of (1). Responsible for collecting rent. 3. Indians - Serfs - supposed to pay rent. In this particular case, bureaucrats did not enforce the full rent, which is exorbitant and gave a cost-efficient alternative, saving almost 1.35 lakhs. Bureaucrats seem to be helping the common Indians. However, the common perception is: it is morally wrong, because some law written by the feudal lords to collect rent is violated. Lets say the bureaucrats were honest, they collected the full rent. This would only flow into the pockets of the feudal lords, or increase the level of bureaucracy. Administrative costs for delivering one rupee of services is about Rs. 7. I guess close to 90% of taxes collected would be stolen by the politicians, by the very efficient workflows they have setup (defense contracts, irrigation projects, etc). The money saved by the serfs (with the help of bureaucrats) would be better utilized/invested. From my naive viewpoint, it seems to me that we would are better off with lower taxes. Thats where bribes help. If the laws were enforced fully, the vile and decadent pile of vermin at the top would only increase in power and number. They are clearly after money. The sacred duty of every Indian is to stop the flow of money to the Govt. Mancur Olson showed that kleptocracy at the top stunts the growth of poor countries. One of ways to stop kleptocracy at the top is to stop/hinder the flow of money to the top. Atanu,

It is not evident to me why: “Everyone wins in this game–except the economy.” Perhaps there is something I am not seeing. Let me take a stab at explaining.

We have these three levels:

1. Feudal Lords – Politicians
2. Bureaucrats – execution arm of (1). Responsible for collecting rent.
3. Indians – Serfs – supposed to pay rent.

In this particular case, bureaucrats did not enforce the full rent, which is exorbitant and gave a cost-efficient alternative, saving almost 1.35 lakhs. Bureaucrats seem to be helping the common Indians. However, the common perception is: it is morally wrong, because some law written by the feudal lords to collect rent is violated.

Lets say the bureaucrats were honest, they collected the full rent. This would only flow into the pockets of the feudal lords, or increase the level of bureaucracy. Administrative costs for delivering one rupee of services is about Rs. 7. I guess close to 90% of taxes collected would be stolen by the politicians, by the very efficient workflows they have setup (defense contracts, irrigation projects, etc).

The money saved by the serfs (with the help of bureaucrats) would be better utilized/invested.

From my naive viewpoint, it seems to me that we would are better off with lower taxes. Thats where bribes help. If the laws were enforced fully, the vile and decadent pile of vermin at the top would only increase in power and number. They are clearly after money. The sacred duty of every Indian is to stop the flow of money to the Govt.

Mancur Olson showed that kleptocracy at the top stunts the growth of poor countries. One of ways to stop kleptocracy at the top is to stop/hinder the flow of money to the top.

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