There has been an argument going around that Mumbai contributes 58,000 crores by way of taxes each year and we get nothing much in return. I agree with the spirit of the argument, but the figure seems to have come from adding up income and corporate taxes from Mumbai. If so, then it is inaccurate. A company might have its plants all over the country, but it will have its headquarters in Mumbai. The corporate income tax that it pays will be on the value added all over the country, but counted on Mumbai’s account. The right way to calculate the figure is to look at the value added by Mumbai and try to find out how much we are paying out of it by way of taxes. I am guessing this calculation is much more complicated. If only we replaced all taxes, including excise tax, octroi and income tax with a single VAT…. (Also read Nilu’s proposal that all taxes should go to the states and then they should contribute a fixed percent of them to the Centre. I agree with it)

I am sure that even there it will turn out that the city is shortchanged by a large margin, but it is important to point out this inaccuracy nonetheless before others do.

Today is the 60th anniversary of dropping the atom-bomb on Nagasaki.

Some time back, I was inspired by the novel Cryptonomicon, to do some research on the Pacific war in World War II. The results were sickening – and the research had the practical effect of making me gain a new appreciation for the concept of rules of war.
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Simon Baron Cohen over at the New York times explains clearly the current state of research on male and female brains, autism, the ability to systematize and do well in Maths and Science. You can ignore the second paragraph, where he disagrees with something Larry Summers never said. But the remaining parts are interesting. I am excerpting a lot because the article might go behind a paywall sometime.
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My previous post was meant to be a prelude to a point I want to make now. The strategy that we need to get out of a crisis is very different from the strategy that we need to adopt to prevent the next crisis. When Mumbai got flooded, we could depend on the goodwill of its citizens to rescue it. While planning to prevent the next flood, we will have to contend with the selfishness of the same citizens. Impractical capitalist that I am, I am thinking of ways to make use of this selfishness, rather than just rail against it.
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It is a cliche to say* that a disaster brings out the best and the worst in people, but it is true. One of the things that disaster brings out is the ability to spontaneously help others, including those whom one has never met and will never meet again.

This fact gets some people’s hopes up. If people can spontaneously come together and help one another in difficult times, why can’t they do so in normal times?
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Because of heavy rains in Mumbai.

Nitin Pai correctly points out that the brutality in Gurgaon is a case for labour reforms, not against.

And by the way, all those who are trying to link the decline of trades unionism in India with its economic reforms, please stop. You are displaying not only your youth (which you may not mind), but also your appalling ignorance, which you might, unless you are a journalist.
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Update: Cancelled because of rains.
I hope that Mumbai’s recent difficulties have not put the Bombay Bloggers Meet out of your minds. It will still take place as planned, at Prithvi theatre, at 3:00 PM this Sunday.

I had some trouble over two days, not all of which I asked for. Here are the highlights.
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Amit has a link filled post on what happened at Gurgaon yesterday. As far as I can make out, it was not a case of crowd-control gotten out of control. It was a retaliatory act. The police beat up the protesters to punish them. Amit points out, correctly, that both sides seem to be responsible for escalating the fight. That may be true, but that is not the point. These are not two “sides”. One “side” is the police, who are an instrument of the government. If my speculation is true -i.e. they beat up the workers as a punishment for the crime of beating up the policemen, the policemen should be punished more than the guilty workers. I am sure Amit will agree with me on this.
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Nilu accuses three of us, i.e. me, Yazad and Gaurav of having developed a patronizing attitude bordering on condescension. The problem, you see is that we are so smart that we sometimes find it difficult to get down to the appropriate level to explain things to you people.

I commonly hear this complaint against us libertarians. We are too impractical because we insist on dogmatically following our own principles. Far better, our critics say, is it to take a case-by-case basis.

This post is for them. Please note, I am not addressing people whose principles differ from ours. This post is only addressed to those who say that it is more pragmatic to take up things on a “case to case” basis. It is my intention to prove you wrong. If you feel that my description of your views oversimplifies the issue, please accept my apologies and read on. The actual post will make amends.
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