I give up
 

I ask: is there any point to being a nationalist and a patriot if the very best of your people are like this?

Too much freedom. Fascinating.

They mean freedom for the lower castes, not for themselves.

http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/tongue.gif ACK!

aneeshm: keep fighting the good fight.

I would just move to the West aneeshm. There's something about eastern cultures. I don't think it's just people in India who think that way. Chinese people think like that too.

Freedom is its own tyranny. Too much choice can paralyze people, who fear making the wrong choice. In traditional systems, people know what they are supposed to do and what is expected of them. It is a much easier way to live. The fact that we prefer more choices in the West neither makes us superior or inferior to those who chose differently.

Without a link, though, we don't know what was really asked.

Too much freedom in India?

"The overall freedom to start, operate, and close a business is considerably restricted by India's regulatory environment."

"Export restrictions, a negative import list, service market access restrictions, high tariffs, import taxes and fees, a complex and non-transparent trade regime ... add to the cost of trade."

"The government subsidizes agricultural, gas, and kerosene production; applies factory, wholesale, and retail-level price controls on 'essential' commodities, 25 crops, services, electricity, water, some petroleum products, and certain types of coal; and controls the prices of 74 bulk drugs that cover 40 percent of the market, with another 354 to be brought under controls by a new pharmaceutical policy."

"Highly complex rules and laws limit foreign direct investment."

"Foreign investment is prohibited in most real estate, retailing, legal services, agriculture, security services, and railways."

"The government owns nearly all of the approximately 600 rural and cooperative banks and most other financial institutions."

Any less free than that and you'll be living in Cuba!

Uhuh. Corporations are people too. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...milies/nod.gif

Originally posted by Theben
Freedom of people, not corporations, idiot. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...s/rolleyes.gif So when the government has high tariffs on imported goods, it only effects the corporations? How about when all the banks are state-owned? I guess Indians must not use banks for personal finance. And it certainly isn't like any non-corporate entity would be interested in starting their own business?

Oh, and read David and Lancer.

Originally posted by rmsharpe

So when the government has high tariffs on imported goods, it only effects the corporations? How about when all the banks are state-owned? All of the colonial countries in the 20th Century that have become developed had high tariffs on imported goods. And while all banks may not have been state owned, they were strictly regulated. The Asian tigers were able to develop very rapidly because of such policies, while those countries that have followed the IMF prescriptions are mostly basket cases.

Originally posted by BlackCat


But they are - carefully guided by teh party. Or the corporations?

Thank you, Arrian.

To me freedom isn't just having choices. It's being respected as an equal member of society. People in China are not respected as equals.

Originally posted by Theben
Freedom of people, not corporations, idiot. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...s/rolleyes.gif He does have problems telling the difference. It's telling that India, like China, is developing by leaps and bounds even while it maintains pro-nativist tariffs and rules. One might even say they're developing so quickly BECAUSE they have pro-nativist tariffs and rules. The same goes for China. Their protectionism is serving them EXTREMELY well and because they're so big other countries put up with it and look the other way just as they did for the British pre-1920 and for the US pre-1945.