Dear Y, Sanjay and Indira Gandhi tried this already. Are you in favor of such methods?
The poor are paying for themselves, no thanks to government or business. With all kinds of consumption taxes (VAT, entry tax, sales tax, etc.) -- the most regressive form of taxation -- I would wager, if I am a betting man, the poor pay more into the government coffers than any benefit they derive from the government. The link Shri B sir provided looks at the petrol price, tax, subsidies etc. This is just one commodity.
Even in this case of the young boys from Bihar, they came down to work and make a living, not be a burden on anyone. The reason their plight came to light is not because they became wards of the state, but because of the unscrupulous and greedy businessmen who wanted to extract their labor without paying for it.
So, IMO, nobody need to pay for the poor, pay them their just wages and they will take care of themselves. If the rich and powerful stop being leeches, that will do.
On greed and normal living
The suburban sprawl and the dependance of automobiles in the U.S. was not some inevitable consequence of natural process. This was a result of purposeful planning. At one time, not very long ago, people used to say what is good for GM is good for the nation. Making and selling cars was the way the U.S. economy grew.
More cars meant more roads, more roads meant more cars. More cars and more roads meant living far away in bedroom communities and drive to work. Lack of decent public transportation system meant even more cars and more roads, more oil imports, more CO2, more wars. Many drive-to-work commuters spend hours on the road to and from work.
Large homes in the U.S. is a recent phenomenon. In 1970 the average house was 1400 sq.ft. and by 2009 it had grown to 2700. This is also a result of more and more suburban sprawl, not because it was a necessity.
Cheers!
Dear N:
Answering by para:
1. No I don't go the way Sanjay and Mrs. Gandhi did during the Emergency. State has NO right to intervene in the personal choices of citizens - whether to have protected sex or not, whether to have one child, two or more etc.and when!
I want the Personal FREE WILL of lower income people (who make less than Rs. 150 per day) to tell them "If you have children, you must love them, feed, cloth and educate them till age 18.. if you can't, then don't have unprotected sex now...maybe later".
I believe those 15 young kids have been abandoned by their parents and/or legal guardians.. I ask them "What happened to the happiness you had when they were born?.... why don't you - the parents who brought them here - be more responsible till they are age 18?"
2. Maybe you are right.. these 900 million Indians pay about 55% of the total revenue collected thru consumption tax of some sorts; but, but their per capita contribution will be FAR LESS than the other group (the 300 million Indians who make MORE than Rs. 150 per day) who remit 45% of the total revenue thru consumption, income, capital gain and estate taxes.
Everyone should pay something towards the cost of "Common Good" (to run the State, to pay for the military, to pay for the courts, police and for roads and bridges etc etc). I concede the lower income people also pay something towards this.
However, the lower income people get back most of what they pay via Earned Income Credit, Refundable Tax Credits, subsidies at the Ration Shop for rice, oil etc etc.
3. Young Bihar boys perhaps broke the strict "Child Labor" laws... I don't know. For them I will say, what Paramount Leader Kamaraj said,
"Pasanga pallikudam pohanumgran.... avangalukku mathia vunavu podanumgran" till they are age 18.
4. I disagree with you here.. even if all the taxes collected via consumption tax is paid back to these 900 million people, they will remain poor and be locked inside the Gates of Hell. Because they believe too much in God, they remain poorly skilled and their family size is too big to feed all the mouths.
What's Income and What's Wealth and Who Creates Wealth in India and Elesewhere?
Say, the poor people who make less than Rs. 150 per day income spends all up for their existence, and there is no savings whatsoever. These people can NEVER have wealth in all their lives.
Say, the other group of people who make between Rs. 150 and above as much as Rs 10,000 a day or more, CAN save as much as about 35% of it. This group is slowly building wealth and it grows over time to several hundred crores.
This accumulated savings is the WEALTH that everybody's talking about, including Dr. MMS recently...
Therefore, the name of the game is how much a citizen can save every day, every month and every year, and how it is invested to increase the NEST EGG: that's what the Retirement and Pension Funds do... Alas, the poor people don't have this option because they just can't save anything primarily because of their very large family size.
That's what I have been talking all along.... Too many kids to poor people.
5. I agree with your observation about more cars and moving into suburban sprawl... that's been the Free Will of the Middle and Upper Middle Class Americans to live away from the congested and crime ridden inner cities.
Cheers.
