A FAIR, NOT WELFARE SOCIETY

Lee Kuan Yew in his book 'From Third World to First' writes, " We believed in socialism, in fair shares for all. Later we learned that personal motivation and personal rewards were essential for a productive economy. However, because people are unequal in their abilities, if performance and rewards are determined by the marketplace, there will be few big winners, and considerable number of losers. That would make for social tensions because the society's sense of fairness is a offended."

If food, water and shelter are the basic survival needs then medical care, pensions and education are their present- day contemporary. To provide for these is a moral duty of any government. But the purpose of action is to bring forth the country in a long run and not for the cause of people pleasing, aiming for electoral gains. The past announcements of state governments in Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan are questionable. Of course the new player in arena is trying to make a name for himself by extravagant promises. But even the veterans are doing it dirty to maintain their position on throne. Free electricity, restoration of old pension scheme, non taxable agriculture are hollow promises which may create a trench of fiscal deficits.

Scandavian countries stand up high on ease of living index because of high welfare expenses. Everyone has free access to decent public services, including some of the best education and healthcare in the world, and people appear happy.

But such implementation comes with it's own share of consequences.The ever increasing costs of welfare state leads to devastating sociological and economic impacts. When governments undertake primary responsibility for the basic duties, the drive in individuals weakens. Welfare undermines wellbeing. The freebies and handouts become way of life. The downward spiral is relentless as motivation and productivity goes down. People loose the drive to achieve because they pay too much in taxes and become dependent on state for their basic needs.

An alternative to reverting old pension scheme is to work on a strong social security system. We already have PPF which is a savings-cum-tax-saving instrument. The part from govt. needs to be enhanced so as to make people confident in their savings . In other words sound central policies are precursor to this system. 

Secondly, the free electricity incentive takes us towards a dark future. The abundance put with no restraint leads to inattentive use of electricity. It will put in vain all the efforts towards saving and conservation of electricity. These environment issues are not 5 year disputes but a doom for 5 or more generations. Instead the focus on improving public transport system shifts to more expenditure on individual vehicles causing a ripple effect.

Means are also, ends in making. Anything done now should be done in a pragmatic way, with mindful of possible abuse and waste. The fate of Sri Lanka is no less than an example of macroeconomics mishandled. These freebies will only lead to our freefall deviating us from self reliance. A future with lackadaisical citizens and no growth, with unthoughtful minds enjoying momentary joy in alms, with no far sightedness of better and bright society, our tomorrow is not even ours. 

           

                                                                —Anshika