While we have moved away from the license raj of times past to a market based economy, it is becoming depressingly clear that the vast majority of Indians view the market based economy as a different methodology to be used by central planners. Most people still feel that it is necessary for the government to intervene and plan the economy for the well being of the country. If the government has to think hard and act to %u201Cprotect%u201D every trade and industry in the country, then it needs to have awfully bringht people and it needs to be really big, afterall, silk is just one of the millions of products india produces. But does the government really need to do that?
Charles Wheelan in the book %u201CNaked Economics%u201D asks the poses the same question differently by asking %u201CWho feeds Paris?%u201D. There are millions of people living in Paris and they need to eat three times a day. It has to be a daunting task for any government to make sure that they get to eat what they want. Yet the French government is not involved in this process. No goverment beareaucrat is taking orders from Frenchmen every day and orders the right amount of fruits, vegetables and meat for them. In spite of very little government involvement, Wheelan says, %u201C%u2026somehow the right amount of fresh tuna meks its way from a fishing fleet in the south pacific to a restaurant on the Rue de Rivoli. A neighborhood fruit vendor has exactly what his customers want every morning-from cofee to fresh papayas-even though those products may come from ten and fifteen different countries%u201D.
If millions of people can accomplish the awfully important task of feeding themselves without the government getting involved, then why should the government get involved in more mundane tasks such as regulating and %u201Cprotecting%u201D this or that trade? We dont the government to plan our economy like it used to do during the licence raj, nor do we need it to %u201Cfine-tune%u201D it now, using tariffs and import quotas and so on. The governments needs to just let them be! Laissez faire.
