Atanu Dey has an interesting post where he outlines the three lessons of development economics:
- Economic policies matter
- The objectives of the policymakers matter in the choice of economic policies
- The public determines what policies the politicians choose
He concludes:
The problem is that the general population does not know the basics of good economic policies. That’s the great challenge we face.
People need to know because if they did know, the policymakers would know that they cannot fool the public any more of their self-serving policies. That would bring about the conditions for the policymakers to choose good policies.
However, I feel that decades of socialism has corrupted the Indian soul. Deep within us, we know that current policies are setup to enrich those in power. And we also know what is to be done. But we don’t force our policymakers to make those changes because we, as a nation, are morally bankrupt. We are happy fighting between ourselves for the scraps that are thrown at us. And secretly, we all want the dole.
Source: Three Lessons of Development Economics, or Why Utsav Mitra is Mistaken
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