How is it that I can eat an apple but an apple can't eat me. The answer, according to jhollawallah economics, is 'chance'. It isn't the case that apple trees chose one evolutionary strategy- one whereby their fruits were edible such that their seeds would spread widely- and that human beings adopted another strategy- one which involved increasing inequality replaced increasing divergence in reproductive outcomes. In other words- when everybody was poor, inequality was about who had more descendants. Later, the tables were turned. The poorest would be the most fertile.
Dreze asks why poor men, transporting illegally mined coal by bicycle in Ranchi, are worse off than guys with PhDs in Econ whose daddies had PhDs in Econ.
How come they are in their situation, and I in mine?
They had little inherited wealth or human capital. Dreze had quite a lot. Productivity in Belgium diverged from that of greater Bihar around 1500, if not earlier. Western Europe did not go in for 'jholawalah econ'. It focused on raising productivity through better technology and mechanism design.
The only answer I can find is: “chance”. Perhaps a few of them drank or gambled away their land, but most are in that situation for no fault of their own.
Their ancestors followed jhollawallah economics.
They were born in a poor family of the wrong caste
& the wrong colour & the wrong continent. Get them a visa to Belgium & fortune will begin to smile upon them.
suffered from undernutrition in childhood,
which is what happens when poor people have babies who are bound to be very fucking poor.
did not get a chance to study, and so on. In a different environment, they might have become geologists, engineers, artists, or hockey champions.
or boring Belgian cunts
But they never had a chance.
Because of jhollawallah economics
In India, as elsewhere, the privileged tend to nurture the illusion that they “deserve” what they have.
Dreze nurtures the illusion that his arsehole is his own. It isn't. It is a place where everybody should be welcome to park their coal or their bicycle.
This illusion, however, evaporates with even the most casual introspection.
It is mere 'chance' that you aren't a rent-boy or, indeed, a guy who pays money to have stuff shoved up his arse. Ergo, your arse must have stuff shoved up it by all and sundry. Such is jhollawalla economics.
Sure, some rich people work hard – but so do koilawalas, construction workers, and domestic helpers.
Sure, some rent-boys work hard attracting customers but Dreze too works hard in his own way. Why is his anus being denied vast injections of jizz? Is it because Narendra Modi is a fucking Nazi?
What is jholawallah econ? It is a variation of begging-bowl econ. It is Amartya Sen's 'second order public goods' which involves saying 'we really ought to have more first order public goods'. Sadly, it demanding or begging for a thing is itself regarded as a good thing, then 'second order' talk crowds out first order work.
Dreze believes he is doing 'research for action'- i.e. explaining why money should be pissed against the wall in a manner which buys votes or enables leakages.
First, action-oriented research is not a stand-alone activity.
Masturbation need not be solitary. Also, it can be integrated into a wider repertoire of equally boring shite.
Rather, it is part of a larger effort to achieve practical change through democratic action, that is, action based on democratic means and institutions – public debate, the media, the courts, the electoral process, street action, among others.
This is done by political parties. Academics are welcome to join one such or, indeed, create a party of their own. However, in so far as their discipline is positive rather than normative, they will be at a disadvantage because imperative, not alethic, propositions have a stronger tie to action.
Dreze's book reveals his hatred of India as a Hindu majority country. It is his right, as an Indian citizen, to hate people of another religion. However, as his views become known to more and more Indians, his influence is likely to decline.
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