When you know that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing,
When you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods but in favours,
When you see that men get rich more easily by graft rather than by work,
and your laws no longer protect you against them but protect them against you,
...... then you know, that your society is doomed
~ Ayn Rand
Though our Society has become sick, and one worries, we should not be so despondent so as to become paralysed. Society can be saved from doom.
How?
Treatment for a cure starts when we understand the illness.
What Ayn Rand has articulated is only the symptoms of the illness.
What then is the illness?
We have to ask ourselves, who is it that Ayn Rand refers to?
Who is it that deals in favours? Politicians, Bureaucrats and government officials backed up by law enforcement.
In the name of socialism, equality, helping the poor, etc. vested interests increase the size, power, reach and viciousness of government.
India practised for thousands of years a traditional socialism, where the community took care of its own.
Marxist based Western Socialism is no socialism at all. It is the grabbing of power by a highly centralised small group of elites, very distant from the people they claim to serve.
They have neither the interests nor the capacity to care for the needs of the people.
A group of elites decide what is good for people and give it to them. No consultation no assessment, just dictated, using slogans, and seeking to fool the people.
As former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of the Congress indicting his own party and the Government system said and that too often that of all the welfare schemes announced and implemented by the government only 15% reached the intended beneficiaries. 85% was swallowed up by middle men and crooks in the system.
This malaise, this cancer has infected all political parties and is rampant across all government departments.
A government job is the most sought after job in India. It ensures high pay for little or no work. Employment for life with lavish benefits, even after retirement. The possibility to earn lots of money on the side by creating a nuisance and obstructing wealth creators, and harassing ordinary citizens so as to extort money from them using the excessively large number of laws, rules, regulations, complicated procedures etc.
As LaoTzu said, 'The 1000 km long journey begins with the first step'.
Probably the only power the citizens have in a democracy is their vote.
One should vote wisely f we intend to leave a better society to our children.
Issues are many but from an economic stand point,
One should not vote for any person or party that
1. Offers to dole out the wealth of the people to purchase votes.
2. Gives everything for free or almost free.
3. Pushing grandiose welfare schemes
4. Requiring neither effort, commitment or sincerity in people earning a living.
Vote for anyone or party,
1. Works to reduce the size of government and its powers to the bare minimum
2. That does not field criminals as candidates.