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By Kiran, July 30, 2009 10:53 pm

mcme…….

I guess, taken on a scale of everything, nothing – leave alone socialism, would work. The catch lies in finding the balance. Basic necessities should not be part of the equation.

People should not have to compete to get food, healthcare, shelter and the likes. The big inequality of it all lies in the government going out of their way, to save corporations while individuals are being pushed into absolute poverty – on to the roads just because they had to go to the emergency room once. The healthcare plan reform is surprisingly a tougher bill to sell than an 800 Billion ’save the financial sector’ bill or trillions of dollars worth of spending on wars.

In short, the key lies in finding a balance and assuring that certain basic human necessities aren’t left to chance just for the sake of capitalism.

Putting this in perspective of the classroom, everyone in the class has more or less equal access to text books, study material and classroom facilities. Now failing the whole class to teach them a lesson, that sounds more like bad dictatorship!!

kiran…….

A government safety net is hardly socialism; as long as the government is not the sole owner and distributor of any good or service, socialism is the last thing that comes to mind. Of course the wars (which are big mistakes and atrocities in the first place and are therefore inexcusable), and the bailouts (which were a stopgap for presumably avoiding a systemic collapse and a subsequent depression) have nothing to do with anti-socialism or smart policy either. But there are two problems with bigger social service network – one, the cost of implementing such an undertaking and two, the problem of free riding. Even California, which spends over sixty billion dollars on public health, still makes healthcare a prominent issue every election, and every year what is the cost of maintaining the same level of services – cutting back from more important spending on education.

In that respect, I think India sets a somewhat perfect example for the rest of the world – the government would hardly spend on healthcare, food would be always scarce and unemployment benefits is an unheard-of concept, but it did build several thousand new colleges, which are churning out world-class citizens that can stand on their own. On the other hand, the ration system in India is one of the most poorly managed systems in the world with rampant corruption and incredible waste; I say that not because its a bad idea, but because implementing such a large social system for so many millions of people is anything but herculean. Which brings me to the second point that social systems work well in the Denmarks, Swedens and Canadas that have less than a fifth of the populace of the United States and sliver of India’s population. There is something to be said about public programs, that they are a nightmare to manage for large number of constituents. Think just healthcare, if there is a cheaper public option tomorrow, then simply the insurers will defer the unhealthy to the public system. Over time, employers will shift to the public system, which will lead to bankruptcies of the public insurers, and the end of the day the real problem of inflated healthcare costs (which is very achievable through tort reform) will never see light.

At the end of the day, there is much to be debated about public programs, and I most religiously agree to the need to cease the rampant wastage on the wars and focus on welfare of citizens, but there are limitations to public programs and there are misconceptions of what socialism means. What I intend to imply is that public programs inculcate tremendous wastage and a degree of dependence, just from the fact that government is poorly run simply because of substandard incentives. More importantly, there is a desperate need to develop incentive-based systems instead of charity-based systems, because as long as there are freebies, people will rest on their asses. And that includes me.

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By Kiran, July 23, 2009 3:26 pm

Read this today…..

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade.”

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

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By Kiran, July 21, 2009 5:10 pm

After spending six weeks with my dad, I always thought I would have enough material to do an la Dreams of My Father memoir. But really, I find myself coming up with only one major bullet point repeatedly. That, there is a an entire generation of folk, my father being a proud constituent, who are more or less omniscient and will subconsciously strive to extent that trait in themselves at any cost. I talk not just about the knowledge of the generations past or just the ideas over the last few decades and their subsequent outcomes that have generally shaped our society, but the actual underpinnings of the all-important causal relationships between these ideas and actors. While it was sometimes annoying how he would make one or two assumptions, use one or two related references, and almost immediately come up with an explanation for how a certain thing works or why something is the way it is, there was an uncanny and sometimes scary accuracy in his conclusions every single instance. Again, the all important lesson there, was that while it is mostly useful to know a little about everything in our world, connecting the dots in-between and drawing conclusions from such seemingly useless facts and news artifacts is what matters.

I think I ended up learning way more about India, the its political and socio-economic landscape in the last two months than I have learned in ten years of history and civics classes. And in the process of applying similar derivations to life and machinations in the Americas, I thoroughly enjoyed having some interesting albeit sometimes heated debates on every possible topic under the sun – from morals, to crime, to futures markets, to women, to how the plumbing under the sink works, to diagnosing autism, to metro rail systems, to vegetarianism. And as I get ready to say good-bye and restart my blur of a life typically filled with careless exploits and incessant list of mostly useless activities, I get the feel that I will miss the good exchange of ideas with him. And though I will probably never be an omniscient as him, my curiosity in understanding the world has definitely perked, and I thank him for that. They say that a father shows you the path, and a mother holds your hand while you start walking on that path. True.

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By Kiran, July 15, 2009 11:08 pm

There are things that I do, and more significantly things that I don’t do, that often make me ponder for a purpose for the next day. Given the fragility of life and the microscopic impact that the majority of us have on this world, I concluded that it might be easy to cater to thyself rather than keep procrastinating till that to be great moment. I have always wondered how to get over the paradox that presents itself in chalking out a plan for life; if everything was planned out, then I’d end up being too busy worrying about not achieving the next goal and if nothing was planned I would get nowhere. So like most things, I am taking the middle ground, and writing a list of things I want to do this year. Yes, I too, would like to see Rome and walk the Great Wall, but no point wandering too far from reality or in over-estimating the randomness of my own mind. And with that spirit, I came up with the following twenty or so things that I would love to do before the world ends on New Years Even 2010.

Eat Dim Sum in LA’s China Town
Buy a bike, any bike
Taste a 15 year old wine
Paint an oil of canvas of a real landscape
Run 7.1 miles non-stop
Do two all-nighters and sleep one whole day
Fall hopelessly in love and write a love letter
Write an iPhone app
Try all ten of the best of LA Zagat
Watch Le Reve one more time
Play Comptin Dun Autre Ete Lapres on the piano
Watch three movies with one ticket at any multiplex
Eat at the French Laundry
Make my company website
Buy a flat screen tv
Help with at least one disaster through the red cross
Fire a shotgun
Learn at least three dance moves
Finish Edgar Allen Poe’s complete works and poems
Cook four indian dishes in one evening
See La Traviatta at the Disney Hall
Buy a George Foreman grill
Spend $1000 on a gift for a special person
Write one work-related article
Short-sell at least one stock

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By Kiran, July 11, 2009 9:06 pm

Her best friend had one, her roommate had one, most of her colleagues had one. She would normally turn a nonchalant eye towards such things, but of late she had seen her roommate cuddle with him one too many times. In the past, she had tried not to stare, for such thoughts might corrupt her and tip the balance of her perfect life. As she reached the entrance to her apartment building, her neighbor, a middle aged single lady who normally never made eye contact, waved to her. This was the same lady who once always seemed to stare at the pavement with her droopy eyes, the one whose faded flowery skirts had stopped being fashionable a decade ago. But today, her smile covered almost her entire face, and there was a warm glow in her eyes, and she even seemed a tad taller in her cheap but shiny heels.

It didn’t take a stock broker to figure that she was clearly in love; her hello was almost melodious and could be heard a block away. Her arms quickly wrapped around him once more as she lovingly shifted her stare back into his brown eyes. As she walked past her, for a second, she couldn’t help but feel somewhat envious. She thought back to her own now seemingly barren situation. She was definitely desirable, and many had told her how ravishing she looked in an evening gown as well as a traditional dress. Her big dreamy eyes and her thick flowing hair would seamlessly facade her smarts and wits. She had had several opportunities in the last two years, but she never felt a connection to any of them. Sometimes they seemed lifeless, sometimes they seemed boring and uncaring, sometimes they were obnoxiously loud and demanding. As time went by she had lost her motivation, and decided it was easier to let fate put him in her path. It had been two years since then and the fall’s blossoms and winter’s flakes had come and gone. But today was different, that gaping hole had found its way back, and that desire to have a companion was slowly eating into her. That moment she decided; it was time to stop procrastinating and putting her feelings off; she was going to get herself a dog too.