Sanjeev Sabhlok's Blog, page 93
April 15, 2019
LKY was extraordinarily influential in changing China – the amazing story in LKY’s understated words
These extracts from LKY’s 2000 book, FROM THIRD WORLD TO FIRST, confirms how deeply Singapore has influenced China. ==== My meeting with Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping was unforgettable. A dapper, stocky man of 74, not more than five feet tall, in a beige Mao suit came down from a Boeing 707 at Paya Lebar airport […]
April 13, 2019
How Singapore conquered corruption – in the words of LKY
This is a chapter from LYK’s FROM THIRD WORLD TO FIRST – THE SINGAPORE STORY: 1965-2000 === Keeping the Government Clean When the PAP government took office in 1959, we set out to have a clean administration. We were sickened by the greed, corruption, and decadence of many Asian leaders. Fighters for freedom for their oppressed […]
April 12, 2019
Transition from transaction taxes to land tax
This is a placeholder post, to assemble some notes on this topic. SBP policy In general, land tax is one of the more efficient taxes. We will significantly strengthen the land tax system, to be used mainly by the States, union territories and local governments, helping them reduce their dependency on central taxes. [SBP manifesto] […]
April 11, 2019
How Adam Smith’s ideas transformed Ronald Coase the socialist into one of the world’s greatest economists
This extract from the book Ronald H. Coase by Steven G. Medema is of some interest: Coase was at that time a social¬ist, and he thought that studying economics (which was required for the commerce degree) would be quite interesting. During this preparation period, he studied economics, geography, French, English economic history and accounting. He […]
April 10, 2019
How China overthrew some elements of socialism but remains an intellectual backwater of the world
These five extracts from Coase’s How China Became Capitalist explain it very well: CHINA’S IGNORANCE OF ECONOMICS IN 1980 WAS SIMILAR TO INDIA’S IGNORANCE OF BASIC ECONOMICS TODAY. During the Cultural Revolution, China pursued a policy of self-isolation in diplomacy and self-sufficiency in the economy. At the same time, ideological monopolization in the name of […]
April 9, 2019
How socialists and confused “planners” blocked change of land use for 280 ha of prime land in Mumbai
The story of socialists in Mumbai and how they harmed millions of Indians by blocking valuable land from alternate uses – from Bertaud’s Order Without Design. == Land Use Change: Mumbai The story of Mumbai’s cotton mills best illustrates the tragic consequences of freezing obsolete land uses in the hope of preserving jobs. Indian entrepreneurs […]
April 3, 2019
Cowardly Australian Senate has censured Anning instead of debating him
A few months ago I wrote on Catallaxy Files: Fraser Anning’s ill-articulated concerns are a fight for Australia’s soul I’ve not had time to go back to it but note that there are 105 comments on that article. In the meantime, Fraser Anning has been censured by the Australian Senate. I’m deeply concerned about this. […]
India is now best characterised as a Turd World country
I think the sense of disgust that overcame me in India this time has not yet gone away. I have such terrible memories – the country is a nightmare. E.g. see my videos here and here. Today, I decided it is best to call India a Turd World country. That’s probably more appropriate. The socialists have created the […]
April 1, 2019
Compendium of my published articles
I’ve decided (for my own convenience and reference) to bring together all my published articles (not books/manuscripts) since 1980 into a single “book”. This task is pretty daunting, but hopefully I’ll find time to complete it in the coming months. As a first step, I’ve managed to compile my TOI writings since 2007. DOWNLOAD WORD VERSION […]
Sanjay Sonawani’s response on Reddit to some misguided “rebuttal” of his views
On Reddit someone called Mad_Sanghi wrote: This is weird. Instead of thinking vedas as the source of Hinduism, the author argues it is a later addition by some immigrants. I think it is BS, because bramahnical society was using them, before the gupta period, as is visible by rise of Buddhism or Jainism before 5 […]
