“the economy grows at night when the government is asleep”
Forever we have been asking ourselves where to draw the line between allowing free reign to individuals in order to promote innovation and growth, and establishing strong central governments in order to insure structure, discipline, security, and an expanding bundle of entitlements.
Russia’s answer turned out to be incorrect, as did those of most failed states. What about Fidel Castro, in this year, 2009, the 50th. anniversary of the revolution? What about his line drawing? Was it well placed?
Even today there are those who say that Castro was good for Cuba. For example, Ignacio Ramonet, the editor of Le Monde Diplomatique. But there are probably many more, both inside (especially in the prisons) and outside (especially in Miami) Cuba who would not hesitate to call his answer bad.
Now there are the two much larger countries, China and India. The one, China, has always tried to control everything. The other, India, seems unable to control anything on a national level, quite powerless to keep thousands of groups and hundreds of thousands of individuals from doing their own thing.
Both China and India are experiencing rapid levels of growth. Now how can this be, in countries so different? Does this mean that rapid economic growth doesn’t depend on government, but on something else?
Will we see at some point in the future that India’s people, having been allowed freedom to develop in any number if ways, will push rapidly ahead and leave China’s people, having been kept in line by an autocratic government, far behind?
Gurcharan Das in an op ed piece in today’s Times believes that the latter is in the cards. How can this be, given the poor condition of India’s roads, its dilapidated cities and the constant blackouts and other such miserable life conditions. A Chinese friend of Das asks, “With all your problems, and without strong leadership to address them, how did you become the second-fastest growing economy in the world? I wonder what will you do if the day ever comes when you do have strong leadership. Our leaders fear the day when your government will get its act together.”
Das says that the answer to his friend’s question may lie in a common saying among Indians that their economy grows at night when the government is asleep.
