Join the new world

Heya India, how are things? It's been a while. Since I'm e-physically here, I thought I'd point something out that I noticed.






Looks tasty, but holy shit is it expensive! Last night, me and my comrades swooped into Karnataka to help out in your battle for Balochistan (which went quite well, I must say). Since we're the heavy hitters, we were going to use our food allowance to tank a bit. But we were given USD, not INR, and told to use our orgs in the US to buy food and donate it. Certainly sounds like a hassle. So I went to the market, and found that on a per-health-point basis, Indian food costs nearly double what American food costs.




like that chick there, I wanted to cause a scene



Sure, India is a small country, but that much of a discrepancy must be a result of other factors. So I went over to the nation's economic page, and sure enough, I'm confronted by my old enemy: protectionism.







I seem to remember from my time in India that the country had about 150-200 active players, and thus 150-200 active workers. I imagine the numbers are similar now. And yet a country of such a size had 99% tariffs on nearly everything - only hospitals/DSes and non-native RMs were exempt. And I thought, how the hell can such a small country hope to be self-sufficient?! The concept is laughable. These high tariffs are driving up prices for everyday Indians, leaving them with less purchasing power, and thus harming India's economy and diminishing India's ability to put out damage on the battlefield (if weapons and food are more costly...), and killing exporting opportunities to boot. So much harm caused in the name of helping domestic businesses...though I fail to see how jacking up wages and crushing international competitiveness is helping.



Consider my example from yesterday, where the entire eUS Marine Corps, instead of buying food off the Indian market, used orgs to ship it in from home. If import tariffs were lower, the Indian market would have both foreign and domestic companies, all selling at a lower price. A number of Marines (can't tell you how many), all buying 300 health worth of food, sure would be a nice boost to the economy. Even in the nearly-impossible situation that the market was so flooded that only foreign companies were on the market - the VATs and 1% import taxes sure would have been a nice boost to the Indian coffers.







So, to the suggestion: While I'm obviously a free market supporter, I'm not going to call for a drop to 1% tariffs overnight. There would be some significant pains in the transition, and it wouldn't quite be fair to India's domestic companies. So instead, I propose that all tariffs should be no higher than 10% for now. It may not sound like much, but as somebody who has run a number of companies all over the world, with a number of export licenses, let me tell you that 10% is a very significant amount. Anything higher would be considered highly protectionist, and we're trying to make progress in the downward direction. 10% would, for now, provide a solid balance, and lay the groundwork for a more open and efficient Indian economy, and more purchasing power for the masses.

Luv ya.






P.S. - I see that in the last couple days, a number of these tariffs have indeed come down. Props to shail and co. It's a good start, but keep 'em coming.