Sunday, December 21, 2003
Subsidies
Ppl consider that subsidies r very uncommon in a capitalistic economy like US. This is a very wrong perception. In fact, the American Govt doles out a subsidy of abt $18 billion a yr on just agriculture, and this compared to the $10 billion per yr that the US provides as aid to poor countries! http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0509-04.htm has some more facts on this. Shows the hyppocrisy of the rich countries.
However, one interesting way of providing subsidy that I have seen here is what is called as "food stamps". This is provided by the govt to the poor, and ppl can use these food stamps at shops to purchase commodities. This is in contrast to the subsidies that the govts in India dole out. For eg, for the mid-day meal scheme, the Govt of Karnataka actually provides food to the children at govt-run schools. The contract to prepare this food will be given after a significant amount of kickbacks, and the food quality will obviously be bad, the children and their parents will not like the sub-standard food, and finally, the program will not serve the desired purpose. My chikkamma (aunt) who is a teacher in a Govt-run school says that children actually used to sell the grocery that was provided by govt in the schools! Of course, now the govt has modified the scheme to provide only coked food, but that will still not help in improving the quality of the food.
What the govt shud do is to adopt the American model - provide children with food stamps for each day's attendance. This would allow the children access to high-quality food, maintain competition, and reduce the kickbacks.
Amen!
Ppl consider that subsidies r very uncommon in a capitalistic economy like US. This is a very wrong perception. In fact, the American Govt doles out a subsidy of abt $18 billion a yr on just agriculture, and this compared to the $10 billion per yr that the US provides as aid to poor countries! http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0509-04.htm has some more facts on this. Shows the hyppocrisy of the rich countries.
However, one interesting way of providing subsidy that I have seen here is what is called as "food stamps". This is provided by the govt to the poor, and ppl can use these food stamps at shops to purchase commodities. This is in contrast to the subsidies that the govts in India dole out. For eg, for the mid-day meal scheme, the Govt of Karnataka actually provides food to the children at govt-run schools. The contract to prepare this food will be given after a significant amount of kickbacks, and the food quality will obviously be bad, the children and their parents will not like the sub-standard food, and finally, the program will not serve the desired purpose. My chikkamma (aunt) who is a teacher in a Govt-run school says that children actually used to sell the grocery that was provided by govt in the schools! Of course, now the govt has modified the scheme to provide only coked food, but that will still not help in improving the quality of the food.
What the govt shud do is to adopt the American model - provide children with food stamps for each day's attendance. This would allow the children access to high-quality food, maintain competition, and reduce the kickbacks.
Amen!
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