I love the way our newspapers report comedy disguised as news. Look at this article in the Hindu, for instance:
Plea to control gold price. Yes, someone wants gold prices to be regulated. I did not know gold was like a life-saving drug, or an essential commodity like rice or vegetable oil. Not that there is any price control on rice or vegetable oil as far as I know. But maybe they want to start with gold – maybe they feel it’s the most lifesaving of them all?
Let me quote from the news report:
In a memorandum submitted to the Union Commerce Minister, Kamalnath, the chamber secretary S. N. Rama Raju, pointed out that there had been a spurt in the price of gold which made the yellow metal unaffordable for the common man.
The poor, the memorandum said, found it difficult to buy even the minimum jewellery like mangala sutra for weddings under current prices.
If this trend continued, the government would lose the confidence of common man, the statement cautioned.
Hilarious. I love the way Mr. Rama Raju also subtly suggests that it would be somehow anti-Hindu to allow gold prices to rise. After all, isn’t it written in every religious text that mangalsutras should only be made out of gold ?
I also love the fact that Mr. Raju doesn’t seem to object to inflation levels per se and how other commodities like food are becoming unaffordable for the poor. I can see the poor man on the street thinking, “Hmm, should I buy rice, or clothes, or gold? Oh, why is gold so unaffordable??”
I would have thought that gold prices will/ should rise when there are deflationary expectations (like there are now). Isn’t that the whole economic rationale for buying gold? When you cannot invest in stocks, bonds or real estate, you buy gold.
But I see I have been mistaken. Mr. Rama Raju has opened my eyes – gold is an essential good.
So I am planning to submit a petition to the Commerce Minister too. I would like the price for the Mercedes Benz S-Class to be regulated. Obviously, it is an essential commodity, and it could potentially be lifesaving, but it is unaffordable by the common man (costs around $100,000). I would request the government to immediately fix the prices at $5000 so everyone can buy it. Otherwise…. what was that line? Oh yes, “I will lose confidence in the government.”
Anyone else would like to be a signatory to this petition?
ak
Syahir
Preeti
shyam
I have the same argument...
Ah, my gold-plated S-class might finally be within reach.
We just have to ask, right? Anything to stimulate the economy
Sometimes they end up seriously joking! I am not even sure how to react to this
Seriously joking indeed
Why stop with just S-class Benz? While we are at it, I would like to regulate the price of a beach-front bungalow, diamonds (after all they are a girl’s best friend and they should be affordable,right?) and just about everything.
This just gets to ridiculous levels at times and as Dinesh said, I have no idea how to react…
I’ll settle for even a beach-front condo, as long as it’s the right beach
I want to sign the petition too, can we please add diamonds, BMWs and business class air tickets to the list. Please pretty please!!
Done! Why not diamonds, if gold is so essential? No doubt people cannot marry without diamond rings either
Hahaha! I know that these honorable gentlemen would like to strangle the marketplace except in the goods they sell, eg, sugar cane. Even here, they have found a way to do away with the market: they sell to the Government at a fixed rate, and then to the black market. So the common man and the uncommon man both get sugar while the thug profits from both. Is it this kind that the late Hon. Nehru wanted to suspend from lamp posts?
The problem, of course, lies in the whole idea of trying to fix prices. In a free market, it’s hard to segregate demographics by price. Instead of using the PDS as a welfare measure, the government is better off just sending checks to the target segment..
Imagine this scene at a fair price shop in the not too distant future in Ramaraju Rajya:
Long queues for rice , edible oil and wheat. And the shop owner says ‘I cannot give you those. But, I have GOLD!”
That is such a hilarious mental picture
So very like Marie Antoinette..
Can we extend the petition to include Ferrari and/or Porsche? I would sign that. Who said the bad economy is strangling the buying power?
We can all stimulate the economy by buying Ferraris / Porsches at $5000
what say?
Amazing!
Election years are so much fun…you get to see all sorts of stunts being pulled for the cause of the ‘common man’!
hehehe..
I would like the price for the Mercedes Benz S-Class to be regulated. – Even i’d like to have that btw. Point is, the ministers and the ones ruling this country have lost sense all together. Bring in religion and it makes me hate my countrymen more. I wish something could be done before I lose all faith in the country.
Benzes, definitely!! And Manolos too… some of us walk to work, you know
But seriously, this in a country where many life saving drugs are out of the reach of millions of people!!!