Mehangai (inflation) is the root cause of the failure of Pak democracy

When taxes on consumables are terribly high, and prices of daily staples keep shooting up, there is no way a democratic government could ever survive.

Once the masses see their cash outflow increasing, they turn towards the life style of rich and famous and especially the politicians. There they see opulence, the show, the circus, and the pomp.

The result is a terrible reaction aginst the system and that creates anarchy in the form of pahyya jaam, shutter down, and other similar activities.

This vicious circle further erodes the confidence of the people, and the result is that every two years, the politicians are spat at, and finally kicked out. Then military steps in as a stop gap measure.

Unfortunately, politicians who are supposed to reduce the impact of taxes on the staples and consumables like cooing oil, wheat flour, and petrol just seem to be oblivious to the facts and they keep going their happy way until the axe fall on their necks.

Until we fix the issue of bad taxation, and reduce the burden on the masses, we will continue dealing with off again, on again love fest with BB, NS, or whoever is the flavor of the day.

Our tax system is medieval, and so is our food distribution system. The result is that both the tax system, and the food distribution system allows corrupt officials and whole sales agents to monopolize the supply of money and supply of the food.

How can we get out of this vicious circle? By demanding from our leaders that we must overhaul the tax system and we must stop the monopolistic practices both by the government as well the whole sales agents.

Unfortunately even the election system is rigged against us. Political parties were supposed to be the platform for the masses. In fact it has become the fiefdom of tribal and fascist so-called leaders.

Look at major parties from North to South and from West to East. Every party has a feudal till death do us apart leader. We had some hope from MQM, it being the party of educated. Heck no! It now is a personal fiefdom of one person who can be in jail, or overseas and yet keep his iron grip on every aspect of party functions.

So here is the third demand from the current establishment. For Gad’s sake set up a system of primary elections so that we unseat the feudals from MQM, PPP, and ML.

So here is the three points agenda.

  1. Overhaul the tax system and remove taxes form petrol, and cooking oil and food stuff.

  2. Break the monopolies involved in the food supply chain (including the government monopoly).

  3. Institute a primary election where registered members from the masses elect their party leaders.

Three points just the measly three points and nothing else. You think we can get these?

Re: Mehangai (inflation) is the root cause of the failure of Pak democracy

Unless we tame the inflation monster, we can't have sustained democracy or for that matter sustained "governance".

Re: Mehangai (inflation) is the root cause of the failure of Pak democracy

good points. the single most important issue average pakistani deals with is how to improve purchasing power and yet economics is giving sautayla treatment by our maashra because bread and butter issues are not sexy subjects. our people are bought up on diet of jehad and therefore would rather focus on how to bring about downfall of amreeka or how to drive israel out of m.e. also you have a minority of english speaking elites especially in english press who are in thrall with socialism because hard work and private enterprise are regarded as bad things in our society. also given the lack of options for entertainment, politics has became soap opera. as can be seen on this website, most people cant think beyond daily headlines in third rate pakistani press. meanwhile price of oil is nearly $100/barrel. i can bet if you ask people here what steps we should take to deal with rising energy prices, you wont get a single intelligent answer. ask people to comment on bb or altaf hussain and you will get hundreds of paragraphs on people not fit to be employed as chupraasees in halfway decent organisations.. in the end, qaums get what they deserve.

Re: Mehangai (inflation) is the root cause of the failure of Pak democracy

You have hit the nail on the head Faisal. Even this forum is awash with threads upon threads on BB, but nothing on the bread and butter issues.

Our pundits think that BB, or NS, AH, or PM are God-incarnates. They can come and fix everything else, while we sit around f@rt about.

Re: Mehangai (inflation) is the root cause of the failure of Pak democracy

Do you know why we have such "high" taxes? Hint: low collection. Success of democracy doesn't base on "inflation", however success of "society" does. People resort to stealing and frauding in high inflation societies, its responsibility of "government" (whether democratic or dictatorship) to enfore law and order. If law can be enforced then chances of any government's success are higher.... if anyone can be let go with "negotiations" with high profile criminals as Nawaz Sharif or NRO issued then chances go down.

Re: Mehangai (inflation) is the root cause of the failure of Pak democracy

You hanging out with wrong crowd dude. When I sit with my friends of different levels (educated and non-educated) in Pakistan, not a single one of them talks about bringing downfall of America/Israel etc. But if the issue is "hot" during those days then the topic will be given few minutes.

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also given the lack of options for entertainment, politics has became soap opera. as can be seen on this website, most people cant think beyond daily headlines in third rate pakistani press.
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Creating disco clubs will make people think healthily?

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meanwhile price of oil is nearly $100/barrel. i can bet if you ask people here what steps we should take to deal with rising energy prices, you wont get a single intelligent answer.
[/quote]

As if people here claim to be MS/PhD economics? People might give ideas but of course some answers will be close and some may be far away. Do all Americans, Swiss, Finnish know everything about all issues? Be reasonable in your claims/complaints.