How much did the Congress Cost India?

We all know that politicians by and large are corrupt. They steal from the public by a variety of means, ranging from kickbacks on purchases (defense equipment is a favorite) to allocation of scarce resources (radio spectrum and land are examples.) But as I have argued before on this blog, public corruption is a consequence of government control of the economy which is mandated by Nehruvian socialism. Being in control of the economy is hugely privately profitable. The profits from public office are well publicized. That’s one side of the equation of profit and loss. What about the loss?

I think we have to be more mindful of the loss.

If A were to steal $10 from B, then B’s loss is A’s gain. That’s a zero-sum transfer. But if A’s gain of $10 were to impose a loss of $100 on B, then that’s a negative-sum transfer.

In the case of public corruption brought about by government control of the economy, the loss is negative-sum. The loss to the economy is orders of magnitude greater than the gain that the corrupt politicians make.

I have done an order of magnitude calculation of how much India has lost over the last 60-odd years. It comes to a staggering $120 trillion ($120 million million).






The above is from this post. It is worth reading, even if I say so myself.

So to answer the question posed in the title of this post “How much did the Congress cost India?”: The Nehru-Gandhi-Maino-Vadra government has cost India $120 trillion and counting.

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