Cheap Mentality

I have been following the national news quite diligently over the net and over the past few days the fuel price issue has been hogging all the limelight. Now I have not had the chance to intricately study whatever prompted our soft spoken PM to spike the prices with the elections around the corner , but if its one thing I am sure of that the decision was taken by Manmohan - the economist rather than the politician. I dont think anybody else has the guts to do that with Vote-bank politics and the leftist bastards baying for blood. We all know fuel prices have been rising all over the world, we also know that fuel among other things is one of the most subsidized entity in India all over the world. In fact most of the things are at their cheapest in India. Dont believe me , just google Big Mac Index and find out for yourself.

We crib about hikes in petrol and kerosene and yet celebrate weddings and every other function with atleast 4 generators gulping litres of fuel by the hundreds for the whole night. We crib over taxes even when most of us conveniently siphon off sales tax every time we dont take the receipt at the local store. We will buy swanky new cars every six months to upstage the equally big show-off neighbors yet we want to buy petrol for the price of mineral water. We dont ride Delhi Metro , even though its a world class public transport system , we would rather travel with friends each in their own vehicles criss crossing the roads with sound system blaring deafeningly loud. Its rather unfortunate that we dont use our famed bargaining skill to make the arabs and the US sell to us cheap oil so that we can continue doing all these things.

The problem is we are so used to subsidized value of everything that even when most of us can afford to pay the bills we raise a hue and cry as if the PM himself has stabbed us. I have no doubt that Congress is going to lose the next general election because they dared to save the economy at the expense of populist measures. I am also sure that after this Sonia Gandhi is going to do everything she can to appease the “Cheap” mentality of average Indian joe to soften the blow of single digit hikes in fuel prices.

By the way I know LPG has been hiked by a big Rs 50 , good job , we could all use some raw salad and fruits instead of oil soaked and deep fried shit we eat day in and day out.