Sir: PTI has set forth its dream goals in its publicized 100 days’ les choses a faire (things to do). The PTI could learn a lot from the evolution of the welfare state in Europe and the USA. These programs evolved under the influence of two assumptions. One resources are scarce (Lionel Robbins limited resources vis-à-vis unlimited wants). Secondly, government could allocate resources, though limited, effectively.
The second assumption is challenged by many economists. Every year the US government spends $2trillion of its national wealth on retirement benefits, healthcare and poverty alleviation. Yet it remains a Utopia to eliminate the American underclass. Frustrated at ineffectual expenditure on welfare, Charles Murray propounded an alternative welfare system in his book ‘In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State’.
The PTI needs to show how it could fulfil its 100-day dream within the available Public Sector Development Program outlay of Rs. 850 million for federation, and Rs 850 billion for all the four provinces. It can’t chip off the defence outlay of Rs 1.1 trillion because of security constraints. Nor can it expand and boost industrial production overnight. Perhaps it should float international tenders for geological mining in Northern Areas. But, our experience of mining and collaboration with China in this field has not been so good.
AMJED JAAVED
Rawalpindi
Published in Daily Times, July 30th 2018.