I was reading Scott Adam’s blog again today and I couldn’t help but comment–that is post–on his blog today about the topic "I Wish I had a Government". It was pretty funny, especially as foreigners commented about their opinion of our government. Then I came across this:

Scott, In India, I have less of a government. The most significant achievements credited to the Congress-led government include the following: -Reservations for "backward-castes" in colleges (it’s now at 50%!), so that they will be educated enough to take advantage of mandatory corporate reservations (still being worked out, but expect 99.99%). -A nationwide crackdown on "obscenity", which includes showing one’s stomach, on-screen smoking (imagine Sherlock Holmes without his pipe), and news channels. All this happened while thousands of indebted farmers committed suicide, millions got AIDS (5.7 million in all, the highest anywhere), and half a billion went hungry. I get through most of this by keeping in mind that Pakistan is worse off.

The first part reminds me of reverse-discrimination, affirmative action and quota systems. Of course, all three terms mean nearly the same thing and all three are wrong. I believe that everyone should have equal opportunity, not preference. The second reminds me of the US war on drugs. It is something that the US is obsessed with that does not really affect the population at large–well at least the marijuana part. A person on NPR today claimed that 310,000 people die from drug overdoses each year, which is 10x of the number of people who died on 9/11. I need really good documentation for that, which I don’t have. It reminds me of the adage my father told me when I was young. "There is always someone better off and worse off than you son. Never forget that.".