Note to recruiters

Note to recruiters: We are quite aware that recruiters, interviewers, VCs and other professionals generally perform a Google Search before they interview someone, take a pitch from someone, et cetera. Please keep in mind that not everything put on the Internet must align directly to one's future career and/or one's future product portfolio. Sometimes, people do put things on the Internet just because. Just because. It may be out of their personal interests, which may have nothing to do with their professional interests. Or it may be for some other reason. Recruiters seem to have this wrong-headed notion that if somebody is not signalling their interests in a certain area online, then that means that they are not interested in that area at all. It is worth pointing out that economics pretty much underlies the areas of marketing, strategy, operations and finance. And this blog is about economics. With metta, let us. by all means, be reflective about this whole business of business. Also, see our post on "The Multi-faceted Identity Problem".

Friday, December 6, 2013

ECONOMICS: What does one make of the Aam Aadmi Party?


What does one make of the Aam Aadmi Party?

The Aam Aadmi Party seems to be an oddball mixture of ideas. Their "How are we different" page may be visited for an idea of their "vision":
  • There is no central high command in Aam Aadmi party. The party structure follows a bottom to top approach where the council members elect the Executive Body and also holds the power to recall it.
  • No MLA or MP of this party will use red lights or any other beacons on his or her vehicles.
  • No MLA or MP of this party will use any special security. We believe that elected people's representatives need the same security as a common man.
  • No MLA or MP of our party will live in opulent and luxurious government housing.
  • No one would need to buy an election ticket in our party. Candidates contesting elections from an area will be selected by the people of that area.
What should one make of this party? On the one hand, their idealistic zeal is to be commended. It is good for India to have lower levels of corruption. On the other hand, their lack of an economic philosophy is a problem. And this is a point of view I have debated before - I believe that the Party lacks a coherent economic philosophy.

Concluding thoughts? Well, here is something I have to say to the AAP.
Dear people of the Aam Aadmi Party - dear friends, Indians, countrymen, 
Lend me your ears. Do well but don't do too well in the elections.
          Thank you for your time. I have already captured in about three lines all that I have to say to you. See you around.    

One wishes the Aam Aadmi Party some success so that they continue to do some of the good stuff that they are doing such as monitoring electrol poll booths, et cetera. But one wouldn't want them to actually come to power. The prospect of a party without an economic ideology coming to power is a scary one. So, hope you get a seat or two or three. But not too many. One wouldn't want to wish any country to end up with George W. Bush-like inconsistency at the top.

Update: What AAP has is a lot of ideas but there seems to be little reason to believe that there is anything at the core. There is good reason, based on the economics literature, to believe, for instance, that barring FDI in retail is not a very good idea. Costs will reduce for the consumer. Kirana stores are few in number. Consumers are many. It ought to result in lower costs for the many. Any time a Wikipedia entry for a party goes like: "Party X believe that the promise of equality and justice that forms a part of the constitution of Country X and its preamble has not been fulfilled and that the independence of India has replaced enslavement to an oppressive foreign power with that to a political elite.", you have reason to be concerned. Very concerned.