[Reader-list] Fw: Fw: The Mango Tree

[subhrodip sengupta]

Dear Inder(and all), 
                    Sorry for bringing a Spectre into the forum. In fact to me, all learning should start afresh, rather than decay and rust over lifetime.. Last time I felt uncomfortable, once I went over your reply. A splendid one compelling in form. But, I need to clarify what I meant in the problem.... In so far the distribution system is concerned, we can easily look at endowment failures but somewhere we fail to find the hidden enemy in a series of hallucinations. Not because only marx beived it to be so. I said I wanted to study what keeps these facilities in such and such distribution system in markets. Truely a production agreement, a political agreement, sustainable under given scale and production relations. That is, one has to find out the exact mode whether community labour is used, population characteristics, the length of working hours, how culture is built around there fruits etc. Alternative systems in these cases
 are clearly not an alternative but a supplement or support to markets. I find that a seller behaves as his own utility maximiser especially when dealing in perishable goods--- A risk minimiser as well. Thus he sets prices which would benifit him the most, as buyers even you and I do while accepting coupons and offers.  But the same does not gurantee him a heavy profit or even mere subsistence, if we go by data of black traders and migrants. The mode of ownership of means of production, land raw materials etc. leads to an entitlement or oppurtunity failure. How is the question. Where fruits are locally distributed, it is indeed to justify the system at low or no cost. High prices could prevail elsewhere and slum dwellers might not even bother to know it's name. Thus markets are controlled by the dominant mode of production say Capitalist or late feudal etc.   Unfortunately, it has never been in recent India that Mangoes have been free. We do find
 occassional references to Mali's using sticks to fence thieves. Because land needs a cerificate and quantity of land one can enjoy is deided by his title in society, which tries to guarentee there is no free land no trees for all, and thus guards the markets from distortion.Children are not spared. This story comes back again and again and people smile. Either they are not conscious or they do not see erosion of Capitalist markets in near future and ushering into second stage, where labour has been transformed into primary want of life and mode of production flows more abundantly. So do I, at least when I keep in mind all ways have their bumps and potholes. The debate had long gone beyond that, though I can not help saluting new, workable ideas that will emerge and increase oppurtunities for all those who want to exploit. We can indeed work towards it, by studying local arrgangements and global prices of fruits. Surely the idea of a ripe mango is
 worthwhile trying to carck the code of mandis and trying to bring a few more for the slum dwellers or why not for you and me? At any cost we'd need to differentiate ourselves from people who worship estate-rights as something natural and call for equality or more honestly equitability. Wonderful article indeed the way you finish it.
regards, 
Subhrodip.



      Cricket on your mind? Visit the ultimate cricket website. Enter http://beta.cricket.yahoo.com