link to original reddit post by /u/-Brofessor-
I am from India, which was socialist between her Independence till 1990, however she still remains extremely statist. And to see people, mainly those from first world capitalist nations hungering for the same policies which screwed my country over greatly saddens me.
Lets go over those policies.
- Gun restrictions: India has some of the most severe gun restrictions in the world, civilians cannot own any firearm apart from those shotguns whose barrels break in half and handguns below 9mm. Even these require you to go through a ton of paperwork and waiting time. The result? More than 25,000 murders are committed every year with firearms out of which 80% are with illegally obtained guns which the assailant made on his own or the guns were smuggled from Nepal or Pakistan. Secondly the threat of a tyrannical government rang true when in 1975, the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi declared a state of Emergency where political opponents were put in jail, phones were wiretapped without a warrant, all freedom of speech was ignored and men were forcefully sterilised. Even before Independence, Lord Lytton enacted the Arms Act of 1878 where Indians were not allowed to bear any arms.
- Centralised economy: India has a had a very centralised economy since Independence. All we got to show for it was widespread poverty, awful infrastructure and unemployment.
- High Taxes: Most of the ultra rich do not pay them. All of the tax burden is burdened by the middle class and we get nothing to show for it except pot hole filled roads, an ill equipped military, insanely high budget deficits and very very rich politicians.
- Hate speech laws: India has a Sedition( Indian Penal Code 124A) and Hurting Religious Sentiments(295A) as criminal offences. The Sedition law is mainly used by the Government to quell dissent. Hurting religious sentiments is mainly used by butthurt morons.
- Free healthcare: Government hospitals treat patients for very low costs but government provided healthcare outside of major cities is awful with overworked and underpaid staff and underequipped hospitals. Most people prefer private hospitals which while more expensive are of far better quality.
- Free education: All Indians have the right to education till the age of 14. However once again government schools outside of major cities are awful with understaffed schools, schools with no benches and toilets or just schools straight up not existing. Learning outcomes are horrifyingly bad. On the bright side government colleges are the best but they are near impossible to get into, for example out of the million kids who apply for medical college every year only 10,000 make into the good government colleges.
- Nationalisation of industry: Most of the government owned companies are heavy losses. The government owned airline Air India ran into such heavy losses the Government finally divested it. The government owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has produced one indigenous plane in 30 years.
- Heavy restrictions on business: The amount of red tape and bureaucracy you have to go through to start a business is insane. The entrepreneurial spirit of India, which used to be the greatest trading power once, is pretty much dead, though effort are being made to revive it.
Yes a lot of the problems which plague India trace their origins to the Colonial Raj, however the reason they still persist is because India made many many economic, political and foreign policy blunders post Independence. And to see entitled, privileged people from rich, capitalist, first world nations wanting to make those same blunders breaks my heart.