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My father used to tell me stories about the days when India was heavily aligned with the Soviet Union. Apparently, there would be approximately 5 people to stam

by yarou 10y ago

My father used to tell me stories about the days when India was heavily aligned with the Soviet Union. Apparently, there would be approximately 5 people to stamp your visa. The excesses of socialism are never lost on me, because of this story.

yarou 10y ago
I'm sorry, I meant socialism is a great system where everyone is equal! In fact it's so equal, that I want you to have sex with my wife.
- dang 10y ago
  You've posted many uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments to HN, and we've had to warn you about this more than once before. I actually just banned your account for this, but on reflection, decided to unban you since many of your comments are also the civil, substantive kind. The latter are the kind we want here. Would you please restrict yourself to those? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
  - yarou 10y ago
    Sorry dang. I now realize that not everyone can appreciate my unique take on satire.
citruspi 10y ago
> Apparently, there would be approximately 5 people to stamp your visa. I'd say that this is still the case. Last time I visited India, when I was exiting the parking garage at the airport, there was an automated machine to let you out. Give them the ticket, put money in, the barrier opens, and you drive out. But there were also five people by this machine. One to take the ticket, another to take the money, and then another three to watch this process. And it wasn't just that instance - there were quite a few instances during my travel when I noticed significantly more people assigned to a job than required.
- petre 10y ago
  What did you expect? India has a huge population. They all need jobs to support their families. So the local gov't has it covered. Would you prefer three of those five people being engaged in a riot and the other two, on gov't payroll, beating the shit out of them? I guess this pretty much ilustrates the difference between East and West. Mr. Rushdie has a book with short stories on that.
  - citruspi 10y ago
    > India has a huge population. They all need jobs to support their families. So the local gov't has it covered. Yup, completely agree. > Would you prefer three of those five people being engaged in a riot and the other two, on gov't payroll, beating the shit out of them? To clarify, in this scenario, are you saying that there are three unemployed people rioting and two other people on a government payroll (presumably po-po?) who are beating the shit out of the rioters? Honestly, _ideally_, I'd want to see universal basic income so that people who don't have jobs don't feel the need to riot. I'd want to see everyone's basic needs supported. Having said that, that's my idealism showing and I don't know how this would realistically work. My background in economics is weak to put it simply and I don't know if this could scale to a population the size of India's. > Mr. Rushdie has a book with short stories on that. Taking a look at his bibliography[0], he's written quite a few novels, any specific one(s) that you'd recommend? [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie#Bibliography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie#Bibliography
    - petre 10y ago
      I doubt basic income would work. People with too much time on their hands will riot anyway, eventually. Work keeps people busy, even if it's low paid work, provided work conditions are okay. East, West is a nice collection of short stories that would give you a taste of his writing style. Also The Groung Beneath her Feet is quite popular.
  - jstanley 10y ago
    > Would you prefer three of those five people being engaged in a riot and the other two, on gov't payroll, beating the shit out of them? I'd prefer them doing something productive instead of standing around wasting tax money.

by yarou 10y ago

yarou 10y ago

I'm sorry, I meant socialism is a great system where everyone is equal! In fact it's so equal, that I want you to have sex with my wife.

dang 10y ago
You've posted many uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments to HN, and we've had to warn you about this more than once before. I actually just banned your account for this, but on reflection, decided to unban you since many of your comments are also the civil, substantive kind. The latter are the kind we want here. Would you please restrict yourself to those? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
- yarou 10y ago
  Sorry dang. I now realize that not everyone can appreciate my unique take on satire.

citruspi 10y ago

> Apparently, there would be approximately 5 people to stamp your visa. I'd say that this is still the case. Last time I visited India, when I was exiting the parking garage at the airport, there was an automated machine to let you out. Give them the ticket, put money in, the barrier opens, and you drive out. But there were also five people by this machine. One to take the ticket, another to take the money, and then another three to watch this process. And it wasn't just that instance - there were quite a few instances during my travel when I noticed significantly more people assigned to a job than required.

petre 10y ago
What did you expect? India has a huge population. They all need jobs to support their families. So the local gov't has it covered. Would you prefer three of those five people being engaged in a riot and the other two, on gov't payroll, beating the shit out of them? I guess this pretty much ilustrates the difference between East and West. Mr. Rushdie has a book with short stories on that.
- citruspi 10y ago
  > India has a huge population. They all need jobs to support their families. So the local gov't has it covered. Yup, completely agree. > Would you prefer three of those five people being engaged in a riot and the other two, on gov't payroll, beating the shit out of them? To clarify, in this scenario, are you saying that there are three unemployed people rioting and two other people on a government payroll (presumably po-po?) who are beating the shit out of the rioters? Honestly, _ideally_, I'd want to see universal basic income so that people who don't have jobs don't feel the need to riot. I'd want to see everyone's basic needs supported. Having said that, that's my idealism showing and I don't know how this would realistically work. My background in economics is weak to put it simply and I don't know if this could scale to a population the size of India's. > Mr. Rushdie has a book with short stories on that. Taking a look at his bibliography[0], he's written quite a few novels, any specific one(s) that you'd recommend? [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie#Bibliography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie#Bibliography
  - petre 10y ago
    I doubt basic income would work. People with too much time on their hands will riot anyway, eventually. Work keeps people busy, even if it's low paid work, provided work conditions are okay. East, West is a nice collection of short stories that would give you a taste of his writing style. Also The Groung Beneath her Feet is quite popular.
- jstanley 10y ago
  > Would you prefer three of those five people being engaged in a riot and the other two, on gov't payroll, beating the shit out of them? I'd prefer them doing something productive instead of standing around wasting tax money.