Not Charming
13 January 2008
Editor, Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
Finding an upside to India's ages-old poverty, Mira Kamdar notes that Indians today don't have to break the "bad habit" of driving ("It Costs Just $2,500. It's Cute as a Bug. And It Could Mean Global Disaster." January 13). But with the introduction of the $2,500 Tata Nano Ms. Kamdar worries that Indians will do like Americans and start driving a lot. So she calls upon India's government to discourage the use of automobiles and encourage the use of bicycles and mass-transit. Among her examples of the practicality of bicycles is Paris's "charming" new system of bicycle rentals.
But India is not urban. Seventy percent of Indians live in rural areas. There is no way that mass transit, much less bicycles (regardless of their charm), can supply these hundreds of millions of Indians with the same convenience and speed of movement that affordable automobiles will give them.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
Finding an upside to India's ages-old poverty, Mira Kamdar notes that Indians today don't have to break the "bad habit" of driving ("It Costs Just $2,500. It's Cute as a Bug. And It Could Mean Global Disaster." January 13). But with the introduction of the $2,500 Tata Nano Ms. Kamdar worries that Indians will do like Americans and start driving a lot. So she calls upon India's government to discourage the use of automobiles and encourage the use of bicycles and mass-transit. Among her examples of the practicality of bicycles is Paris's "charming" new system of bicycle rentals.
But India is not urban. Seventy percent of Indians live in rural areas. There is no way that mass transit, much less bicycles (regardless of their charm), can supply these hundreds of millions of Indians with the same convenience and speed of movement that affordable automobiles will give them.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Wednesday June 11, 2008 at 8:26am