I've upset Bhagwad Jal, my good young friend, by not publishing two of his comments.

I did not publish them (and will not do so even now) since I'm getting a tired of repeating the same thing a hundred times. I'm a fairly patient fellow (or so I think I am), but I can't go on hammering my keyboard to repeat the same thing again – and again. (I do have quite severe RSI, I trust Bhagwad remembers that.) 

So, dear Bhagwad, since you seem to think that there is a surfeit of criminal parents in India who don't send their children to school, and so these criminals must be punished (and their children confiscated?), I have the following suggestion for you:

Request for detailed policy proposal

You are aware I am a fighter for life and liberty (including yours), and I am therefore willing to entertain the idea of ANY compulsion and penalty on anyone only on grounds of negative liberty violation (i.e. demonstrable harm caused, tested in a court of law). 

Since you have formed a view that liberty is basically meaningless, and can be constrained recklessly on every frivolous ground that your "moral sense" (or other "higher emotions") leads you towards, let me suggest that we stop this pointless debate in which I talk logic and evidence, and you assert. Assert, not prove.

I therefore am requesting you to provide evidence of your policy thinking capacity by doing some basic policy analysis to move this discussion further. In making this request I'm merely going to apply standard principles of regulation making.

Please consider the following (and similar) issues and justify on your own blog the following kinds of things:

a) the nature of the problem (i.e. nature of the deliberate harm caused by these criminal parents to their children, and the extent of such deliberate harm in a particular case);

b) the extent of the problem (i.e. how many parents in India deliberately intend to harm their children), and quantify for me the total cost to the Indian community of this harm;

c) your proposed method of identifying such parents among the billion Indians and proving beyond doubt their deliberate intent to harm (note that no one's liberty can be constrained without judicious proof, else such action will violate the constitution), noting that such parents have not only NOT killed their child, but have (i) borne the child after considerable effort, (ii) fed and clothed the child, and have (iii) not visibly injured the child. God forbid, these parents might even love their child (a thought that has evidently not crossed  your mind). 

Please also elaborate on all legal ramifications of how you will get any access to the (harmed) child under a Constitution that guarantees everyone liberty – assuming you've first satisfactorily proven the intent to harm the child. 

Tell me also how many bureaucrats you need to identify these criminal parents. How much will it cost India?

d) the extent of penalty (after due process) you wish to impose. What will you do will you do with these children (if you decide we must confiscate them from their parents)?

Note that in good policy analysis, the key issue is to prove that your solution addresses the CAUSE of the problem, but I'm leaving out such a request from you, for such effort seems entirely beyond your capacity. You are determined to punish, and hence are applying the criminal law. So prove it.

I will not discuss this issue with you till you've published a well-thought out policy proposal on your blog that proves to me (and to the world) that the problem is real and not something you like to cook up in your aspiration to occupy a high moral ground over those whose children you didn't bear nor feed nor clothe.

Hence please do not respond to this request on this blog. No such comment will be entertained/ published.

Instead, do me the favour of publishing a full and comprehensive blog post. You could attack my arguments or just prove your case. Whichever works best for you. But please do all this on YOUR blog. No more discussion on this blog! Do spare me for now. I trust you appreciate this is not personal, simply practical. 

s

Related posts:

1. The myth that parents don’t want to send their children to school
2. Government school teachers send their OWN children to private schools
3. Please stop second-guessing parents in the care of THEIR children
4. How you can ruin the future of “lower caste” children: Send them to government schools
5. FTI should work with Chris Lingle to propose sound money policy
6. Once a school voucher program is in place, regulatory controls must ease
7. Food for thought for Bhagwad Jal
8. Preliminary list of references to assist Bhagwad/Anuj in preparing their suicide letter
9. An open challenge to Bhagwad Jal and Anuj to write the world's first rational suicide letter
10. School vouchers produce GREAT results. Further proof.