I liked Mithun Dutta's response to a ridiculous proposition by an unemployed Indian, Subhajit Duttagupta, who wants to remain unemployed for ever. He wrote on FB, thus:

JOIN N SUPPORT RIGHT TO WORK MOVEMENT

—————————- RIGHT TO WORK—————————————–

At present we want to organized movement of the civil society on the issue of RIGHT TO WORK.

Movement of RIGHT TO WORK is not properly moved in INDIA though it was strongly organized to the different countries .

If RIGHT TO WORK adjust to the indian constitution as a fundamental rights, then govt will remain responsible to give work to all citizen,otherwise govt have to give money to every un employed person for their lively hood.side by side we will try to give help youths to get their employment.

I'm extracting some of the responses to this ridiculous idea from the discussion that occurred thereafter, on FB. Do join in the conversation, if you wish.

Vidyut Jain what exactly is right to work? right to food? right to shelter? right to clothes? right to a car? right to holidays abroad….its all a bunch of nonsense..You all have become so habituated to having free lunch that it is now not even conceivable for you to imagine that in life there is no free lunch….wke up get real…come out of the socialist utopia.

Sanjeev Sabhlok ‎Subhajit Duttagupta, please pay attention to this blog post: learn just TWO laws of economics and you'll do well as a policy maker: http://sabhlokcity.com/2011/12/understand-just-this-the-two-iron-laws-of-economics/ . There is NO free lunch in life. So who will pay for free job for everyone?

Lalatendu Dash Where is the work going to come from for your 'right' to have it?

AAryan Rao ‎Subhajit Duttagupta: The movement may be sounding good for you and else, but you are asking Govt. to act as your nanny. Do you have any idea how much NREGA is costing to the tax payer? It is a white elephant to the economy like India.

Lalatendu Dash ‎Subhajit Duttagupta, it should not be the duty of the govt to 'create' jobs. Nor should any 'allowance' be given for people who are unemployed. These are failed social strategies that only makes the problem more intense. India adopted this strategy for the first 50 year of its existence. We all know how it worked out. 

The right strategy will be to encourage enterprises that harness their ideas to generate jobs and wealth. And people should be encouraged to acquire/upgrade their skills so that they can take these jobs and benefit from them. Govt should only remain as a facilitator in all these.

I live in one such country where the so called unemployed do get the allowance that you are referring to. This has created a generation of work-shy, lazy underclass, while job positions remain unfilled even in this recession. Western countries at least got rich before they got lazy. What you are suggesting will make India lazy while it remains poor. If such a scheme is applied in India, it will be a disaster. 

Vidyut Jain Subhajit Duttagupta the examples of Right to Food And MNREGA are failed policy initiatives which have wreaked havoc on the jobs market and the Agricultural sectors. It has not benifitted the intended target group but only deepened the web of corruption for the masses while making illicit wealth for the politicians and the middlemen.In any case these scemes are a definitive drain on the tax payers money.

Mithun B. Dutta Subhajit.. everyone in this planet has to fight and work for their meals.. be it an animal or a human.. There are no rights or reservation to anything.. If you have skills.. and the market has demands for your skills.. will you not be hired?

Government agencies still have typists and they are paid salaries from our sweat and hard work.. Why do we need typewriters? Those machines are history.. Why can't these typists learn computers and get a decent pay for the work they do? Did they not knew that sooner or later typewriters will be history? They exists because of such "rights" which they take advantage of and cease participation in building the society..

Instead.. they are now a burden for whom we are paying from our taxes.. Do you feel we should not ask them to upgrade their skills or loose their jobs within a time frame rather than give them rights to job without having a need for their services?

Sureshan Payyaratta ‎Subhajit Duttagupta Kerala state has employment exchange in every districts, with lots of govt. staff their main function is register the educated people. if any educated person file a declaration after 18 years of age he will be entitled for non employment payment for every month , previously it was few hundred Rs. Now I does not know the exact amount.this amount is distributed by each employment exchange till he gets a govt post or, voluntarily declining to collect. Otherwise the state employment exchange did not have any other function as the govt appointment is done by State PSC. this way crores rupees wasted by the govt. there are so many other scheme introduced by the state to bring socialism.U can find large number unemployed youths participating in various political agitations in this state they are getting unemployment allowance .

One of the flourishing industry in this state is politics only. On the other hand the general public is finding it difficult to get employees for doing domestic, and constructions work, thus large number of Bengali,Bihari , Tamil nadu people are being engaged with meager wages.

Educated youths are only interested to do white color jobs that is not available in the state. after 100% literacy it is difficult to find uneducated youths. Now u says that it is for the govt to offer job other wise allowance as done in the State of Kerala.and u will create an army of unemployed, un-utilsed, lazy,good for nothing youths who will be waiting for the govt allowance. Even Tata will stop doing job if this kind of facilities are available.Ur also telling abt NRGEA project , large extend of corruption and wastage of fund is slowly coming out in that project…

Vishal Kumar Singh Subhajit Duttagupta I hope you are not of the view that state has infinite money. Even if it prints it hits the taxpayer only. If that being the case that the state cannot create money what you are saying amounts to – I have right on some part of Subhajit Duttagupta salary. Are you okay with it 

Sureshan Payyaratta Apart from all the above job is not scarce thing in this country, only problem is lack of suitable job according qualification, If people are not willing to do the available job and claim for the govt benefit on account of non providing suitable jobs let God only save him. And after all what prevents a person from going for the available job..only his ego. 

Mithun B. Dutta what would you do if there is a Skill or Academic inflation? Lets say for example once upon a time IT sector was booming.. and everyone I knew took computers.. then came Management, Financial.. We call these bubbles.. and bubbles burst..

We cannot and shouldn't Guarantee any speculative mania… If now educated skilled workers are not getting job or feel the offered wage is too low.. they must understand that the demand has ceased from what it was 5 yrs down the line…

We should not take or allow the future to be granted.. and this wisdom is practiced under a liberal society… For example hue and cry over outsourcing in western countries.. Politicians and people talked a lot about it.. but also understood that outsourcing is going to stay and accepted it.. Now they are looking to outperform outsourcing.. lowered their expectation.. what's wrong in it?

Mithun B. Dutta I had as small chat with Subhajit earlier today.. Unfortunately Subhajit Duttagupta doesn't need a job.. he wants to stay unemployed forever.. That's what I got to hear from him.. When I asked him if he was interested in buying stuff which are important but lower than market rates he said he won't.. In simple words.. he is not open to accept facts and reasoning..

Like every socialist and communist.. he is wasting our time and taking the youth for a ride.. in name of jobs.. What you are trying to do Mr. Subhajit.. is called Coercion or Extortion.. This is something practiced by almost everyone in Eastern India.. especially West Bengal.. They feel its the right thing to do.. where as a liberal state considers it to be a grave criminal offense… Another egoistic misguided youth.. following his own selfish pursuit in name of the society.. I won't be wasting any more time on this.. I have already made my view and know what you are upto..

Sureshan Payyaratta rightly said mithun, these kind of people can't open their mind to realities.they may break mirrors if their face is not looking good.. ultimately politicians always succumb to the pressures of collective people, they mind only vote banks. for them winning election is important , afterall they are spending not from their pocket, they will impose more tax upon the public and offer welfare schemes to win elections… totally dishonest politics and dishonest organisations to exploit the situation..

Mithun B. Dutta Freedom, liberty and standard of living is up to the individual.. We ourselves are responsible for our lives.. We cannot rely on Government or Others to make our lives better.. We have to do it ourselves.. That's what liberty teaches us.. being responsible for our own selves and our actions towards others..

Mithun B. Dutta To keep "Right to Work" at the simplest level.. I give them the "The right to work" but I reserve my right "Who the one I am going to Hire"… Fair enough?