Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Monday, May 05, 2008

misunderstanding bush

ok. the crisis of food availability and rising prices is there for all to experience.

Last week, the top stories were on the remarks of condi rice and bush on this topic.

Read carefully what bush says:

Worldwide, there is increasing demand. There turns out to be prosperity in developing world, which is good. It's going to be good for you because you'll be selling products in the countries, you know, big countries perhaps, and it's hard to sell products into countries that aren't prosperous. In other words, the more prosperous the world is, the more opportunity there is," the US President said.

It also, however, increases demand. So, for example, just as an interesting thought for you, there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That's bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population.

And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.

so where is he 'blaming' India for the problem. ascribing increasing demand to increasing prices is Economics 101 - which is perhaps the course he is doing now. and not doing badly if you ask me.

while bush-whacking is a popular sport, this particular quote is highly misunderstood and the reactions are totally unwarranted.

in their over-exuberance to pounce on bush, our netas have proved that they are, if anything, just as inert as bush.

hat tip: gaurav sabnis

2 comments:

Vanessa said...

This is the part that interests me...

The "improvement in the diets of people in India and China", which is forcing the governments there to keep food "inside" is a cause for the current global supply shortage.

Does that mean that India, with area 1/4th of US and population 4 times of US, feeds the world???
If that is true, then the fact makes a super-power!!!

More than being offensive, these statements tell us that we are POWERFUL. Time to start dictating terms eh? High time to stop playing the weak, oppressed, pushed around, exploited nation?

csm said...

v - good point.

at no stage in the last 8 years, have the public been looking at what bush says for anything other than 'bush'isms'.

their statements are best left understood as 'simple justifications which the average american will be able to digest' and classic CYA.

more on international trade coming up.