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The NYT Doesn't Like Kerala's Socialist Ways
That is the main thing that one would learn from reading an NYT article on the increase in migratory work patterns among people in this Indian state. The article reports that one in six workers in the state is now employed outside of the country. Is this more or less than elsewhere in India? The article doesn't tell us.
Is this good or bad? The article implies that high rates of migratory work are bad, but that depends on the alternative. If the alternative is good paying jobs at home, clearly having to travel to distant countries is bad. But if the alternative is low-paying jobs and underemployment then having access to migratory work is good. If citizens of Kerala do migrate for work in higher numbers than workers elsewhere in India, is this because they are more desperate than workers elsewhere in India or because they are more likely to have the skills desired by employers elsewhere in the region? (As the article notes, their literacy rates and education levels are much higher than elsewhere in India.)
Rather than informing readers, the main purpose of this article appears to be to try to discredit a development model that has focused on providing basic human needs. As the article points out, life expectancy in Kerala is nearly as long as in the United States and its literacy rate is 91 percent, compared to 65 percent for India as a whole. Kerala accomplished these goals in spite of the fact that is far poorer than the United States and is even poorer than the rest of India. (The article exaggerates the income gap by using exchange rate GDP. On a purchasing power parity basis, India's per capita GDP is $3,800 per person compared to $44,000 in the U.S. It is also worth noting remittances by migrant workers are not counted in GDP, so if a larger share of Kerala's workforce is employed outside the country than is the case for other parts of India, it would be expected that it would have a lower per capita GDP.) While the article implies that this development path has negatively impacted Kerala's growth relative to the rest of India, the information it presents readers does not provide a basis for making this assessment.
--Dean Baker
COMMENTS (6)
I have been to Kerala.
If people of Kerala work more abroad than their other Indians it's mainly because they are much more educated.
The literacy rate in India is about 60% , more than 90% in Kerala, and almost 100% for Christians (20%) and Hindus (60%) only Muslims (20%)are less educated.
In Kerala few people are very poor like other part of India but few are rich too.
Quality of people is much better than other part of the country.
Posted by: JLS | September 7, 2007 7:53 AM
It was in the press recently that ~46% of India's children were malnourished.
46%!!!
The NYTimes should have put Kerala's achievement in that context, which makes it look even more remarkable. Also selective abortion of girls and infanticide is much higher elsewhere.
Posted by: dissent | September 7, 2007 1:36 PM
I happened to see two articles commenting on the original NYT article. Both were posted on September 7. One is this one here and this is the thrid comment that it gets. The other one already has more than 60. I was just wondering how much more attention the dramatists compared to the analysts
Posted by: Deepak | September 8, 2007 3:22 AM
Is Kerala the new Venezuela?
"You shall have self determination and market economics Our Way."
Soon we'll be hearing about their friendship with Castro.
Posted by: ThresherK | September 8, 2007 9:19 AM
Am traveling to Kerala in about 4 months. As part of my research, I have gotten the impression that it's an imbalance between human capital investment versus physical and financial capital investment that is causing the problem of Keralites getting wealthier at the expense of shattering the nuclear family.
Consider the focus on building Dubai into the Persian Gulf's Wall Street while neglecting democracy, social mobility, or local education, which leads to terrorists growing up in your population. Or the focus on heavy industry in China, while neglecting democracy and banking/financial intermediaries, as well as fertility policies that guarantee high crime and social upheaval. Now contrast it with pursuit of health care and literacy, while the anti-business Communist and Marxist parties neglect the development of physical and financial capital.
I see a pattern developing.... And I'm not implying my home, the USA, has it "perfect." But I think we have a better balance than the previous regions do... of course, we have the Founders/historical accident that gave us a head start of many decades...
I should probably go back and read each of the articles in the NYT Job Migration series, maybe they've covered this.
Posted by: Bond investor | September 8, 2007 11:23 PM
The fall of the dollar was inevitable. It is the only way to get the trade deficit down to size. The real problem was allowing the dollar to rise to the point that it made such a painful adjutsment necessary. This was the Clinton-Rubin high dollar policy. It felt good in the short-term (except for manufacturing workers), but just like tax cuts that lead to big budget deficits, it could not be sustained.
Posted by: san | April 8, 2008 2:04 AM