Low prices lead to a wealthy nation.

The US exports $1.84 trillion worth of goods every year, which is almost equal to our entire GDP of $1.9 trillion. Average cost of living is 176.94% higher in the US than in India, with rent it is 222.60% higher. The reason why Americans are so much richer is because average monthly salary in a colossal 583.62% higher in the US compared to India. This is after tax which means that disposable income is nearly 6 times higher. The inflation rate in the US is 2.1% while it is over 9% in India which means that our purchasing power is being continuously corroded away. In the Railways Budget yesterday the minister announced that from now on Private Public Partnership and Foreign Investments will be encouraged. Trouble with that is that Indian businesses have been based on government protection, rent seeking and restrictive licenses which allow them to charge very high prices for low quality products and shoddy services. The Comptroller and Auditor General estimates that companies are looting Indian consumers to the tune of trillions of rupees, facilitated by politicians. Whether for sweeteners we do not know. When airports at Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore were being modernized companies were guaranteed a fair rate of return on their investments. That encouraged them to increase costs astronomically by what is known as ' gold plating '. Cochin cost Rs 43,333 per sq m and Kolkata cost Rs 78,167 per sq m to modernize but Mumbai cost Rs 115,650 per sq m and Delhi cost Rs 123,419 per sq m. Now a company is asking for Rs 145,318 for Bangalore airport. Clearly our business fellows care nothing for the people or the country as long as they can loot as much as possible. In 2012 the private consortium running Delhi Airport asked for a 775% increase in airport charges. This was so blatantly shameless that even the Congress baulked at it and allowed a 346% increase in charges. Politicians in India swear by socialism which means that, apart from basic foods and cheap clothing, everything is classed as luxury and taxed to the stratosphere. They will not acknowledge that the poor do not want to be poor. They do not want to go by cheap passenger trains without air-conditioning or clean toilets. They want to fly. They do not want to eat a cocktail of bacteria at roadside dhabas, they want to eat at 5 star restaurants. But high prices by selfish businesses augmented by extortionate taxes make everything out of reach. The reason the US is the richest country in the world is because it has the highest exports despite very high labor costs and that is because businesses compete to innovate the best products and costs, including energy, are comparatively much lower. The people want to become rich while the politicians want to keep us poor. Is Mr Modi listening?