Imagine if you had a whole pile of energy coming available. What would you do? You could build an indoor ski slope in the desert. You could create the world’s tallest structure. Or, you could build space ships to travel to other stars. Who knows? You may be able to do all of this, at least if you plan.
India was in a dreadful condition in the late 1940s. A new government was unable to ensure that everyone of their constituents was fed and therefore famines were common. They considered this unacceptable, as any reasonable government would. Thus, they turned their efforts to ensuring that there was food for all. Kind of like “a turkey in every oven” as other politicians vouchsafed.
Well, the government of India took this policy and developed plans to be sure that everyone was fed. Principally, they ensured that more food was grown than was needed. In fact, India become a net food exporter, at least for awhile. But humans being what they are, used the guaranteed and even excess food supply to do what comes naturally. They made more people.
The result for India is that its population of 361 million in 1951 ballooned to 1027 million in 2001. Not only that, but because of this growth, overall a slight per capita increase in food grains was negated by a drastic decrease in pulses (1).
The people of India over the last half of the twentieth century had a great quantity of energy come available. As a country, they certainly have shown technical improvements. But if living standards are equated to the Human Development Index (2), the average citizen of India today is no further ahead and may actually be worse off than their forebears of 1951.
Simply provisioning new found supplies of energy or even partitioning existing but deficient supplies of energy will lead to survival of many people. But is ensuring the survival of the maximum number of people the best allocation of energy. Can there be other, more rewarding allocations?
(1)India’s Agricultural Production
(2)HDI
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