South Delhi has made one of those moves which on the surface looks like a simple solution to a problem--but it's one of those moves which undermines one of the most basic points which makes an economy actually work. There appears to be a shortage of publicly available toilets in the area. The municipal authorities have thus decided that all private toilets, those owned, cleaned and run by restaurants and the like, should thus be converted at the stroke of a pen into public ones. Et Voila! Now there is no shortage of places to minister to toilet needs and at no cost to the taxpayer. And yet this tramples right over one of those core things which makes an economy work in the first place--private property rights.
This is thus not a good idea:
Washrooms of south Delhi hotels, restaurants and eateries will turn into public toilets from next month, with anyone willing to pay up to Rs 5 getting access to these facilities.
Public facilities are indeed a public good, certainly it's good for the public that they are around. But nationalising private property isn't the way to do it. If more public toilets would be good for the public then the correct answer is to tax those in South Delhi more in order to build some public toilets:
Aimed at addressing the problem of a lack of toilets for women, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has directed all hotels and restaurants to make their washrooms available to the public.
This really is the politicians confiscating something that belongs to other people:
"Acting on the advice of the Lt Governor, the SDMC has made it mandatory for all hotels and restaurants located in south Delhi to give full access to the general public to these toilets.
"The establishment of these restaurants have also been given discretion to charge upto Rs. 5 per usage to cover their charges towards maintenance and cleaning," the SDMC said in a statement.
Now yes, it's only the toilets and yes, those who use them will gain the benefit of being able to do so. But an economy only works if people who own property actually have rights over that property. There are undoubtedly people in Delhi who do not have a nice bed under a secure roof to sleep in. There are also undoubtedly people with a rarely used spare bedroom. Why shouldn't the council mandate that empty bedrooms must be made available to anyone who needs one? Why are the beans from this field the property of the farmer and not those who need them? Once we break down that barrier of private property actually meaning private property then there's no end to the troubles that flow.
As with this from Ethiopia. As economic development continues there are farmers being thrown off their land, residents turfed out for richer and so on. And why?
All land is theoretically owned by the government, merely leased by tenants, and when the government says go, you have to go.
It's entirely true that making all private commercial toilets public ones is only a small step to this but it is still the politicians insisting that private property is no longer private and it is indeed that small step at the top of that slippery slope. This is a bad idea and should be repealed.
