Over the past few weeks, there has been an intense debate on whether freebies, or certain items or services provided for free to people by governments, are justified. The political back-and-forth began with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments that while the Central government was spending public money on assets such as roads and airports, many State governments were engaged in wasteful spending by giving away stuff for free. The Supreme Court too has taken up a Public Interest Litigation on the matter.
Meanwhile, there has also been a lot of debate about what counts as a freebie, in contrast to what may be categorised as genuine welfare spending. The underlying assumption in the debate seems to be that certain government spending leads to a sustainable rise in people’s standard of living while other forms of spending merely lead to the erosion of the economy’s capital base without offering any long-term benefits. For example, spending on education and healthcare is considered essential as it enables human development, while giving away free food or electricity is seen by some as wasteful spending that depletes resources.
