Economist, Apr 6, 2019 (I)

choi

There is no need to read the rest of text.

(1) Welfare in India | The Beauty of Breadth. Indian politicians are promising more cash for the poor. They should be less selective. (in the Leaders section, serving as an introduction to a more detailed article inside).
https://www.economist.com/leader ... erty-plan-for-india

Quote:

"GOOD KING WENCESLAS thought of the poor when the weather turned cold. Election season has the same effect on India's politicians. With national polls looming in April and May, the two main political parties [Modi's BJP and Congress Party] are competing to shower money on the indigent. * * * India has about 50m people living in extreme poverty, according to the World Poverty Clock, an Austrian research project. * * * Yet India's safety-net is both immensely complicated, with over 950 centrally funded schemes and subsidies, and stingy. Old people protested in the capital last year, complaining that the central-government pension of 200 rupees ($3) a month has been frozen since 2007. Much of the money spent on welfare never gets to the poor. Numerous subsidies for fertiliser, power, water and so forth are snaffled by better-off farmers or go into officials' pockets. A large rural employment scheme does mostly reach poor people, since nobody else is prepared to dig ditches all day under the hot sun. But it is expensive to run and prevents participants from doing any other work. A study carried out in Bihar, a poor state, by the World Bank estimated that you could cut poverty at least as much by taking the money for the scheme and dividing it among the entire population, whether poor or not.

"Distributing cash is cheaper than handing out jobs or food, and allows poor  people to buy whatever they need. As bank accounts spread and India's biometric ID system matures, it should be possible to curb fraud and theft. * * * Targeting welfare is costly and difficult in a country like India. How is the state supposed to identify the poorest 50m households in a country where income and spending are so hard to track? * * * The political economy if targeted schemes is also tricky. In countries with minimal welfare states, schemes with few beneficiaries also have fewer supporters, and therefore risk being quietly wound down or diminished by inflation. And any formula used to target the bottom 20% is likely to be so opaque that people will never know whether they should have been included or not, so cannot fight for their entitlements. * * * As Amartya Sen, an Indian economist [and the 1998 Nobel laureate in economy; 1933- ; with Harvard since 1987 but currently on sabbatical leave], put it, benefits that go only to the poor often end up being poor benefits.  

"Two years ago a government report [Economic Survey 2016-17. Ministry of Finance, India, January 2017] suggested a bold new approach. Instead of universal basic income -- an idea doing the rounds in rich countries -- create a nearly (this is the key word] universal scheme from which you exclude the richest quarter of the population. They are easier (and therefore cheaper) to spot than the poorest. The report estimated that poverty could be virtually eradicated at a cost of 5% of GDP -- just about the same as the combined cost of the existing schemes and subsidies.

Note:
(a)
(i) Good King Wenceslas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_King_Wenceslas
(a Christmas carol; "The legend is based on the life of the historical Saint Wenceslaus I [spelling in English], Duke of Bohemia or Svatý Václav in Czech [language] (907–935)
(ii) Wenceslaus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslaus
(iii) Wenceslas
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Wenceslas

was a different one with the same last name, but one may learn its English pronunciation.

(b)
(i)
(A) snaffle (n and v; Did You Know?)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snaffle
(B) As you may suspect, all definitions (including "bit by bit") of "bit "as a noun came from "bite."
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bit
(ii) snaffle bit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snaffle_bit
(not necessarily jointed)

choi

(2) Briefing: Chinese mobility | Great Wheels of China; A long held ambition to dominate the global car industry will make China a force in the future of personal transport.

My comment: There is no need to read text. Just view graphics, by searching images.google.com with "Great Wheels of China." Print has three figures, whose headings are:
• Quantity, if not quality
• Wave of the future (the figure has two panels)
• Whose car is it anyway?

choi

(3) Out and seeking office | A Welcome Shrug. Gay mayors? Who cares?
https://www.economist.com/united ... ay-mayors-who-cares

Quote:
(the first two paragraphs)

"It is much the same story in Chicago, where Lori lightfoot (an English surname for a quick runner], a 56-year-old African-American woman married to another woman, won a landslide victory in a run-off election to become mayor on Apr 2nd [after a Feb 26 election where no candidate received a majority, or more than 50%, of the vote] * * * In one debate her opponent, Toni Preckwinkle, praised her openness about her sexuality, a comment that sounded like a dogwhistle intended to deter more conservative African-Americans voters. Leaflets also appeared outside black churches warning that Ms Lightfoot would oversee a gay cabal in city hall. But voters again mostly shrugged. More appeared interested in her positioning as an outsider, promises [as a noun, not a verb] to tackle corruption and her pledge to cut police violence.

"Kathy Kozachenko, a student in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was the first successful gay candidate anywhere [in US?], winning a city council seat in April 1974.

Note:
(a) Pete Buttigieg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Buttigieg
(1982- ; born in South Bend, Indiana to father, an immigrant from Malta; attended Harvard College, majoring in history and literature; Upon graduation from Harvard in 2005, Buttigieg was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and in 2007 he received first-class honors in philosophy, politics and economics from Pembroke College, Oxford; worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Co from 2007 through 2010; "was commissioned as a naval intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve in 2009, and deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 [for 7 months] * * * in the Naval Reserve until 2017;" mayor of South Bend 2012, reelected for second term that started in 2016)
(b) Lori Lightfoot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Lightfoot
(born in Massillon [50 miles (80 km) south of Cleveland], Ohio, attended high school there; BA in political science from University of Michigan in 1984; She matriculated at University of Chicago Law School (JD in 1989); with an adopted daughter)

(c)
(i) dog whistle (n; variant: dog-whistle):
"1: a whistle to call or direct a dog
        especially : one sounding at a frequency inaudible to the human ear
2 politics : an expression or statement that has a secondary meaning intended to be understood only by a particular group of people"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dog%20whistle
(ii) dog-whistle politics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics
(section 1 Origin and meaning: William Safire citing Richard Morin)