Do you think it is a trap? Bcz to excel in technology, you need merit and expertise.
Sure but how to judge merit and expertise ? Cannot be through highly competitive exams and here I will bring a favorite example of mine : Every year 160,000+ computer engineers graduate from Indian colleges and this has been so for at least the last 20 years, so there are at least 3 million Indian computer engineers within India and sited outside of India, yet this huge number of computer engineers have not devised even one locally-designed variety of the two fundamental elements in a classic computer : the microprocessor and the operating system. How can this failure be ? In India most people take exams very seriously and college atmosphere is very competitive and some students commit suicide because of this competition. For example, search for suicides in Kota town. Kota is notorious for having coaching centers which "coach" students for sitting in exams in the supposedly prestigious colleges in India, and some of these students commit suicide in Kota even before reaching the steps of an actual college. So again I ask, how does one judge merit and expertise ?
Though in the space business, in recent years there have come up a few private spacecraft development companies in India. I will name three : Skyroot Aerospace, Agnikul Cosmos and Bellatrix Aerospace. At the moment they are developing rockets that can launch small satellites and I hope they will in a decade become capable of launching and transporting humans, even to Mars.
So let's say, in 30 years, all the caste system is eradicated and all the Indians have basics rights. Then Indian can move towards a highly skilled manufacturing nation.
Or
You think even with quota and social system, India can reach a highly advanced society.
1. I don't know if the call for change will come from within India's masses, especially the so-called educated middle class. The quota system for the socially deprived has existed for seven decades yet the Dalits are discriminated against even today. I will make note that a lot the Indian middle class is quite regressive which manifests in things like many Hindus supporting Hindutvad and many Muslims supporting the Tablighi Jamaat and burqa, and this regressiveness has grown with the advancement in the last 20 years of better access to "education" and communication.
2. In 30 years the space industry will cause political, social and economic change in this world including in India.
3. The progressives in India have to use the platform of technology to effect the changes. By hook and crook.
Idk about japan/S.Korea, but none of the western govt is socialist in nature and modern/developed at the same time. Like Italy, advanced in technology but in debt, due to subsidising (education, transport, health, etc)
UK only subsidise health not higher education (HE) nor transport or housing etc. Germany subsidise HE for all but I think they tax the rich heavily. I am sure about NL, that their taxation rate is very high, higher than UK.
The things you mentioned I got to know from you and what I do know about Europe / West is that last year Spain nationalized all private clinics and hospitals and made healthcare free and universal for its citizens.
Now compared to US, where everything comes with the hefty price. You have to be on your toes, to get education. health, house, etc. So, one cannot get lazy.
It is ironical that USA's military budget just for 2020-21 is 934 billion dollars and it has problems in housing, healthcare etc but it has gone around the world destroying progressive / welfare-state countries which provided free healthcare, education, housing etc.
At the mean time, it is very advanced in innovation, technology, and research.
I think that comes out of the USA being a settler society where practical technologies, advancements and collaborations were enabled without the burden of community and family history, and this enabled people like Thomas Alva Edison, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. In India it is difficult for a middle class person to become an entrepreneur or a musician as that person's family will be the first roadblock, citing that "Oh we have no family history in business or music". It is rare, happens but rare, for middle class people to do anything but the traditional middle class careering.
So my questions is, how to transit from welfare to capitalism. Or a country can progress to a high tech manufacturing society even with a heavy welfare/subsidy/quota system.
@Hamartia Antidote
The USSR was a welfare-state system and it was highly advanced and a manufacturing society.