I suspect you credit authorities with more responsibility than they
actually bear. May I recommend Robert Neuwirth's Shadow Cities?
Here's a review:
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002029.html
Here's the author's blog:
http://squattercity.blogspot.com/
Here's him giving a talk at TED (well worth watching):
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/36
And here's the book itself:
Hardcover: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Cities-Billion-Squatters-
Urban/dp/0415933196
Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Cities-Billion-Squatters-
Urban/dp/0415953618
J.
On 01-May-07, at 12:06 AM, Srini Ramakrishnan wrote:
By any measure the value that Indian cities seem to offer in lifestyle
benefits, living space, property ownership and civilization seems
rather scarce. On an idle Saturday afternoon I must have done some
thinking for the idea that I pay more than half of my income in taxes
has come to be rather firmly implanted in my mind. It's not hard to
get at such a figure when you compute my basket of direct and indirect
taxes - namely, income tax at 33.33%, sales tax on anything I consume
at 12.5%, miscellaneous upstream taxes such as excise and customs, and
property and road taxes.
