Freedom From The State
Liberty did once exist in the Anglosphere.
A marvelous passage from A.J.P. Taylor’s ‘English History; 1914-1945′.
‘Until August 1914 a sensible law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he liked. He had no official number or identity card. He could travel abroad or leave his country forever without a passport or any sort of official permission. He could exchange his money for any other currency without restriction or limit. He could buy goods from any country in the world on the same terms as he bought goods at home. For that matter, a foreigner could spend his life in this country without permit and without informing the police.’
‘Unlike the countries of the European continent, the state did not require its citizens to perform military service. An Englishman could enlist, if he chose, in the regular army, the navy or the territorials. He could also ignore, if he chose, the demands of national defence. Substantial householders were occasionally called on for jury service. Otherwise, only those helped the state who wished to do so.’
‘The Englishman paid taxes on a modest scale; nearly $400 million in 1913-14, or rather less than 8% of the national income. The state intervened to prevent the citizen from eating adulterated food or contracting certain infectious diseases. It imposed safety rules in factories, and prevented women, and adult males in some industries, from working excessive hours. The state saw to it that children received education up to the age of 13. Since 1 January 1909, it provided a meagre pension for the needy over the age of 70. Since 1911, it helped to insure certain classes of workers against sickness or unemployment.’
‘This tendency towards more state action was increasing. Expenditure on the social services had roughly doubled since the Liberals took office in 1905. Still, broadly speaking, the state acted ony to help those who could not help themselves. It left the adult citizen alone.’
‘All this changed by the impact of the Great War.’
Stockholm Syndrome
A recent survey from Choice magazine revealed that 80% of parents want to see junk food ads targeted at children banned.
It’s worse than we thought, Jim.
Lew Rockwell – Another Libertarian Wacko
‘Why the Campaign Against the Burmese Junta? So the US empire can once again use a humanitarian crisis to take over another country, of course.’
Rantings from a crazed Truther? Anti-US socialist nutters? Private school Year 10 students rebelling against their privileged Eastern Suburbs background?
No, just a typical post on the Ron Paul-endorsed Lew Rockwell blog.
This post, by Sean Corrigan, links to, and therefore presumably endorses, a loony-toon article on the World Socialist Web Site including such gems as this,
‘The only means for abolishing the immense and deepening chasm between rich and poor is through the revolutionary restructuring of society along socialist lines, so that the burning needs of the overwhelming majority of humanity take precedence over the profit requirements of the few.’
Meds, quick!
But there’s more from the ridiculous Lew Rockwell blog including this wacko article by Paul Craig Roberts entitled ‘Hyocrisy rules The West‘,
‘Indeed, Bush and Brown, as commanders in chief, are on a killing spree that makes the government in Burma look extremely restrained by comparison.’
and this,
‘To cut to the chase, what is the difference between Bush and Brown on one hand and the murderous Burmese government on the other? Bush and Brown are actually worse.’
With libertarian friends like Ron Paul and Lew Rockwell, i’m surprised that libertarianism is even a 1% market share brand.
Thanks to Jim Fryar on Real World Libertarian for highlighting this rubbish.
Thoughts on the budget
I’m on the opposite side of the world at the moment (Jerusalem — great city) and mostly out of touch with the political & economic debates of Australia. But the budget still gets me curious, so today I had a quick flick through the budget papers. A few things worth commenting on…
Big government? The Liberals are claiming that this is a big-government budget. The ALP are claiming that it’s better than what the Liberals did. Both are right. At first I thought this budget had actually cut tax & spending, albeit modestly. However, on closer inspection it seems that the ALP has actually increased tax and spending a bit.
The Law Of Unintended Consequences
“Across Australia, there is no greater source of financial stress for working families than housing. It is no exaggeration to say that in early 2008, housing affordability is the worst it has been in living memory.”
Kevin Rudd, March 2008
“For investors it [the First Home Saver Account] will be a case of strong prices and capital growth being maintained, and at the very least a consistent amount of demand pressure being applied to the property market, particularly under $700,000, across the nation.”
The Eureka Report, a subscription service for property and share investors.
Teachers 1, Children 0
Today my son takes his Year 3 National literacy and numeracy tests. We were looking forward to seeing how his school stacked up against the competition to judge whether we are getting value for money. We should have known better.
November 2007; “A Rudd Labor government will publish the annual results of individual primary and secondary schools on national reading, writing and numeracy assessments for students in grades 3, 5, 7 and 9. Publication of school performance information will form an integral part of federal Labor’s plan to improve literacy and numeracy …”
Dec 3 2007; “We intend to raise standards by increasing school accountability”. Julia Gillard addresses the Australian Industry Group on December 3, 2007.
May 13 2008; Julia Gillard yesterday said the results of the first national literacy and numeracy tests, which start today, would be provided to parents and schools but not be available more widely.
Catallaxy Files- Not all criticism of government is rent-seeking May 17, 2012Jess Irvine has an op-ed in the SMH where she makes the argument Meanwhile, business is acting like an adolescent, too, chucking hissy fits about workplace laws and taxation because it has learnt that this is an extremely effective parental manipulation strategy. In the teenage economy, the returns from rentseeking – or seeking special treatment [...]Sinclair Davidson
- Words from the wise May 17, 2012Graham Richardson has a must-read op-ed in the Australian today. He reveals the depths of hatred towards the PM. While it is clear Julia Gillard just doesn’t understand how bad things really are, she is at the very core of the disenchantment. These two MPs, who both voted for her in Kevin Rudd’s February challenge, [...]Sinclair Davidson
- Reactions to the The Heretic May 17, 2012Jo Nova reports some discussion stirred up by The Heretic, a play that addresses climate issues, on stage in Melbourne this week. Golly, but The Heretic is a play that appears to be genuinely useful art, something that actually challenges the paradigm. Brice Bosnich reviews it ( see below), Andrew Glikson rails against it (see, [...]Poor Old Rafe
- Not all criticism of government is rent-seeking May 17, 2012
- inCISe
- Govt furphy on Indigenous homeownership May 16, 2012In a media release on the Indigenous Affairs part of the 2012 Budget, the federal government insists it ‘will continue to prioritise access to the new program for people seeking to move into home ownership on Indigenous land’ – but this is a furphy. The government is well aware that people living on Indigenous land will not be able to access money from the n […]Sara Hudson
- A move long overdue May 15, 2012At long last, services on Sydney’s highly inefficient rail network are getting some attention. Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian has announced that 750 jobs will be cut in a restructuring effort intended to reduce bureaucratic waste. Even more heartening is that RailCorp’s projected job cuts are relatively mild, consisting of voluntary redundancies to m […]Alexander Philipatos
- Generalising about racism May 14, 2012The Sydney Morning Herald is running a poll asking if Australians are Racist. So far 74% of respondents say yes and 26% say no. Some of the commentators include Larissa Berendt who argues that Australia is a racist country because Aboriginal people have a shorter life expectancy. However, there are many reasons why their life expectancy is shorter than the a […]Sara Hudson
- Govt furphy on Indigenous homeownership May 16, 2012
- IPA news
- The unhappy compromise of European 'austerity' May 14, 2012Has austerity worked in Europe? Well, if "austerity" means savage cuts to government spending, then there has been no...
- The politics of projection: there's a reason we can't all just get along May 12, 2012Politics is almost entirely in the eye of the beholder. Obviously conservatives, libertarians, progressives and...
- Great expectations vanish May 10, 2012The federal budget was entirely predictable. The dodgy accounting. The flimsy "surplus". The higher taxes on the wealthy....
- The unhappy compromise of European 'austerity' May 14, 2012
Oz Political Quiz
