Aboriginal Health
Sometimes it seems that the more race-based laws and government schemes we have in Australia, the worse the outcomes that persist for people on the receiving end. Should we really be surprised?
Such schemes necessarily assume that Aboriginal people are, by virtue of their race, dependent helpless victims of circumstances beyond their control, unable to satisfy the ordinary standards of responsibility that apply to all other human beings. This notion is both plain wrong and offensive. It should be rejected and condemned.
But ‘he who robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.’ Similarly, the ‘experts’ who owe their comfortable middle-class existence to these schemes can be expected to solemnly intone that the solution is more and more governmental action of the kind that just happens to chronically coincide with the problem.
Many of the rural Aboriginal communities marked by disadvantage of every kind are the remnants of nineteenth century religious missions and twentieth century government control centres. Their tribal economy and prospects are no more. Being remote, the people there have little or no opportunity for gainful employment or business. The main reason the people are there is because the welfare state continues to subsidise them to live there, in a condition of isolation and dependence.
What you subsidise, you get more of, and what you tax, you get less of. The welfare state actively subsidises unemployment, relationship and family breakdown, and poverty. It is not a coincidence that many people with a drug and alcohol lifestyle live on welfare. Work would restrict the option of living like that. In the overwhelming majority of cases, welfare is what makes it possible.
On the other hand, the welfare state, by taxation and regulation, actively discourages employment, savings, and business, as well as legal or de facto marriage.
At the same time the state brags from the roof-tops about how it is promoting indigenous ‘self-determination’. The millions and billions of dollars poured into these schemes never seem to decrease the problem.
The reason is because the welfare state actively destroys the only sustainable system of social security solution which erodes and exploits, and has nothing to put in its place.
The way forward is the increased health and happiness that come from gainful employment (not fake government make-work schemes), legal or common law marriage and family (not subsidized relationship and family breakdown), savings, home ownership, business, and the dignity and personal independence of private property. That is why middle class Australia has better health outcomes than Aboriginal Australia – not because they have more welfare services!
‘There is no future in the past.’ The current race-based welfare schemes will in time come to be regarded as official abuse on a vast scale, as the Stolen Generations are regarded now. the time is coming for all Australians to realise that race-based schemes and certificates for Aboriginal people, however well-intentioned, are destructive, and are the modern equivalent of infected blankets and ‘King Billy’ nameplates.
International Women’s Day
Interesting article in the Daily Telegraph today:
‘Australian women in full-time jobs earn $100 a week less than men, a union analysis of recent figures reveals. The Australian Council of Trade Unions analysis, based on recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, shows full-time female workers earn on average 10 per cent less than men. Released ahead of International Women’s Day today, the figures also show real wages of female workers have fallen 2 percent in the past year. ACTU president Sharan Burrow said the research showed women in the workforce suffered the same gender pay gap they did in 1978.’
It is interesting how the gap between men’s and women’s average earnings has persisted, despite the fact that employment discrimination on the ground of sex has been illegal in Australia since the 1970s. What’s going on?
Government’s water shortage
Australia has more rainfall per capita than the United States. The shortage of water in Australia is caused by government, not nature.
Regardless of drought, government has for many years attempted to supply water to the entire population at below market rate. This has undervalued our water, robbed and degraded ecosystems that rely on it, and caused an unnecessary water shortage at taxpayers’ expense.
Selling indulgences
Recently reading an interesting article by Stewart Franks, Associate Professor of Hydroclimatology at the University of Newcastle, in the Daily Telegraph on Friday 16 Feb. It says in part:
‘The reality is that the science of climate is in no way complete. The IPCC’s figure that it is 90 per cent sure of human influence comes not from any science but appears to be a figure plucked from the air….
[W]e know that carbon dioxide represents about 2 to 3 percent of the natural greenhouse effect whereas water vapour make up the vast majority of the remainder. While we know why carbon dioxide is increasing, the physics of water vapour – in particular of clouds – is almost entirely unknown despite dominating the natural greenhouse effect. This is at the heart of the real climate change debate as water vapour is the most significant greenhouse gas and varies substantially for reasons yet to be fathomed. Consequently, water vapour effects could potentially swamp the relatively small role of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There is in fact some evidence for this based on available data (although you wouldn’t find this in the Stern report). However as the physics of water vapour is grossly uncertain in the models, this is never tested. It should not therefore be a surprise when the model results show carbon dioxide leads to warming – they’ve ignored the uncertain role of the largest greenhouse gas, water vapour. What these models can’t do is tell us how much of the historic warming is due to carbon dioxide and how much is due to water vapour. ‘
I must admit, I never heard before from any of the disputants of the technical questions that the best evidence implicates human activity in only 2 to 3 percent of the whole greenhouse effect. Did you?
Thoughts on the libertarian meeting: action arising?
Hi, at long last I have got onto this blog.
Well folks, how very good and pleasant it was to meet our fellow travellers at the blogbash a couple of weeks back, and ‘give to airy nothingness a local habitation and a name’. Congratulations and thanks to skepticlawyer for organising it.
I particularly liked meeting the people behind the net names, finding out how people came to be libertarians, hearing everyone’s interesting approach. It was very enjoyable indeed to hear different libertarians air their views on issues of practice and theory affecting us. Roll on the next one I say.
Education in a Free Society
We live in one of the richest countries in all places and all times in the history of the world. It is normal for people in Australia to live in a free-standing house with hot and cold running water, three or more bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, surrounding yard and gardens, to have a car, to have television, video, stereo, radio, electric stove, kettle, microwave oven, telephones, mobile phones, x-box, bicycles, game-boys, to have as much meat, vegetables, bread, lollies, and chocolate biscuits as they would like (and more than is good for them), to eat from restaurants and take-aways. Cinemas, theatre, and all sorts of amusements and entertainments are common. Take a look as you drive around at the houses, renovations, factories, the cars, how new they are, the caravans, horse-floats, yachts, boats, surfboards, aromatherapy. All the toys. People who have travelled overseas are common. This wealth is not confined to some rich wicked class. It is normal. Read more »
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Oz Political Quiz
