All thanks to the sanctification and then socialization of altruism.
I knew this as soon as I figured out what PET (may he rot in hell) was all about.
So … 1969 …
Buy your civil society some time,we must; a tax on all do-gooders.
Productivity in Canada is falling, the % of population officially in the work force falls.
% who bother to vote for the kleptocrcy shrinks each election.
People are not stupid.
Politicians, presstitutes and those who drool after power are .
What we hear from government and media is mostly nonsense, its their view of the world.
Mostly from them talking amongst themselves, the real economy carries on, usually constrained by the greed and interference of officialdom.
However the good captain is right, what cannot continue will not.
Hence my previous rants about the benefit and cost of civilization.
When the parasites drain the hosts beyond tolerance, when the morality play of the political actors fails to obey the script, tribalism regains its dominance.
Cycle seems to be every 250 -300 years.
I forsee a practical use for those rotary neck choppers littering our landscapes.
As auto-loading french haircutters.
Perhaps the vote in any federal, state or provincial jurisdiction should be limited to those who actually contribute to the government purse. Net contributors, even by as little as one cent, should be the sole arbiters of how government money is spent. Net receivers should not be permitted to vote for yet more entitlements.
Just a thought, perhaps for discussion.
That’s exactly why the wealthiest people who just happen to contribute more than 3/4ths of the total tax revenue, believe the government should listen to them on how to spend their money.
Governments should be limited (by something as implacable as a constitutional amendment )to spending only what they can raise via taxation. You want a program – fine, how are you paying for that?
No national debt, no deficits. Any spending plan that does not pay for itself is unconstitutional.
“But what about emergencies” they say? The US has been around for two-hundred plus years and there have been exactly two, perhaps three “emergencies” – WWI, WWII, and perhaps the Great Depression. I think we can worry about “emergencies” on a case by case basis.
America fought for liberty from tyranny – and yet what is borrowing money that unborn voters must repay, except the ultimate example of taxation without representation?
I sometimes wonder if we shouldn’t just dispense with ‘democracy’ as it has evolved. Public sector employees (particularly unionized ones), statist dependents, and all politicians seeking re-election are in defacto conflict of interest. Given the open ended premise of virtually anything the state does is legitimate, a condition that has evolved despite the best intentions of drafters of Constitutions aimed at limiting government from more enlightened times, politician’s roles have become far too omniscient, corrupting, and self-serving.
With no idea of how one would accomplish the transition short of being the victor of another revolution, a tighter Constitution along libertarian principles as in the US example, followed with separation of powers and a legislative body comprised of consenting random draftees from the citizenry to fulfill part-time single-term appointments should suffice (think, Jury Duty).
To dream!
North of 60. You comment”
“That’s exactly why the wealthiest people who just happen to contribute more than 3/4ths of the total tax revenue, believe the government should listen to them on how to spend their money.”
That’s right. Whatever government you’re talking about already listens to “the wealthiest”. And why not? Money talks.
But these “wealthiest” are not a homogeneous lot. Confining the electorate to “even plus one cent or more” would keep the responsible vote from being diluted by the parasite vote.
But you see, I’m not talking about the corruption of politicians. That’s stage 2. Stage 1 is to determine which politicians get elected in the first place. I want to change the tune they’ll be paying attention to. The cacophony from the parasites will be muted — perhaps.
@ John Chittick:
Overall I agree with you. But I got brick-walled at two points. First, Obama is trashing his own constitution via rule by regulation rather than rule by law. This is very disturbing. Second, it’s hard to tell where special interest stops. We each have a very special interest in who gets elected; this is true, but facile. I tried to avoid that problem (not too convincingly, I must admit).
But here’s a thought: perhaps public employees should relinquish their right to vote. Judges do in many places. Just expand that concept to all public employees.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
By the way, Mr. Chittick, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, himself no stranger to making end runs around his constitution, nevertheless felt that public sector unions should not be permitted.
You are on the right track, the voluntarily nonproductive have no right to a say in the means of production..
If we instituted a draft, as with jury duty, compulsory government service for political office and public authorities, selection would be interesting.
However corruption follows every path to public treasure.
If we treat elected and appointed officials as actors, in an ancient morality play, we could make the arts interesting again.
The illusion of civilization requires people to maintain that all are equal before the law, law applies without exception and so on, the basics of civil society.
These actors, in the current version of this play,begged for the opportunity to perform the roles.
Failure to perform, in any morality play, requires over the top, dramatic punishment.
We could reform the kleptocracy, while enjoying some great theatre.
We could call it “Wynning”.
But what about the class of citizen who want nothing from government?
I sometimes wonder if we shouldn’t just dispense with ‘democracy’ as it has evolved.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
―attributed to: Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747 – 1813)
All thanks to the sanctification and then socialization of altruism.
I knew this as soon as I figured out what PET (may he rot in hell) was all about.
So … 1969 …
Buy your civil society some time,we must; a tax on all do-gooders.
Productivity in Canada is falling, the % of population officially in the work force falls.
% who bother to vote for the kleptocrcy shrinks each election.
People are not stupid.
Politicians, presstitutes and those who drool after power are .
What we hear from government and media is mostly nonsense, its their view of the world.
Mostly from them talking amongst themselves, the real economy carries on, usually constrained by the greed and interference of officialdom.
However the good captain is right, what cannot continue will not.
Hence my previous rants about the benefit and cost of civilization.
When the parasites drain the hosts beyond tolerance, when the morality play of the political actors fails to obey the script, tribalism regains its dominance.
Cycle seems to be every 250 -300 years.
I forsee a practical use for those rotary neck choppers littering our landscapes.
As auto-loading french haircutters.
Perhaps the vote in any federal, state or provincial jurisdiction should be limited to those who actually contribute to the government purse. Net contributors, even by as little as one cent, should be the sole arbiters of how government money is spent. Net receivers should not be permitted to vote for yet more entitlements.
Just a thought, perhaps for discussion.
That’s exactly why the wealthiest people who just happen to contribute more than 3/4ths of the total tax revenue, believe the government should listen to them on how to spend their money.
Governments should be limited (by something as implacable as a constitutional amendment )to spending only what they can raise via taxation. You want a program – fine, how are you paying for that?
No national debt, no deficits. Any spending plan that does not pay for itself is unconstitutional.
“But what about emergencies” they say? The US has been around for two-hundred plus years and there have been exactly two, perhaps three “emergencies” – WWI, WWII, and perhaps the Great Depression. I think we can worry about “emergencies” on a case by case basis.
America fought for liberty from tyranny – and yet what is borrowing money that unborn voters must repay, except the ultimate example of taxation without representation?
I sometimes wonder if we shouldn’t just dispense with ‘democracy’ as it has evolved. Public sector employees (particularly unionized ones), statist dependents, and all politicians seeking re-election are in defacto conflict of interest. Given the open ended premise of virtually anything the state does is legitimate, a condition that has evolved despite the best intentions of drafters of Constitutions aimed at limiting government from more enlightened times, politician’s roles have become far too omniscient, corrupting, and self-serving.
With no idea of how one would accomplish the transition short of being the victor of another revolution, a tighter Constitution along libertarian principles as in the US example, followed with separation of powers and a legislative body comprised of consenting random draftees from the citizenry to fulfill part-time single-term appointments should suffice (think, Jury Duty).
To dream!
North of 60. You comment”
“That’s exactly why the wealthiest people who just happen to contribute more than 3/4ths of the total tax revenue, believe the government should listen to them on how to spend their money.”
That’s right. Whatever government you’re talking about already listens to “the wealthiest”. And why not? Money talks.
But these “wealthiest” are not a homogeneous lot. Confining the electorate to “even plus one cent or more” would keep the responsible vote from being diluted by the parasite vote.
But you see, I’m not talking about the corruption of politicians. That’s stage 2. Stage 1 is to determine which politicians get elected in the first place. I want to change the tune they’ll be paying attention to. The cacophony from the parasites will be muted — perhaps.
@ John Chittick:
Overall I agree with you. But I got brick-walled at two points. First, Obama is trashing his own constitution via rule by regulation rather than rule by law. This is very disturbing. Second, it’s hard to tell where special interest stops. We each have a very special interest in who gets elected; this is true, but facile. I tried to avoid that problem (not too convincingly, I must admit).
But here’s a thought: perhaps public employees should relinquish their right to vote. Judges do in many places. Just expand that concept to all public employees.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
By the way, Mr. Chittick, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, himself no stranger to making end runs around his constitution, nevertheless felt that public sector unions should not be permitted.
You are on the right track, the voluntarily nonproductive have no right to a say in the means of production..
If we instituted a draft, as with jury duty, compulsory government service for political office and public authorities, selection would be interesting.
However corruption follows every path to public treasure.
If we treat elected and appointed officials as actors, in an ancient morality play, we could make the arts interesting again.
The illusion of civilization requires people to maintain that all are equal before the law, law applies without exception and so on, the basics of civil society.
These actors, in the current version of this play,begged for the opportunity to perform the roles.
Failure to perform, in any morality play, requires over the top, dramatic punishment.
We could reform the kleptocracy, while enjoying some great theatre.
We could call it “Wynning”.
But what about the class of citizen who want nothing from government?
I sometimes wonder if we shouldn’t just dispense with ‘democracy’ as it has evolved.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
―attributed to: Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747 – 1813)