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Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me "what Canadians think". In all that time they never once asked.
This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio -
"You don't speak for me."
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ALSO, check out FEE’s piece on this subject containing a superb interview with Murray.
His main argument is that you can’t solve the problem of regulatory over-reach politically and that the apparent regulatory hegemon behind the curtain is really an easily whipped wimp.
Only broad civil disobedience will do it. Insured civil disobedience.
INSURING GALT! What a concept. A insurance programme for victims of regulatory harassment.
He makes it clear however that it’s for no-harm-done cases only and that cases without a overwhelming majority supporting the victim (e.g. Affirmative action) ought not to be pursued.
http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/insuring-john-galt
I have Murray’s book in my To Read list.
should just totaly pull out of this wretched United Nations and move the entire bunch to Bejing where they can trod on the soiled blooded by thousands of innocents
A dreadful review of a very promising book.
MeNo, thanks for the link to AEI’s good interview of Murray. You know, his proposal just might work!
I want to hear/read more about his premise that much of the legal and regulatory states are politically illegitimate—not enacted and enforced with the consent of the governed—in part, if I understand him, because of the non-delegation requirement on our governments.
Murray’s book has moved to the top of my reading list.
From the Amazon blurb: “make … government an insurable hazard”! What’s not to like?
This is the second review where the reviewer is utterly ignorant of the depth of the regulatory state. An example is in BC, if there is a refrigerant leak greater than 25kg, one is supposed to phone a number or else face the risk of a $1 million dollar fine. Great, except the number leads to a secretary in a department of the Municipal Affairs department who hasn’t the faintest clue what you are talking about.
This goes on and on and on and on. Any business at all facing an auditor from one of the half dozen departments that regulate them will be out of business due to non compliance of rules and documentation requirements that are unknown and unknowable.
It is called regulatory risk, and when a new inspector takes a job everyone lies low and prays he looks at someone else. And indeed the best way is to ask for documentation, question every line and requirement. They don’t have the resources. Except when they have the power to clean out your bank account.
Koffii Anahn Go Home
…you can’t solve the problem of regulatory over-reach politically…
But a two-pronged approach using Charles Murray’s ideas alongside the political tactics expressed by Mark Levin in “The Liberty Amendments” would be more enduring.
OK, time for every law-abiding Canadian to start carrying!
“Unknown and unknowable”
Exactly.
Under these fools law and order is dead.
Forget the Magna Carta, your local bureaucrat knows best.
The old ;”You can make a donkey sheriff.. but it will still be a donkey”.
Is in your face self evident in our regulatory class.
Persons appointed with zero expertise or experience in the areas they be overseeing come up with unbelievably stupid rulings.
Arrogant and frightened to the point of insanity, these Grey Morons leave a swath of chaos and destruction on all they impose upon.
2012 Tax Payers Federation of Canada, estimated this harm at $30 billion per annum before the lawsuits and lawyers costs.
The author makes one good point(I must buy the book). These bureaucrats have all the authority we give them. They run when faced with obstinate taxpayers.
But due to the cost of confronting this institutional stupidity, most of us only do so once then we join the underground economy.
What point jumping through regulatory approval and permitting hell, if you wind up with a product made inferior by government help?
Noncompliance is not enough, the parasitic overload is far too heavy a drag on the productive members of our society, these parasites and those pale blind worms gnawing at the foundations of civilization have dragged our open economy into generational debt.
War might be less soul destroying, than continuing to endure the constant bleeding losses these critters inflict.
Man, you got that right: unknown and unknowable.
I recently opined to my lawyer that the old first principle, “ignorance of the law is no excuse” needs to be updated.
To: “ignorance of shit we’ll make up as we go along is no excuse”.
From personal experience I can affirm that the forgoing is definitely not hyperbole.
In Canada, The Canadian Constitution Foundation is already doing some of this good work.
The time for revolt is ripe. However, elaborate “lawyering-up” schemes like this are doomed to failure if only by the immense administration needed – doomed by certain malfeasance (where large funds are concerned) and tactical coordination (organizing conservatives/libertarians is like herding cats).
There is a simple bloodless way to collapse kleptocratic statism – Russia and Poland have already proven it works. All it takes is for the productive class who are preyed upon by crony corporatism and the klepto-state to realize that THEY are the ones funding their own repression – their continued productivity and deference to official corruption and extortion feeds and grows the leviathan – END IT!
Tax revolt, general strike – the klepto-state is so cash flow dependant, if interrupted, they cannot even make payroll within weeks to keep their goon squad shaking us down – a productive class financial revolt is a perfect bloodless coup. Cut off the blood supply to the leech.
With hold tax, defer payment, drain govt. liabilities with system claims – barter for a Month or two – the millions of private businesses which underpin the economy go on strike and create a massive tax deficiency – a populist “Atlas Shrugs drop out” of the system – it has worked in klepto-states with far less revenue streams than the US.
NEVER FORGET THE PRODUCERS ARE THE MASTERS, the takers are not!
Supporting religious freedoms for Muslims is NOT good work.
Well said, Occam.
The “Galt insurance” policies can be killed via legal fiat. Opting out cannot.
Here‘s an hour-long interview, by Jonah Goldberg, of Murray about his new book
Yeah well, it must be recognized that bureaucrats come from the leftist elements…..otherwise they would have real jobs and businesses.
At this stage, the gatekeepers (management)are leftist. A good example is here in Canada, Conservative majority governments face a rebellious civil service, who are only marking time until the libranos regain power…..is Enviroment Canada still cranking out (at taxpayer expense) CAGW nonsense…Justice Canada still publishing Brady Foundation fiction as fact….
Charles Murray faces a problem….for a “wealthy” individual to provide the beginning working capital….a storm of protest would follow.
Charlie Angus recent bleating about US PACs being funded by the Koch Brothers….with no mention of George Soros, Warren Buffet, Tom Steyre financial support of the leftie agenda….
Double Standard er whot?
Stupid liberals think shaling hands with end all hostilities Just proves Liberalisms a mental disorder cuased by a strict vegan diet watching too much network news or reading the news rags and magazines and movies like AVATAR and A INCOVENT TRUTH whike snorting white powder up your nose THE INCREIBLE SHRINKING BRAIN
A Conservative majority government that is afraid to actually purge a few of the leftist bureaucrats (CFO’s come to mind) is useless, then.
They, like the lefty civil servants, are just marking time before a total police state is imposed.
What a flatulent condescending review in WaPo, but then, of course, it is WaPo – not a publication known for its sympathy for anything with even a faint whiff of being conservative.
The irony if this was written by someone say like Bill Ayers exhorting civil disobedience Carlos would, of course, be exhorting all and sundry to not only read the book, but act on its recommendations. Since Murray is conservative, though not a lot, all we get from the reviewer is a patronizing review.
Well, we did the civil disobedience thing with The Landowners. We blocked highways with tractors, barricaded government offices, and plugged up Parliament Hill and Queens Park.
Why didn’t it work? Because most of the farmers who were there weren’t concerned about the erosion of property rights or the crushing tide of regulations. They wanted one thing: relief – courtesy of the taxpayers. As my brother put it: “TAs long as they got a government cheque they wouldn’t give a shit if the hammer and sickle flew from the Peace Tower or in Queen’s Park”. And the respective governments figured that out in no time at all.
So, I have no confidence that escalating “conservative” civil disobedience is a likely scenario in this country. It isn’t going to happen. Too much greed, too much selfishness, to much comfort, and not enough bravery.
The concept is interesting. I have always wondered why the Legal Community didn’t provide GROUP services, keeping the sleaze away from the average person. Much like Corporate Law Services for the masses.
The need exists & it would be a financial bonanza, but lawyers may hate the idea of fighting fire with fire.
Interesting premise. I wonder how it would actually work at the inception. Imagine the US Government being wound up in so many legal proceedings that it could no longer function….
it is interesting to know that I have been right for decades.