“Not allowed to travel. Police breaking up public gatherings. Empty shelves in shops. Have to queue for everything. I wonder why my parents keep acting like they’ve seen it all before?”
|
|||||
|
We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people. Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house] Authors
Arts, Tech & CultureCivil LibertiesCommentary
EconomicsSamizdatistas |
A ‘joke’ doing the rounds on the Czech language internet…May 2nd, 2020 |
 21 comments to A ‘joke’ doing the rounds on the Czech language internet… |
Who Are We?The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling. We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe. CategoriesArchivesFeed This PageLink Icons   |
|||
All content on this website (including text, photographs, audio files, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
|||||
Yesterday had a lot fewer May Day celebrations of communism than we see most years.
Indeed it is Collectivism – just as pre 1989 Socialism was.
It is no good having “private ownership” if the “owner” has to obey every order of the state – regardless of what that order is.
Nazi Germany had “private ownership” of this sort – and so does the People’s Republic of China.
Private ownership is only meaningful it the power of the state is LIMITED not UNLIMITED.
I remember watching Tim Pool (an independent journalist and an honest young man) saying “there is no right to run a business” – he meant well, he was defending the right to protest and the right to engage in religious worship, but he was still WRONG.
Mr Pool (and Mr John Stuart Mill) there IS a right to run a business – it is not (contra “On Liberty”) a “different principle” from the right to political protest or religious worship, it is the SAME principle.
Under the COMMON LAW anyone can run a peaceful business – without a permit or a “business license” and without “Occupational Licensing” (denounced by Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke in the case of Dr Bonham – way back in 1610).
As for the government coming along and closing most business enterprises in the land, people who have committed no crime, by saying “we have this theory (for which is there is no evidence – none) that if we close down most things and bankrupt most people we will slow the spread of this disease” the correct response to that is two words.
GO AWAY.
If a population that has committed no crime can not do that (can not tell out of control “authorities” to GO AWAY) then the people are serfs – yes serfs.
The London Police were created in the 1820s, by Sir Robert Peel, and they were made compulsory in every county by the Act of 1856 (the county of Rutland put two fingers up to that Act – by having a police force of two men, the “Chief Constable” and one officer).
I like to think that if Bob Peel had had known how the police would be used (or rather abused) he would never have created them.
I am not “against the police” – but I am certainly against what they have been turned into.
The state should have LIMITED powers – not UNLIMITED powers as in the People’s Republic of China. We are turning into something that should be resisted.
As for risking disease – people take risks every day.
There is a case for keeping someone who has a dangerous disease from spreading it.
But to violate the basic liberties of THE ENTIRE POPULATION and for an undetermined period of time – that is not good.
“But Paul the ancient custom of Quarantine”.
Quarantine for the WHOLE KINGDOM?
And that “40 days” is up on Tuesday.
If the “lockdown” is still on after Tuesday then it is not “Quarantine” – it is tyranny.
We have risked diseases of equivalent lethality continually for decades without boycotting freedom.
Blojo has done for us.
If you want to know why opinion polls still demonstrate mass public support in the UK for the lockdown, my suggestion would be that you don’t really have to look much further than the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, otherwise known as ‘furlough payments.’
Economists and media commentators can point out the follies of piling up public debt and ask ‘Where’s the money coming from?’ and ‘How are we going to pay for all this?’ and ‘This really isn’t sustainable for more than a brief time’ all they like. They are only preaching to the faithful, those capable of seeing the bigger picture beyond their own personal circumstances.
But all those people who dread Monday mornings, who hate their tedious dead-end low-status jobs or who work for bullying bosses or with obnoxious colleagues – these are the millions who are driving the lockdown support, simply because they are rather enjoying being paid 80% of their salary to stay home and potter about all day not doing very much, and are in no hurry to exchange that for going back to work, eight hours a day, five days a week, and all the associated stress and hassle, just for that 20% top-up, much of which gets spent on subsidising the hidden costs of their job anyway (commuting costs, dry-cleaning office suits, buying takeaway coffees and sandwiches, contributing to collections for colleagues leaving / getting married / having babies, etc.).
Criticise them for their short-sightedness all you like. But there are millions of them and I’m convinced they are what is driving the support for the lockdown. (Oh, and one more thing: expect to hear a whole lot more about ‘Universal Basic Income’ after this is behind us).
I have had exactly the same thought. I have just retired and have chatted on the phone to my former colleague. Same age as me but not able to retire yet due to having been married twice and hence not being as financially secure. He hates the job more than I did, he is currently happy as Larry sorting out his garden, his shed and his fences while still getting paid. OK, a sample of one, but as you say, it isn’t much of a leap to imagine millions just like him. An additional problem is the unthinking acceptance of the government line that the lockdown is saving lives. The government have painted themselves into a corner by claiming this. Now they are unable to cancel the lockdown without facing the accusation that they murdered someone’s granny.
At times like these, a laugh is even more welcome than usual. Thanks for sharing the joke, Perry.
Tom Stoppard was Czech-born. Franz Kafka was born in Prague (albeit to a mainly German-speaking Jewish family).
One could argue the never-very-large Czech ethnic group (less than 11 million inhabitants of the Czech republic today) has a history of enduring tough times with humour. They were often the oppressed-but-not-as-much of eastern European groups (they are of course the most western-located of such groups).
Zerren Y is spot-on. The CJRS has come out of thin air like manna from Heaven for many. Not only are you paid 80% (capped at £2,500 per month) for being required to do nothing, the scheme has all kinds of ‘wheezes’ for taking back people that you have made redundant or even if they resigned to go elsewhere around the key dates. The 20% pay cut for many nets out at a cut of 20% of gross pay, which is taxed at 32% in the main (20% income tax and 12% National Insurance) so for every £100 a month lost on gross, only £68 is lost, and all the costs of going to work go.
The problem reminds me of a ‘joke’ from the time of the Dangerous Dogs Act in the UK. Geneticists have been working on reducing the aggressiveness of American Pit Bull Terriers by crossing them with Lassie. Preliminary results indicate that the dogs still attack people, but they go and get help afterwards.
As I mentioned a while back, the whole farce changes the narrative: The government does have a magic money tree, it can move mountains (of money) to attempt to preserve the economic situation existing before the crisis of its own making, and it can and will intervene to ‘save’ jobs, whilst destroying capital and businesses whilst preserving the receipt of pay, which is for uneconomic activity. From the economic point of view, it is sheer lunacy. From the political point of view, it feeds many statist prejudices and gives the appearance of mitigating economic damage, by avoiding in the short term the massive dislocation and misery of mass redundancies, all to ‘save the NHS’. Many will see that as the way forward, a Shining Path to Serfdom.
@Paul Marks, I think Bob Peel would be spinning in his grave at what his creation became. His nine principles suggest that this is not what he had in mind.
Paul Marks: “If the “lockdown” is still on after Tuesday then it is not “Quarantine” – it is tyranny.”
You don’t need to wait until Tuesday, it’s tyranny.
@Zerren Yeoville
Baboom Tish!:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/03/universal-basic-income-coronavirus-shocks
I’ve never seen it, and to be honest never wanted to, but it looks like we’re going to get it.
What does a 20% fall in GDP look like?
“What does a 20% fall in GDP look like?”
Like about $10k per person, give or take.
NiV: “Like about $10k per person, give or take.”
This year? What about next year?
The airline industry has been destroyed.
That means all ancillary services have just gone away.
The tourist industry has been destroyed.
Hotels, Bed and breakfast, Poof!
So £7.5k on top of the other £7,500 per person the average person is going to be about £15k worse off next year.
I dare say, your sofa may have £15 Large stuffed down the back, but the rest of us, not so much.
I wish you’d told us up front how much this little experiment of yours was gonna cost. Because I don’t think I would have agreed to it if you had.
Oh! wait a minute. I didn’t agree to it.
Let’s call it: 20% = c. $10,000 sounds about right but this is phenomenally rough and will not be in anyway shared “equally”. Commercial aviation is going to have a very, very rough time. And it may even never recover. There are certainly enough Gretas out there who see that as a feature, not an embuggeration. Obviously this will play merry Hell with travel, tourism and everything related. The effect on the high street will be similar though perhaps not as obviously devastating. But, I dunno, I’m trying to be optimistic. I mean I’m really going to mark my first trip to the barbers (something I normally regard as a chore) with a white stone. God, I’m even looking forward to seeing the dental hygienist…
NickM: “Commercial aviation is going to have a very, very rough time. And it may even never recover.”
Rumor has it Rolls Royce has, or plans to, lay off 8,000.
Which doesn’t surprise me as there must be a glut of unused second hand aero-engines lying idle at the moment.
The market for the a380 has just gone bye bye. So things are looking bleak for Airbus too.
Anecdote:
Contracted Life partner and I were staying at a Paradores in Spain, which was hosting a series of seminars for Airbus. As we were walking to our room, CLP remarks, ‘That’s convenient! We can get the bus straight to the airport from here’.
Bless.
somehow I don’t see Boris, Keir and their rich mates suffering that loss either…
“I wish you’d told us up front how much this little experiment of yours was gonna cost. Because I don’t think I would have agreed to it if you had. Oh! wait a minute. I didn’t agree to it.”
90%+ of us did. Everone else decided it was cheaper than the alternative, which I note you continue to ignore.
“Let’s call it: 20% = c. $10,000 sounds about right but this is phenomenally rough and will not be in anyway shared “equally”. Commercial aviation is going to have a very, very rough time. And it may even never recover.”
I don’t know. The demand is still there, and will still be waiting when the pandemic is over. If the current firms do go down, then new firms will rise to replace them. (And that’s by no means certain – much moaning and groaning in the hopes of a government bailout is to be expected.)
It’s like with a forest fire. Even when destruction sweeps across and leaves nothing but charred stumps, you get green shoots within days, and a new forest in a decade or so. And we’re not even talking about the total obliteration of a forest fire – just 20% of one year.
The whole point of free enterprise is that it is adaptive, routes round problems, and achieves resilience through continual destruction and regrowth. It’s not like smashing a watch with a hammer, it’s like chopping up kudzu. It grows back. So long as the damage is temporary and not ongoing.
The problem is it’s not just Airbus. Boeing are in schtuck as well. And Boeing have a plan B – since they acquired McDonnell-Douglas they have a much larger military wing. So, who is left? Bombardier, Embraer?
NiV: “The demand is still there, ”
I don’t know where you live, other than la la land.
81% of the UK economy is the service sector.
I guess we won’t be needing Heathrow’s fifth runway anytime this century.
£22billion contribution to UK GBP Poof! One million jobs in the airline service sector, Poof!
But look on the bright side, at least we won’t have to worry about intrusive ‘pat downs’ at the security theatre, anymore.
.
Yeah, and I guess I’ve got more time to “curate” my pictures from all across Europe, Asia and the Americas. I might have kids one day to show them to and I’d tell them about the good old days when ordinary people could travel from continent to continent. They won’t believe me. Then I’ll get the pics out and they’d be like, “But Dad, you had hair!”
The last bits are embellishment. I never wanted kids, neither does my and I’m 46 with no sign of balding – more of starting to look like a ’70s OU lecturer. I guess I’m gonna have to get clippers on Amazon or something. So, it’s looking like Prof. Twattle of the Faculty of Studies or an inmate of Sobibor. It’s a bugger. There are two rather good barbers a short walk from my house but that’s a part of the service sector I can’t use. I’d like to but…