So with regulation. Don’t change it, abolish the very idea of regulating vast swathes of the economy. Don’t reduce the state all over, kill parts of the state.
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Samizdata quote of the daySamizdata Illuminatus (Arkham, Massachusetts) · Civil liberty, Law & Regulation · Slogans & Quotations · UK affairs January 19th, 2021 |
 12 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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How wonderful that would be. Yet how is it to happen when the people who would be tasked with it thrive as parasites in the current mega-state? Dreams are ten a penny, but how do we move towards realising ours? Especially as, if the COVID-19 experience has taught us anything, it’s that that most citizens will surrender their liberties in a heartbeat to any political charlatan with half an excuse. Tim is right. Most writers here are right. But we keep losing this argument and need to ask ourselves why – and then to come up with an answer that isn’t just (as our political foes do to us) to dismiss those who disagree with us as bigoted, ignorant or deplorable.
Remember, in the distant past, how the NHS was the ‘envy of the world’ and it was there to save each and every one of us if we needed it?
Well it turns out it is an utter shit show. If there ever was a candidate for complete comprehensive privatization, the British National Health Service is it.
Just imagine if the NHS was turned into a profit center, instead of an utter incompetent dead loss, the revenue it could generate for the exchequer.
If ever there was an instance of the tail wagging the dog, the NHS is it.
Why just kill parts? The State is not even like the curate’s egg, it’s all rotten.
‘ If there ever was a candidate for complete comprehensive privatization, the British National Health Service is it.’
You can’t privatise it as not being a profit centre, it has no commercial value, so apart from its assets it cannot be valued for IPO. In any case it is a lumbering institution with deeply entrenched restrictive practices, non-existant management skills, intrinsically inefficient, and worship object for feelings and emotions.
The best solution is to take away the NHS monopoly, allow a competitive private insurance and provider market to develop. This can be done by allowing people to choose whether to continue their contribution to the NHS, or opt out and have it diverted to a private insurer of their choosing… they did this with SERPS so administratively it is easily done.
Abolishing lots of regulation means abolishing lots of amenable middle class jobs.
Not a vote winner.
‘Abolishing lots of regulation means abolishing lots of amenable middle class jobs.’
In the short run. In the long run a flourishing economy will create far more jobs.
‘Tim is right. Most writers here are right. But we keep losing this argument and need to ask ourselves why’
Ayn Rand explained the reason sixty years ago. Persuasion is possible but to do so we have to move from the realm of ideology to psychology.
Perhaps because so long as libertarians are conflated with Libertarians, we’re going to be considered fruitcakes?
Small-l libertarians span the political continuum. We ought to be out there speaking to the people near us on that continuum – wherever that point may be – simply extolling the virtues – the benefits to each and to all of us – of more versus less liberty. Speak to those whom you don’t consider to be ignorant or bigoted or deplorable, and you’ll likely speak with more respect, and you’ll be given more respect in return.
The idea that a hard-core conservative is going to convince a hard-core progressive of . . . anything . . . is flawed. Let the progressive libertarians (yes, they’re out there) talk to the progressives. Let the conservative libertarians talk to the conservatives.
Isn’t our massive reduction of the state inevitable? Is it not bound to happen when the government’s seemingly unlimited credit card gets declined? Suddenly there won’t be any money to pay the wages of all the pointless hangers on doing non jobs. Only people who are capable of doing something useful will be able to make a living.
Excellent advise from Mr Worstall – it is pity there is no chance what-so-ever of it being followed.
We are finished – the future is one of decay and death.
Even if we win a battle we will be betrayed. Stabbed in the back by people like Senator “Mitch” McConnell.
Just as the “reward” of General Aetius for defeating Attila the Hun was to be murdered by Valentinian III (“with your left hand you have cut off your right hand”).
Most people do not even remember General Aetius – and why should they?
General Aetius was trying to save civilisation – and civilisation was doomed. So people remember Attila the Hun instead – rape, loot, burn, kill, “Biden/Harris wins!”
Stonyground:
Short answer: no.
Longer answer: if history is any guide, such reduction only comes after major societal collapse (Greece ca. 2011, Eastern Europe in the early 90’s), is not all that massive, and when some semblance of normalcy returns, the state comes roaring back. Venezuela’s government is hanging on. Japan’s is as solid as ever, with their debt/GDP over 200% for 10 years now. Argentina’s government has gone broke 3 times in the last 20 years, and is, if anything, more invasive than ever. The IMF and the World Bank are always there to
smash the kulakstax the ants and bail out the smaller grasshoppers. The bigger ones are remarkably resilient.I am watching “Prime Minister’s Question Time” in the United Kingdom.
Before this there were questions about Northern Ireland – to the relevant ministers, there was one question from a lady who is a Democratic Unionist Parry Member of Parliament (I believe the lady was speaking from Northern Ireland), opposing the abortion that the establishment (as with the United States in 1971 abortion is being pushed by judges – who are filled with CONTEMPT for the traditional principles of the Common Law and Natural Justice) are now pushing against the democratic will of the people of Northern Ireland.
A rare good moment in Parliament. Although, sadly, it will have no effect at all.
As for the praise for Biden/Harris from all sides of the House of Commons (with vicious lies about how Donald John Trump, who delivered Criminal Justice Reform and got more BLACK support than any other Republican of my lifetime, stands for “hate” – and the Collectivists Biden/Harris stand for “hope”), and the rest of what is going on in the House of Commons…..
It is best to just turn this off and do something else. The communications equipment the House of Commons is using does not seem to work very well anyway.
Indeed, how many otherwise unemployable ‘graduates’ fill the government/regulation-driven swamps of compliance and (in)Human Resources. Or are many just cynics riding the back of what is rather like communism – we know it’s rubbish, you know it’s rubbish, you know that we know it’s rubbish and we know that you know it’s rubbish, and we know that you know that we know…