atw: Re: National Broadband Network and empathy
- From: Rod Stuart <rod.stuart@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:00:12 +1000
I was done and dusted with this issue, because, as somebody said, the
election is over. But with this last dig yesterday is something I just can’t
resist. There is an old saying “Don’t poke a bear with a stick”.
Diatribe
–noun
a bitter, sharply abusive denunciation, attack, or criticism: repeated
diatribes against the senator.
Exactly who is doing the criticising here? Who is being criticised?
Did you just search Google for some group to harass?
Thank you Neil for pointing out December 2008. Actually it was December
2005.
Harass
–verb (used with object)
to disturb persistently; torment, as with troubles or cares; bother
continually; pester; persecute.
Is someone being harassed? By whom?
You remind me of the American who once offered me Canadian dollars to pay a
debt, because she knew Australians didn't use American dollars.
* I commiserate deeply and have empathy for you. Had you accepted the
Loonies, you could have exchanged them to your advantage several times, for
example in December 07 or February 10, and been “in the money”. Or you could
have placed a put in March 08 or bought a call in Feb 09 and made a killing.
*
Actually Anne, you remind ME of someone; the lady across the street. She
doesn’t like me either. I have no idea why. She is a single mom with a Green
Party sign on her lawn. Three years ago it was a Kevin 07 sign. I don’t pry
into her business. She pries into mine.
She has a daughter Virginia about ten I suppose. Virginia likes to visit
when she sees me out in the yard.
Virgina came over a few weeks ago after school.
I said “What did you learn in school today, Virginia?”
She said “I dunno. Work Choices is bad”.
“That’s a strange thing for them to teach in school” I said. “What is work
choices and what is so bad about it?”
Virginia said “I don’t know. I asked the teacher why it was bad and she
said she didn’t know, either. But she knows it’s bad because her union told
her it was bad”.
“My Mom says you use too much petrol in your 4x4’s” she challenged. “Why.
She doesn’t pay for it. Besides, I don’t use any petrol, just diesel and
LPG. And any of them use less and pollute less than her old Commodore.”
Then Virginia said “Mr. Stuart, my Mom says you have too much money. The
government should take it away so that poor man wouldn’t have to beg on the
sidewalk at the corner store. She says the Greens would make you pay”.
“You mean the guy that sits there with his hand out on a box of wine and
smokes a pack and a half of cigarettes every day?” She nodded.
“Virginia, there are a couple of things wrong with that. First of all, if I
said no, the government would send people in uniform with guns and take me
away”. “Would you like them to do that?”
“Would they? They wouldn’t!” she said. I said “Oh yes they would, and in a
heartbeat. Why would your mother say such a thing?”
“Mom says you are too old and have too much money. It’s not fair that you
have more than that poor man at the corner.” You don’t work either and the
government shouldn’t give you a pension because you don’t need it.”
“Virginia, I’m retired, and the government took money from me all my life.
Do you think it would be fair if they didn’t give at least some of it back?’
“I guess you’re right”, she said.
“Well, Virginia how much do you think that man needs?” She said “Fifty
dollars”. I mumbled to myself “Right. Like he needs a few cigars and a
bottle of whiskey!”
I said “But there is another thing wrong with what your mother’s Green
Party wants. If the government is going to give that man fifty dollars, they
need to steal fifty from me, fifty from your mom, and fifty from George next
door.”
Virginia is good with figures. “But that’s a hundred and fifty! He only
needs fifty”.
“Well Virginia, the government doesn’t have anything of its own. The
government doesn’t produce anything. Everything it gets it must take from
someone. It has to take a hundred and fifty to give that man fifty, because
fifty is for administration, forty is to hire a consultant to study how they
should give it to him, and ten is to waste by giving it to the wrong
fellow.”
“That doesn’t sound very fair!” she said. “It isn’t” I said. “I help lots
of people that deserve help”.
I told her “If you really want to help that man, I know a way that you
can”. To which she replied “I don’t have any money.” I asked her how much
she needs. She said “I get an allowance so I don’t need any”.
“Well, if you wash my car and weed my flowers, I’ll pay you fifty dollars
and you can take it over and give it to the man.”
She thought about this for a minute and said “All of it? Can’t I keep some
for myself? Can’t you pay me more than fifty dollars? Would I have to wash
that filthy old Landcruiser or that muddy Prado?”
“You said you don’t need any, and besides, I’m being generous. Little Johnny
down the street does it for thirty dollars. And no, there are roo guts in
the back of the Triton, mud all over the Cruiser and the dog hair in the
Prado, but the Pajero just has a bit of dust on it. You can wash the Paj.”
A very thoughtful frown came over her face. She said “I think I have a plan.
Why don’t you go and get the man to wash the Pajero and weed your flowers
for you, and then you can give him the fifty dollars directly?” I said “That
is indeed a very good idea Virginia. That is a Libertarian idea rather than
a socialist idea. That way, I get what I need, which is a car wash and the
garden weeded. The man gets the fifty dollars that he needs. And you get to
see the man get fifty dollars without doing anything yourself, and we don’t
need to involve the bloody government at all! It’s a good plan.”
She didn’t say a word. She just marched over to her own yard and pulled out
the lawn sign. I heard her mother say “Why did you pull our sign out?” To
which I heard Virginia reply “You can take that Greens shit and shove it
right up your ass. I’m a Libertarian now!’
*This time, however, it wasn't about writing - it was about equity. I cannot
understand people who think that because things are fine for them, no more
needs to be done for anyone else - whether it is broadband, roads, public
transport, health access, housing or jobs. That's just plain selfishness. I
don't believe in any gods, but I do believe that we have a responsibility to
make at least a half-hearted attempt to make things reasonably fair for
everyone. As a citizen of a country or member of a community or family, you
have both rights and obligations as a part of that group. Without
cooperation, we'd still be hanging out in the jungles, stealing food from
each other.
And unlike some on this list, I understand the necessity for my taxes to
improve broadband access for all people living in Australia, and even to
build the occasional road for people who drive baby killers*.
Anne
* Baby killers - what my daughter the qualified paramedic calls those
hulking great 4WD vehicles some people seem to think is required to drive
their 1.7 children a short distance on bitumen roads to school.*
*I can’t understand this last statement at all. It seems completely out of
context, and it doesn’t make an ounce of sense. I have four of ‘em and
haven’t killed anybody at all.*
Actually, Anne, I think you must be one of the generational archetypes that
Strauss and Howe call “The Prophet”.
“Born in a ‘High’ to parents that survived the depression, Prophets are best
known for their coming -of-age passion. Increasingly indulged as children,
they become increasingly protective as parents. Their principal endowments
are in the domain of *vision and values*. These have been principled
moralists, summoners of human sacrifice, wagers of righteous wars. Early in
life, none saw combat in uniform; late in life, most came to be revered more
for their inspiring words than for their grand deeds”. (The Fourth Turning,
Strauss and Howe, 1997)
Strauss and Howe go on to describe the most recent crop of Prophet as being
the first to be subjected to a deteriorating one size fits all public school
system in which competition is discouraged and differentiation is confused
with discrimination. While the prophets espouse the idea that everyone gets
an education under this scheme, it soon deteriorates to the extent that
everyone must go to school but no-one gets an education. The prophets
precede the generation subject to this further deterioration. The problem is
not so much that Johnny can’t read, but Johnny can’t think. Worse than that,
Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is. He confuses thinking with feeling.
The last crop of prophets grew up in a secular world lacking a common moral
code. Because they find self-discipline so difficult, they find it necessary
to try to discipline everyone else. The Prophet abhors diversity most of
all, along with liberty, individual freedom, and civil rights. He has an
overwhelming desire to take every opportunity to pass laws which tend to
make everyone just like him. If the prophet doesn’t smoke, then make that
against the law. If the prophet doesn’t drink, booze should be outlawed. If
the Prophet doesn’t smoke pot, well it should be against the law (but a
little bit on the side doesn’t hurt now does it?) If the prophet doesn’t
drive an SUV, then nobody else should be allowed to either. Ad infinitum.
The result is a disgustingly complex assortment of victimless crime (you can
find a list of these here <
http://www.ldp.org.au/federal/policies/victimlessCrimes.html> legislated in
a frenzy to protect people from themselves. This is sometimes justified as
protecting an illegitimate socialist health system. Previously enveloped in
a cocoon of safety by his parent, the latter day boomer can’t help but cling
to the safety of the government pseudo-parent. Because his parents lied to
him repeatedly about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, he
can’t pick up on the lies that the pseudo parent tells. “Spin” gets confused
with reality. Every problem is caused by someone else. And it is easiest to
turn to the government for a solution. There oughta be a law! They should do
something about it!
Julie there are a lot of things I don’t understand too. I can’t understand
people who come from stock that stood proud under the Southern Cross against
the tyranny of government giving up liberty and individual freedom so
readily. I can’t understand people who forget that their forbears fought in
two world wars to defend that freedom. I don’t understand why people don’t
seem to realise that once the systems are in place, all it takes is tough
times and a charismatic little guy with a moustache to pop up and you can
kiss Liberty good bye. (Or a charismatic little ego-maniac that looks like a
dentist). I can’t understand people who can’t do the math and realise that
when the public sector is larger than the private sector, it means that
income tax, business tax, rates, GST, stamp duty, and a host of other taxes
amount to about 50% of what they produce, and that the real value of any
benefits from government are far less than that. I don’t understand people
that are so gullible that they believe every lie the government tells them.
I can’t understand why people can’t differentiate “equal opportunity” from
equity. I don’t understand people that fail to realise that the power
brokers keep them constantly clinging to the pseudo-parent safety net
through an endless array of crises. If the government perpetrates the hoax
of the 21st century (global warming) to justify a new tax, well, they must
know what they are talking about. Never mind that it is completely
irrational. If the government claims it saved the nation from the problems
caused by waste and debt with a solution of mega waste and mega debt they
must know what they are talking about. Never mind that the effect is only
short term. I don’t see why people aren’t aware they are in a first class
seat on a Chinese airliner that is about to lose altitude….fast. I can’t
understand people who are so naive about the history of money that they
don’t realise the perpetual theft perpetrated by a fractional banking
system. I don’t understand people that think that the central bank exercises
control over interest rates when in fact the biggest bubble in the country’s
history is inflated through foreign indebtedness rather than domestic debt.
I don’t understand people that are unaware that every fiat currency in the
history of mankind was debased to zero value in less than 300 years. I can’t
understand folks that think that the solution to every problem is to spend
more on it. I can’t understand people that don’t recognise that risk
acceptance has a price. As Warren Buffet says, “Risk is what you get when
you don’t know what you are doing”.
Hey, I have a friend that has a good business making land mines disguised as
prayer mats. Prophets are going through the roof!
On 23 August 2010 11:45, Anne Casey <writan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> At 06:32 PM 22/08/2010, you wrote:
>
> *Governments are run by politicians, not businessmen.
> *
> Politicians can only make political decisions, not economic ones. They are,
> after all, first and foremost in the re-election business. Because of the
> need to be re-elected, politicians are always likely to have a short-term
> bias. What looks good right now is more important to politicians than
> long-term consequences even when those consequences can be easily foreseen.
> The gathering disaster of Social Security has been obvious for years, but
> politics has prevented needed reforms.
>
>
>
> Rod,
>
> This (and most of the rest of your diatribe) is a direct quote from an
> opinon piece in the Wall Street Journal:
>
> http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB124277530070436823.html
>
>
> You've filed off some of the serial numbers, but left sufficient
> information for it to be obvious the original text was American. We don't
> run our education systems the way they do, and while our teachers are poorly
> paid, at least ours aren't on welfare while employed as a teacher. Also,
> anyone who has bothered to look has realised that public servants in
> Australia not only don't get paid as much as similar roles in private
> industry, but they've also lost security of tenure. That's why there are so
> many contractors working in the public sector - it's the only way they can
> hire anyone at market rates.
>
> The other bizarre thing that stood out was when you referred to the House
> of Representatives as the Commons. No Australian would ever do that. Canada,
> on the other hand, has both a Senate and a House of Commons.
>
> You remind me of the American who once offered me Canadian dollars to pay a
> debt, because she knew Australians didn't use American dollars.
>
> Did you just search Google for some group to harass?
>
> Anne
>
>
>
--
Rod Stuart
6 Brickhill Drive
Dilston, TAS 7252, Australia
<rod.stuart@xxxxxxxxx>
M((040) 184 6575 V(03) 6312 5399
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