BARVENNON.COM
AUSTRALIAN DIARY
OCTOBER 2009.
LIBERALISM
What is the opposite of "Liberal" in politics? Is it
"conservative" or "Labour"? (as in the UK). Is it "Labour" (as in
Australia). Is it "Republican" (The US Democrats seem to have
claimed the Liberal mantle).
Well no. None of the above. Wiktionary has
multiple political definitions, but the most general definition seems
to be: Favoring ideas that treat all
people with equal justice regardless of educational, financial, sexual
or racial status.
Wikipedia
stresses that classic liberalism (as distinct from social liberalism)
means individual liberty.
So no, the political opposite of "liberal" is "dictatorial".
Who\which political parties does that most remind you of? Let me
help you. Who
makes laws that dictate
discrimination to
favor those who are uneducated, or are poor, or are female,
or not WASPs?
FLABBERGASTED
Here it is, already one quarter of the way through October, and the
market has not crashed. Instead, those upstart Australians have
RAISED interest rates, and declared that their unemployment rates have
fallen. So wtf is happening? When I have been confidently
predicting and expecting a further crash in October?
I suppose it is less than one third of the way through October.
And our PM Rudd has been spending like we were all zillionaires, and
although employment has been constant, that was only achieved by
reducing the working hours instead of sacking workers. (That is
quite possibly as a result of our labour laws, which mean that anyone
who is sacked is entitled to a generous "redundancy package" frequently
equal to a months pay for every year of employment up to about twelve
years.)
And Ross Garnaut is reported as having written a book "Crash of 2008"
that warns Rudd
against the effect that his illiberal policies might have on our
economy. I have previously reviewed Garnaut's
opinions on the environment.
On the economic front, Garnaut has at least seen that the main problem
is our protected banking industry. His suggested controls on
banks are almost certainly unworkable and definitely complex and
unwieldy. The solution
suggested on these pages on 23rd September 2008 was simpler and
workable. Effectively my suggestion was that the government
should decouple cash (M0 & M1) accounts from banks. (A bit
like restoring the old "Commonwealth Savings Bank" which the Labour
party sold off.) Such divestment would probably cause
considerable pain to current banking shareholders, which pain could be
partially offset by onlending the money transferred to the new
government guaranteed accounts.
COPYRIGHT & PATENT TAX
One of the gripes I have is that copyright and patent are a drain on
our culture. I do not want to deprive the creative person of
their due reward, however I do feel that the middleman culture has gone
too far.
A neat solution would be for government to enact a "copyright and
patent" tax. I would suggest that the government collect as tax
about 80% of the royalties going to the creator, and that there be no
exclusive license. Anybody could make a copy, but would have to
pay a license fee. The government would be responsible for
contracting out the collection and policing of royalties and also
paying the creative artist.
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