The Righteous Plan

It is the season for good will, apparently, so I'm sure that there will be plenty of good will schemes coming out to join our masters over the water forbidding people from earning more money and Melanie Reid's conscription scheme. Like all of the plans of the Righteous they share a common structure, a structure outlined in this very old essay that goes:

The type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D. The radical vice of all these schemes, from a sociological point of view, is that C is not allowed a voice in the matter, and his position, character, and interests, as well as the ultimate effects on society through C's interests, are entirely overlooked.

A perfect description of the Righteous, but when was this written? Unknown, but before 1910 anyway.

The Pope and the Rainforest

The Pope's invisible friend has told him that being gay is bad and so the world would be better off without gay people, and he should be free to express his twisted views. Personally I believe the world would be better off if religious leaders like His Holiness end up nailed to a tree and have their flesh slowly stripped from their bones by a great swarm of ravenous Amazonian ants, as they watched. Call it a difference of opinions.

Governing for the governors

The government has thrown billions at the banks, it is probably going to throw billions at an Indian owned car firm. Yet when it comes to individuals the Government seeks to act like a loan shark preying on the most vulnerable and offering small loans with massive interest levels. There is no moral hazard throwing money at the giant corporations, yet individuals that come into hard times need to be stung with punitive rates. However these people can be counted on to give their support to Labour anyway so their interests are irrelevant to the government.

The on the topic of debt the IMF may consider it the only option in order to try and keep the economy, an economy hooked on government spending, going but there is a problem with where the money raised from all this debt is going. Some of it went on the pointless VAT cut, a cut which will only help retailers and then only if they are big enough (like that owned by Labour donor Lord Sainsbury) so that the savings offset the administration costs of implementing it. Some of which will be going on things like the £1,755 a week rent of a three-storey property is in Kensington for a mother and her four children. Some of this money will go on infrastructure projects the government thinks vital, like the ID Cards database. Some will simply go into the whitehall machinery and be ground to dust, but all of this money will eventually have to be paid off somehow by the people of the UK.

Paying off Labour's debts could come through more taxes, or by inflating it away through printing money (as the USA is already doing) and therefore causing peoples savings to evaporate at the same time. The recession is going to get pretty bad[3] and affect Labour marginals the most. This is why Labour is so scared of it and so willing to throw however much of other people's money as is needed at it.

None of this should be surprising. It is simply this government governing in the way that all governments do. That is governing in the interests of the government.

Some good news

With all of the economic doom and gloom finally some good news. The US Senate has refused to bail out the big car makers. Perhaps this will teach them to make a product that people want to buy at a price they can afford, and maybe manage their inventory a bit better next time.


[Image via Samizdata]

However on the bad side they are now going to look to the likes of Gordon Brown to save their skins, and he won't have the bottle to say 'no'.