To Canadians’ great shame, it was Canada’s province of Saskatchewan that initiated socialist politics in N. America, under Tommy Douglas.
Douglas brought to N. America, the unoriginal, yet winning, political trick…
Yep, citizens of Saskatchewan were willing to vote for whichever politician would spend more of other peoples’ money. Each voter hoped s/he would benefit more than that money, from taxation, would cost them personally . Nor did they care for what the full provincial economic cost would be. They only hoped that the dollars taken would somehow come their way, when they needed them. Each citizen hoped that his cost::benefit ratio would be smaller than anyone else’s.
That view has an interesting history.
Picture a starving ‘dirt’ farmer & his family; e.g. Henry Fonda in the “Grapes of Wrathâ€:
In those days, 98% of Canadians were farmers. Before Tommy Douglas’s political success, in Saskatchewan, a great many people refused to accept, let alone apply for, such government funds as Workmen’s Compensation, or Unemployment Insurance. Why?
Because they knew they would be using other people’s money, and preferred to starve rather than stoop so low.
That pride, that virtue, is, today, incredible. Who, now, thinks with such integrity? (Certainly not commenter Paulhus) H_ll, the public schools require, by implication, that children think otherwise!
Before Tommy Douglas’s influence, men knew what it meant to be self-reliant rather than parasitic. Such men exist no more. Yes, there are a few statistical exceptions (I must be one of them).
In almost comedic irony, Leftists wail about the selfish greed of the wealthy, yet they hope to greedily steal other peoples’ wealth for their own ‘higher’ ideals.
I believe this is where Galt correctly illustrated that the parasitic individual “blanks out.”
“You realize that you’re taking money unearned from other people, right?” Blank-out. “You realize that you have no right to the money you are claiming, right?” Blank-out. “You realize that if you continue to take their money, they’re going to be incentivized to make less of it so there is less for you and your sort to steal, right?” Blank-out. “You realize if everyone follows suit, everyone lowers themselves to your level, right?” Well, sure. Misery loves company. Nobody wants to drink alone.
“To Canadians’ great shame, it was Canada’s province of Saskatchewan that initiated socialist politics in N. America, under Tommy Douglas.”
I guess that is to Saskatchewan’s great shame. It was to Canada’s great shame to follow suit.
“Before Tommy Douglas’s influence, men knew what it meant to be self-reliant rather than parasitic. Such men exist no more. Yes, there are a few statistical exceptions (I must be one of them).â€
One reason that I put my son into private school is that I was uncomfortable with other people paying for my son’s education. We bought a smaller house so we could afford the school. Today a lot of people will bitterly complain about having to repay loans for their education and all the while take on tremendous debt to buy a house (or lesser items)?! As if a house was more important than your education!
The same type of reasoning was behind my decision to take a corporate job rather than one with the government. I am not saying that working for the government is necessarily wrong but you are better off if you don’t.
I understand that it is impossible to live today without using something which was produced from stolen loot (e.g. roads). Its best to avoid this, however whenever possible. If that makes me a statistic, then so be it.
Steve
Nice to hear from you, Steve. Your profoundly intelligent remarks suggest you are someone I can truly respect!
1.
Of course, we focus on what ‘hurts’; so we focus on what is wrong. You have, thereby, propelled me to a lengthy response.
Basically, you have presented an understatement:
“I understand that it is impossible to live today without using something which was produced from stolen loot (e.g. roads).â€
[Please note: “stolen loot†is a redundancy.]
Good Heavens, Steve, that is the least of it…
Every dollar-bill or coin you earn or trade, regardless of how hard you work, is only valued by the subjectivism of the Fed, the Mint, & the Treasury, …each being driven/determined by the whims of Capitol Hill politicians.
Thus it is that your work, private or otherwise, is valued according to politically determined monetary symbols. Accurate symbols of your effort, even in gold (unless world currencies collapse), no longer reflect your productive effort.
Sure, you may be one in a million (or even one in ~360 million) of the producers in America, but your productive effort is measured by a fraudulent symbol of economic value: —by the paper of politicians’ — rather than by the physically limited settings of gold!
Since government money is deliberately divorced from gold, receipt of gold as payment becomes subject to the vagaries of any government body that has ’say’ over what your company has done.
That is, since Nixon in 1971, gold has had little or no clear value in relation to fiat money. Nonetheless, it is with fiat money by which we trade,.
So, when paper money floods the market, gold appears to indicate more value —since its fiat money-price rises—, alternatively, when fiat money is in short supply, gold appears to be worth less, in dollars —so its fiat money-price drops. Now, try to invest your money to your advantage! Fat chance… it’s a crap shoot that depends on how the government prints money.
I am sure I oversimplify, as I am not enough of an expert on the subject. Still, the major point I am striving towards is that under fiat money, even gold becomes corrupt: bad money drives out good.
#2 follows…
2. Further to your choice to work in a corporation, rather than with the government: I have been through much the same.
As a Graduate Wildlife Biologist, my career choices were limited to working in government, or to working for an Engineering firm, providing Environmental Assessments that met the requirements of the latest, Political Correct evaluations.
I gradually, never having read Atlas Shrugged, came to grasp the irrationality of my situation… I had to move, though I did not for concern over my lack of skills for other employment contexts.
Upon reading AS, it became clear that I had little moral choice. I had skills, damn it, and I had to find where they could be used. Applying my educational and employment background, I became a high school teacher at a private school.
Nope, there again was the Drooling Beast! After a few years of teaching, it was clear that the mandated curriculum stifled thinking amongst even the best students.
“The Comprachicos” was either exactly right, or was an understatement!
Through observation, indicating how incredibly thoughtless they were, I came to think of my students as “intellectual road kill“.
Multiply that across all of N. America, Central America, South America, and Western Europe, and three hundred years slide us into oblivion for our failure to grasp the value of Reality, Reason and rational Egoism, as Ayn Rand had plainly explained them.
Can the Ayn Rand Institute reverse that slide? All I can suggest is to support ARI, in every means possible to you. Do it!