It’s simple economic and moral mathematics.
The welfare states, setting out with the best of intentions, started from the Christian premise of being my brother’s keeper, which has since been converted to the most vicious of secular religions by the Left, instituting the State in the place of God, and put into bloody practice by a whole list of tyrants from Stalin, on. Ignoring, however, for the moment, that assault rifle standing in the room of our social democracies – last seen at the Dotcom mansion – and the fact that the welfare states were always going to be an economic impossibility, which is incontrovertible, proven by the current collapse of the West under a hubris of Keynesian debt, or rather, the fact that politicians could never fund the welfare states from taxation alone, but had to use debt, and worse, debt to finance an enterprise that destroyed wealth, did not create it, thus was doomed to bankruptcy … ignoring this, as our politicians have unfortunately done, my argument against our current social democracies is a moral one: our social democracies, based on forced redistribution (theft) are immoral from the foundation up. Or, I put it like this:
I am forced to be my brother’s keeper, except, we’re not talking about my brother: I wouldn’t need a brute state standing over me forcing natural love and affection for an actual sibling. In this instance, my brother is a total stranger: I have no natural love and affection for him, I have no say over his actions, I am not able to give him brotherly advice – such as, why are you and Mrs Brother having a sixth child when you have no job – and yet, if I do not allow the state to take my money to keep him, finance his sometimes stupid decisions, I am the one who will certainly lose my livelihood, and possibly my freedom, at the cold compassionless hands of the bureaucracy. So, given this, I have to conclude I’m not so much my brother’s keeper, as my brothers’ slave. And this is not so much the civilised society where natural love and affection is actually natural love and affection, as this is a Gulag where my liberty has been slowly starved of love.
And I write this little post over my breakfast cornies, looking at an IRD letter in front of me from a ‘Community Compliance Officer’, read Nanny Disciplinarian, who has just charged a taxpayer over $4,000 interest for an honest mistake they made, and for which we filed a voluntary disclosure, as soon as it was discovered. It’s the very last bill that taxpayer needs, and it's not community minded: the opposite. Still, I guess if they don’t survive it, they can go on welfare, and be kept by their brothers. …
... Community Compliance Officer ... Jesus. Oh no, that's where this whole mess started.
Fucking hell, Mark, it just gets worse. I was late sending my terminal tax payment in back in April. Haven't heard from the IRD yet, guess they're letting time pass while the interest and penalties accumulate...
ReplyDeleteMmmm, they've largely stopped sending assessments and statements - they just let interest and penalties accrue, then sell you up. Best idea would be for you to give thema call for a balance.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark, will do that.
ReplyDeleteI must correct you on your suggestion that the Welfare State started out as an extension of the Christian Faith. I think if Mr Christ and his disciple's were to comeback and to see the shambolic state of Low Income areas in New Zealand as a result of open ended welfare policies, they would be horrified. Christ was of course from a sect called the Essenes and they were based on a code of morals and ethics. Going about beating the crap out of pensioners, or tagging on walls or stealing from others is not something that the Essenes would be in favour of. However it is Something the modern NZ open ended Welfare state supports through the fact that it continues to provide housing and benefits to those who offend against society thus saying crime pays. And we wonder why there are so many problems in New Zealand society its because the Government is propping the rotters up thus providing a visible incentive for the next generation to continue down the same path. Whereas if strict character controls were brought into the welfare system, all those crooks out there would soon find themselves in the gutter where they belong thus saying to the youth that if you want to partake of the benefits of decent society you need to act in a manner that supports decent society!
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