Van Rijn:
"'I know a little something about politics. It is needful for an honest businessman seeking to make him a little hard-earned profit, else some louse-bound politician comes and taxes it from him for some idiot school or old-age pension.'" (p. 173)
Van Rijn likes to express himself in such a manner but the "honest businessman" knows that he needs healthy, numerate, literate, computer-literate employees motivated by good salaries, bonuses and pension schemes.
We approach the end of another day and I must read something other that van Rijn's opinions. If we were on Avalon, I would say, "Fair winds forever," but I have yet to learn a Diomedean equivalent.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Problem is, taxes never seem to stay long at reasonable, moderate, or justifiable rates. The desire by politicians and bureaucrats for imposing more and motes is infinite. And it's not hard to think up excuses for more taxes. So we end up what we have now: an an electorate much of which feels angry and disenfranchised, and increasingly resents aw gov't which imposes more and more demands on them. Yes, I have those who voted for Pres. Trump in mind!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I partly agree. There are problems with running a mixed economy. There are problems with a purely free market economy. There are problems with trying to build any kind of alternative. Indeed, there are problems.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
But the problems attending a more free enterprise oriented economy, and its necessary pre-condition, a less powerful gov't, are more bearable.
The more a gov't tries to do, the more incompetent, demanding, and oppressive it becomes.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
So we've all got problems but some are bigger.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree. And the kind of solutions I favor lies in a conservative direction (with a tinge of libertarianism).
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
There is a need for schools and for old-age pensions, but that does not necessarily mean that there is need for them to be run by the government and financed by taxes. In the United States, over the past fifty years or so, we have seen a large increase in per-pupil spending on government schools, which has not been accompanied by increased test scores or other evidence of improved education; in many areas, people who can afford it are putting their children in private schools, or s9metimes charter schools which escape the usual regulations and procedures, and often deliver better results for less money. Then there’s Social Security, which is facing huge deficits as more baby boomers retire. Politicians who proposed to do something before we ran into a fiscal disaster were accused of pushing Granny off a cliff, so most politicians figured out that they shouldn’t risk their seats in Congress by try8ng to raise retirement ages, partially replace Social Security by privatized investment accounts, or take other measures.
So I’m inclined to sympathize with the other Nicholas here.
Best Regards,
Nicholas Rosen
Kaor, Nicholas!
And I agree with you! Any politicians, alas, who dares to suggest some kind of real reforms of "public" education and gov't mandated old pensions seriously runs the risk of wrecking his political career. So nothing much will get done and we will continue to go from bad to worse.
I knew DECADES ago, for example, that "Social Security" was and is a joke, a Ponzi scam. So, I've tried since then to build up some private, personally owned sources of income via investments. That way I would not have to depend totally on "Social Security."
I even wrote a short essay explaining how I would reform and replace Social Security, largely by having it SELF FUNDED by would be beneficiaries, not by taxes. One or two persons I showed it to liked it, but it would never be accepted, esp. not by the power crazed left!
Ad astra! Sean
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