Re: European [and Australian] "Socialists"

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• [ Next ][ Previous ] In reply to: Damien Broderick

Hi all,

the following was cited as a "fuck you jack - I've got mine" attitude:
>< We should immediatley eliminate any
>government spending in education and reduce taxes - possibly selling
>off all government education related resources and refunding the money
>to tax payers. >

It was further suggested that
>> `fuck you, Jack' might sound like a very unfair and
>>offensive way to sum up what he's written. But in practice, I think that's
>>what it amounts to.

Of course, it _might_ be very different ;-)

It might be that this person is saying: "let's stop taxing factory workers to pay for rich people's education."

It might be someone saying
"let's stop having an elitist medical system in which the state hands out million-dollar lifetime salaries to a select group of individuals, legally prohibiting competition."

It might be someone who believes in meritocracy and believes that state rationing of education promotes less access, not more.

To impute a "fuck you Jack" consciousness to this person is as rational as Freud imputing hostility where there is none because "it is just symptom transference".

I think that an objective review of comments on this list would reveal that self-interest is at once higher and lower than in any other group in society.

Higher because we believe we are the Captains of our souls. Lower because we have a vision of the future which we will gladly work toward. The critical thing is that we are not willing to enslave others to reach our goal: taxation is slavery.

all the very best,
tim

Richard Feynmann, suffering terminal cancer, made the doctor promise to take away the anesthetic before he dies because "I want to feel what it's like to turn off."

• [ Next ][ Previous ] In reply to: Damien Broderick