Friday, April 17, 2009

Democracy Sucks

There's more dumb at the link than this excerpt, but here's Jonah being stupid again:
Most libertarians — and all conservatives — aren't anarchists. They believe in some minimal form of government to ensure what the reader calls democratic government. I would have no problem whatsoever paying 25% of my income to ensure democratic government, if that is what it cost. The problem is that democratic government doesn't cost anywhere close to that. It is deeply misleading or dishonest for liberals to argue that we need high taxation to pay for the security of our democratic liberty while that taxation goes to paying for things that have nothing to do with those liberties and, in many cases, goes to pay for things that are inimical to liberty.
Hmm, I dunno the "liberals" who are arguing only about the cost of the security of our democratic liberty to starve in the street if we get sick or old or just unemployed, but yes, democracy turns out to be a bummer in which some people get their way and others don't. An important practical demonstration of this is called an "election". Strangely, some of these "elections" produce leaders who call themselves "conservatives" and spend like drunken sailors in Drunken Sailor Enticement Land (which I presume would be full of stores full of cute blue-and-white outfits, mops, and nifty whistles), increasing the size and scope and debt of government, and giving themselves the power to do whatever the hell they like with you if they dislike the content of your email. Pictured below is an example of this titan of conservatism Jonah is dreaming of:


Also:
Taxes are tyrannical simply because they are not voluntary.
True for the Wal-Mart greeter who I am sure is upset that the government demands taxes when his kids are being helicoptered to private school, but not true for people rich enough to move. Bye!

27 comments:

Another Kiwi said...

Jo Do'h wants people to be free to starve and die in the streets, because those people aren't him.
It all comes down to letting the others eat cake.
'I'm all right Jack, keep your hands off of my stack' as the pre-eminent Irish philosopher, Bono Vox said.
If there weren't quite so many of the deserving freakin' poor around with their voting and freakin' universal sufferage, then the Fit and Proper folks could run the world like a fabulous garden where they live and a Taiwanese sweatshop out of sight.

Heh heh Blogger is funny today!!

J— said...

Taxes are a necessary evil, but they are an evil. Taxes are tyrannical simply because they are not voluntary.Old Jonah would be singing a different tune if we were to get rid of the IRS and implement tax farming.

herr doktor bimler said...

Most libertarians [...] believe in some minimal form of government to ensure what the reader calls democratic governmentSounds like the "Move to Somalia then!" argument is beginning to sting, and their response is to adjust the definition.

'I'm all right Jack, keep your hands off of my stack' as the pre-eminent Irish philosopher, Bono Vox said.I'm pretty sure that was David Hume.
Blogger reckons it was Imers the well-known contemporary German artist, but Blogger is misinformed.

Another Kiwi said...

The David Hume who could out consume Schopenhauer and Hegel? It ,may well have been. But, and this is central to my point, I heard Vox sing it, sometime.
Tyranny is a such a good emotive word, I'd love to see the results of a voluntary tax code.
There should be tyrannical speed limits on the roads either?
Capcha says that the German feline philosopher cativer is who you are thinking of

herr doktor bimler said...

Here are some line breaks.









Feel free to insert them where needed.

herr doktor bimler said...

If taxation without representation is tyranny, but taxation is tyranny anyway, then that extra without-representation clause is evidently no big deal.

If I read Mr Goldberg's argument correctly, he is grudgingly willing to part with the minimal taxes to pay for a democratic government -- i.e. to pay for regular elections, an electoral roll, perhaps a building where the elected representatives meet -- so long as that democratic government doesn't claim any extra money to actually do anything. He wants elected representatives who will, I don't know, pass firmly-worded statements, and maybe recite the names of the people whom each one represents.
Precisely how this differs from an equally-minimal non-elected government escapes me right now.

Is this a fair summary?

Another Kiwi said...

Line breaks!! Line breaks!! I don't need etc.

tigris said...

I would have no problem whatsoever paying 25% of my income to ensure democratic government, if that is what it cost. The problem is that democratic government doesn't cost anywhere close to that.

How the fuck would he know? He asked his readers to look into it and email him? And yeah, to clasp his hands, look heavenward, and pule "democracy just doesn't cost that much!" after supporting Bush and Iraq is too precious for words.

Righteous Bubba said...

Is this a fair summary?

Exceptionally. I await the unfair one.

The really hilarious part to me is that his own team simply cannot spend less money than the other guys and always keep inflating the size of the budget.

Another Kiwi said...

The good Herr Doktor raises an excellent point. What is the elected hall of mannequins going to do?
Sign luncheon vouchers for the most abjectly starving? Control school pedestrian crossings? I bet they would have to have an aggressive (but essentially cost-free) foreign policy toward the non white skinned folks of the world.

Righteous Bubba said...

What is the elected hall of mannequins going to do?

Protect the property of those rich enough to have property. The government would exist solely as visible manifestation of power.

herr doktor bimler said...

Perhaps this concept of a democracy -- where you can elect people to represent you as long as they don't do anything to promote the policies you want -- comes from the same mentality that gave us "The right of Freedom to Speech comes with grave responsibilities, and must therefore be taken away from anyone who misuses it."

I await the unfair one.

That requires many beers, and it is not yet lunchtime here.

Another Kiwi said...

Thus one might have a royal family for ceremonial occasions and do away with the elected mannequins. The hall where they previously met could become a storage place or a orphanage for the children of all the weaklings who die from diseases they should have not caught.

Righteous Bubba said...

Jonah will be awfully displeased when the abolition of the FDA results in doughnuts with 50% sawdust content.

herr doktor bimler said...

his own team simply cannot spend less money than the other guys

This is the policy of "Inflating the government with corporate welfare and corrupt contracting until it is large enough to drown in the bathtub." A perfectly reasonable policy, which probably would have succeeded if only the voters had given it a few more years.

Righteous Bubba said...

Eventually the government will be so ubiquitous that it will be able to maintain the fiction that it does not exist.

herr doktor bimler said...

Indeed. It will be like asking fish to describe kettles.
Or bicycles.
Something like that, anyway.

herr doktor bimler said...

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was becoming large enough to maintain the fiction that he doesn't exist.

G. K. Chesterton said that, I think. Or was it Wittgenstein?

Another Kiwi said...

Jonah will be awfully displeased when the abolition of the FDA results in doughnuts with 50% sawdust content.We don't know that. He may be happy that he is providing work for poor folks or, indeed, beavers, to make the non confectionery fibre component.

Entertainment news from Capcha tells us tonicant which is not what we hear.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

herr doktor bimler said...

Indeed. It will be like asking fish to describe kettles.
Or bicycles.
Something like that, anyway.
4/17/2009 05:36:00 PM
=====================================
Most inflammatory. The 3Bulls network will be on fire, if you continue this sort of trolling.

P.S. Imagine a sign on the moon:

>('>~

Another Kiwi said...

I, for one, am keen to know more about Drunken Sailor Enticement Land.A map reference would be nice, as well as some hot night spot recommendations.
It is just an intuitive feeling that I have but I feel that if you can't get some hot secks in DSEL you will not get any anywhere.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Jonah will be awfully displeased when the abolition of the FDA results in doughnuts with 50% sawdust content.After visiting Bob's in the early Saturday morning, I believe this already exists and is called Krispy Kreme.

But you all totally ignore the vital governmental function of bombing the shit out of people who are not-us and dangerously hued.

herr doktor bimler said...

The description of Drunken Sailor Enticement Land sounds much like "HMS Pinafore As Performed by the Inmates of Charenton Rehab under the Direction of Righteous Bubba".

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Also:

Jonah's being stupid againYou mean STILL.

Righteous Bubba said...

The description of Drunken Sailor Enticement Land sounds much like "HMS Pinafore As Performed by the Inmates of Charenton Rehab under the Direction of Righteous Bubba".

I was more headed in the direction of the local day-care facility, but that's a different set of charges.

herr doktor bimler said...

I would be concerned if there were a great deal of overlap.

Righteous Bubba said...

No Glenda Jackson neither.