Comments on: Well, yes, obviously

By: Ian Bennett

Ian Bennett — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:49:29 +0000

“Hence the democratic process,”

That’s the process by which you decide that the government should give a large proportion of what I earn to other people. It’s simply mob rule. Churchill said that democracy is the worst system except for all of the others. He was wrong; it’s the worst except for most of the others. For details, see the United States during the 19th century.

By: Serf

Serf — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:23:38 +0000

…..The problem with this is T.Worstall’s list of things government should not be doing is not everyone’s……

Matthew, find us one voter that thinks that this is a good use of their tax.

……Should each and every department be running a PR operation larger than the staffing of a local newspaper ……

We can all disagree on many things, but I bet that there are substantial saving to be made in areas where 90% of the electorate would agree, yet continue despite our democratic system.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:12:25 +0000

It’s not an insight into blogging, it’s an insight into why this sort of statement:

The real task of whoever gets the poisoned chalice at the next election is exactly that: to work out which things the government shouldn’t be doing and then stop doing them.

is meaningless when one person’s sensible use of government spending is another s project that should be scrapped.

Tim adds: But we’re not even getting the question “what should government be doing?”. All we are getting is “but cutting government would mean Tories eating babies in the streets!”.

By: Munroe

Munroe — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:05:46 +0000

Governments are not the best at giving us what we want for three reasons.
1. Without the panic of market forces nipping at their subconscious (as it does in the private sector) they have a poor sense of cost control, and end up charging you too much (through taxes)
2. they tend to have unfair advantages over enthusiastic individuals who’d like to have a crack at it themselves, thus they create monopolies
3. they have a history of either wasting money or screwing things up.
4. they tend to spend money on things that don’t need it.
okay, that’s four.

The problem with this is T.Worstall’s list of things government should not be doing is not everyone’s.

.
Well, yes obviously. you could post similar insights about every single blog in existence.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:14:02 +0000

The problem with this is T.Worstall’s list of things government should not be doing is not everyone’s. Hence the democratic process, presumably, and that you can stand as a candidate for this party if you wish (as you admittedly often point out). Trident and the two aircraft carriers seem another obvious one, but I know lots of people disagree.