David Farrar is a writer for the progressive newspaper the NZ Herald and his article in today’s edition carries the following gem-
National’s second term is looking to be far more pleasing to those who want to see a reform agenda. This doesn’t just mean a more right wing agenda. The Hawke/Keating Governments in Australia were good reformers, as was Tony Blair in the UK and Bill Clinton in the US. Even Julia Gillard is undertaking some quite good reforms.
Farrar at last admits that National betrayed its supporters in its first term, but says its going to be different in the second. How?
Still the same old socialists and progressives in key positions (no pun intended) and a coalition of the clapped out old Labour Party fraud Peter Dunne and a victim focused and separatist party founded upon ideas that openly discriminate against every NZer who does not qualify as a “Maori”. And John Banks, in reality only a tenth of the man he widely professes himself to be.
Farrar then lists where the second term Nationals will enact policy they failed on in their first term. Unfortunately, he frequently contradicts his own position in his comments on the measures. IOW, National in their second term will be what they were in the first term. Pretty much useless.
Asset Sales- It is still a very modest policy compared to some of the sales being done by Labor state governments in Australia.
Dead right. If the National Party was able to articulate an argument outside that of its current pathetic wet liberal state, changes would and should be much greater. That the changes it is currently going with are less than those proposed by other governments recognised as left wing shows exactly how spineless and ideologically crippled National really are.
Welfare reform will be a major policy focus of National’s second term, and by the end of it the days of remaining on a benefit for life (unless seriously disabled) should be ended.
Who really believes these wankers will do anything on welfare? The Phil Ures have had nothing to fear for decades and that won’t change. If this is such a good idea, why the damn hell was it passed on in the first term?
Education- Critics of our current system have been calling for performance pay, vouchers, bulk funding and less zoning. Well a charter school will probably be exactly that..
Except it won’t. A few charter schools might be a break through we can thank Don Brash (not National) for, but its SFA compared to what is really needed in education reform.
Spending- A commitment to keep core spending constant in real per capita terms is a huge game changer. Labour in five years increased core spending by 50%.
Yes, 50% is correct. So WTF is the use of capping core spending now? After the horse has bolted from the stable and is 100 kilometres or so down the damn road? FFS, what does it take to get through to these people? Can’t they see Europe from their plush beehive offices? SPENDING NEEDS TO BE CUT BY HUGE AMOUNTS RIGHT NOW..!
Note: For those who don’t know, David Frum is (like David “Sarah Palin is a fatal cancer to the Republican Party” Brookes), a former small c conservative who has had an epiphany that compels him to sympathize with and seek the favour of liberals like John Stewart or David Letterman while attacking Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Mark Levin (for just a few examples). Frum is out to stop the Tea Party revolution, and frequently panders to liberalism and progressivism while posturing as a “right winger”.
TrueblueNZ 
52 responses to “David Farrar- NZ’s David Frum”
There are only two welfare reforms that are real:
1. reducing the absolute numbers on a benefit – and never letting it increase again.
2. reducing the absolute dollar value of a benefit – and never letting it increase again.
Key is doing neither of these – therefore there is no welfare reform.
David Cameron once preached “compassionate conservatism” to make his party seem nicer, but that’s not what people want at all. What they actually want is “the nasty party”; and the nastier, the better.
Key should declare an order-in-council immediately, setting the rate of every benefit to zero. This would take less than twelve hours: it cannot be reversed by the courts. Every public school and hospital should be closed and all employees fired: again, this can be done via an order in council.
Welfare in NZ could be gone by lunchtime monday
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Can’t they see Europe from their plush beehive offices?
Obviously not. And just as obviously they are in denial that NZ’s total indebtness per capita is far worse than Italy or Spain, and on a par with Greece and Ireland.
In addition to the removal of all welfare, all other civil servants, COE employes etc etc should have their pay cut by 2/3rds. Needless to say all civil service / government pension schemes (yes including the MPs) should simply be terminated out of hand.
Finally, to give NZ a chance of growing out of this mess – corporate and FBT rates taken to zero; GST up to say 25%; income tax set to a flat rate of say 30% capped at say 50K – so no-one ever pays more than 50K income tax in a year.
Yes we’d have to arm the police – that’s obvious. And with something rather better than just a Glock semiauto. Transferring the LAVs and loading them with anti-personell shells would also be required (or replacing the canon with an HMG) – but most important of all, ensuring the police & army had the legal framework to maintain order in the face of massive leftist economic and social terrorism.
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Reading Farrar’s blog makes you puke. I stopped visiting his site some time ago and can no longer stand this mercenary.
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Simple fact…there’s only one finance minister in new Zealand’s history who has reduced benefits and that was Ruth Richardson. English is not in her league on his best day and her worst. Key and English have proven their cowardice (anyone remember their girlish retreat on the mining issue?) and welfare reform taks guts, determination and a set of stones they simply don’t possess. Does anyone believe they’re going to do anything to upset all those voters who hate them and will be voting Labour again just as soon as possible?
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Farrar banned me again 2nite,hurting the liberal soft cock turnips that infest kiwiblog.
Fuck wimps like David Farrar, John Key and Graeme Taylor give the shits. What jellyfish cowards.
FFS = kiwiblog is anal deposit.
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Hawke, Blair, Clinton and Gillard are ‘good reformers’? FFS in each case they left their countries demonstrably and significantly WORSE than when they were elected to office! It was thanks to Hawke that Howard had to break the wharfies union, Blair’s lunatic ‘third way’ BS is responsible for the multi-cultural bowl full of cold upchuck that was previously called the United Kingdom. Clinton the rapist, among many, many other destructive acts is the person most responsible for the GFC through his Community Reinvestment Act which forced the banks to approve NINJA loans and DON’T EVEN FUCKING GET ME STARTED ON GILLARD! Quite simply, of that rogue’s gallery she is the rogue-ist. The worst Prime Minister in the history of her country, she will be responsible for making Don Brash’s goal of New Zealand ‘catching’ Australia a reality if she is not removed from office, and damn soon.
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Damn right, Gantt.
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Farrar was always ready to demerit Conservatives far more rapidly than any of the left wing creeps that dominate his site.
I received my last set of 100 demerits in record time for use of words like “fuckwits”, while leftists were free to make the most vile insinuations about their political opponents.
His constant attacks on the Conservative Party are more in the same vein. Farrar, like many fake right wingers is pleased to play the game according to the rules laid down by the left. Those rules say Conservatives are persona non grata and Farrar buys right into that concept.
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I saw yesterday that the character “dime” made a comment about gang-banging another commentors daughter – that didn’t warrant demerits either apparently.
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“that didn’t warrant demerits either apparently.”
No, what happens there is that Farrar, in compliance with most statist methods for dealing with dissenters, will most frequently only act if a comment is complained about through an email. Dime, like most Kiwiblog commenters, is a committed anti-conservative/ progressive and therefore unlikely to attract such criticism.
This is a process wide open to political manipulation of course, but Farrah has always been happy to proceed on this basis.
He has his slavering cowardly National Party lapdogs and bluecaps (The Davincimode for example) keenly watching out for somebody to report, and swiftly takes action when they do. Stalinism in miniature.
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Still whining about the fading of the light here I see.
Despite your theories the vast majority of voters want as much government input and support via redistribution as possible.
A conservative today is way to the left of a conservative in 1935.
That means the welfare state is permanent and the voters love it.
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Yep, and right now Greece is finding out just how permanent.
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Every Western state is version of the welfare state, except perhaps the US and only to a point.
Get use to it.
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“Freedom is the freedom to say 2 + 2 = 4”
The welfare state is predicated on pretending 2 + 2 = 10.
There simply isn’t any money left: NZ – like Europe & the US – cannot afford any kind of “welfare state” no matter how much bludgers might like it.
NZ has one of two choices – to rapidly and intentionally terminate the “welfare state” (much more than just benefits — everything from super to health & education & ACC & EQC & RNZ & TVNZ & roading & and all the rest) while increasing the necessary forces to maintain order
or have the entire state – including the police & army – collapse when the money runs out.
While High-Value Kiwis already rely on private security arrangements, the level of those arrangements are predicated on the welfare state pacifying the massive underclass in NZ. Once that is gone, High-Value Kiwis will need time to increase their personal protection arrangements. A managed transition say first terminating middle-class welfare, super, etc, then 6 months to train the necessary armed cops, then terminating all remaining welfare, would do the trick.
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Every Western state is version of the welfare state, except perhaps the US and only to a point.
Not for much longer. What is it about you lefties that means you’re unable to read a balance sheet? Is it the state schools? The state houses? State TV?
Understand this: the welfare state in NZ is in its death throes as we speak
When your family & your kids starve, you will get absolutely no sympathy or help from any of us not matter how much you beg.
But you can’t say we didn’t warn you.
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Bludger, you’re wasting your energy trying to reason with a commie scum. In one sense he’s right … The Sheeple love their welfare, and that’s why they vote for socialists (Mana, Maori, Winston, Liarbore, National) every 3 years. Because they love lounging around stealing other peoples money. Don’t fed the trolls man, you’ll never change his mind and you’re just providing him with entertainment when he should be out looking for a job.
And to answer your question to him, the reason they can’t read a balance sheet is the state kindoctrination centers. It’s far more important for the children to be inured with climate change and anti-colonial lies than to learn maths, accounting or economics.
Paddy is yet one more breathing example of the utter failure of the Universal Franchise.
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Well said.
Question-
Do robots breathe, or are they powered by batteries or wind up springs?
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Sadly, left bots and demo bots have organic batteries which are recharged by liberal doses of my hard-earned. Their power supply is boosted by being the glove puppets of totalitarians.
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This comment emailed by Pascal Fervor who is having trouble posting.
Anyone else having trouble please email me.
“Kiwiblog is a Progressive/ liberal outlet….”
It surely seems like the Incrementalist label fits this circumstance so well. Farrar, in obsequious obeisance to the State Party apparatus, has had the job of marginalizing voices on the Right (forcing you into you own smaller sites with less visibility) so as to gradually convince all that aberrant and abhorrent things are quite acceptable.
The biggest difference in recent years, with all the Incrementalists, has been the increased speed they move and size of the chunks they will try to bite off. All while doing it much like the guy caught by his wife in bed with another woman. As he calmly gets dressed and the trollop swiftly departs, he says to his upset wife “who are you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes.”
That’s the behavior of all of these fakers who claim to be conservative. They brazenly challenge your “lying” eyes. Does this match David Farrar much?
(Pascal- I can’t work out what the problem might be. Everything as far as I know is still the same as it has always been.)
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Same as all the openly left wing sites do.
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The attempts by the fake-right (Farrar and the travellers at No Minister) to censor any discussion they don’t like has led to interesting unintended consequences.
For example:
* (much like Farrar’s paymasters in the Nats) the lack of a Conservative voice on Keywiblog has resulted in a significant lurch to the left.
* the attempts to censor genuine Conservatives from those places frequented by the fake-right means a proliferation of excellent genuinely Conservative blogs (such as truebluenz).
* Conservatives with our own platforms, not constrained by the speech- and thought-police operating in those places, results in a far better series of posts being published, and in much more vibrant discussion on those posts. Arguably, that discussion would not take place if the fake-right not attempted to censor debate.
* places such as truebluenz and Crusader Rabbit are far more popular as a result of the efforts by the fake-right to stifle debate.
So, in typical leftie fashion, they end up a catalyst for those things they are attempting to prevent. In this case, genuine debate and discussion of issues they would rather not see the light of day.
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You simply have a failure of perception.
The only NZ demographic that isn’t for the continuing welfare state are the new Conservatives and they got 2.5%. We can agree that ACT is a one man opportunist and nearly finished.
Despite the protestations of some of us progressives, we all know that the Nationals are actually supporters of the welfare state, they are the party for those of you who like ACC and government pensions without admitting it publicly.
By definition half the population has an IQ less than 100 and they can neither manage their present nor their future with any competence.
There is no choice, government must shape and direct their lives.
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These liberal types can lie real well.
How could Peter get away with that John?
100 demerits – haha truth will come out one day big bruv.
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Paddy, I may have a failure of perception (I don’t accept that I do, I accept it’s a possibility I might), but you appear to suffer from the typical leftist affliction of a failure of logic. You fail to join the dots and complete the picture. You say the government, in some paternalistic manner, must ‘shape and direct’ the lives of those you admit are too stupid to do so for themselves. In that case, the government becomes responsible for those people. Meaning it must also fund them. Given that the only money the government gets it must steal from the productive, that means people like me must fund people who (by your assessment) are too stupid to look after themselves. What responsibility do I have, in this imaginary world of yours, to people who are really too stupid to have been born in the first place and who, in true Darwinian fashion, would do mankind a favour by removing themselves from the cycle? I did not breed these people, so why should it be money stolen from me to support them?
The only world in which this could happen is one in which there has been a deliberate, sustained attack on the structure which *is* responsible for those too stupid to take care for themselves; the traditional family. Oh, guess what the left has been up to for half a century? Attacking the traditional family, so it can usurp the role of the family and make more people reliant on the state.
Add to that, the New Zealand government over several cycles (since approximately 1957) has deliberately made an ever-increasing number of people reliant on the state (by way of welfare ‘entitlements’). The most recent egregious of this welfarisation of New Zealand society was Working for Families (which John Key quite rightly labelled at the time ‘communism by stealth’ but who, upon being elected, wholeheartedly embraced this disgusting wealth-redistribution program). This is the leftist wet-dream of turning the middle classes, people who are eminently capable of managing their own affairs, into bludging beneficiaries reliant on the state for their sustenance.
In short, I am not responsible for these stupid people. Their parents brought them into this world, and their families are responsible for them. They can damn well pay for them, and let me getting on with supporting my own family.
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Nationals are actually supporters of the welfare state, they are the party for those of you who like ACC and government pensions without admitting it publicly.
Hard to see how “I would rather resign from parliament than cut one cent of govt super” is any way “quite” or “not public”.
WFF is bad enough, but it’s the schools, hospitals, polys, universities that really make everyone bludgers. And he airlines, railways, roads, power companies, KiwiBank. KiwiStealer, etc etc etc. Not of course to mention the super.
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“In short, I am not responsible for these stupid people. Their parents brought them into this world, and their families are responsible for them. They can damn well pay for them, and let me getting on with supporting my own family.”
Amen!
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GG is so unaware he can ask “What responsibility do I have, in this imaginary world of yours, to people who are really too stupid to have been born in the first place.”
Oh my, I thought the conservatives claimed to be the realists.
You truly don’t YET “get” that Government and society have decided that you are?
What you think doesn’t matter much, the vast majority will vote to run the economy for the benefit of the masses. If a welfare state fails like Greece, it will reborn as a clone but where they don’t knock off at 2 pm.
“They can damn well pay for them, and let me getting on with supporting my own family.”
Not a chance, you will contribute to the welfare state as long as you live in NZ.
The only way out for you is a tax haven, where you will be paying real world medical costs.
Major surgery will bankrupt you.
Silly conservatives talk a big game but won’t live it.
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Paddy, like all leftists, is ignorant of history. He thinks the era of big government has always been the way it is, and does not know that once we all got on fine with minimal government.
The status quo that exists today has come about after a few decades of leftist onslaughts upon democracy. It is corrupt and pervasive for sure, but it will not last forever and it will be turned around.
What you need to do Paddy is read about the Conservative Party in Canada and how it replaced the Canadian version of the Nats in just a few short years.
The Nats, under Progressives like Key and Farrar have peaked and will soon be in terminal decline.
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Paddy, sit back and listen well. Here’s a lesson.
“Not a chance, you will contribute to the welfare state as long as you live in NZ.”
Which is why I left years ago. I live in Australia which you may argue is not much better, until you understand that at least here (1) hard-working, entrepreneurial people are not the enemy, viewed with a visceral hatred, and (2) it’s easy to largely opt out of the progressive tax system here.
I’m not saying this to blow my own trumpet, just to offer a case study. When I last looked for work in my field in NZ, I was offered 2 jobs in the average-pay range. Over here doing exactly the same work, I’m making well north of double that (and no, I’m not working the mines in WA) and through careful structuring I’ve (1) limited my tax payment to a maximum of 30%, (2) opted out of the superannuation system (which the government is going to steal over the next few years), (3) bought full and comprehensive medical insurance for my family.
Basically, the only thing I rely on the government for is the only damn thing the government is supposed to exist for: protecting me from those who would harm me, whether foreign or domestic. I pay tax to support the defence forces and the police. Anything other than that is theft for the purposes of vote-buying.
“Silly conservatives talk a big game but won’t live it.”
This is where you are just so wrong. I am living it. And before you start with all the usual ‘silver spoon’ crap, I was born into a (very) lower-middle class family. My father suffers a debilitating degenerative illness which prevented him from working for most of my early years. Rather than rely on welfare my mother worked to support the family. I inherited nothing from my parents but a basic honesty and decency, a solid work-ethic and a hatred of being poor. I got where I am now not by whingeing about where I started but by taking the crappy, difficult jobs others didn’t want and making a success of them. I took projects others said couldn’t be delivered. I built up teams nobody else wanted. It would have been very easy for me to sit around on a benefit or in a low-paying job grizzling about how life isn’t fair. Rather than that, I have made sure my daughter will have the privileges of private education and private medical care. I am not saying this to arrogantly talk myself up, because I am in no way special. I’m not overly smart or talented and if I can do it, quite literally anybody can. If they choose to stop grizzling and get on with it.
Summary: people who grizzle about being poor do so because they’re too lazy to do what it takes to not be poor. So don’t you fucking dare accuse me of hypocrisy you piece of communist shit, because when your welfare-induced fairyland economy collapses it’s people like me you’ll be relying on to protect you from other people like you. Until that happens you can shut the fuck up and show some fucking gratitude that people like me exist to support you and your indolent fucking lifestyles.
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Oh my, you silly boy, the Conservative Party of Canada is another welfare state supporting party in a western democracy. As are they all. You’ve been outvoted.
Except for ‘tone’ what has changed in the Canadian welfare state?
99% of nothing of substance has changed.
Ezra Levant got them to look at the CHRC, an unnecessary organ of the state, that’s the only change I see.
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Well said Gantt.
Another thing Paddy does not know is that after the reality of socialism hits home, the voters always come back to Conservatism.
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Oh my GG, how is the Australian welfare state factually any different from the NZ welfare state except for higher paying jobs within the welfare state and slight variations of process and “tone”?
The Conservative leader in Australia, Abbott, has a policy of a year’s paid maternity leave.
You are all welfare statists now. You are merely in denial for various reasons.
Whinging? Who’s whinging the system works very well within the boundaries of the NZ GDP.
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After the reality of socialism hits home (or rather, the consequences of it) the voters will have to come back to conservatism.
What the hell is it with leftards? I’m not well off–just the reverse, in fact. But at least I can recognise that my financial state is the result of choices freely made and mistakes which are my responsibility and I don’t go looking for others to blame.
Leftism is a form of mental deficiency, where the adherents are that because they’re frozen in a state of incomplete development.
Paddy’s argument seems to consist of “welfarism–that’s the way it is therefore it’s the natural state of things”.
Oh no it ain’t, sonny. And when the financial system collapses and the thugs take over it’ll be fun listening to your kind squealing.
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The welfare state is different here because it’s easier to opt out of the bribery and theft propping it up. You’re mistaken calling Abbott a Conservative leader. He’s a Liberal at best, and on most days sits on your side of the fence; firmly Progressive. Just slightly less so than the Fabian Lesbian and Tasmanian Homosexual Communists currently running the show. The total number of genuine Conservatives in all the upper- and lower-houses of all Australian Parliaments, State and Federal can be counted on the fingers of a single hand. The situation here is no different than in NZ, the UK or (for the most part) the USA. They’re all big-government-loving statist populist scumbags. Which is why they’re all broke. Those of us who accept that, who accept that at some point the collapse will come and who are preparing for it will be the ones to rebuild society. And you can bet your arse it won’t be the broken joke of a system that exists now.
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“Oh my, you silly boy, the Conservative Party of Canada is another welfare state supporting party in a western democracy. As are they all. You’ve been outvoted.”
The Canadian Conservatives are far removed from the status quo in NZ, and have grown in influence since they were first elected. You cannot build Rome in a day. The undeniable message is that contrary to your idiot comments, Socialism and Progressivism are both on the way out.
If not by votes, by way of economic necessity. What part of “unaffordable” do you not understand?
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I knew you’d get it GG, eventually.
“The situation here is no different than in NZ, the UK or (for the most part) the USA. They’re all big-government-loving statist populist “scumbags”.”
What you mean is the welfare state is the default condition for the West and any attempt to change that will result in the political party that tries it being dumped.
KG, welfare states will fail and be reborn. We have no examples of non welfare states anywhere, on reflection, not even the US.
How can a nominally market capitalist economy like the US have Government housing loan providers doing more than 50% of housing loans? Freddie and Fanny mean the US is a welfare state despite what Perry thinks.
Bribery?….in NZ beyond that in Aust? Pray tell?
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Sure they are “far removed”.
“Except for ‘tone’ what has changed in the Canadian welfare state?
99% of nothing of substance has changed.”
If the welfare state money flow changes markedly, the party is gone.
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As KG said, what part of ‘unaffordable’ don’t you understand?
The march leftward has happened over more than half a century. In New Zealand it started in 1957. And it will take time to reverse.
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You still don’t get it.
A failed welfare state will be reborn as another version of the welfare state.
How can it ever be reversed.
The welfare state has an unwritten social contract, ie. we feed you, subsidise you, redistribute money from taxpayers to you in return for no violence on the streets.
You conservatives would be better off sitting on the beach and commanding the incoming tide to stop.
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It isn’t about whether it can be reversed, Paddy. The social contract you speak may have been predicated on that basis back in the 50s and 60s, but since then the numbers being fed and subsidised has grown to include large swathes of the middle classes, who (when the iat-money illusion finally implodes in on itself) will not take to the streets. Many today are saying WFF (for example) is unsustainable so, when it is removed (which it must be) they might grumble but they sure won’t riot. Some will, obviously. The hardened communist scumbags, unionists and I Want It crowd. But hopefully there will be enough members of the defence and police forces and armed patriots to ensure their blood flows in rivers in the streets.
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So Paddy, what happens when the the non-productive vastly outnumber the productive? Huh? I guess you guys just fire up the presses and print some more cash.
“A failed welfare state will be reborn as another version of the welfare state.”
So after the current welfare state fails where does the money come from to bankroll this new “reborn” welfare state?! Assuming the once productive have been wrung dry when the current system collapsed, where does the dosh come from to fund this new “reborn” welfare state?!
We’re all ears, pray tell.
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If welfare statism fails, they recalibrate less benefits next time around and proceed onward with a gradually building GDP. Look at the UK. The welfare state nearly collapsed pre Thatcher, Maggie fixed it in a relative sense, then the WS proceeded onward going from strength to strength.
When you have an example of any NON welfare state Western society anywhere on earth let me know. There are none
You are arguing about the edges.
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There is no such social contract, but if there was, what a pleasure it would be to see such as you riot. I’d be right there giving you exactly what you deserve. You think you can take what is mine under the threat of violence, think again scumbag. Violence is a two way street and don’t make the mistake of thinking that the bunch of losers you represent would ever be worth more than a pinch of goat shit in any kind of conflict.
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ROCKY MOUNTAIN MUSINGS
The Free Ride is Over…
Scott Carpenter, Real Canadian 01.30.02
——————————————————————————–
Black Thursday they called it. Government workers from around the province of British Columbia adorned black clothing and arm bands to protest the Liberal government’s slashing of over eleven thousand civil service positions province wide this last week. Some ministries – such as the Department of Highways – have been gutted – losing up to as much as 60% of their staff. Complete office complexes have been abandoned and redundant facilities such as jails and court houses have been shut down – permanently.
Gordon Campbell and the Liberal government swept to power last year (winning 77 of a possible 79 seats in the BC Legislature) on a mandate to set British Columbia back on the road to prosperity. Prosperity – as the Liberals promised – would be built on a platform dedicated to freeing the private sector from crushing taxes and burdensome regulation. Indeed, this last move by the Liberals to help cut 1.9 billion dollars from the budget by 2004 is just one thing in a list of many that has some wondering if the Liberals are actually Libertarians in disguise.
Campbell has even promised to withhold 20% of the salaries of both cabinet ministers and ministers of state until they are able to meet budget and service targets. This may be the first time in history a politician is actually forced to earn his salary?
Indeed, it is rare to see any government – especially in this day and age – taking a step back from the slippery slope. Not only have the Liberals adopted a policy of fiscal responsibility by introducing massive tax cuts (25% on personal income tax alone), reducing the civil service by about a third and reforming and reducing welfare but they’ve also made strides in increasing a degree of social and political freedom as well.
Just around Christmas of 2001 the Provincial government served their Federal Liberal counterparts with notice that the province of BC would no longer continue to administer nor enforce federal firearms laws. The registration center established by the former Socialist New Democratic Party in Victoria is slated to be shut down by about April 1st of this year. From there on the feds will have to deal with this dirty little mess on their own. And with hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of Canadians already in violation of the lisencing requirements, the future for this hideous law looks grim.
Add to that the elimination of photo radar, the return of the Grizzly bear hunting season which the NDP axed in the wake of European pressure (the season creates overall revenue in the millions of dollars for rural British Columbians) and a willingness to thumb their noses at powerful special interests and you have a recipe for something bordering on a quiet, clean and tidy little revolution.
In fact, it’s not just civil servants who were in for a shock last week. Welfare recipients in the Province of BC got a sudden wake up call as well. On top of closing 36 welfare offices across the province the new government has also come up with much more stringent welfare requirements to get people off the dole and back to work. In all, the BC government sent notice to some 60 000 welfare recipients informing them that they were employable and were expected to start looking for work – soon – before the tap gets shut off for good.
On top of all that the government has shut down twenty legal aid offices, twelve district forest offices, ten highways offices, eight correctional facilities, five probation offices, five energy offices, two residential tenancy offices, two coroner’s offices and one medical services plan office. Inmates in correctional facilities will be expected to double up to account for the cell shortage. Whole forestry departments have been shut down and relocated.
And of course all of this has the statists among us (and they’re still here) ranting and raving. In a MyBC interview New Democrat, Jenny Kwan (one of only two elected to the Legislature) complained: “It’s almost unbelievable, but Gordon Campbell has eliminated the ministries of Environment, Aboriginal Affairs and Women’s Equality, and there is no mention at all of housing,”.
Of course not silly – welfare is being eliminated from our society.
This recent move to reduce public ‘waste’ by the government of BC is a clear indication that the welfare state is coming to a crashing halt north of the border. If the Liberals have their way, by 2004, we will be 2 billion dollars closer to a balanced budget with greater economic, political and social freedom for all British Columbians. Indeed, we will be one step closer to shedding the idea that man should live in servitude to his brothers.
That means for all the delinquents out there who can’t do anything but push papers and play solitaire in their cubicles – it’s time to wake up, smell the coffee and get a real job. Because the free ride is over buddy and we – the producers of this society – don’t feel the least bit sorry for you.
Black Thursday my ass. They should have called it freedom day.
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Hang on a minute, Paddy. We aren’t just talking about a slight dip in export earnings, we’re talking total catastrophic economic meltdown a la Greece. You talk of “recalibrate [via] less benefits”, but once again I ask “Who pays?” – we aren’t just talking about “less benefits”, we’re talking about ZERO benefits because the piggy bank is empty, the productive have been milked dry and sent to the wall, banks aren’t loaning anymore because the once productive have no equity to secure loans plus they’re out of business anyway … the country is BANKRUPT.
So where, pray tell, does the dosh come from to underwrite your all new improved “reborn” welfare state?! Who pays? Who is LEFT to pay; to generate the wealth required to run your imaginary utopia?
Unless your “recalibration” includes culling off most of your potential welfare recipients??? Which is now everyone because there ain’t no one left actually contributing to the nation’s GDP. But no doubt you have a magic wand you bring out on occassions such as these …
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“I’d be right there giving you exactly what you deserve.”
And I’d be right alongside you. It’ll be my pleasure.
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Sorry guys, been out and put spam filter up for Paddy’s comments.
Let me know if you want them released.
For me, I’m bored with his one track garbage, however if any of you guys want to carry on, I’ll let the stuff through the filter.
Let me know.
No problems either way.
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I’m surprised he lasted as long as he did, Red!
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Same.
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I was reading the thread comments and found this pearl of absolute wisdom from the banned commenter Paddy. “When you have an example of any NON welfare state Western society anywhere on earth let me know. There are none”.
Sobering and accurate.
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No its not.
Plenty of societies exist without welfare.
Maybe not within the framework of the ruling political class, but there are many in society who have never touched a welfare dollar and never will. There are many different communities, small towns, etc throughout the USA where welfarism is the exception rather than the rule.
Welfare in Singapore in the context of unemployment benefit, and many other such social benefits, is practically non existent. (You could of course argue that Singapore was not western)
The implication of Paddy’s claim, ie that every single voter in the west is hooked on welfare, and thus it will never ever be put aside is completely untrue. Furthermore, the claim that the status quo will continue is a mere prediction.
Who really knows what the future holds? Paddy is free to make predictions as he wishes, but whether anyone wants to waste time producing counter predictions is another issue.
When Kalifornia starts cutting back though, (for just one of many examples) you can take that as a pretty good indicator that change is on its way, and not in the way Paddy has predicted.
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Indeed, I do argue that Singers is Non Western…a no brainer….have a beer.
Didn’t read into Paddy’s comments that ” that every single voter in the west is hooked on welfare”, more that the voting majority are.
Careful with the straw men.
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