Why not spit the dummy? Let’s legislate a “Handbook for the Fools Who Elected Us”. « Economics

Why not spit the dummy? Let’s legislate a “Handbook for the Fools Who Elected Us”.

On January 22, 2012, in Economics, Public policy, by Sanjeev Sabhlok

Paternalism has reached a peak in the West. Public servants (supposed to be our SERVANTS – not masters) – many of them barely in their early 20s, fresh out of university – have presumed to themselves the role of our masters (or, at least, our parents).

They, along with elected governments (which seem to be helpless against the onslaught of “evidence” cooked up by these paternalistic public servants) have a firm view that the people who vote governments to power are actually very stupid. These stupid people (namely, us) need to be at least educated by government at every step, if not restrained. Government intervention is crucially necessary, it is argued, in areas where government should have absolutely no business to enter.

Forgotten entirely is J.S. Mill’s admonition:

The only purpose for which power can be rightly exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.

We therefore have an endless series of what Adam Smith called “a hundred impertinent obstructions” originating from these self-proclaimed nannies.

[The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition is so powerful, that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations.]

In addition to regulatory obstructions there is an endless amount of tax-payer funded advertising. These people may argue that they are not exercising "power", but that's incorrect. By using taxpayers' funds for advertising, they are dipping into our pockets BY FORCE, just to tell us what is allegedly good for us. That is pretty much a form of misuse of power. Bastiat would have called it theft.

Educating the fool voters is big business.We are so stupid that we need to be repeatedly reminded (at great cost to ourselves!) that (a) cigarettes are harmful, (b) drinking and driving is harmful, (c) eating fatty food is harmful, (d) and so on and on.

The remedy to this farce, I suggest, is for governments to spit the dummy and let us openly and publicly know what they think of us. Why not legislate an Information for Fools (i.e. Voters) Act, and under that Act, consolidate all gratuitous advice into a single Handbook for the Fools Who Elected Us.

At least then we can find out in once place the "wonderful" gems of wisdom that our nanny state wants us to know, which we (being fools) can't learn of our own accord through the education system or the efforts of the media. And at least we'll be put in our "place", for we, the voters, are presumably sufficiently smart to elect these "smart (alec)" representatives, but not smart enough to know what's in our best interest, for advice on which we need to cough up a good pile of money through our nose to these smarty pants .

If you found this post useful, then consider subscribing to my blog by email: