Think Right

“The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement. They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent. They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office. Every man but a subordinate clerk in a bureau. What an alluring utopia! What a noble cause to fight!

“Against all this frenzy of agitation there is but one weapon available: reason. Just common sense is needed to prevent man from falling prey to illusory fantasies and empty catchwords.”

Bureaucracy, Conclusion, Ludwig von Mises (1944)

“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled.
Public debt should be reduced.
The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled.
The assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome becomes bankrupt.
People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

Cicero – 55BC

 
A Soldier Died Today

He was getting old and paunchy
And his hair was falling fast,
And he sat around the RSA,
Telling stories of the past.

Of a war that he once fought in
And the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his mates;
They were heroes, every one.

Although sometimes to his neighbors
His tales became a joke,
All his mates listened quietly
For they knew where of he spoke.

But we’ll hear his tales no longer,
For ol’ Bob has passed away,
And the world’s a little poorer
For a Soldier died today.

He won’t be mourned by many,
Just his children and his wife..
For he lived an ordinary,
Very quiet sort of life.

He held a job and raised a family,
Going quietly on his way;
And the world won’t note his passing,
‘Tho a Soldier died today.

When politicians leave this earth,
Their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their passing,
And proclaim that they were great.

Papers tell of their life stories
From the time that they were young
But the passing of a Soldier
Goes unnoticed, and unsung.

Is the greatest contribution
To the welfare of our land,
Some jerk who breaks his promise
And cons his fellow man?

Or the ordinary fellow
Who in times of war and strife,
Goes off to serve his country
And offers up his life?

The politician’s stipend
And the style in which he lives,
Are often disproportionate,
To the service that he gives.

While the ordinary Soldier,
Who offered up his all,
Is paid off with a medal
And perhaps a pension, small.

It’s so easy to forget them,
For it is so many times
That our Bobs and Jims and Johnnys,
Went to battle, but we know,

It is not the politicians
With their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us the freedom
That our country now enjoys.

Should you find yourself in danger,
With your enemies at hand,
Would you really want some cop-out,
With his ever waffling stand?

Or would you want a Soldier–
His home, his country, his kin,
Just a common Soldier,
Who would fight until the end.

He was just a common Soldier,
And his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us
We may need his like again.

For when countries are in conflict,
We find the Soldier’s part
Is to clean up all the troubles
That the politicians start.

If we cannot do him honour
While he’s here to hear the praise,
Then at least let’s give him homage
At the ending of his days..

Perhaps just a simple headline
In the paper that might say:
“OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING,
A SOLDIER DIED TODAY.”

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable for an amount “up to and including my life”.

It is refreshing to see that that the WA Government are talking about abolishing payroll tax for a year. If they do, they ought to abolish it for ever.

Payroll Tax really is a tax from Marxland. If ever a tax should be immediately abolished without any equivocation whatsoever, it is payroll tax. It is inconceivable that people or companies employing workers should be taxed as though employing people was a crime, a heavy penalty for creating real jobs providing goods and or services for which people scramble.

The payroll tax is a huge impediment to employment, it prohibits some people from even starting businesses. And as far as exporters go, it is a huge additional cost and so helps to render Australian goods uncompetitive. The late Professor Colin Clark has pointed out that the long-run effect of payroll tax is to lower the remuneration received by labour.

With the advent of the GST, it should have been the first tax to go. To his credit Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen not only abolished death duties, he planned to also abolish payroll tax. However, he was threatened with retaliatory action against Queensland by the then federal government if he did so.

The tax on employment is both criminal and stupid.

Ronald Kitching

The Government caused the boom by increasing the money supply. They increase the money supply to pay their bills rather than tax the public directly. Nevertheless it is a hidden tax. Their excesses of monetary expansion cause a so called boom.

The boom induces entrepreneurs to initiate investments which, if the money was reduced to its original stable value would show losses, not profits.

And in any case if this exercise did reveal profits, they would be illusory, as in fact, reduced to its original stable worth, capital consumption would be seen to be occurring.

Now that the bust has occurred, the government is endeavouring to stimulate the economy with more of the same policy that caused the problem in the first place.

Many writers and commentators are complimenting the Government on its “wise” move. Some eminent commentators saying that it is not enough, and much more is needed. In so doing, they are exhibiting their abysmal ignorance of monetary theory.

Some wise local and international investors who have had the wisdom and the capacity to do so, have been and are buying gold. So much so, that the Perth Mint, working 24 hours a day seven days a week has had to close its doors to the public, until it catches up with back orders. They announced that buyers have made purchases from one ounce to 33,000 ounces.

Some interviewed investors say that, they are not really interested in profits, but capital protection. Wise people indeed.

Ronald Kitching

The Weekend Australian Magazine of 2 Aug 2008 lists 13 people for us to admire – “The Quiet Achievers” they are called. They comprise a social worker, a life saver, a body builder, a swimmer, a conservationist, a scientist, two doctors, a judge, a banker, a writer, a saleswoman and a judge. These are all admirable people, no doubt, and excellent in their field. But they are all from the service or performing industries – the beautiful people on the balcony, admiring the view. Maybe you should now highlight the people who actually get their hands dirty and make things – “The Servants Beneath the Stairs”. Here is another dozen people who will relate to many Australians outside the capital cities:
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A just government does not tyrannise its population. Climate Czar Garnaut’s climate change legislation, which means imposing an emissions trading scheme on the population, will be a diabolical exercise. Bob Brown says polluters will pay, meaning in his view, all industrial activities, including the development of electricity by coal driven power houses.

Before the election he was crowing that should labor be elected every coal driven power house in Australia would close. This may well be the case in due course.

And Penny Wong says that the top 1,000 polluters will need permits. That is newspeak meaning the top 1,000 producers will pay a tax to produce. She added that the effect of the permits would wash through the community in a “whole of economy approach.”

That is more newspeak for “the entire population will eventually be saddled with the tax”. If it all comes to pass, Senator Wong will indeed be making poverty history.

It is indeed incredible that carbon dioxide, the very gas upon which all life depends for photosynthesis, is condemned by the gang of four; those being Brown, Wong, Garrett and Garnaut. And, like Chairman Mao, PM Rudd leads the rush to the extinction of personal liberty.

If a King or emperor in days gone by inflicted such an imposition on his subjects, he would have to cope with a revolution and, in fact, may lose his head.

Ronald Kitching

We are all born possessing a generous measure of compassion. The good book says, “He who is without compassion cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”

But compassion is not the business of the state. The business of the state is to protect us from internal and external thugs. That is why early philosophers agreed to give that body we call the state, a monopoly of coercion.

The state uses force to apply the law. Police, guns, obedience to the edicts of the state. Various jail terms are used to punish serious misdemeanours and to exact obedience to the laws of the land.

In their enthusiasm many compassionate people advocate that the state tax funds from the productive sector of society to satisfy their feelings of compassion, to reward what ever or who ever is deserving of their particular passion.

Today we have those who were advocates of personal liberty and the market system, now advocating interventions by the state to satisfy their particular view.

Caught up in the lemming like behaviour of the fear of carbon dioxide, Senator Bob Brown’s misplaced compassion for the planet is advocating more state interventionism.

He stated today, “National action using Constitutional Powers is necessary to punish polluters.” Addressing the National Press Club on 9th July he stated that coal miners and those in the lumber business were criminals and should be treated as such.

The ultimate end result of such political advocacy ends up as a political leader turning into a Fuhrer.

Ronald Kitching

Background

eBay proposes to supply the services offered on the eBay Site to registered users of the eBay Site, on condition that users only acquire the online payment services provided by PayPal Australia Pty Ltd. The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) is considering whether to allow eBay to engage in such exclusive dealing.
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This is a collection of more than two dozen Common Sense articles written by Viv Forbes, from 1994. www.think-right.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/this-sacred-land.pdf [PDF 1.3 MB]