Reflexion on socialism...

With the background of pollitical election in Switzerland, and due to the fact that it's close to 1 am and that I am still working I feel compelled to write about socialism...

First off: I voted for the rigth wing green party... Apparently an exclusivity in ZH*!

Well, one more time** the entire left wing went on battle stating basically one thing
"The other guy is a bad guy, he's a racist"

The entire leftist stance relies on the fact that people should be happy together and put more good feelings into politics.

Fact #1 about the real world for our leftist friends***

1 - good feelings among people who know each other MAY lead to everyone acting for the greater good of the community (most of the time it won't though)
2 - good feelings among many people not knowing each other will invariably lead to everyone trying to maximize their own utility, trying to freeride on other people's efforts

I guess that the corollary of these very serious & politically untainted works is
"most people systematically do try to abuse the system"
in Switzerland this translates into two very concrete things.
- For every guy subventionned by the government for doing nothing there's three working guys paying**** (and I'd like to say that they are paying in full for that: No roads built with that money, no teachers paid, no police, no judges, no cleaning up cities, no army, no hospitals, no refugees homes, no culture sponsorships,...)
- Denying that fact ruins the credibility of your party
- Denying that is the biggest insult you can do to your target audience: Hard-working low-to-middle-class (some of them even honest "working poor")

Redistributing more is encouraging those not working and downright a slap in the face of the working class (I'll use that term for whoever works, so that once in my life I will qualify for working class... After all if 70 hours a weeks won't do that, what will?)

Fact #2 about the real world for our leftist friends

A country cannot in the long-term consume more than it produces...

That one was just for the road (and I like the fact that the only counter-example is crumbling under our eyes right now...)

Fact #3 about the real world for our leftist friends

"More redistribution of wealth leads to less value creation because the rewards are less" Here the corollaries
1 - Less rewards for value creation leads to less investment "will you invest the same amount of money in something that pays 3 a year or 2 a year? Yeah, I thought so... me too"
2 - Less investment leads to less productivity of work "Would you rather reap with a reaping hook or a reaping machine******?"
3 - Less productivity of work leads to less pay, less consumption, less tax income...
4 - The ultimate state is nation's poverty

What is nation's poverty? Does it matter that our nation's becoming poorer and poorer? Isn't it more important to redistribute what we can and have? No one will die from it?

Oh yes, most of you will chuckle to that one...

Nation's poverty will drive your grandaughter into prostitution hard (actual prostituion) or soft (marriage into a richer country, where she'll do everything to deny she's from your country in the first place), your granson most likely into a nice dealer and pimp career in a richer country?

Well let me explain that one, it's my catch phrase after all...

Fact #4 about the real world for our leftist friends

Remember the guys, who did the communist thing?
1 - First they redistributed happily: Building state housing, giving away enough money for the basics to everyone without ever checking if they gave anything back?
2 - Then noone cared about the day after tomorrow
3 - And the next thing they knew, they:
a) Had the worst pollution, because they had never thought of making better factories
b) Had the worst supplies of everything, because noone ever really had an interest in making anything better
c) Were the most unsatisfied people in the world
4 - All that because they had denied the individual the frame to unleash his contribution to the world and the fair reward that is accompanying it: Whatever people will pay for the result of his labor... Also called market price!!!
5 - Then, they were so poor and unsatisfied, that whenever they had contact with the outer world, their daughters would become prostitutes (either to eat or to buy stuff, either way the choice denotes something really wrong in their parent's work, no?)...

Well, two questions:
A) How can we avoid our daughters leaving for chinamen (and - oh boy! - those will need wives in the coming twenty years...)?
B) How can we know it started?

B) It's easy - think planified economy:
- Government build state housing
- Government spending quote of GDP is high
- Subvention of outdated industries
- Labor market is unflexible
- Unemployment is high
- Investment is low
- Renewal of capital is low i.e.
Yes, but P, what can I observe?`
- Higher taxes on your income statement
- Older cars on the roads
- No or few shiny new tools (those trains used to be new, as did the airport, as did the roads...
... If this sounds like a country you know, it's probably because you are European... Although I have to admit a certain admiration for Luxemburg!

A) Think the contrary
- Good frame conditions for the economy
- A thinking party at the lead (even british labour won't do the real bad blunders anymore) understanding how a rule affects the people and the economy
- And I'm tempted to say: A good grasp for the environmental issues at hand... But even I voted for that too, that's off topic today!!!

With a tip of the hat to my good teenage friend J.-C. S. turned completely out of hand and politically speaking completely out of touch with reality... Yet a very lovable human!

Signing off,
P

* Don't you just have to love the city?
** remember France a couple months ago?
*** Please read Gaechter, Fehr, et al. and host of others about gift exchange theory, collective punishment and such
**** Swiss average income is ca. 65'000 CHF, 12% taxes plus 1% for invalids and 6.5% for the old, that's about there... (of course, we're basing this on a very basic case of 2'250 CHF a month per dead weight guy)
***** This seems so obvious I won't go into details - for details read anything that doesn't have a hammer and a faucet on the cover page
****** Vous préférez faire les moissons à la faux ou à la moissonneuse batteuse?