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April 03, 2005

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

So this is the first part of what I think will be a regular series of random links and thoughts on the last week's events. I'll start with the cheery news that the end of the world is nigh.

No, really. If you're thinking "haven't we seen this episode before, Marsha", then at risk of sounding like an AOL user, me too! Russell Roberts lays down some righteous smiting, concluding:

I plan to sleep well tonight, though I am worried about the state of science.

Indeed, and a story about a young male crying "carnivorous mammal of the family Canidae!" comes to mind here. Also, some case studies on the minimum wage (hat tip to Russell Roberts again), Jonah Goldberg pwning Jonathan Chait, Victor Davis Hanson on holding strong, bad April Fools "jokes" in Canada, the horridly depressing news that my local area is a big (but very desirable!) retirement home, £6 million wasted by my local council on consulting fees (I wonder why council tax is so high...), and Canada plain not getting it.

This week has, of course, been the week of Terry Schiavo, who died on Thursday. The optimist in me says that this will mean that everyone will shut up about this, which would be a wonderful thing. And not just because I'm sick of hearing about it either: no matter what position one takes on this matter, it leads us down some unpleasant slippery slope or another -- and so whoever wins the ideological battles in the wake of Schiavo will take us to unpleasant places. I therefore conclude that, being such a rare case, it's actually best if this is not discussed at all.

The All-Your-Money-Are-Belong-To-Us Democrats vow to scrap council tax and replace it with a local income tax (again). This is a bad idea. The "council tax" is a good system because land taxes hit people hard. Council tax rises are politically very unpopular, which serves as a good balance against them rising too high, and therefore as a good safeguard against local government becoming bigger and more bloated. The income tax, on the other hand, will raise lots of money for local governments. Because wealthy people make up a small part of the electorate and have a smaller voice, the political temptation is to raise taxes on them to absurd levels while keeping everyone else's taxes low. If you think local government is bloated today (and I do), wait till you see how bad it will be without strong public deprecation of tax rises.

Our Royal Correspondent (that's me when I'm putting on a posh voice and not dressing like a pikey) reports that Prince Ears doesn't like facing the media. Well, here's an idea: don't be a Royal! If you want to live off of our tax money then be prepared to put up with the attention. If the attention is really that terrible then quit your job. And give it to me.

It's not all depressing news this week. It seems the Labour Party will be dropping plans for "religious incitement" laws, and the Australian government have been urged to do the same. This is a good thing, because whatever the law actually says, what "religious incitement" laws will add up to in practice is a special privilege: the ability for radical Muslims to use the government to silence Christian, Jewish, and atheist criticism of Islam. Nobody, not even Blair & chums, pretended that the law would do anything but that, or that it was anything more than a ploy to win Muslim votes. Thank God for this rare dose of sanity in English politics.

And finally, what would have been a contender for Quote Of The Week were it not actually written more than a week ago (I should have started this feature last week). Russ Nelson on profit:

Profit is important. Profit is the measure that you are succeeding at doing something. You can created something that people want to buy. Profit simply means that your revenues exceed your expenses. You are producing more than you are costing. There is nothing intrinsically worthwhile about a non-profit (non-taxable) or not-for-profit (taxable) entity. Any entity can eliminate its profits simply by donating all of its profits to charity. This would not be sufficient to make the enterprise worthwhile in many people's eyes.

Until next week...actually, does the preceding phrase irritate anyone other than me? Until next week...what? Don't get hit by a car? Shrug. By the way, I am aware that this design looks totally gay in Firefox. I'll get it fixed some day this week.

Posted by Lewis at April 3, 2005 06:41 AM