jfred, Libertarians in general have a difficulty with collectivism. They are so inculcated with the individual and the individual's property rights that they ignore the fact that a great deal of property is in fact collectively owned.
I'm in favour of reducing collective ownership, but that process isn't going to be achieved in my lifetime and good luck with making the air and oceans privately owned. The air and water currents mean that's not going to happen in any way I can imagine.
Me, my parents, my grandparents, my children and great grandparents built all the stuff in New Zealand. I resent having all those efforts over centuries just given away to some Islamic Jihad Johny-come-lately who will want to give me a dose of sharia rule as soon as they get the whip hand. I don't want refugees with Indian or Chinese values coming here and immediately being given what has been created and recreating what they've achieved in India and China. While they have some good points, I prefer the balance of what we have here. So do they, which is why they come.
If citizenship was sold on the open market, with futures, options and all that stuff, I'd be okay with anyone who met minimum standards buying a citizenship. Old people could cash up their value by selling their citizenship under an annuity and thereby get the value of what they have inherited and created. Or, they could pass their citizenship on as part of their estate.
New citizens could decide they don't like it after a year or two and sell their citizenship, maybe even making a profit. Politicians would be a bit more careful about what they decide. If the citizenship share price dropped after some daft announcement, the citizens would soon be in uproar. Politics would be much more respected and closely watched.
The Libertarian idea of just giving it away to anyone who shows up is nuts. The lazy bastards obviously didn't work all night pouring concrete to build a water supply valve tower, or doing real work to create other expensive, now forgotten engineering projects which reliably hum away in the background. They didn't spend 4 years in the desert rolling Erwin Rommel back into Germany. They don't understand what has been built and nurtured over centuries by millions of people. They don't understand the value of it.
Mqurice [Paid up Libertarian] |
