We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day

“The same people who are shutting down our economies are the same people who have yet to miss a paycheck.”

An anonymous comment I saw on the internet today. It nicely distills where we are at with the policy response to the virus.

11 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Alan Peakall

    The same psychology is evident here (Paris Mayor: I am happy to announce we have been fined). I don’t think that she means that she personally has paid the fine from her own pocket and is happy to have done so. Rather, I think she means that she is happy that money, paid (more or less willingly) by the citizens of Paris for the maintenance of their city, can be diverted so easily to support her nostalgic appetite for student politics.

  • Robert Sendler

    The same people who are shutting down our economies are the same people who don’t even follow their own edicts. Does anyone really believe that if they really believed that COVID was the plague they say it is would they be caught in public ignoring their rules?

  • Aetius

    Precisely, the politics, media and public sector management classes don’t give a thought for the state of the economy, as they will be well remunerated whether it tanks or not. The problem is that these classes make all the laws and regulations, which make running a small business harder each year than it was the year before. It is no skin off their noses.
    Similarly, public policy on children is driven by non-breeding fanatics. For example, the Named Person Scheme (which appointed a teacher or social worker as effectively a third parent for every child in Scotland) only ever got through the Scottish parliament because most of the party leaders were childless, especially the first minister.

  • anonymous

    Is that true that your elites are relatively childless? (A darwinian frame would lead you to suspect the opposite – childless poor and fast-breeding rich.) It’s sort of one dim glimmer of hope – when this anti-civilization finally burns itself out in ruin, maybe subsequent generations won’t be descended from the psycopaths currently in charge.

  • Roué le Jour

    Anonymous,
    Lower class children are cheap to produce, middle class children are expensive and the elite are too self centered to breed, as was pointed out a century ago. Also, civilizations that fall stay down.

  • Memed for your pleasure, including Robert Sendler’s addition – https://image-cdn.parler.com/h/E/hE3JCVFhNZ.png

  • Duncan S

    Anonymous

    “the intelligent are an endangered species” Idiocracy

  • Albion's Blue Front Door

    Spending money that isn’t theirs on projects that don’t benefit you while behaving in reprehensible ways selectively ignored by their paid-for MSM protectors…

    What could possibly make the peasants object to voting them in again and again?

  • APL

    anon: “Is that true that your elites are relatively childless? “

    Fortunately, becoming a member of a modern Western ‘elite’ isn’t a marker for intelligence. Exhibit 1. 2020.

  • Paul Marks

    Oh it is a lot more than not losing money.

    The Super Rich and Mega Corporations have massively BENEFITTED from the last year.

    And they are “Super Rich” – for example M.Z. (owner of Facebook) spent about 500 Million Dollars to help rig the 2020 election – and it was not even a big sacrifice for him (half a Billion? so what? plenty more where that came from).

    The lockdowns and riots (the lockdowns they supported and the riots they financed) have massively benefited Google, Amazon and the rest.

    As “Davos” has shown for many years – trying to draw a distinction between the vast Corporations and governments is hopeless, they are joined at the “Woke” hip.

    Saint-Simon has won – the Collectivism of the future will not involve shooting the Super Rich, on the contrary they will be IN CHARGE. With the Credit Bubble Bankers and Payment Processors at the top – all in the name of SCIENCE, SCIENCE, SCIENCE.

    For an orthodox Marxist, dreaming of the rule of manual workers (which never happens in practice) this must be galling.

    How will “Antifa” react when they find that all their Marxist antics have given the Super Rich MORE power – not less?

    Perhaps not too badly – after all “Antifa” is dominated by TRUST FUND KIDS (not industrial workers).

    Any opposition to the Collectivist rule will be denounced as “Racist”, “Sexist”, “Homophobic”, “Islamophobic”, “Transphobic” and so on. The banks and so on are very keen on financing this sort of SMEARING (how much did Bank of America give to Marxist Black Lives Matter – over a 100 Million Dollars I believe, plenty of money to organise looting and burning of small businesses whilst the Big People laugh) – and governments are keen to enforce it (as are all institutions – including the Churches).

    Eventually the talk of Covid 19 will be replaced by talk of a Climate Change Emergency (which has already been declared) – but the end result will be the same. Total, and absolute, power for the Establishment Elite in the world.

  • Paul Marks

    It should be remembered that the West today is dominated by Credit Money (fiat money) and Credit Bubble finance – not REAL SAVINGS and real money.

    Richard Cantillon warned of the effects of this 300 years ago – and he was dealing with a tiny fraction of the mess we face today (the bubble of his ex partner. John Law, in France).

    I do not support the philosophy of David Hume (on the contrary – I detest it), but his economics were sound. Massive Corporations backed by government (as they always) and Credit Bubble finance (not REAL SAVINGS), were what David Hume warned of – and we have ignored his warnings.

    The modern West has created an insane, utterly insane, economic system.

    That is why the establishment elite strut about at “Davos” and other such places, and why the bankers of New York and the Tech Lords of California back the Collectivists (including the looters and burners, and murderers, of Marxist “Black Lives Matter”) – because they know their own wealth has nothing to do with “capitalism”, their wealth is the creation of fiat money and Credit Bubble finance. It depends on THE STATE.