I thought I would attempt to write something a little more detailed than my Facebook and Twitter comment that "the BTC take back farce is over", but enough was said on that post and others exposing the mockery it all was.
One point I'd like to emphasise before moving on is to repeat the comment that the Government is so far earning more money from its 49% shareholding of BTC now than it "made" when they owned 100%. That should tell us something. How we get bamboozled by the government.
Thomas Woods recently paraphrased one of Murray Rothbard's points about government in this video for Mises.org.
Rothbard thought he tells us that;
"what the state does is try to bamboozle the public and to portray itself as a wonderful institution that's just out to bring about the public good. It has no interests of its own that are different from yours. In fact, you are the government, really, so when we rule over you, it's really you ruling over you. So you shouldn't complain.
"And they do this and they have various means by which they promote this myth. And one of them of course is their educational system. 'Cause you'll note that the government does try to help people supposedly who need food, so they give them food stamps, but they don't open government supermarkets.
"They give them food stamps to go spend on food. But with education they don't do that. They do open the equivalent of government supermarkets. They open government schools. They open the schools. It's not a coincidence that they do this because, yeah okay putting a green pepper into you body, the government doesn't really care, but putting ideas into your brain, that's what they care about.
"And so no wonder after year after year of government employees telling you how wonderful the government is by an interesting coincidence you go out of there believing the whole government myth.
"You've been bamboozled Rothbard says, and it's the role of the libertarian thinker to de-bamboozle society."
My bone of contention with governments is basically Rothbard's point. Whether it's the BTC take back farce, the gambling referendum boondoggle, education or healthcare, they are people just like us, from among us, and we want to turn our lives over for them to command and control. In other words, bamboozle us. I just can't do it.
The failure of government to govern in the National Interest, which is the best of all the people, is the downfall of our limited democracy.. Party and self-interest has lead to the expansion of corruption and cronyism.. We are left with a government for and about the government with the nation’s people being reduced victims of government oppression.. Government ALWAYS knows what is best for the government but not the people.. This has resulted in over forty years of tax, borrow and spending policies which has crushed the economy.. Now they are forcing another Keynesian-like policy VAT upon the people to propagate more and bigger government..
Once again the total disregard of the National Interest is taking the country in the wrong direction of bigger and less-efficient government and the accompanying greater risk of further financial failure.. Just as government is never the solution, VAT is not the solution to our economic dilemma for government is the problem and VAT will be a failure destroying any potential for meaningful domestic investment, growth and hoped for economic betterment..