Brave New World

The Difference Between Labour and Slavery

The Age of Technology--that is, our age--has removed so much drudgery from human existence that life is now a much more positive proposition than it was when it was considered cheap.  The age of calculating machines and information processing machines (which we call computers) has replaced much human mindless repetitive work.  

The Luddites amongst us argue that this is a bad thing.  Machines increasingly make man redundant.  Redundant men are unemployed men.  Endlessly efficient machines drive down the costs of human labour; under their realm, machines reduce man, at best, to a latter day serf, etc.

Yet this is not the historical view of technology and machines.  Western society increasingly became mechanized and machine-led so that mankind could come to be more and more  in God's image, more and more human.

Historian Lynn White put it this way:

The humanitarian technology that our modern world has inherited from the Middle Ages was not rooted in economic necessity; for this necessity is inherent in every society, yet has found inventive expression only in the Occident [that is, the West], nurtured in the activist or voluntarist tradition of Western theology.

It is ideas which make necessity conscious.  The labor-saving power-machines of the later Middle Ages were produced by the implicit theological assumption of the infinite worth of even the most degraded human personality, by an instinctive repugnance towards subjecting any man to a monotonous drudgery which seems less than human in that it requires the exercise neither of intelligence nor of choice.  [Lynn White, Medieval Religion and Technology: Collected Essays (Berkeley: University of California, 1978), p. 22.]

The Benedictine order made a distinction between toil and labour.

The Fundamentals of the Labour Market

Ravening Pity


NZ Initiative has been producing some excellent pieces on the fundamentals of economics, markets, employment, production, consumption--that is, articles about what consumes the majority of the average citizen's time, effort, and attention.  These pieces, therefore, have a good deal to say about life and living. 

The philosophical approach of NZ Initiative draws heavily upon Adam Smith, and can be categorised as representing the classical liberal ideological corner.  This is a strength.  Adam Smith and his intellectual colleague, John Locke have much to teach us.  Moreover, much of what is wrong with the dominant mindset of the day with respect to economics--that is, the majority of peoples' lives and focused attention--is due to them having never learned or having forgotten what the classical liberal scholars have taught.

From the Christian perspective, Smith and Locke have taken some constructs of the Scriptures, but wrenched them out of the biblical narrative, and settled them within a deistic framework.  They made property rights the fundamental construct of a mechanistic world set in place by a god, but left to run as a self-perpetuating machine.  Without a true foundation and a biblical construct, the world-view of Smith and Locke cannot be sustained--which is precisely what has happened with the downstream developments and effects of classical liberalism.  By making property right an absolute, Smith ironically set in place the destruction of property rights by subsequent generations--which is where we are now.

Nevertheless, Smith has much to teach the modern world--with necessary qualifications and reconstruction notwithstanding.  NZ Initiatives piece on "L is for Labour Market" provides a powerful illustration of that.

The Pillage of Progressive Government

Evasive Action Increasing

It's a hard lesson to learn, but sooner or later even the antediluvians amongst us will begin to comprehend.  Point #1: Capital and labour are the core components of any commercial enterprise.  Point #2: Capital and labour are mobile.

Now this has not always been the case.  Before the development of technologies that can move people relatively quickly and inexpensively from one side of the globe to the other, labour was relatively immobile.  In a particular area, the number of jobs were necessarily limited; in times of recession, sometimes severely limited.  That meant that employees were effectively reduced to being "price takers".  They had little economic leverage to increase wages.  The number of employment opportunities was small or fixed; there was often surplus labour chasing those jobs.

Now, labour is globally mobile--more so than at any time hitherto in our age.

Vulcan Blessings

Moving Off Welfare Into Work

We have more good news from the trenches.  The battle against being enslaved to welfare has not only been joined, but--for the moment--is being won in New Zealand.  The present government has been quietly opening up a number of  fronts in the war against welfare benefits as a human right.  The common theme in this battle is to reject the notion of welfare as a lifestyle choice. 

As in the United States under the Clinton administration, the driver is not ideological (at least, not overtly so).  Rather it is part of the wider effort to get government spending under control and bring the fiscal situation back into surplus--then, eventually, into government debt reduction.  Therefore, welfare needs to be discriminatory--delivered to those who really need it, not to those who would prefer it as their chosen lifestyle.  This, from the NZ Herald:

Christian Activists

Hard Work the Highest Service

The general medieval world-view was deeply suspicious of economic motives.  Lucre was, after all, filthy.  Therefore, it had to be limited, controlled, and governed.  All economic activity had to be carried on for the public good; profits must be restricted to sustenance payments.  Clearly, the medieval world had a problem with the Parable of the Talents. 

These generalisations hold generally true.  But there were exceptions.  Gradually, as Western economies developed, the exceptions became more common, more widespread.  Medieval theology, and the economic theories it produced, were broken apart by economic realities.  Theological understanding did not catch up until the Reformation--and then, only gradually.

John Calvin argued that laws against usury were entirely inconsistent.  They simply did not make sense.

Spitballing

Serious For All Of Twenty-Four Hours

Apparently Labour revenue guru, David Clark was just making things up as he went along when he pronounced that a Labour government would ban the country from using Facebook, unless it paid more tax in New Zealand.  It took only twenty-four hours for the Labour leader to put out that particular fire.  Labour and Cunliffe (who did not rule it out for twenty-four hours) and Clark now have more scorched earth on their collective face than burns from a P-lab explosion. 

This from 3News:

Banning Facebook was an extreme suggestion from Labour Party MP David Clark - and it took party leader David Cunliffe just 24 hours to shut it down.  Mr Cunliffe has now ruled it out completely, but ridicule from the Government still came hard and fast.

But here is the point.  Banning Facebook was not an extreme suggestion, at least not to the statist mindset of the New Zealand's left.  Impractical and impossible to implement to be sure.  Covered with envious bile, naturally.  But the lust to control the lives of citizens is as natural and reasonable to the statist mindset as breathing the fecund air of their back room cabals. 

Here is another example of the genre--this time from David Parker, Labour's shadow finance minister, via Hansard:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

In a Pig’s Eye

Posted on Thursday, December 5, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

The president’s Twitter account recently sent out this small dribbly contribution to the oceans of illiteracy that already exist out there. What’s another half pint?

Here’s how to improve our economy and create hundreds of thousands of jobs: #RaiseTheWage. http://OFA.BO/tXMYUq  pic.twitter.com/UDTcTSaqZJ

So here’s the comeback, and I must say that it is hard to type and snort at the same time.

So why don’t we just raise the minimum wage to a hundred dollars an hour and make everybody well off? Or, while we are in this compassion groove, why don’t we make it a hundred dollars a minute and make everybody fabulously wealthy? To reply that employers don’t have that kind of money to spare is to betray a churlish spirit, and is frankly unworthy of you. Why should we allow a detail like “not having the money” stand between us and the right thing to do?

But be a man. Run the thought experiment anyway.

The Greens and Labour

Not What We Meant At All

If you are on the left of the political spectrum and a mainstream media reporter is decrying your latest policy announcement as "loony" you know you have strayed way off the reservation.  Such is the ignominious result of two of New Zealand's smartest politicians declaring that once elected a Labour/Green coalition would nationalise the electricity industry.   The characters of this comedy are Russel Norman, leader of the Greens and David Shearer, leader of the Labour Party.  The establishment reporter is Colin Espiner. 

Here is Espiner's reaction to the Norman/Shearer bombshell.

The Worker Has Rights

Rotting From the Inside

All of life is religious and religions have consequences.  Secular humanism--whilst formally a non-religion--is no exception.  The Christian testimony to all other religions--including secular humanism--is that they are untrue.  All are deceptive and misleading.  All are vanities.

Because each in their own way rebels against the Living God Who made the heavens and the earth out of nothing by the Word of His power they have bad consequences.  The world is "wired" to exist and function as God made and commanded it to be.  Rebellion against God means rebellion against the created order.  The consequences are never good. 

There are a thousand illustrations of the point, but we will focus upon just one here.

The Destruction Wreaked by Faux Human Rights

Righteous Anger Over Chinese Poppies

In New Zealand our veteran's association is called the Returned Services Association, or the "RSA".  Anzac Day is the statutory holiday when we remember our veterans and express our thankfulness for their service to us all.  In the last couple of years controversy has swirled around the Anzac season.  It has to do with the Chinese.

Well, indirectly.  The RSA raises funds at this time of the year by selling artificial red poppies which the public buy in large quantities and pin to their coats.  It is an effective visible way of showing respect for our veterans and our commitment to the memorial Anzac season.  It also funds the on-going activities and services of the RSA.  Two or so years ago, the RSA decided to get its red poppies manufactured in China. People resent that.  Previously the poppies were manufactured in New Zealand.  Now the job has been exported; working people in New Zealand have missed out.  Folk are protesting the "Chinese poppies" as an alien, unwanted, exploitative violation of the true spirit of the Anzac season.

The back story, however, is far, far more sinister.

Corruption in China and New Zealand

Theft by Any Other Name is . . . . Theft

The Left has little or no respect for property rights.  What you own is yours only if the collective (society, the state) says you can retain ownership.  At any time, for the "common good" your property can be devalued, stripped, or confiscated.  In principle we are, therefore, slaves in our own country; any freedoms we may enjoy are at the pleasure of the collective. 

This plight is put front and centre in the Australian classic, The Castle.  Sadly, whilst this is a superb comedy, its dramatic tension actually relies upon a very serious matter that is all too real.  In The Castle, remedy comes to Darryl Kerrigan through the courts.  The High Court decided that the Constitution of Australia required that Darryl's "castle" could only be purchased on just terms. We have no such checks and balances in New Zealand.  Parliament is supreme.

The Government in New Zealand is about to decide whether a Chinese consortium can purchase around sixteen NZ dairy farms.

UK Labour Critiques Welfare

Intriguing Developments

When conservative political parties turn mushy and move to the centre to make themselves more electable, left wing parties sometimes force themselves to face up to reality.  Ironically this can mean they adopt traditionally right wing ideas.

Something like this may be happening in the UK right now.  Labour, out-mushed by the Conservative-Liberal coalition, is starting to rethink social welfare.  The idea that the state should fund life-style benefit dependency in perpetuity is coming under Labour critique.  Leading the charge is the shadow work and pensions secretary, Liam Byrne.  The Guardian reckons that Byrne is leading a significant redrawing of Labour's position on welfare.

Three things are in Byrne's sights:

More Lanchashire Cotton Wool

Troglodyte Reactionary Syndrome, Part II

Economic ignorance amongst the left never ceases to surprise it seems.  Hidebound in ideology, leftists would appear unable to see what is right before their face.  

The latest example: the self-styled humble blogger, Danyl at Dim Post.

Bleeding Out

 Fonterra's Off

We have blogged several times on the crisis confronting the Ports of Auckland.  As its unionised labour force hold the company to ransom via the strike weapon, shipping clients are moving their business elsewhere.  The Port is in a vicious circle. 

Normally when the returns to shareholders are under threat the owners of the business either capitulate to the strike threat (and so kick the can down the road until another day of reckoning) or they get tough and break the union.  In this case, however, the owner is the Auckland City Council which is replete with left-wing old-style luddite socialists.  Better to have a Port that fails commercially than allow anti-union actions to be taken.

Self-Destructive Class Warfare

Striking Folly

The Port of Auckland is presently debilitated by rolling strikes which put the strike threat system into bold relief  as extortionate blackmail.  Thankfully, the export/import business can transfer to Tauranga.  Whilst this does not help owners of the Ports of Auckland (Auckland City) it does provide a boost to shareholders in the Ports of Tauranga.

High Stakes Poker

We Deserve Job Security and High Wages . . .

The Qantas grounding was a big deal.  High stakes negotiation.  Reverberations in lots of places--if you were flying Qantas at the time.  But the whole mess illustrates the commercial realities of the early twenty-first century.  Realities that can be ignored only to one's commercial demise.  Regrettably, it is a lesson few in New Zealand have learned.

Qantas competes in what has become a global business.  Meanwhile it is an airline which has been nurtured under a cocoon of protections and indirect support by successive Australian governments.

Retrograde, Reactionary and Ignorant

The State of Labour

The Labour Party in New Zealand is in disarray--ideologically.  It has repeatedly shown that it is bereft of ideas, policies, and principles that engage with the real world.  This is what happens when a political party gets captured by minority interest groups: in this case, homosexuals, unions, and 60's-style feminists. 

Any policies or ideas, when announced, end up being strange or extreme.  Under such conditions politics becomes a very hard slog indeed.

The latest debacle is Labour's "wage policy".  It has been written by unions, reflecting a wishlist that harks back to the days of a controlled socialist economy.