rds hijacked, fr

IN a series of columns
for the Mises Institute,
libertarian political
philosopher and econo-
mist, Professor Walter
Block, has been musing
about the hijacking of
honest English words
by “the forces of social-
ism, statism ... and
political correctness,”
rendering them unfit
for use by those outside
this camp.

Given the importance of
language in mediating public
debate and policy, there is
more at stake than semantics.
One showcase of torrential
prolixity was the conference
of Third Way world feaders
held this month in Berlin and
entided “Progressive
Governance for the 21st
Century.”

Befitting the occasion is a
furreral oration to the word

“progressive.” Joined at the
conference of aprepressives”
by President Bill Clinton and
Gerhard Schrocder of the
Federal Republic of Germany
was PM Jean Chretien in full
apoplectic swing.

: Tony Blair, T believe, was
fresh in from diaper duty.

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Ilana
ercer

Sair

comment

Chretien proceeded to score
political points by framing
the Canadian Alliance’s plar-
form of tax cuts as greed.
Now taxes are monies seized
by force. (To test this try not
paying them.) They are
derived from the labour of
citizens and are thus their
rightful property.

If Canadians who expect
that their stolen property be
returned to then are demon-
strating, greed — for that is
Jean Chretien’s take — then
let the PM never again speak
in vain of “the dignity of
labour.”

“Progressive taxation”
another misnomer. As if the
confiscation of the property
of citizens through force
were not in itselt regressive
enough, how is stealing more
from some than from others
an act of progress?

Little of the appropriated

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Scrap Streetcar idea

Telere we ‘allow (North Vancouver City Mayor) Barbara Sharp
to spend millions of our hard-earned tax dollars on providing a
strectcar service on Lonsdale, could we put the idea to a democ-
ratic. public vote? The idea is ludicrous! Lonsdale is a busy thor-
oughfare, and motorists are not going to appreciate having to stop
“at every other corner, while a streetcar disgorges and takes on pas-
sengers ers. Besides, we already have a good bus service that’s capable
loin:

ag the same thing, ef

-:, Sérap the idea! Streetcars might be all night in San Francisco,

where

is often obliterated ‘and nothing much is to be

¢ sun always shines, but here, where it rains so much, the

gained. Leave

the strectear where it is, a relic of the past, and let’s look ahead to

the future instead. .

PRICE
. $1,750,000

INTACT: 3

wealth in the welfare state
actually reaches the needy,
going instead towards the
funding of a huge bureaucra
cy. In what way, pray tell, is
that “progressive?”

When 2 private charity like
the Salvation Army collects
for the poor, almost all of its
funds reach their target;
when the government under-
takes to “redistribute wealth”
most of the wealth taken goes
to pay bureaucrats. This is
retrograde.

While fam on botched
locution, how does “redis-
tributive justice” grab you? If
ever there was a contradiction
in terms this is it.

How do vou distribute
justly chat which has been
acquired unjustly?

And to whom is left the
definition of just — to those
who steal? The “welfare
state” spells the promotion of
well-being, yet it impoverish-
es in its own right.

Writes Professor Block:
“... Minimum wage laws cre-
ate poverty by creating
unemployment. Rent control
promotes homelessness by
reducing incentives to supply
low cost rental housing.
Other unwise government
interferences with the market
that create poverty include ...
central planning and control
of the economy; government
ownership of industry ... mar-
keting boards,” and so on.

“Tariffs, quotas, interna-
tional and interprovincial bar-
riers to trade,” weigh on the
consumer, to say nothing of
further pauperizing, poor
nations by denying them
their comparative advantage
in our markets. Bravo once
again to “progress.”

“Liberal” is another word
that has been junked. Having
originally denoted the classi-
cal liberalism of the 18th and
carly 19th centuries, it now
means socialism. But perhaps
the largest counterfeit perpe-
trated by socialists is trans-
forming the meaning of
rights.

In the beginning, before

BLAIR HUDDLESTON 7 boss FORMAN

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the pulverization of classical
liberalism, there wers only
negative rights: the right ip
life, liberty and property.

Government was expected
to protect people from being
murdered, robbed, raped,
cheated, Molen from.

A positive right, the list of
which is still under construc-
tion, is defined by Harvard
scholar Richard Pipes as “the
right to the necessities of life
at public expense, i-e., the
right to something that was
not one’s own.”

Housing, food, education,
health care, child benefits,
emorional well being, enrich-
ing employment, ad infini-
tum, are positive rights.

All rights create obliga-
tions: my right to life means
you must not Kill me; my
right to liberty means you
must not enslave me.

Negative rights do not
infringe on another person’s
rights. Not so the assorted
bogus positive rights. If I
have the right to food, some-
one must work to feed me; if
T have a right to meaningful
employment, someone must
sponsor my dream job. This
is why these entitlements or
human needs are not real
rights but a means through
which the “progressive” state
can control, regulate and gar-
nish the property of others.

The mission of our “pro-
gressives” might not jibe with
Karl Marx’s dream of abolish-
ing private properey, but cer-
tainly a redefinition of prop-
erty is on the cards.

While redefinition begins
with words, reclaiming lost
linguistic territory will not
turn the tide: having traced
the relationship between

Friday, June 16, 2000 - North Shore News - 7

edom undermined

“property and political and
legal systems that guarantee

liberty” from classical antiqui-

ty to the 20th century,
Richard Pincs has concluded

that liberty without property,

is inconceivable. Where free-

dom is at stake, only a

change of mind will do.
—anomeGattcanada set

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