First, an explanation of why so little blogging. As mentioned earlier I took a local shop to have a painting sale two weeks ago. The sale went moderately well but the interest in commissioned pastels was enormous. Hence I have extended the arrangement and am working there every day.
But I did want to respond to this comment from yesterday.
Did anything come out of the ACT conference, or from Douglas's mouth to say you're going to reduce the size of the State? NO! Like the socialist Key, you're still talking about merely curtailing it at the level it is now.
The media, as I pointed out yesterday, didn't report on the content of Rodney or Roger's speeches.
The major thrust of Roger's speech was getting politicians and bureaucrats out of education, health and welfare by breaking state monopolies. It was all about competition and choice. I had never heard Roger speak before and was impressed with his conviction about how much better services could be with private providers. This is his holy grail. If ACT is no better than National I am missing something (and so is the PM who yesterday said, "....the National Party only stands for power and people in ACT at least have things they believe in and they believe in them quite passionately....they're not my beliefs, in fact I am quite strongly opposed to them, but I do credit them with having a belief system and that I think is something National just puts aside as being desperate for power.")
While some policies will not go as far as I and other libertarians want them to, a gradualist doesn't take an all or nothing approach. The education policy, detailed in Rodney's speech, doesn't abolish state schools but it does open the door to more private schools and deal with the inequity of taxpayers paying twice for their children's education. Parents would no longer be forced to send their children to substandard schools. It wouldn't be just the 'rich' who would have choice.
National, on the other hand, can't even lend their support to bulk funding any more.
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1 comment:
"Parents would no longer be forced to send their children to substandard schools."
So long as politicians & bureaucrats dictate the curriculum, who may deliver it and how they may deliver it, ALL schools will remain substandard. Changing who pays and who spends will have the same impact on education as re-arranging the deck chairs had on the Titanic. Thats not gradualism, that's making excuses for proposing to do nothing purposeful.
Your heart is in the right place Lindsay, don't let your head rationalise too much.
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