The Theory of Altruistic Government

[KDR]

Brent Jessop - Knowledge Driven Revolution.com - July 18, 2007

What is The Theory of Altruistic Government? In short, it is the irrational belief that the government will do what they promised to do because they were elected to do it.

For us non-believers, this notion is quite silly. Government has never answered to those who vote for them, they have much more important paymasters to answer to then the electorate. But for some reason The Theory of Altruistic Government persists in many sectors of society.

Now here is a tip for those who are starting to question their faith: when the government supports an idea, it is bad. Simple and useful.

A great way to figure out if the people you just elected are as altruistic as you are, is to check out what they actually do once you have elected them. The downside of this is it will take some patience on your part. The upside is that you will learn something.

Now lets apply this to something very fashionable. How about global warming? Remember, when the government supports an idea, it is bad.

Read full article here.

 

[gopher]

We have certainly seen enough of that here in the USA: Bush promises peace but gives war, he promises ''compassionate conservatism'' but gives welfare to the wealthy elites and takes away services from the poor and middle class, calls himself a Christian who is motivated by God but shows himself to be a devil.

Yes, ''government'' as created by the right wing extremists is a wolf in sheep's clothes!

 

[JoeSchmoe]

Left wing governments have never done anything worthy of praise either. It is the people who demanded changes that got things done.... minimum wage.... pensions.... health care... welfare.... human rights....

Gov'ts don't bestow these upon their constituents.... people demand them! Thus it has always been and ever shall be.... whether it is left wing or right wing in power makes no difference....

 

[iARTthere4iam]

Altruism in general gives me the willies. To believe that someone else is looking out for your best interest is ridiculous. No one is responsible for your happiness, no one else can know what will fulfill your dreams.

 

[Dreadful Nonsense]

Ya know this is my theory on Canada....

Back during the great depression people starved,welfare was a soup line, zero medi care, govt. pensions i don't think so ..could be wrong about pensions......anywho ....
When these people came of age they created a better Canada all round...yeah yeah we had to scratch and crawl for everything...but it was these people that insituted welfare, and medi care and unemployment insurance and the rest of our social saftey net...My theory is these were just good people that did not want to happen to their off spring what happened to them....
then along came the Harris's of this country and the Harpurs and the Mulroney's sold off all the crown corporatins, chipped away at the social systems, instead of having a better and better health care system it is rotting and talk of 2 tier ........
Wt friggin hell happened...why do we have these corporate squeezers in power......

 

[Dreadful Nonsense]

Altruism in general gives me the willies. To believe that someone else is looking out for your best interest is ridiculous. No one is responsible for your happiness, no one else can know what will fulfill your dreams.

but if you got the opposite in power you end up with the govt. footing the bill for a toll highway....then sold to your cronies...god knows what payola transpired ...and it cost 10 bucks to go from missisauga rd to the 400......

Sell off crown corporations to friends and the public is screwed...who sold petro Canada anyway?

 

[Niflmir]

Government has never answered to those who vote for them, they have much more important paymasters to answer to then the electorate.

Not quite true in Canada anymore. Campaign contributions are limited to $5000 per individual and it must all be divulged. This is why the Conservative party was able to have the largest campaign contributions compared to the other parties, they always relied on the many donations from their constituents whereas the Liberal party was relying on a few, large corporate handouts. This is why for the Conservative party, it is important to live up to their promises - their paymasters are the people they made promises to!

People often conflate the political situation in the US with the Canadian one. But a Liberal is not a Democrat, a Conservative is not a Republican, they may agree on some issues but disagree vehemently on others. Don't worry, the small parties in Canada are doing everything they can to limit the power of corporations in our government. You may hate the Conservatives for other things but you gotta love them (and the NDP) for limiting campaign contributions, why the Liberals ever agreed to it is beyond me...

Of course, I don't believe that pure altruism exists in any form. To me altruism is simply, "You scratch my back and I will scratch yours," reworded.

 

[MikeyDB]

Blame the elderly.

If it weren't for all the old folk....the young people wouldn't be sent off to war...

If it weren't for the elderly...dollar stores and Walmart wouldn't exist and so there'd be fairness across the land.

If it weren't for the old folks....well everything is of course their fault and its time that a few ten year olds or a few six year olds were elected to office.

If we hadn't elected all those old folk in the first place....

 

[iARTthere4iam]

but if you got the opposite in power you end up with the govt. footing the bill for a toll highway....then sold to your cronies...god knows what payola transpired ...and it cost 10 bucks to go from missisauga rd to the 400......

Sell off crown corporations to friends and the public is screwed...who sold petro Canada anyway?

I am not advocating the opposite of altruism. That might be some kind of misanthropy. What you have illustrated is one form of corruption. If a politician gives some lucrative contract to a friend in exchange for a favour they have simply broken a contract to act in the best interest of their constituents.

When a person, or especially a politician, claims that they do this or that for me I have to ask "what is in it for them?". I assume that everyone does what makes them happy. A person who does charitable work likely gains some satisfaction or pleasure from helping others. A politician goes into politics because there is something about the work that they enjoy. Competency in ones line of work or behaving morally have nothing to do with altruism.

 

[MikeyDB]

The wealthy have always made the rules and always will.

The limit to altruism is the limit that the wealthy will permit.

No poor man ever hired an army. No poor man every funded a revolution. No poor person ever declared the deaths of the "enemy" as the "right thing to do".....

Where is this altruism you think exists?

 

[iARTthere4iam]

It does not exist. That is why I don't trust someone claiming to act on my behalf. Altruism is an ideal. You are free to act to help out others as you find them, for whatever reasons you have.

Mikey, you seem to be stuck in a very ridgid class mentality. The "rich" are not from generation to generation the same people. That is, there is a fluidity to capital that allows a person regardless of their starting "class" to rise or fall based on their ability and the amount of work they are willing to do. Note that two of the richest men in the world (Bill Gates and Warren Buffet) have, in the period of an individual lifetimes, have accumulated massive riches as capitalists and then gone on to be among the most generous philanthropists ever.

 

[MikeyDB]

Iart

If you'll look at the names of the wealthiest Canadians today, what you'll find is those very same names in the archives of any similar report or published table of statistics. I'm not talking about the local Tim Horton's donut magnate, I'm talking about the Maurice Strongs' and the Bronfmans and the Stronachs....the same families that have been pulling the strings behind the scenes in Ottawa years ago are the same people pulling the strings today.

I may very well be caught up in a rigid class mentality....one mans "rigid class mentality" is another mans sense of the obvious.

 

[iARTthere4iam]

Stronach has not even lived in Canada for one lifetime. And he certainly hasn't been "pulling the strings" for whole time he has lived here. Success in one's life is no crime.