No, it's true. The liberal answer to everything is more government, less freedom. Ever hear of a carbon tax? A gas guzzler tax? Federal excise tax? CAFE standards? Federal emission standards that bankrupted many trucking companies? "Assault weapon" bans? Gun free zones (aka free fire zones for criminals). Plans to bankrupt coal burning energy plants? Restrictions on coal production that put miners out of work? How about putting a moratorium on offshore drilling by the US and then giving a billion dollars to Brazil so they can start offshore drilling?
The liberal answer to every problem, real or imagined, is bigger government and fewer freedoms. You can't even add a room to your house without first getting permission. You can't conduct a transaction with cash (over $10k) without notifying the government. Still think you live in a free country?
I don't want to be awful, but this is crazy talk. To suggest that everyone who is concerned about ecology, the environment and out stewardship of creation is a liberal is absurd. To suggest that liberals are concerned to provide people with less freedom is in fact counter intuitive.
- Yes I have heard of a carbon tax, and my understanding is that is unlikely to happen in the US anytime soon, and it doesn't get much traction in Australia either.
- I have not heard the term gas guzzler tax, but given that nearly half the domestic cost of fuel in Australia is some for of tax or excise, I guess we have it.
- Excise taxes work in a number of ways to achieve outcomes intended or unintended by government, however I am not sure this is overly relevant and you just started throwing taxes in the ring.
- I am not sure what Cafe standards are, but I certainly think there should be some, I only drink long black now as a result of apaling cafe standards in Australia, and don't even try to drink the coffee in the UK, I get why they all drink tea.
- Emissions standards are a challenge for transport companies, and it does ask us to consider how we transport goods around our respective countries. We really should use more rail where we can, the damage to to our major roads by heavy vehicles is well in excess of the registration revenues received.
- Assault weapons bans and gun free zones is essentially not related to the topic of this thread, but as I have do doubt you are wedded to the 2nd Amendment I won't argue it. In Australia we have 10 guns to every 100 people, and in the US you have 110 guns to every 100 people. I will leave you to research which nation has the most firearms related fatalities.
- I live in one of the worlds largest coal exporting ports. Coal has been rather vilified, however energy production is essential to maintain life as we know it. We need to work out how to do it better. People who talk about clean coal probably haven't mined it. None the less there is, as you rightly point out a justice issue as well going on here. We are not to expect one part of our community to bear the burden of our decisions to care for the environment.
- The point of the argument about climate change is that this is a global issue. It is not a geopolitical issue. So stopping something in the US and doing it in Brazil, is as silly as mining coal in Australia and selling it to China and then blaming them solely for the pollution.
- Contrary to your assertion anarchy is not a civilised answer. Having seen the results of dodgy building practices in Australia recently (ask the 130 families evicted from their homes in one building who now face a million plus bill to put the building to rights) maybe complying with some standards is appropriate, and the cost of that is that maybe we no need permission to add a room. I am not even going to ask why you want to have non reportable cash transactions over ten thousand dollars.
- Yes I do live in a free country. I vote as I please, I worship as I please, and I express my opinions as I please. And yes there are limitations to ensure social cohesion and protect the rights of others. So my freedom of speech does not include the freedom to incite others to violence, nor to unreasonably denigrate others on the basis of the religious position, the sexual orientation, race, gender - and that also means that I am free from people doing that to me.
Genesis 1:26-31
Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’
So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
One of the things this thread is asking us about is how we understand our dominion. One the one hand we have those who wish to understand that we have the right to exploit the environment without regard for the consequences for future generations, or for others, and on the other we see those who understand this within the context of an entrusted stewardship.
Typically in the cost of manufacture of goods we have accepted that the costs include the labour, the materials and the overhead costs of that manufacture, with naturally some allowance for wastage and the like, and maybe some allowance for the research and development. Given that good have a useful life and are then to be disposed of, should the cost of manufacture include the future cost of disposal or is that just a government problem.
No. I am not a liberal.
