-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.26/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.26/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times </A> ----- Laissez Faire City Times June 28, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 26 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Propagating the Faith by Peter Topolewski We ought to know we’re in trouble when even the socialists begin labeling some of our most prized methods of governance "Soviet-style". The term is only used derogatorily these days. That massive experiment in bastardized Marxism was once the flagship of socialist dreams. It often matched the best the West had to offer in science, military might, and industrial production. But being the slow, lumbering behemoth it was, the Soviet Union could produce only at great and fatal cost. Through sheer quantity it hoped to produce quality, and so is now sadly remembered mostly as a backward society propped up falsely on myths and crushed under the weight of bureaucratic inefficiency and indifference. A few months ago British Columbia’s deputy premier Dan Miller used "Soviet-style" to describe the provincial management system for the forestry industry – the province’s largest. In the interests of the people and for the good of all – who own public land in some ways, and don’t in many others – the BC government owns 96 percent of forest lands, while private hands own 1 percent. By way of comparison, the US government owns 28 percent of US forest lands while 59 percent is privately held. In France, the government owns 12 percent and the private sector 70 percent. The forestry industry in Canada, and in particular BC, has an unflattering reputation throughout the world for poor stewardship of its public lands. While private ownership is not necessarily synonymous with good stewardship, those countries with a preponderance of privately-held forest lands by and large have a better record of managing the forestry resource. The fact that in Canada no one using the "Crown land" has as direct a stake in it, as they would in private land, must surely explain part of this neglect. "Crown" – taken to mean the ruler and all his or her subjects – really equals no one. And so rather than representing the "good of all" the Crown effectively represents the good of no one. When the Soviet Union’s façade looked its mightiest, it was also known for the pervasive control of its subjects. This is much akin to what forest policy in BC is about – a few controlling the many, ostensibly with the interests of the many at heart. It is worth noting that the deputy premier’s words caught his party and that of the official opposition off guard. He made it sound as though the socialists (of which he is a member) were ready to relinquish Soviet-style control. In fact, they continue to be one of the biggest proprietors of oppressive control – "for the good of all." A Union Pension, Soviet-Style In the last few weeks the deputy premier’s party has introduced legislation to cut off union pensions to early retirees who go to work for a non-union firm in the same field. The law will affect about 10,000 union members in 30 multi-employer pension plans; half of these members are in the construction industry. For the average construction worker, who has spent his life plying his trade and contributing to his pension, retirement means collecting a monthly paycheck ranging from $500 to $3000. If the pension is not enough to live on, as many retirees indeed find, one and possibly the only option is returning to work. Realistically, that means returning to what they know best – their former field. Coming soon, however, is the Soviet-style law that forbids such practice. That is, the government has ordered that your pension money is not yours to have, but the union’s to take away. And you do not have either the freedom or the right to work where you please, rather only the right to work where it might please the government and its union friends. The legislation has been presented as a holy protector of the many – that is, the active union members. Proponents of the legislation argue that former members who in retirement go to work for non-union companies undermine the unions; by virtue of their inherently lower wages the non-union companies can outbid unionized ones. In some quarters this has been called competition and is regarded as a virtue. To the government it is a crime, in no small part because competition reveals the false supports holding up the state ordered industriousness. It is no coincidence that this language should be reminiscent of that former Soviet society. The unions that the government wants so vigorously to preserve share the Soviet Union’s inflexible, collectivist traits. And so the provincial government legislation is completely in line with the philosophy that the "good of all" need be protected, even, perhaps especially, at the cost of individual liberty. No doubt it is quickly becoming evident that casting the forestry sector in a Soviet-style light is frighteningly more appropriate to his government than the deputy premier meant to suggest. Continuing to search for the similarities could easily become a full-time hobby, not to mention an exercise in masochism, but it is both illustrative and important to point out at least one more that has made the press recently. Like the control-obsessed Soviet Union, the BC government sees fit to operate monopolies shrouded in secrecy. Government Car Insurance The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) is the province’s public car insurance agency. As another Crown corporation – that is, one owned by all of us – it has a monopoly on mandatory automobile coverage. For the past few years, private insurers who offer supplemental coverage at lower rates than ICBC have been attempting to find out how ICBC sets its insurance rates. They suspect that 80 percent of the drivers buying mandatory coverage from ICBC are subsidizing 20 percent of the more dangerous drivers on the road. Nevertheless, the province’s privacy commissioner recently ruled ICBC ("our" company) does not have to reveal how it sets its rates, not to us or to anyone else. That information is considered a trade secret that could, heaven forfend, benefit the competition. Even worse, that information could bolster arguments for privatization. Commenting on the privacy commissioner’s ruling, the minister in charge of ICBC, Dale Lovick, stated: "He (the privacy commissioner) recognizes the argument that it's analogous to trade secrets and to protect yourself against that kind of unfair competition, you therefore need to do this." There, without question, is the philosophy guiding this system: competition is by its nature unfair. And should we have any doubt of the goal, Lovick spells it out: "Everything I know tells me that the system is quite fair and indeed is working precisely as it is designed to." That is, precisely as the government decrees. Inefficiency, control, secrecy – the BC province, like many other governments you probably know, has Soviet style down to a T. But, of course, to these we must add lying. For if the deputy premier was, in likening BC’s forest management system to the Soviet Union, suggesting his government is prepared to move away from its hard-line socialism, he was surely lying. Looking at his government’s actions we see that, despite his words, he and his colleagues are simply trying to propagate faith in a bankrupt and doomed system. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Peter Topolewski was born in Canada in 1972. Against the odds that seem stacked against everyone at birth, he is just now beginning to learn that the society and system of authority one is born into is not the society and system of authority one must accept. He lives and works in Vancouver, where his corporate communications company is based. -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 26, June 28, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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