Jerry Pournelle On How The World Works
JERRY POURNELLE ON THE WORLD:
The purpose of modern government is to take money from the folks who save and pay their bills and live within their means, and use that to hire government workers; and to keep their power by using the money to buy votes from those who do not save and pay their bills and live within their means. And of course the money comes from those who work and save and pay their bills and live within their means — who else will have any money for the government to take?
Or am I unduly cynical? But you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Lottery winners are not taxed in the UK…
July 19th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
This is a thankfully much abbreviated version of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”. It’s also unusually terse for Pournelle, whose long rambling columns were a feature in the much missed Byte Magazine of the ’70s and ’80s.
Nice to know that Pournelle’s still alive and kicking and trying to get his mind round Big Thoughts. But Tom Jefferson he ain’t.
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Chris
July 19th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
What a pity Jerry didn’t manage to get these uplifting thoughts back in the days when he was inspiring students at the US Airforce Academy.
Who knows, if enlightenment had struck just a little bit earlier the people now leading the Airforce might have thought that they had better things to do with their time, and the taxpayers money, than designing “comfort capsules” for senior officers to be installed on military planes and paid for out of counter-terrorism funds.
‘Air Force documents spell out how each of the capsules is to be “aesthetically pleasing and furnished to reflect the rank of the senior leaders using the capsule,” with beds, a couch, a table, a 37-inch flat-screen monitor with stereo speakers, and a full-length mirror.’
There’s always hope, however. Perhaps Jerry might read the Washington Post article…
http://tinyurl.com/5fs4s2