Someone's mad at Adminajad

There's an old saying that when the gods wish to destroy someone, they first drive him mad.

The President of Iran has sacked his central bank chief, as well as replacing the finance minister. He apparently wants to get more control over the economy. Like recently when he ordered banks to lend money cheaply as a means to fight inflation.
One can't help feeling that government intervention is more likely to be the cause of the problem, not the solution.
40% annual inflation, soaring unemployment, an oil-rich country needing to import petrol - sounds more like mismanagement.
Managing a modern economy needs modern methods, not those of the middle ages. Trying to do it during a vast arms build up and useless investment in nuclear armaments - well, that takes some doing at the best of times, and not least a little humility is needed.
Unless he's supposing that all problems can be overcome if you want it enough, in a modern "Triumph of the Will".

"More Money for Bastards"

This title of this post is a quote uttered by a panellist on the BBC show "Mock the Week" This is a usually funny topical news quix interspersed with jokes and stuff. The subject came up of new Conservative policies.
One panellist mentioned the policy of cutting taxes on business. "Which means", he said "More money for bastards".
One wonders just how to respond to such unfunny and crass stupidity. It's wrong on so many levels.
In the first place, taxes on business are taxes on shareholders. Many of these are not rich, and how can anyone say how many of them are "bastards"?
The sheer prejudice encapsulated in the remark is staggering. Suppose a panellist said "More money for the unemployed - means more money for lazy bastards?" Or "Help for immigrants - more money for welfare scroungers". Or "Moslems - they're all murdering bastards." Or "Christians - they're all hypocrites".
Only shareholders and businessmen, it seems. can be slagged off by the BBC.

On another level, who does he think creates the wealth that payes the tax that goes to teh BBC and pays his appearance fee? Without business there's no wealth at all.

And also, the easy to understand principle of tax incidence applies - who actually pays a tax.
Taxes on business don't fall on the business in a vacuum. It is a cost imposed on business, so inevitably raises prices. If business taxes were cut, we might see inflation fall but the businesses would be more profitable so wages can go up.

There's always a case to cut business taxes to nothing, on the grounds that the simpler the tax system the better. See Tim Worstall for arguments better than I can put it.

Classic kibbutz moment

In 1974, I worked on a kibbutz for six months. At the end of that time, I experienced something that sums up the old kibbutz movement.
I was told that because I had been there six months, I was entitled to draw the ration of casual clothes, to keep as my own. (Work clothes were already given out, and were taken in each week for washing. You didn't get the same ones back.)
So I did as I was told and turned up to the laundry. A shipment of casual trousers and shirts had been brought in and were laid out on the tables and shelves.
All the kibbutz boys (handsome, athletic) and girls (curvy, long-haired) aged between 18 and 25 seemed to be there. They were undressing and trying on the various shirts and jeans.
I did the same, and eventually selected a dark-blue pair of jeans and a smart shirt.
I signed for them and left. No money changed hands.

So, that's everyday socialism. You get what you need, by right of residence and working.

But also, you select from the management's choice, when they choose to give you one. You don't get cash instead, to go to spend it where you want.

So that's the original kibbutz moment.

Modern kibbutz moment

I recently visited a kibbutz in israel, where I worked for a few months in 1974. Like most of the kibbutz movement, and the country itself, it is very different now.
They used to have a herd of cows, orchards, beehives, glasshouses for roses, chickens, a shoemaker's workshop. The chickens and the roses have gone, the shoemaker died and his workshop is now a fitness centre. The dairy is larger, they took over a herd of the nearby settlement.
In 1974, the system was straightforward. Strict equality, goods and services awarded according to need, all persons work where they are told to, no differentiation in gross income. Cash was used for the relatively low level of personal spending. Holidays abroad were awarded by choosing recipients by lot.
So changed now.
· The same kibbutz has gone over to cash for salaries and pensions.
· Persons doing more valuable work get higher salaries to reflect that.
· The kibbutz has declined in population by nearly a third. The empty houses are rented out. So: the modern kibbutz is a landlord.
· The kibbutz focuses on high value added activity and exports a lot. The kibbutz participates in the global market.
· The kibbutz has a factory, with a 100 staff. The kibbutz is an investor and entrepreneur. · Half the staff are members, the rest are outside workers, both Jews and Arabs. The modern kibbutz is an employer of wage labour.
· The nuclear family has re-emerged on the kibbutz. The children's houses are no longer used during the night.
· The gardens were originally open-plan, with lawns and trees. Now, the residents mark out their parts with little fences and shrubs. I even saw one mowing his lawn.

The modern kibbutz - where you cook for yourself, look after your children yourself, and mow your own lawn.
Just like a suburb anywhere . . . so that's the modern kibbutz moment.