In a time of expanding surveillance and shrinking liberty, the citizens of Great Britain are now threatened with yet another massive assault on their rights and dignity.
A certain Lord Smith of Finsbury wants the government to lord it over Her Majesty’s subjects even more obnoxiously by slapping them with a “personal carbon allowance.”
This carbon allowance would be enforced by giving everybody a personal ID number. Britons would have to supply the number whenever they buy anything, from gas to airline tickets, affecting their carbon output. Presumably, vendors would check a customer’s newest proposed purchase against some database. Only so many logs you could toss on the fire and then you’re out of luck, unless you buy more carbon credits.
The proposal is vicious in itself. But the potential for “abuse” of such an abusive protocol is also massive. In an age of rampant credit card fraud and identity theft, how hard would it be for a sales clerk in the proposed regime who has used up his own quota to “borrow” somebody else’s carbon-permission ID number?
If the British government wields this latest Orwellian bludgeon and the citizens don’t rebel, they’ll accept anything. We Americans may shake our heads in disbelief, but we’re hardly immune to such eco-totalitarian trends.
It can happen here. After all, Lord Smith’s proposal merely takes the obsession over carbon emissions to its logical — and absurd — conclusion.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Personal Liberty Allowance”
Both Europe and America are bankrupt economically, morally, intellectually and spiritually.
Better start taking Mandarin and Portuguese lessons as the future lies in China, Brazil and India.
It’s amazing how a poster like Egon Martinovsky can make such comments. I know him personally and unfortunately had financial dealings with him. He used lax, Brazilian laws and regulations along with corrupt government workers to scam me and another fellow from New Zealand out of $60,000.00 in a property/partnership deal back the mid 1990’s. Apparently, he also did something similar in 1986 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Now he shamelessly spouts off on the internet about the decline of Europe and U.S. values. In reality, HE IS the one bankrupt economically, morally, and spiritually.
China? A repressive dictatorship?
Brazil? A country that has for decades been “The country of the future”. Funny thing though, the future never seems to arrive. Corrupt presidents and politicians have ruled for years.
Now..The Brazilian president embraces the likes of Hugo Chavez &
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
I can smell a scandal of major proportions brewing now.