Tag: mandatory

Categories
crime and punishment folly too much government

Downshifting Before the Cliff

climate, global warming, energy, government

A scenario: You and millions of others are willy-nilly running toward a cliff.

You don’t want to go over the cliff; like Bartleby, you would prefer not to. But you’re caught in the surging mass. Enough of the stampeders think that it’s the greatest idea ever — long overdue, in fact.

But just as you’re coming within sight of the cliff, the Great Leader leading the charge raises his hand and asks to be heard.

“We have decided that we are running too fast toward the cliff. We need more time to make the transition. We will therefore reduce the speed of our blind hurtling toward the cliff by 11 percent.”

Fiction? No.

The above summarizes the amended policy of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vis-à-vis how quickly policymakers will shove Britain’s industrial society over the proverbial cliff in the name of pretending to fine-tune global climate. Various bans on various things that people need in order to function will reportedly be slightly delayed so that people have more time to . . . pretend . . . to prepare.

It won’t become illegal to sell petrol (gas) and diesel vehicles so that buyers of new cars would be stuck with more expensive and impractical battery-powered cars until 2035. 

Not 2030 as previously stated.

Instead of 100 percent of gas boilers being phased out by 2035, the new goal is 80 percent.

Off-grid oil burners will now be banned in 2035, not 2026.

Other slight delays of annihilative mandates are also in the works.

British people, enjoy your five-year and nine-year reprieves.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Illustration created with PicFinder.ai

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national politics & policies too much government

Wand Wavers Aren’t Us

Why do some Washington wizards refuse to wave their magic wands? Why, they could make our world . . . wonderful!

On CNN’s State of the Union program over the weekend, guest host Dana Bash spoke with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) about her legislation to “give parents paid leave to be with their child in exchange for delaying retirement up to six months.”

“So, the question is,” Bash queried the senator, “if paid leave is so important, why would it require somebody to . . . lengthen their time working, to give up six months of retirement, in order to pay to have a child and work?”

In other words, why should employees not be awarded paid leave from their jobs whenever they want it? Without having to make any trade-off with their employer. Is Sen. Ernst some kind of cheapskate?

“[T]he plan that I have put forward . . . is a voluntary program,” she noted. “It is not a mandatory program.” 

Not mandatory? She must be relatively new to Washington.

“And that way, a parent can decide what is right for them,” explained Ernst. 

Time off taken now would be traded for equal time working later; it would not be simply forced upon employers to provide a freebie for employees. 

“But what we don’t want to do is impose an additional tax,” the rookie senator continued. “And I have heard from small business owners all across Iowa that say, if there was an additional tax, I wouldn’t be able to have as many workers or so forth.”

Voluntary federal programs . . . next thing we know freedom may break out.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Photo credit: New America

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Categories
general freedom ideological culture national politics & policies The Draft

The Opposite of Freedom

service, mandatory, draft, slavery, hearings, involuntary servitude

Do your young adult children need the government to take over their lives for, say, a year, to whip them into tip-top citizenship shape?

Forced service could be the new rite of passage into adulthood. Right after our kids finally get through high school or college, slap 12 months of “service to the nation” on them to help foster appreciation for the freedom . . . they had, instead, hoped to start enjoying. 

Sound good?

No. Not even to the folks at the National Commission on Military, National and Public Service (NCMNPS). Appointed to advise Congress on whether to end draft registration or expand it to women, and whether to force all young people to give up a year of their lives doing military or civilian “national service” for the federal government, the commissioners seem to eschew compulsion. 

Their emails, their website address expresses “inspire2serve.gov” . . . not “force2serve.gov.” Because inspiring people is noble, while conscription is despicable and wrong. 

Commissioners talk about a “personal commitment,” “a culture of service,” and the “overwhelming desire to serve” they’ve found among young people. Is it all just a rouse in route to a recommendation to Congress that young people should be forced against their will into government service?

And not even to repel invading hordes, not for any real emergency, but for basic government make-work and pretend nation-building.

Tomorrow at American University in the nation’s capital, the commission is holding a public hearing entitled, “Should Service be Mandatory?” 

No. Involuntary servitude is a stupid idea. And the opposite of freedom.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob. 

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service, mandatory, draft, slavery, hearings, involuntary servitude

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