The left wing is asking the wrong questions (vs. Vegan Commie John Sakars!)
01 January 2020 [link youtube]
My earlier video discussing education policy (mentioned on-screen here) was, _The University is Broken: "Academically Adrift" Book Review._ Link = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KEXfDpeDs
You don't want the link to John Sakars' channel do you? DO YOU? *Sigh.* Fine, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSakars/videos
The specific video I'm responding to here was titled, "Everything Should Be Free". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3nhg9B-aXk
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And there is, in fact, a youtube channel that has my own legal name, Eisel Mazard: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuxp5G-XFGcH4lmgejZddqA #vegans #veganism #politicsinpyjamas
Youtube Automatic Transcription
yeah
[Music] [Applause] one water that is one of my eggs everybody deserves fruit that is one of my face everyone deserves housing that is one of my eggs everybody deserves clothing that is one of my bags thank you for listening to my thanks change the world so a big part of why the left wing comes to the wrong answers is because they begin by asking the wrong questions and I grew up in an extreme left-wing family my family - : left wing would be an insult to the left wing I mean my parents were communist extremists they weren't even moderates compared to other Communists a better way to phrase this question is not about what you deserve and what you demand the government provide you with and not to put too fine a point on it but let's think for a moment about the meaning of the word government they're supposed to govern they're not supposed to house you feed you clothe you write as opposed to governing the economy the government providing you with absolutely everything in life it's not really what the meaning the meaning of the word to govern is as a verb right um suppose instead of asking what do we think we deserve and then giving a list of all these things that you're demanding to get for free suppose were asked the question what percentage of working people in the population are employed by the government because those are the people who are having all their needs provided for by the government by taxpayers dollars it might surprise you to hear because these numbers really don't appear in the mainstream press they're not discussed in politics homily might surprise you here that in Canada it's about 20 percent so that's not 20 percent of the population it's 20 of the people who have jobs 20% of those jobs are working for the government and Canada is in danger of going bankrupt it's very difficult for the taxes generated by the other 80% to pay for those 20% plus all the other things governments have to pay for you know a huge amount of responsibility that's on the government's shoulders now a much more interesting question to ask is what is the ideal number what percentage of people should be employed by the government what percentage people should have their needs met by the government instead of 20% in Canada it could be 10% and it could be 30% you could actually go up and down look at other countries okay an example of a country that's around 10 percent currently Peru Colombia and South Korea those are all examples of countries were about 10 percent of the workforce is employed by the government and I would not call them paradise and I would not call them hell on earth they are doing ok those countries they have their own problems so what have you now who is there who's up and about 30 percent Oh Singapore so Singapore is famous having a very active government sector Norway 37% many people right now on the American left-wing talk about Denmark being a sort of ideal Society a hybrid of socialist and capitalist elements in Denmark 31 percent of the workforce is employed by the government as having their salaries paid by taxpayers is public sector in this sense right is Denmark the ideal is that the is that the perfect balance in society or is it Cuba a communist country at 77% [Laughter] that's a meaningful question ask what we know what's the balance of private sector and public sector that's ideal and even though it may sound appealing as propaganda the question being posed here by John sack arse it's inevitably going to come to all the wrong answers because he's fundamentally asking all right so my own set of values is in some way compatible with the left wing and in some ways incompatible with left wing one very left-wing policy that I would support would be eliminating the private sector from education right I don't think private for-profit companies should operate prisons I think there should be entirely government public sector employees the prison system likewise I don't think private for-profit companies should be operating schools for children I don't think churches or mosques or synagogues should operate schools for children I think religion should be eliminated from schools I think private for-profit corporations should be eliminated from schools that actually puts me on the left-wing fringe in Canada almost nobody on the political spectrum is going to take this position because in Canada that would mean kicking the Catholic Church out of Education right there'll be a big deal be a huge change the Anglican Church - and so on and so forth it would mean shutting down a lot of private for-profit corporation university education my perspective is the same thing I don't think we should have religious groups and for-profit foundations and corporations offering university level education out there so the most extreme way to implement that view of the world would be to make the role of teacher and university professor a direct public sector employee in the same sense that members of the military or government public sector employees right they're paid with taxpayers money they answer to a code it's provided to them by that by the government so on and that's it where there is no private for-profit role there's no management coming from a church group nor from a for-profit corporation what would be the outcome of that it would mean that statistic we looked at before Canada right now about 20% of all employees are government employees public sector employees you'd be bumping up that number you'd be increasing that percentage the population that's in that tax tax money spending part of the economy and you'd be shrinking the part of the economy that's generating tax revenue that's generating profit and value and new products and innovating and so on for the sake of that ideal and yeah you know what one of the outcomes of my approach to education would be that education would be cheaper for everyone might not be free but it would be dramatically cheaper it could be more efficient and more effective if it's managed well if it's transparent if it's democratic if it's accountable and it could be much worse you could have the world's worst most incompetent government bureaucracy in charge of education doing a terrible job that's it's not hard to imagine in Canada where the quality of government we have is very very poor so I just say I'm not approaching this as someone who idealistically presumes that the free market has all the answers the free market will never be able to provide sewage treatment at a profit the free market trying to provide prison services at a profit I think has been tried and failed it's proven to be a joke and I also think it's deeply morally reprehensible home now conversely should the government operate casinos instead of practic corporations should you have government tax payers casinos who should operate orphanages who should take care of orphans do you really think that can be formed out to the private sector on a for-profit basis the same way that governments have tried to sign contracts to have for-profit companies generate electricity build roads and bridges the same way the government tries to have for-profit corporations take on as many roles of the government as they can so that more and more the economy is in that profit generating side of the equation and less and less is dependent on draining taxpayers dollars these are tough these are tough questions and they're going to be tough answers with long term implications changing the shape of the society you live in but just giving a list of demands for all the things you think you deserve and that you'd like the government to provide you with for free I've got to say I think that's a really dead ended self-defeating political discourse [Music] [Music]
[Music] [Applause] one water that is one of my eggs everybody deserves fruit that is one of my face everyone deserves housing that is one of my eggs everybody deserves clothing that is one of my bags thank you for listening to my thanks change the world so a big part of why the left wing comes to the wrong answers is because they begin by asking the wrong questions and I grew up in an extreme left-wing family my family - : left wing would be an insult to the left wing I mean my parents were communist extremists they weren't even moderates compared to other Communists a better way to phrase this question is not about what you deserve and what you demand the government provide you with and not to put too fine a point on it but let's think for a moment about the meaning of the word government they're supposed to govern they're not supposed to house you feed you clothe you write as opposed to governing the economy the government providing you with absolutely everything in life it's not really what the meaning the meaning of the word to govern is as a verb right um suppose instead of asking what do we think we deserve and then giving a list of all these things that you're demanding to get for free suppose were asked the question what percentage of working people in the population are employed by the government because those are the people who are having all their needs provided for by the government by taxpayers dollars it might surprise you to hear because these numbers really don't appear in the mainstream press they're not discussed in politics homily might surprise you here that in Canada it's about 20 percent so that's not 20 percent of the population it's 20 of the people who have jobs 20% of those jobs are working for the government and Canada is in danger of going bankrupt it's very difficult for the taxes generated by the other 80% to pay for those 20% plus all the other things governments have to pay for you know a huge amount of responsibility that's on the government's shoulders now a much more interesting question to ask is what is the ideal number what percentage of people should be employed by the government what percentage people should have their needs met by the government instead of 20% in Canada it could be 10% and it could be 30% you could actually go up and down look at other countries okay an example of a country that's around 10 percent currently Peru Colombia and South Korea those are all examples of countries were about 10 percent of the workforce is employed by the government and I would not call them paradise and I would not call them hell on earth they are doing ok those countries they have their own problems so what have you now who is there who's up and about 30 percent Oh Singapore so Singapore is famous having a very active government sector Norway 37% many people right now on the American left-wing talk about Denmark being a sort of ideal Society a hybrid of socialist and capitalist elements in Denmark 31 percent of the workforce is employed by the government as having their salaries paid by taxpayers is public sector in this sense right is Denmark the ideal is that the is that the perfect balance in society or is it Cuba a communist country at 77% [Laughter] that's a meaningful question ask what we know what's the balance of private sector and public sector that's ideal and even though it may sound appealing as propaganda the question being posed here by John sack arse it's inevitably going to come to all the wrong answers because he's fundamentally asking all right so my own set of values is in some way compatible with the left wing and in some ways incompatible with left wing one very left-wing policy that I would support would be eliminating the private sector from education right I don't think private for-profit companies should operate prisons I think there should be entirely government public sector employees the prison system likewise I don't think private for-profit companies should be operating schools for children I don't think churches or mosques or synagogues should operate schools for children I think religion should be eliminated from schools I think private for-profit corporations should be eliminated from schools that actually puts me on the left-wing fringe in Canada almost nobody on the political spectrum is going to take this position because in Canada that would mean kicking the Catholic Church out of Education right there'll be a big deal be a huge change the Anglican Church - and so on and so forth it would mean shutting down a lot of private for-profit corporation university education my perspective is the same thing I don't think we should have religious groups and for-profit foundations and corporations offering university level education out there so the most extreme way to implement that view of the world would be to make the role of teacher and university professor a direct public sector employee in the same sense that members of the military or government public sector employees right they're paid with taxpayers money they answer to a code it's provided to them by that by the government so on and that's it where there is no private for-profit role there's no management coming from a church group nor from a for-profit corporation what would be the outcome of that it would mean that statistic we looked at before Canada right now about 20% of all employees are government employees public sector employees you'd be bumping up that number you'd be increasing that percentage the population that's in that tax tax money spending part of the economy and you'd be shrinking the part of the economy that's generating tax revenue that's generating profit and value and new products and innovating and so on for the sake of that ideal and yeah you know what one of the outcomes of my approach to education would be that education would be cheaper for everyone might not be free but it would be dramatically cheaper it could be more efficient and more effective if it's managed well if it's transparent if it's democratic if it's accountable and it could be much worse you could have the world's worst most incompetent government bureaucracy in charge of education doing a terrible job that's it's not hard to imagine in Canada where the quality of government we have is very very poor so I just say I'm not approaching this as someone who idealistically presumes that the free market has all the answers the free market will never be able to provide sewage treatment at a profit the free market trying to provide prison services at a profit I think has been tried and failed it's proven to be a joke and I also think it's deeply morally reprehensible home now conversely should the government operate casinos instead of practic corporations should you have government tax payers casinos who should operate orphanages who should take care of orphans do you really think that can be formed out to the private sector on a for-profit basis the same way that governments have tried to sign contracts to have for-profit companies generate electricity build roads and bridges the same way the government tries to have for-profit corporations take on as many roles of the government as they can so that more and more the economy is in that profit generating side of the equation and less and less is dependent on draining taxpayers dollars these are tough these are tough questions and they're going to be tough answers with long term implications changing the shape of the society you live in but just giving a list of demands for all the things you think you deserve and that you'd like the government to provide you with for free I've got to say I think that's a really dead ended self-defeating political discourse [Music] [Music]