THE LAST DITCH

The Free Society: Punishing the poor, the moderate and the sensible.

Over at the Free Society blog, economist Eamonn Butler states what used to be the bleeding obvious before welfarism rotted the national brain. As to his immediate point, he is quite right that the only people whose behaviour will be affected by minimum prices are those whose behaviour is not a problem. Drunks will prioritise alcohol purchases over more important ones, just as drug addicts do. And we all know what happens when you price their preferred purchase at a level that leaves them without other choices; crime. 

What struck me most strongly was his headline. Isn't "Punishing the poor, the moderate and the sensible" the true, if undeclared, manifesto of all the UK's mainstream, statist parties?

2 responses to “The Free Society: Punishing the poor, the moderate and the sensible”

  1. Mirabila Avatar
    Mirabila

    Ironically, it seems that the aim of many drug and alcohol policies, in many parts of the world, is to punish the moderate and sensible. Here in Australia there have been periodic proposals for legal heroin and safe injecting rooms – but only for addicts! It is always stressed that we must keep heroin away from those who want it just for recreational purposes. In other words, if you use it occasionally and try to avoid addiction you have to get it illegally but once you become an addict you get it with the government’s blessing!

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  2. james higham Avatar

    Yes Tom, it very much is.

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Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.

Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.

He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that

“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”

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