In a post for Dutch blog Dagelijkse Standaard, I respond to an article written by another Dutch blogger, Erdebe. In it, Erdebe argues that it is time for the productive part of society to rebel against the socialistdemocrats running this country into the ground. Following in John Galt’s footsteps – the infamous character created by Ayn Rand – he has decided to work one day a week less. This way, he explains, he will earn less and, so, the government can take less from him as well.
Although I am certainly sympathetic towards such a sentiment, I’m afraid to say that I don’t for one second believe such a plan will work. The reason? Well, the weakness of it is that it assumes that social democrats and socialists actually care about what happens to society. I don’t for one second believe they do. They care about one thing: material equality. As long as they can make people ‘equal,’ they’re happy.
Many think that social democrats prefer a specific kind of equality, one in which all members of society are reasonably prosperous. I disagree. I believe they don’t care about that at all. How prosperous is irrelevant to them. They want all of us to be ‘equal’ and if that means equality in poverty and misery, so be it.
This means that we have to win the debate by other means. Going ‘on strike’ isn’t merely childish, it’s also counterproductive. We have to beat socialists and their little brothers social democrats, by convincing the electorate that although they may not all be equal under a conservative government, they will prosper. And that if they vote for leftists, well, they can look forward to being equal – equal in misery.
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What makes you think that Social Democrats don’t “actually care about what happens to society”, other than sheer madness? And is that specifically for the Netherlands (I can’t speak for that)?
If they cared about it they would give up some power and some central control to promote economic growth and some prosperity. To the far leftist control is more important than prosperity. They will never admit that but their actions show this to be true time and time again.
Why Go Galt when you can invest in China …. oh wait…..