Here we are once more, having a national holiday in most countries, just to remember the fate of heroic workers oppressed by the evil capitalists during certain period of the 20th. century, and how the glory of their actions resulted in the current well-being of the working class (…).
Any idea on the losses generated worldwide by this cosy day rest? Goods not produced, transactions not performed, new ideas not developed etc.?
If I were a “leftie”, my heart would be filled with “Schadenfreude” (sorry, I didn’t mean to be pedantic, the word is just perfect…).
From the viewpoint of most workers in the world, the best way to celebrate material well-being is exactly not contributing to it, as can be viewed, for instance, from our local demagogues/ politicians who consider the highest achievable glory in their political careers, to pass a bill creating a new holiday.
Any thoughts?
R. Halevy.
P/S: I’m taking advantage of this lazy day to run after some extra money by making a technical translation of equipment operating manuals for a Norwegian company; this post is just a mind-relaxing break.
The socialists in my country are at this point so lazy, arrogant and completely out of touch with reality, the best slogan they came up with for the May 1 demonstration was, are you sitting down!?: “EVERYTHING, FOR EVERYONE!”
I’m not joking people! This is the best they could come up with! There are stickers all over the town with this very progressive message! HAHA!
Even one of the laziest dummies I know about - our Brazilian President Lula, illiterate and arrogant - would’nt be so audacious to imagine such a nice slogan for their collectivist demagogueries!!
The fact that ignorant third-world masses would believe in such a strawman is no surprise; what makes me sad, however, is that an educated people (say, most of them at least having completed a high school or technical training) are stupid enough to believe that all of us can live at each other’s expenses.
I’m sure that countless surrealistic demonstrations will be taking place all over the world, stressing rotten ideas such as “class struggle”, “death to the neo-liberal globalization” (??? I’ve seen this one in Brazil once) and the like.
I wish these guys would just get a life, arrange some kind of productive job and contribute, instead of pretending to “fight for social justice”.
I always wanted a Ferrari Enzo and now, finally, the collectivists will make them fall from the sky (or is it grow from the ground?). Hail to parasitism! yeahaaa!
Consider the irony. My father is a “commie-hater” (though his political ideas are often a bit confused) and gets a little hedgy every time he sees a red rag flying. He was born the 1st of May in a traditionally Communist area (the streets there are still named after Gagarin, Lenin and other characters from “beyond” the Iron Curtain), he bears a “Soviet” name (they were fashionable back then) and today is in Beijing for his birthday…
Sometimes you cannot think that fate is not without a sense of irony.
heh. In April 1, I went to this new restaurant of some environmentalist folks I used to organize some events with where there was a presentation from some communists. (glad these folks got their asses out of the chair and are being useful – not sure the legality of it but funny how they ask people to sign a paper to become their “associates” so they pay less taxes for the meal)
The commies putted a banner in one of the walls – btw, funny how it took them like half a hour to get that done; they couldn’t even open a ladder they brought – that said: “Don’t Ever Work”. Seriously. I even make some green folks laugh commenting we should all get into social assistance. They passed one music with lyrics like “my master, I wish the day was longer so we could work longer”. They commented how the word work (“trabalho” in Portuguese) comes from some roman instrument of torture (?), and that Catholics used to admire poverty so it was Protestants who created the evil “work ethics” [1]. It seems their point was that we now work for the sake of working. I guess some government policies stimulate production/consumption by adding uncertainety with regard to savings and the labor market. Anyway, they were in some different state of mind, from some Rand’s character. They talked how in some country, the unemployment paycheck was good enough to even take vacations – another did comment that this was actually a bad thing, because this was meant to stimulate work. But the all level of the discourse was very dumb. I was actually getting frightnening of them, and actually left before it ended.
On the one hand, I see nothing wrong with taking days off every once in a while and on the other, you all have good examples of how fundamentally flawed the collectivist mindset is. I was never too convinced by arguments for libertarianism that focused mainly on the potential for increased wealth as I have found wealth an inadequate means to happiness. For example, my parents inherited almost a million dollars when my great aunt died but do not seem very much happier because of it with the single exception of the two week trip to Hawaii our family was able to take because of it. Sure there are some other exceptions as well, but they seem to be generally at the same state of contentedness before the money as after. What draws me to libertarianism is more that I see government causing ills by means of the general structure it creates which causes war, poverty, ignorance and a generally servile attitude, such that even the affluent live pitiful lives. Thus I have to say that I approve of the occasional day off from work whether it be May day, MLK day, Christmas or RE Lees birthday. I think libertarians too often assume that increased wealth is the means to a better society when it is not necessarily so. I have respect for the individualist who welcomes poverty, but none for the collectivist who will never be happy until all are in poverty.