from Verse Eighty-SevenWhen laws are intricate and punishments severe, then the people become devious. When those above have many interests, those below do a lot of posturing. When much is sought, little is gained. When prohibitions are many, little gets done.~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
Here, in the US, the size of federal legislation has become mind-boggling. It's not uncommon for bills to number in the thousands of pages. Not surprisingly, our representatives who vote for or against these monstrosities often will later admit that they cast their vote without reading the whole thing.
Hand in hand with the mammoth size of legislation is a new industry -- people who are hired to figure out all the ways to get around the wording in new laws. These lobbyists and lawyers are tasked with finding or creating loopholes which, if successful, render the new laws rather moot. So, the next time someone contemplates new laws to fix the loopholes, the legislation becomes even more wordy in the attempt to guard against the further bastardization of the legislative intent.
It's a symbiotic relationship at its worst! Both sides reinforce the others' existence and each causes the opposite side to work harder to try thwart each other. And so, what should be a simple and straightforward process becomes a convoluted nightmare!
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
Hand in hand with the mammoth size of legislation is a new industry -- people who are hired to figure out all the ways to get around the wording in new laws. These lobbyists and lawyers are tasked with finding or creating loopholes which, if successful, render the new laws rather moot. So, the next time someone contemplates new laws to fix the loopholes, the legislation becomes even more wordy in the attempt to guard against the further bastardization of the legislative intent.
It's a symbiotic relationship at its worst! Both sides reinforce the others' existence and each causes the opposite side to work harder to try thwart each other. And so, what should be a simple and straightforward process becomes a convoluted nightmare!
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
This is an accurate description of the state England finds itself in.
ReplyDeleteThe marxist Nu-Labour government has created one new law for every day it has been in office.
Government is not only in one's bedroom, but everywhere else too, up to and including one's garbage can.
They chatter on and on, while saying nothing.
Big government is the end of people.
All your comment leads me to believe is that you don't have the foggiest notion as to what Marxism entails.
ReplyDeleteI don't know enough about the current state of British politics to comment as to whether the Labour Party is Marxist today in any sense. They were once committed to the overthrow of the capitalist system, but I believe they backed off from this commitment at some point shortly after the end of the Cold War.
ReplyDeleteI think in general Marxism--although its ideal is a withering-away of the State--entails big government. Any time that an ideology proposes to change the world from what it is into what (we think) it should be, there will have to be constant policing of human beings to make sure they will be and think as they should be and think.
This aspect of the Labour Party might well be reminiscent of Marxism, although I don't think they are strictly speaking committed to the Marxist program for society and economic life--although again I may be wrong.