Readings

Two excellent articles from, of all places, The Guardian.

First, Andrew Chambers examines the Rousseauist tendencies of the Fairtrade movement, concluding that it actively prevents mechanisation and, yes, progress in the countries that need it most, while ensuring that the poorest rural workers fail to benefit [hat tip, Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution].

Second, Simon Jenkins gives a fresh spin to the familiar refrain that Britain, like the U.S., has too many trivial offenses. He has the frightening example of a businessman jailed for three and a half years for VAT fraud by a judge who wasn't sure if he was really guilty of anything, after having his cash and company records seized so that he was unable to mount an effective defense.

Both of these stories remind me, in their different ways, of a passage in The Prince, where Machiavelli advises the Prince to tax people heavily — to the extent that they can no longer live on the remaining income — but then to give the money back to them in the form of a dole. The point being that the state takes tax by right, so that those who do not pay it are criminals, whereas the dole is given as a favour and has to be merited, and can be lost after bad behaviour. So the money that used to be their own now comes to them as a gift from the Prince. The effect is to make formerly independent people dependent on the Prince.

In the first article that principle is at work in the field of economics, in the second article it is at work in the field of criminality. By constantly expanding the number of crimes on the books, the State makes many formerly innocent people guilty ... of something. People who used to be free as of right are now free only as long as the police do not inquire too closely: their freedom is now a gift from the State, and can be taken away at any time. Of course, this is a tactic that has been used against gays throughout history: kiss your boyfriend in public and go straight to jail. Only now that it's affecting large numbers of heterosexuals are the majority getting worried.