Posted on 04/30/2008 10:24:42 AM PDT by Caleb1411
Unless we're subjected to another major league game of "double-dare ya" between the Legislature and Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the 2008 session will soon come to a merciful end. With luck, we'll still have a few bucks in our over-taxed pockets and a few freedoms left to enjoy.
But with political food fights the name of the game at the Capitol, it can be hard to see beyond the battle du jour and ask ourselves the big question: Who do we want to be as a people in Minnesota?
To get some perspective on this, it can be helpful to visit a far-away country and keep your eyes and ears open. Though it's hardly graduate-level political science research, I'll offer my recent week in Scotland as a modest contribution to the discussion.
Scotland is beautiful, and its people are the friendliest I've ever met. But the country illustrates the problems that can arise when government takes a central role in people's lives.
One of the first things I noticed when I arrived in Edinburgh, for example, was the price of gas. It's close to $10 a gallon. Scotland is rich in North Sea oil, so what gives? More than two-thirds of that price is tax.
Scotland's gas tax burdens families and businesses in ways that Americans can hardly imagine.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
And they vote for any politician that promises them more government benefits...
Katherine Kerstin has really become a rising star in journalism. Good investigative reporting and relevant analysis.
Agreed. This sort of journalism should be the norm, but of course it isn’t - so she stands out.
But, but, its free and think of the children and the poor and the oppressed and disadvantaged and the inequalities of a free market health care system.
So what if the care is "appallingly low" we can now all be equal.
BIG SARCASM TAG.
I work with an Indian guy who wants to move back to India in the near future because he has more freedom there! He was serious, and made a good case for it. I wanted to puke when he told me that.
And liberals (a lot of 'em read the Star Trib) fulminate whenever she writes. Almost every Kersten column engenders apoplectic or snottily critical letters to the editor.
At least the Gang of Six had to fall on their swords. I don't think any were endorsed at district party conventions.
There's definitely a lot to be said for places where government is too weak and corrupt to be bothered with things like meddling in and hyper-regulating people's lives and stamping out black-market and barter economies.
I noticed the same thing in Russia - there's a healthy spirit of tax evasion there honed to razor sharpness by 90 years of Communism.
Imagine if Andrew Carnegie had stayed in Scotland - there’s not the slightest chance he would have become one of the world’s richest and most successful men.
Maybe the reason Europe sucks so much is that nearly all the good Europeans emigrated to the US.
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