fatvegan

I don't know how many times I've heard "We don't want charity. All we want is a fair go." But it's a lot. Usually from people asking for government support in the form of tariff protection or price-fixing.

My economics teacher last year used the phrase regularly - I tried to get it into my essays. When I suggested to him that tariffs and price-fixing were charity he agreed, but didn't seem to see how that affected the original statement. Economic support from the government is charity. Which isn't a bad thing. I love charity. We need much more of it. But I wish people would call a donkey a donkey.

There is one major exception I can think of, where the government isn't giving people a fair go. Government regulation of dairy farming cooperatives (regulation=banning), while turning a blind eye to the Woolworths and Coles cartels. They're each cartels in their own right; they don't even need to collude. 78% market share between them. Sometimes the goverment acts like it doesn't care about or doesn't understand the problem at all. It's like they think that crushing suppliers and leaving big buyers to do what they want, people will get cheaper prices. But I reckon that's just silly.