Finally, something relevant

As of late I've been so clogged up on RatherGate & The Fight to Miss the Point on Iraq that I couldn't even be bothered to pay much attention. When politics gets you down, nothing satisfies like committing mass murder in a game of Grand Theft Auto...

Uh, anyway, in the midst of all the bickering on the economy, Dan Gross at Slate makes a key observation, pronouncing the death of "Welfare Capitalism" -- the term describing our familiar arrangement where the type of things more Left-leaning nations assign responsibility to the government on we have attached to employment instead.

His conclusion -- that as private benefits are cut people will inevitably clamor for government to step in -- touches on a point of concern I've had w/ corporate status for awhile. Their structure essentially makes them a testing ground for future plans in gov't, softening people up to the idea of a largely faceless collective being ceded control of their lives. I'm not trying to say I have an answer for this, or even that I necessarily think there is one, only that it is something I feel we need to ask ourselves about.

If (as the author suggests) it turned out that global competition was what finally pushed us into full-blown nanny stateism....it just may be possible to overdose on irony.


Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get back to blowing up cop cars.