As IF Times

link Davos elites to seek reforms of outdated capitalism.

An interesting postulate, if only there were some evidence of it.  While it’s popular for the socialist crowd to bemoan the structural inequities of the capitalist system, in fact, there hasn’t truly been a capitalist system in place in any nation for many generations.  Certainly not in Europe, where in most countries, the predominant train of governing regimes moved from historically entrenched monarchies,  directly to socialism with only the  briefest whistle-stop at the capitalist station.  What they consider capitalism in Europe is akin to equating Dominos to Italian food.

It was historically natural for people to whine and complain that the King or the Queen (as the case may have been), weren’t treating the peasants well.  Under monarchies, upward social mobility was pretty limited.  You were either born royal, or married into it.  Even having money wasn’t a guarantee of social mobility.  Therefore, the majority of the population lived at the favour of the ruling class, receiving whatever crumbs the rulers deigned to confer.  This same mentality carries over to present day wherein people whine and complain about those in charge, demanding more of this or less of that.

The model for America was rather different, at least in the beginning.  People who were tired of others telling them what they could or couldn’t do decided to start their own country, a meritocracy based nation free of the constraints of entrenched and corrupt governance.  The problems arose many many years later when, along with great wealth creation, came the disease of entitlement.  Instead of a healthy focus on creating wealth and prosperity, the malaise of an entitlement to wealth and prosperity mentality began to spread.

Which brings us to today.  According to reports, fully 40% of Americans pay no federal income tax.  According to http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html , over 70% of federal income taxes are paid by only the top 10 percentile of taxpayers.  Even worse, apparently there are 70 federal welfare programs in place now to address “poverty” in the U.S., according to The Heritage Foundation.  Hardly a true capitalist system.

Meanwhile in Europe, the ability to fund months of holidays for workers, retirement benefits starting at 50, social welfare to accommodate everyone who asks, is coming up against the harsh wall of reality.  States such as Greece, Portugal, Italy and on and on are unable to fund these entitlements.  Somehow, the blame is laid at the doorstep of capitalism, when in fact socialism is the disease that afflicts all nations.  It’s brilliant sleight of hand that those who benefited the most from crony capitalism, which is in fact socialism, are crying crocodile tears about the failure of capitalism.  This is the same logic as decrying the existence of laws since the jails are so full of people.  It is the same as refuting the idea of universal education because some people are still illiterate.

We don’t  know who these so called ‘elites’ in the Cristal and caviar crowd are and how they came to be spokesmen for anyone, but it’s a good idea to be skeptical when the ones trying to sell you on the evils of wealth are the ones that have the most of it.  Next, Hugh Hefner complaining about promiscuity.

link BBC News – Concordia disaster: How safe are modern cruise ships?.

Of course it is possible that Captain Francesco Schettino was on his cell phone or texting at the time, causing him to lose track of where the ship was, resulting in the big fender bender.  If being on a cell phone while driving a car is bad, doing it while steering a ship the length of 4 football fields is the Super Bowl of OOPS!. Following the wreck of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, interested parties from all sides are giving their spin on root causes.  At the moment, the “Captain is at fault” theory is most popular, from the cruise line owner  all the way down of course to the future plaintiffs, of which there will be many.

Apart from the horror that the passengers had to endure from being unceremoniously dumped into the Mediterranean, they also had to watch the brave captain desert the ship, cartoon roadrunner-like in a puff of smoke.  Of course the real grief is about to come and the victims will be people who weren’t even on the ship.  The grief will be inflicted upon all future cruise passengers.

I’m referring of course to experts, lawyers and other professional nanny types who will now review the safety of the cruise ship industry.  There will be countless studies commissioned to determine how to prevent such an accident and to assess the safety of travellers.  While we all know that the root cause is operator error, no doubt the results of exhaustive studies will result in numerous new procedures to be imposed on future travellers.  Higher costs due to ‘safety fees’ will be a given.  The real nuisance will be the new safety procedures mandated by regulators.  The most annoying one will be the requirement to wear life jackets throughout the trip, even while sleeping.  You never know.  As it is, cruisers have to sign a lengthy waiver upon boarding anyway.  Sailing on a cruise ship arguably isn’t as safe as say, sitting in one’s living room, but it ain’t bungee jumping either.

The cruise ship industry spends billions of dollars to build ships with the most technologically advanced materials, navigation systems and implement the most stringent naval protocols.  The last time a big cruise ship sank was almost 100 years ago in 1912 when the Titanic brushed up against an iceberg.  Over the past 100 years, there have been hundreds of thousands of voyages by cruise ships without any big disasters thanks to improvements in materials, technology and techniques.  (The Poseidon Adventure doesn’t count ) Despite this,  all it takes is one human screw up to negate all of those efforts.  So, as in all aspects of our modern life, procedures will be implemented on the many because of the stupid actions of a few.

Most jurisdictions now ban the use of mobile phones in cars because apparently, people can’t be trusted to drive and carry a conversation at the same time.  While eating, applying makeup, fiddling with the stereo, shaving or arguing with the spouse is ok,  talking is not.  Recently, there was reported the ‘alarming’ statistic that there was a big jump in fatalities involving people wearing earpieces while walking along roads.  It’s a fair bet that there will be laws passed against this soon.  Either the wearing of headphones will be banned or people will be required to wear big reflectors on the back of their heads.

And then there’s TSA procedures at the airports, don’t get us started on that.  What’s happening now is unnatural and is only pushing back against theories of evolution. When you try to protect against every possible vicissitude of life, paradoxically, the species is weakened.  The species will lose their own ability to survive in anything other than a completely benign environment, like pet turtles in a bowl or Democrats in California.

To determine if cruising is safe is like trying to determine if the plate was at fault when someone chokes while eating.  There is no fail-safe against operator error.  As in most aspects of life, the solution is elegantly simple.  Punish the idiots, leave every one else alone.