As IF Times

link Thomas Frank: The Rise of the Reactionary Right – WSJ.com.

Again, a simplistic summary of conservative, free market positions.  You would think by now, arguments against free markets would have some validity, some new revelation about why this economic model doesn’t work.  Instead we get the same old chestnut we’ve heard for years, which is, ” conservative policies have brought us to the brink of economic disaster”.

This argument is specious and your basic ideological drivel.  Whatever the shortcomings of economies, free market philosophies are not to blame.  In fact, it is exactly the opposite that’s true.  Whereas free market principles engender confidence among it’s citizens to go forth and be productive, the grafting of non free market policies on top of them is what makes things go horribly wrong.

With very few exceptions, when governments are charged with the oversight of any part of the economy, that sector is doomed for incompetence, waste and a one way descent into byzantine mazes of bureaucracy with departments often working at cross purposes to one another.  An apt analogy would be chewing gum in your hair.  It is such a mess that the only way to be rid of it is to cut off some hair.   Many government programs start off in  the same way that chewing gum gets on to the hair of kids;  someone thought it was a good idea at the time.

Conservative policies are not about every man for himself, this is the imagery that’s offered to convince people that progressivism and collectivism are more civilized philosophies.  The recent resurgence of conservative voices are about pushing back against cultures of entitlement and waste entrenched in governments and propagated by them.  At its core, conservatism is about not ceding to government control what you can do for yourself.  It is about being dependable and responsible rather than dependant and responsive.

I would invite anyone to point out any part of the economy that governments have control over which can be considered to be a success.  It’s amusing and maddening that politicians continue to propose large scale agendas which are for “the good of everyone” when there is no historical data for any efficacy of policies in the past.   When you purchase a mutual fund, there is printed in large letters on the prospectus, “Past performance are not an indicator of future returns”.  In the case of governments, there actually IS no history of past performance, certainly not for the good!  One more thing is worth mentioning from this article, an technique used which is common to all progressive pundits.  They obliquely compare conservatives to cavemen.  The GEICO guys are going to be annoyed.

link The Associated Press: UNAIDS: Funding cuts could lead to HIV nightmare.

Following up on the last piece about sending 42 million condoms to South Africa to fight AIDS during the upcoming World Cup, we visit the sober side of the news story.  I’ll neatly avoid discussing the whys and wherefores for AIDS being  in such full blown crisis there as well as in other African countries.  This way, I’ll neatly avoid the racist and divisive argument  regularly applied to us non lefties. 

Let’s use the perspective of another crisis which recently captured the headlines.  Recall that 6 months ago, a bird flu pandemic, innocuously labelled H1N1, was the big fear among nations.  News was  abundant with stories of shortages of vaccine, of people desperate for the shots, of all kinds of measures to educate people on ways in which to avoid contracting the illness.  Statistics on actual casualties from the flu are hard to find and quite undependable.  According to the Centre for Disease Control, there were 57 million cases of this flu resulting in a reported 17,000 deaths.  This statistic is questionable because according to the World Health Organization, total world deaths from this flu was about 16,000.  Either H1N1 was a problem mainly to North America or else mortality rates were vastly under reported worldwide.   The point is, deaths from the big flu panic were statistically negligible considering a US population of 300 million and a world population of 3 billion give or take.

Compare this to the affliction statistics out of South Africa for HIV/AIDS sufferers:

“…South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the country’s HIV treatment program is heavily dependent on external donor funding. An estimated 5.7 million South Africans are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, more than any other country…”  according to this article.

This in a population of 47 million people.  So roughly 12% of that country’s population is exposed to the ravages of this deadly disease.  The article also points out that 94% of funding for medication comes from outside funding.  While no one argues the humanitarian attempts to ameliorate the effects of this disease, unless there are policies to stop the flow from its source,  countries like South Africa will always be one finger short of the next leak in the dike.  People just can’t just do what they’ve been doing and expect that Governments will be there to pay for the fix afterwards.  Think about that.  You have a one in 8 chance in that country of being exposed to someone with HIV from carnal relations. 

 When you contract H1N1, it is really through no fault of your own.  One could be infected merely from the routine of day to day living.   In the case of HIV/AIDS, unless you have contracted it from a mother at birth, the disease is absolutely avoidable.  The causes are known.  Exchange of bodily fluids is the only way to be exposed.  For reasons of culture, or of ignorance, or of criminal behaviour,  HIV/AIDS continues to proliferate because of wrong headed attitudes towards its containment.  Rather than emboldening people with the idea that condoms will keep them safe from harm, how about pushing the idea that being discriminate about your encounters is a better solution?  Governments must be serious about prosecuting and or isolating those that willfully spread the disease rather than be content to be condom providers.   Imagine if a bird flu sufferer ran loose coughing all over your food.  Long established traditions and attitudes have to change, regardless of how unpopular they may be.

The consequence of visitors coming to South Africa requiring 42 million condoms and then going back to their own countries after being exposed to HIV is truly frightening.  It will make the hysteria over bird flu seem like a throat tickle.