Quote Of The Day: Quebec A Progressive Paradise!

Krooooooogman is out roaming the countryside telling tales of the evils of libertarian populism.

Oooo. Be scared children!

Listen to your betters and masters!

I won't bother with his little sketch, since he didn't even bother attempting to refute the valid points brought up (no, Krugs is too big and smart to descend into debate) but rather I hopped over into the comments section.

Quote from a Montrealer:

"I don't understand why the myth of what constitutes the wealth of nations isn't refuted by what has happened here in Quebec in the last 50 years. Quebec's quiet revolution saw the flight of of head offices of most Canadian head offices from Montreal to the lower tax havens of Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary. Along with the corporations the stock exchange and the upper echelons of Canadian Moneyed elite as their top corporate functionaries left for more business friendly climes..
Quebec went from the lowest taxed and least regulated corporate environments to one of the highest with the devastating result of having a better educated, healthier, wealthier and better informed population than it did when it was a socially conservative and business libertarian society. It is America's diversity and natural resources that have made it the wealthiest country on the planet. It is having mothers that were literate and empowered and past on that legacy that was the real wealth."

He did fine until....

Quebec went from the lowest taxed and least regulated corporate environments to one of the highest with the devastating result of having a better educated, healthier, wealthier and better informed population than it did when it was a socially conservative and business libertarian society.  

Now that's some specious anecdotal assuming going on there. I need a condom.

Stunning really.

Let's set aside the argument of the welfare state creating a better class of citizens (which I believe it didn't, just one feeling it's entitled to more shit) and examine Quebec's "growth" as a society.

This guy is saying, in effect, all the money left (yay!) and the taxes expropriated from the remaining less wealthy people led to a healthier society (yay!).

Marxist bull shit garbage at its finest.

Yeah, sure, if you measure success as everyone being 'equal' before a mediocre public system, sure, go ahead, pat yourselves on the back.

But Quebec still remains one of the worst performing regions in North America as a whole. So how did the creation of the social welfare state leave Quebec better off exactly? Education, health, public debt, free-enterprise in terms of welcoming private business, all of these we do poorly in.

We not only have not kept up relative to our "peers" in other jurisdictions, we're poorer and are equally as corrupt as times past.

Not only that, we also have little regard for civil liberties given our oppressive language laws and our record at the UN Human Rights Commission.

Right. All because of "libertarian populism."

Get the fuck out of here. We've regressed because of the coercive progressive agenda that has entrenched itself in the halls of political power and academia. Offering different perspectives is tantamount to threatening their existence and they make sure to dismiss anyone countering their views as "extremists!"

I think they were known as heretics once upon a time.

Positions like Krugman and this guy is problematic because it accepts the status quo on the premise that there are no competing ideas worth exploring. It's a political logical fallacy. The classical liberal is offering ideas to reset and reform an unsustainable and sometimes corrupt system. What is wrong with that?

The cold hard truth is these folks are on the wrong side of history.

Alas, Diocletian knew what he was doing when he made slaves of his subjects and Krugman and his legion of fans sit exactly on that side of the fence.

Sigh. Where's my pitch fork, Maude?