Russel Norman telling you how to live you life:
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“In a world of poverty and starvation, to spend $109,000 on a gas guzzler is downright wrong in my opinion. If you’ve got that much money spare, donate it to Oxfam and get a normal car.”
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Why stop there? Why should you own a boat, or indeed a holiday home, or a second car, or how about designer clothing, or how about a house that has more bedrooms than the number of inhabitants, or how about that overseas holiday?
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It is comments like this that simply want me to tell the likes of Russel Norman to fuck off.
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Besides how leftwing and deluded Oxfam is on many things, what right does he have to tell anyone how to spend their own money?
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If I want a luxury car, then so be it – I am likely to get something called pleasure from it – happiness, and I’m willing to pay for the petrol. I am not making Russel pay for ANYTHING, it is my money. Besides the lump of taxes the state gets from this exercise (which Russel will happily want to decide on where that is spent), it employs people producing and maintaining the car, but most of all – it is MY life.
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Russel may think he knows best how to run other people’s live, to dictate how they spend their money, to give people guilt trips about spending money on what he thinks is “wrong” vs what others like. I think fairtrade goods are a complete scam, hiking up the price of products so that everyone along the way can cream an “over market” premium, whilst encouraging poor people in developing countries to produce goods that are in overproduction. However, Russel probably buys them. I think it is a waste of money to buy anything produced by Michael Moore – a socialist fatcat who flies first class and enjoys the high life while bleating on about poverty that he never actually experiences. I also think it is downright wrong that ultrarich “celebrities” vomit forth platitudes about “saving the planet” and making average citizens feel guilty, while they consume goods and services without that guilt.
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The problem is Russel has the strange Green religious obsession about being “anti-car”.
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“In a world of poverty and starvation, to spend $109,000 on a gas guzzler is downright wrong in my opinion. If you’ve got that much money spare, donate it to Oxfam and get a normal car.”
^
Why stop there? Why should you own a boat, or indeed a holiday home, or a second car, or how about designer clothing, or how about a house that has more bedrooms than the number of inhabitants, or how about that overseas holiday?
^
It is comments like this that simply want me to tell the likes of Russel Norman to fuck off.
^
Besides how leftwing and deluded Oxfam is on many things, what right does he have to tell anyone how to spend their own money?
^
If I want a luxury car, then so be it – I am likely to get something called pleasure from it – happiness, and I’m willing to pay for the petrol. I am not making Russel pay for ANYTHING, it is my money. Besides the lump of taxes the state gets from this exercise (which Russel will happily want to decide on where that is spent), it employs people producing and maintaining the car, but most of all – it is MY life.
^
Russel may think he knows best how to run other people’s live, to dictate how they spend their money, to give people guilt trips about spending money on what he thinks is “wrong” vs what others like. I think fairtrade goods are a complete scam, hiking up the price of products so that everyone along the way can cream an “over market” premium, whilst encouraging poor people in developing countries to produce goods that are in overproduction. However, Russel probably buys them. I think it is a waste of money to buy anything produced by Michael Moore – a socialist fatcat who flies first class and enjoys the high life while bleating on about poverty that he never actually experiences. I also think it is downright wrong that ultrarich “celebrities” vomit forth platitudes about “saving the planet” and making average citizens feel guilty, while they consume goods and services without that guilt.
^
The problem is Russel has the strange Green religious obsession about being “anti-car”.
6 comments:
Why stop there? Well, you see, owning a "gas guzzler" is downright wrong, whereas owning a boat, a holiday home or big house, etc., is still wrong but to a lesser degree, and the line has to be drawn somewhere. But not by you. By Russel Norman.
Why does a line have to be drawn somewhere at all of course?
There is an argument to be made about conspicuous consumption- if you wave a big sign saying "look at me", don't be too astonished if some people don't like it.
The freedom to make your own decisions should be paramount, but the externalities of extreme consumption should be priced in by the government- for instance a tax on fuel or engine size to cover the climate damage.
There are two things there anonymous. The first is envy, which could equally be one of awe and ambition, and wanting to work hard to gain something similar. It works for a lot of people, but it is the insidious tall poppy envy that sees some wanting to attack others for their own success. It starts with bullying the smart kid at school, and is endemic as I understand it among Maori/Pacific Island boys.
The second point is far more complicated. Firstly, establish a link between the fuel consumption and "climate damage" and then justify why the government should make money from the activity? Does the government compensate those affected by the activity? No. In fact I rarely ever hear advocates of this regarding a payment for an externality to be a transfer from the polluter to the polluted, rather a justification for growing government, and putting the money into a pot to pay for whatever trendy policies there are at the time, regardless of their effect.
Russel Norman isn't an MP
Fair point uroskin, you're quite right.
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