quinta-feira, 21 de dezembro de 2006

Libertarians (Ayn Rand flavour) na Dinamarca

Bank director: Welfare state is culprit behind Jagtvej tumult

Lars Seier Christensen, the co-founder and chief executive of Saxo Bank, says recent unrest at Nørrebro’s "Ungdomshuset" (Youth House) exemplifies the flip side of welfare state excesses.

Lars Seier Christensen, Saxo Bank’s liberal sharp-shooter, is taking aim at politicians, whom he says are ultimately to blame for recent violent demonstrations in Nørrebro in connection with the planned sale of the area’s Youth House.

"Many young people today – and a good many older ones – simply have no grasp of concepts like value creation and the right to property. Having grown accustomed to the teat of the welfare state in ever more areas, and the state’s ostensibly inexhaustible resources, many people have lost a fundamental understanding of how a society’s economy actually works," Christensen writes in the latest of his regular commentaries ("A Glimpse of the Future on Jagtvej"…from the series, "What Do You Say, Lars?") on Berlingske Tidende’s Business.dk.

Christensen sees a clear correlation between the development of the welfare state and the current Nørrebro turmoil – or rather, the paradigm and values behind the conflict.

"There is no real practical difference [in Denmark] between having a job and not having one. And there's no lack of opportunistic voices to chime in on the chorus of all the things a Danish citizen is entitled to, with no apparent obligation or anything expected of them in return. And what could be easier, mentally, for a maladjusted, lazy or immoral person than to demand his or her ‘rights’ – all the while condemning the capitalistic activities that are being taxed to the hilt to underwrite an endless array of state-subsidized services?" writes Lars Seier Christensen.

A link to the complete article (in Danish) can be found here – Note that the piece ends with an English-language citation from "Atlas Shrugged"…

http://www.business.dk/borsnyt/okonomi/artikel:aid=2016420

"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, `Who is destroying the world?' You are."

PS: Esta nótícia foi-me enviada porque conheço pessoalmente Lars Seier Christensen, com quem, quando me encontro, troco algumas piadas sobre os pouco libertarians existentes na Europa (na Dinamarca existem o Lars e um dos seus manargers). Dois anos atrás, a sua companhia (um Banco online), como presente de natal aos seus clientes , fornecedores, etc, foi enviada uma edição especial de "Atlas Shrugged" autorizada (coisa que não é fácil). Também organizou cursos de formação interna sobre ... objectivismo.

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