Gaah! X-D

I don't know how long it was up. I noticed it and did this screen grab immediately. I didn't look at it again for an hour or so and it had been fixed then.

I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else, so maybe this is what they call "an exclusive."

or maybe nobody else thought it was funny.

"maybe this is what they call an exclusive"

Your fifteen minutes. Milk them!

There are days when I just feel so stupid.

AMDG

Yeah, but I'm thinking that it was probably what Anne-Marie had in mind in the first place.

AMDG

21% sales tax; a top rate of income tax of 50% (for those earning over 3000 a month - most people pay about 25-30%; you don't pay any income tax if you're on less than 500 a month); property tax is fairly reasonable - 20% of the notional rental value of the property (which is considerably less than the real rental value), with 10% off that for every dependent child or elderly relative. Then there are social security payments. About 55% of the average Belgian's income goes to the state in one way or another. You work for society one half of the week, and for your family the other half, and in return society takes care of the unemployed, crippled, aged, and so on (it's sort of feudal, in that sense).

Given that I'm likely to give birth some time in the coming week, I'm a bit sensitive about the "teat" thing! LOL!

Paul, I see what you mean about it being almost feudal. Only, I wonder if the average peasant used to work as much as half his time for his Lord. Also, the peasant, by custom (according to Belloc at any rate) had full possession of his own land, provided only that he hand it on to his descendents (I believe he had not the freedom to sell it).

Imagine owning outright your own property with enough land to grow your own food, and working less than half your time for your Lord.

(I readily acknowledge the lack of decent dental and medical care and plumbing in the middle ages!)

I'm always just a bit skeptical of Belloc when he talks about the middle ages. Chesterton too, for that matter. I suspect they paint an overly rosy picture. I'd really like to learn more, from a variety of sources.

But yeah, it is true that the dem-soc model has some definite resemblances to feudalism, as I understand both. I sometimes think that the old American (and distributist) idea of a nation of mostly free property-owning citizens is just an anomaly that goes against the human grain. It seems to me that an awful lot of people, possibly most, don't really want that. They want to be, in essence, subjects, and dependents. Assuming of course that the lord or king is generous.

More than once, Chesterton replied to accusations that he was idealizing the Middle Ages by saying something along the lines that to advocate learning from what was good about a past period was not the same as promoting its wholesale imitation or recreation - that praising the benefits of, for instance, small ownership and local organization (as to be found in medieval Europe) in no way entails advocating the abolition of railways or modern medicine (he puts it much more lucidly and entertainingly, but I don't have the texts to hand). And Belloc was as keen on Revolutions and Republics as he was on medieval poetry and philosophy, and peasants and guilds.

I wasn't thinking so much of the more primitive living conditions--I mean, of Chesterbelloc romanticizing them--as a general softening and sweetening of the the culture and the times as they portray them. Those were some pretty hard-nosed folks back then...

I understand that some of this is just the contrarian streak that's very strongly visible in both Chesterton and Belloc, and that they were trying to correct the general "dark ages" misconception, which is to be applauded. Still, I often feel like they're prettifying things to some degree. Actually I'd say the same about Belloc's republicanism and revolution.

I think Belloc wanted to see men and their families with as much self-sufficiency as they could have b/c that is more in keeping with human dignity. Anxiety will afflict all people in every time and place and the only real antidote is a supreme trust in Divine Providence. My Nick feels anxiety as the breadwinner in our family and I sympathise with him (although I wish he'd worry a bit less, since worry doesn't actually solve anything or add to anything except stress levels). Still, I can understand it b/c he is responsible for the material well-being of 8 people, including himself and he would hardly be human if he didn't feel it.

I do believe, myself, that wherever possible, the family and its friends, neighbours etc ought to have as much self-sufficiency as possible. It is this that Belloc and Co are presumably examining in their appraisal of the Middle Ages and they make a plausible case. There is a great deal of subservience etc in the current Servile State type set up that most Western Nations now seem to have.

I think we are perhaps now so far gone that indeed most workers would rather the security of being wage-slaves than stepping out on their own. Although, part of the problem there is a lack of guild type structures for mutual support.

Most plumbers and doctors in Oz are self-employed, yet are not renowned business people. Why? Professional support and a general sense of "this is how plumbers/doctors do things." If you had that same sense in every sector, you'd have a lot of non-businessmen/women in fairly secure self-employment with relative ease.

Gosh, now you're making me feel guilty for giving up self-employment to go and work for a university ...

Pretty much the same here for docs and plumbers, though maybe less so for plumbers. I hadn't really thought about it till this minute, but there may be a trend here toward fewer self-employed plumbers and more small plumbing companies employing a dozen or two.

Engineers & software developers could potentially work in a guild-ish sort of way very effectively, and there have been a few attempts to get such movements going, but they haven't really gone anywhere. Too much inertia in the current system, I guess.

I know exactly how Nick feels, although there were only 6 of us. :-)

It is next to impossible for ordinary folk to get into their own business, or stay in it, (unless they are very business oriented) in an economy that is set up for Big Business.

Paul, I am suffering neurotic guilt for having made you feel guilty! Especially since you have just given me that great pile of Belloc books!

Which, I might add, I'm enjoying greatly. Mostly, I'm reading from Pierce's biography.

It's lying ready, Janet (you should perhaps ask Louise how long it took me to get round to getting the Pearce biography in the post!)

Ah... sending books in the post. It's one of those jobs that hangs around on the "To Do" list forever!

Oh, is that where that went to?