Ministry for Things We'd Like To Know
Tesco's: the best case for the nanny state?
Westmonster has just got back from the weekly shopping run and has reached the conclusion that whilst the nanny state is not a good thing, it may well be a necessary evil.
Just look at what goes on in a state of nature (or "Tesco's" as it's sometimes known) for a sense of what would happen if all restrictions on social norms were lifted overnight.
People would just wander around aimlessly, crashing into each other, not looking where they're going, and Lord only knows what would happen if there was some sort of dispute. Everyone would just stand stock still, trolleys parked all over the aisles, staring at each other dumbly waiting for the log-jam to magically shift as their children widdle all over the sugar.
Libertarians (we assume) by and large do not shop in Tesco's which would explain why they are so keen to celebrate the sort of Porter-esque bollocks that argues that the rolling out of the Tesco Model is a good thing. Presumably these high-minded discussions do not take place over Tesco produce either.
It's always the likes of us who suffer the political whims of the posh in the end, folks.
del.icio.us
digg
Facebook
Newsvine
reddit
6 Comments
So the obvious question is: where do libertarians shop? Lidl?
They get the staff to shop for them, I rather fancy.
Well this one shops in Sainsburys.
And we don't, as a rule, agree that rolling out corporate models is a good idea (we dislike corporatism as much as statism).
We just note in passing that you are rather more likely to get some food in a supermarket than say, have your health looked at in an NHS gp's office. And that is because supermarkets, anti-competitive as they are when they can get away with it, still have to compete for customers in something resembling a market and so keep their shelves rather well stacked and their checkouts queues not quite as long as a waiting list.
You might scoff at the simplicity but just imagine for a second what life would be like if you could only buy food from the government. It is not as if waiting lists for bread were not unhead of just a somewhat further East.
This one shops where he feels he might like, and doesn't go around pontificating that little people should put up with whatever the state feels they should be allowed, i.e. the 'non' Tesco model.
However, congratulations of the re branding of the century ~ yesterday is was fascism, now it's 'social norms'.
I'm a libertarian and you'll always find me down the local farmers markets , or using the small , local , butchers. Why? because i believe in the free market and supporting local small business.
for the rest of my shopping its whatever i feel like.
Internet shopping for the win!