The Road to Serfdom

It's been too long since my last post, but I've just been too busy and, actually, still am. But developments in The Netherlands are showing the political agenda of the state, set to enslave the Dutch, and proclaiming every citizen to be a criminal unless proven innocent, where every rational human being knows that a negative can not be proven.

The Dutch state is on a cruisade to abolish privacy. It wants to ensure that it knows the whereabouts of each and every citizen, as soon as he or she leaves home. Public transport is being changed in such a way that it is no longer possible for anyone to buy a ticket anonymously. Private transport is changed in similar fashion. Roadtax (taxing property) is to be replaced by a toll system (taxing use). Already the intention of abolishing roadtax is being reverted by plans of implementing regional toll, that can 'obviously' not lead to national roadtax reductions. New province-based taxes are also already thought up, to replace the taxes that will be included in the new mileage tax. But it gets worse, much worse.

The intentions of the state are to follow each and every vehicle by sattelite (GPS) in order to be able to determine when and where that vehicle was at any given time, in order to be able to charge it based on the time and location. The stated incentive is to encourage people to drive at 'cheap' times, when the roads are relatively empty, and the only way of doing that is by tracking cars through GPS. This is nonsense, of course, even apart from the fact that the roads are almost never empty anymore, due to willful neglection of infrastructural maintenance while draining car drivers' pockets.

Earlier this year, in Orlando, I saw how tolls were arranged in a purely anonymous manner, either through cash payment or through an e-pass. While in Orlando the rates seem fixed (large fixed signs indicating the amount) it should be very simple to use matrix displays to indicate amounts and change the rates based on the time of day and traffic density. While an E-pass is replenished from a (named) credit card account there's no link between the passing of the gate and the owner of the e-pass, or the license plate of the car: the amount gets deducted, and the vehicle is only photographed (linking it to the location) if the toll was not paid.

But aparently this is too simple and possibly too cheap for the Dutch state. While the systems still need to be developed (with taxpayer's money) the state has already announced the penalty for tinkering with the GPS boxes that must indicate the car's location: a fine of 67.000 euro, or 4 years imprisonment. Murder is cheaper! In the words of Camiel Eurlings, minister for traffic, the severity of these sanctions are justified by the financial implications for the state, in line with (other) tax laws.

This statement says it all. Think of how easy it will become for the state to fine speeding once every trip is monitored and every violation of any arbitrary speed limit will be known. Think of how the state will notice anybody who drives to Luxemburg a couple of times a year, thereby becoming a suspect of having a foreign bank account, out of reach of the greedy Dutch state. Think of the endless possibilities for a governement of knowing all its citizens' whereabouts.

You can get away with murder with less punishment these days. And still, there's no climate for an uproar. This will in great part be due to the fact that in Europe people are not allowed to bear arms, and thus have no real defense against the state, with its power and violence monopoly. Apart from the Swiss, that is. This should again be a warning to all Americans not to hand in their right to self defense, and fight the states that want to abolish the constitutional right to bear arms, or even want to turn it into a privilege. Privileges can be handed out and taken back, at will.

The peoples of Europe have willingly walked the Road to Serfdom for a long time. Before they reach the end, things likely will get ugly, but it can still take quite some time before that happens. People still have too much to lose. They're like frogs being cooked slowly. But for protests to be successful, these protests must be massive, and there's little chance of that. We're too decent, unarmed and not trained to fight. Exactly why the Founding Fathers made the right to bear arms part of the constitution. A criminal government cannot do as it pleases when the people can defend itself. In Europe, governments can do anything they like, and get away with it. And unfortunately, the Dutch government is as criminal as they come.