Monday 29 February 2016

Civic Duty in a Free Market Brexit


Apropos the clothes question from yesterday, Hay has her 'acid test' trousers which set the standard for her weight. If they get too tight, then it's a signal that it's time to pare back on the calories, rather than going up a size. I'm a bit similar myself.

Hay is involved in setting up clinical trials and longitudinal studies for the NHS. She was telling me last night that whereas 92% of pregnant women who were born in 1946 agreed to sign up for a longitudinal study into their children's health, only 2% of today's pregnant women agree to sign up. That's a shocking statistic and indictment on the altruism of the present generation.

Back to Brexit:

I'm seeing a lot of stuff about subsidies and protectionism versus the free market in the context of Brexit. While I tend toward free market economics, I don't treat it as an ideology with everything being black or white, however, some do. The free market promotes efficiency, but there are times when efficiency at any cost is a bad thing, like when it can result in the decimation of an industry and a total reliance on foreign exports, or when it results in industries or services falling into the hands of rapaciously efficient and psychopathic Big Business, which has no consideration for people or ethics, but only profit.

My decision on whether to leave the EU or not hinges on whether the EU wishes to standardise the size of contact juggling balls. Well, it's about as cogent as many of the arguments being put forward by both camps. How about a decision on the standardisation of clothes sizes or light bulb connections?


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