The State of Finland has been terminated 01.01.1993

In Ilta-Sanomat 21.05.2005 there was an article of Juha-Pekka Tikka, according to which the Business information system, a State's own register, has terminated the State of Finland already beginning from 1.1.1993.

According to Ilta-Sanomat “The termination of the state was at his time the vision of Karl Marx, among others, on the post-revolution world, but today the thought is supported first and most by the right-wing libertalists.The expenditures of the Estimates of the State of Finland are this year in all about 38 milliard euros."

According to libertarians the Estimates of the State are indeed in need of trimming, but most libertarians would content to reduce the functions of the State to security and jurisdiction, to so called night-watchman state or minimal state. Only a minority, the so called anarcho-capitalists, wish to abolish the state altogether. The same objective is shared by other anarchists, though their views about how a stateless society would work differ from the ideals of anarcho-capitalists.

[Addendum: After the article in Ilta-Sanomat was published, the entry "State of Finland" in the Business information system has been changed into the form "State of Finland/HIghway areas of Varkaus".]

Suomen valtio on lakkautettu 01.01.1993

Ilta-Sanomissa 21.5.2005 oli Juha-Pekka Tikan juttu, jonka mukaan Yritys- ja yhteisötietojärjestelmä, valtion oman rekisteri, on lakkauttanut Suomen Valtion jo 1.1.1993 alkaen.

Ilta-Sanomien mukaan “Valtion lakkauttaminen oli aikanaan mm. Karl Marxin haavekuva vallankumouksen jälkeisestä maailmasta, mutta nykyisin ajatusta kannattavat etunenässä oikeistolibertalistit. Suomen valtion budjetin menot tänä vuonna ovat kaikkiaan noin 38 miljardia euroa."

Libertaarien mielestä valtion budjetti tosiaan kaipaisi karsimista, mutta useimmat libertaarit tyytyisivät supistamaan valtion tehtävät turvallisuuteen ja oikeudenkäyttöön, ns. yövartijavaltioon eli minimivaltioon. Vain vähemmistö, ns. anarkokapitalistit, haluavat lakkauttaa valtion kokonaan. Saman tavoitteen jakavat myös muut anarkistit, vaikka heidän näkemyksensä siitä miten valtioton yhteiskunta toimisi poikkeaa anarkokapitalistien ihanteista.

[Lisäys: Ilta-Sanomissa ilmestyneen jutun jälkeen Yritys- ja yhteisötietojärjestelmässä esiintynyt merkintä "Suomen Valtio" on muutettu muotoon Suomen Valtio/Varkauden maantiealueet.]

Erkki Tuomioja - markkinaliberaali?

Sunnuntain 15.5. Ilkka-lehdessä Erkki Tuomioja tarjosi Tanskan mallia parannukseksi Suomen työllisyystilanteeseen. Tuomioja muistutti, että Tanskan työttömyys on puolittunut kymmenessä vuodessa kiitos joustavan järjestelmän, jossa on helppo sekä palkata että irtisanoa työntekijöitä. Lisäksi nuorisotyöttömyys on saatu alas mm. alentamalla työttömyyspäivärahaa.

Ilmoittautuessaan SDP:n puheenjohtajakilpaan Tuomioja nosti suurimmaksi uhaksi markkinaliberalismin. Olisi mielenkiintoista kuulla, mitä hän markkinaliberalismissa pitää niin pelottavana, ellei juuri markkinoiden vapauttamista ja julkisten menojen leikkauksia.

Liberalism - the only ideology with a vision

Johan Norberg asks in his weblog is the Left nothing but a negation? He quotes a Swedish left-wing site:

"Unfortunately parts of the right do not seem to understand that large parts of the left define their own policy as a negation of the right, and the left therefore becomes more anti-Semitic if the right tries to simplify the issue about anti-Semitism into a question about liberal vs extreme left."

As Friedrich A. Hayek, nowadays also claimed by many conservatives as one of theirs, wrote in his essay "Why I Am Not a Conservative":

"...as the socialists have for a long time been able to pull harder, the conservatives have tended to follow the socialist rather than the liberal direction and have adopted at appropriate intervals of time those ideas made respectable by radical propaganda. It has been regularly the conservatives who have compromised with socialism and stolen its thunder. Advocates of the Middle Way with no goal of their own, conservatives have been guided by the belief that the truth must lie somewhere between the extremes - with the result that they have shifted their position every time a more extreme movement appeared on either wing.

The position which can be rightly described as conservative at any time depends, therefore, on the direction of existing tendencies."

This leaves liberalism (and I mean in the classical meaning of the word, not the distorted one used in North America, which is actually only a synonym to Left) as the only ideology which has a vision of its own, and which therefore can take the initiative. The socialists will then suggest a course of action diametrically opposite to the one initiated by liberals and the conservatives will oppose any change to either direction. Usually the term "reactionary" is used of conservatives, but maybe it should be extended to the socialists.