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Bill: The Privitization Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Aldegar Freedom Party
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: June 2383
Description[?]:
| The True Conservative Party believe it is high time that this nation's people be weaned off of the government's teat economically. The individual should, within reason, be resonsible for his own income and the management of his own money. Therefore, the TCP believes that the individual should pay for and provide his own retirement fund. The TCP can see now reason why tax payers should contribute to the retirement funds of people who have not had the financial initiative and motivation of saving their own. The TCP also believes that tax payers should not have to pay for the health care of others who are mostly too greedy to pay for their own - in the vast majority of cases, the individual has the financial ability to pay for their own private health care, but simply chooses not to, instead punishing tax payers. Not withstanding, however, that some people or families legitimately do not have the means to pay for healthcare, for actual legitimate reasons, the TCP proposes that whilst healthcare should be entirely private, the government may perhaps contribute to the healthcare of these legitimately disadvantaged individuals. Again, in education, the TCP believe that the public school system is an unnessicary punishment on tax payers and is also largely inefficient. And again, as in the case of free public healthcare, many families have the monetary ability to pay for a private education for their children but choose not to, simply to save their own money, whilst severely infringing upon the rights of every other individual to keep the money he has earned. Again, however, the TCP understands that some individuals can not pay for their children's education for actual legitimate reasons, and therefore, the TCP proposes that the government may provide scholarships or subsidize the school fees of these legitimately disadvantaged families and individuals. Lastly, whilst the TCP does not believe in the welfare system, the party understands that certain people experiencing legitimate financial hardships for a period of time may not be able to work. That having been said, the TCP believes the nation's current welfare system encourages fraudulance and laziness in the unemployed, and robs the tax payers. Instead, the TCP proposes that legitimately disadvantaged individuals be supported by a minimal government handout, but only for a certain period of time - long enough to relieve them of any legitimate reasons for unemployment, and for them to find another form of employment or income. The TCP believes in the fundamental rule that every individual with two arms, two legs and a brain should work and make their own living, but the party does understand that in some cases, individuals have very reasonable and legitimate reasons for unemployment, and should therefore be provided with a short period of relief. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Health care policy.
Old value:: There is a free public health care system and a small number of private clinics, which are heavily regulated to ensure they treat their patients well and provide good care.
Current: There is a public health care system, but private clinics are allowed.
Proposed: Health care is private, but is paid for by the state for people with low incomes.
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change Guarantee of minimum income.
Old value:: All adults not supported by another person shall be guaranteed a reasonable, though not high, standard of living by the government.
Current: All adults not supported by another person shall be guaranteed a reasonable, though not high, standard of living by the government.
Proposed: All adults not supported by another person shall be guaranteed a very basic subsistence income by the government. However, the provision of this is not to exceed a certian period of time.
Article 3
Proposal[?] to change The government's policy concerning the pension system.
Old value:: The state operates a compulsory public system combined with an optional private pension.
Current: The state operates a compulsory public system combined with an optional private pension.
Proposed: The state does not operate a pension system. Individuals must save up for retirement on their own.
Article 4
Proposal[?] to change The education system.
Old value:: There is a free public education system and a small number of private schools, which are heavily regulated to ensure they teach adequate skills and information.
Current: There is a free public education system alongside private schools.
Proposed: Education is private, but the government issues vouchers to pay for the schooling of disadvantaged children.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 18:07:40, March 19, 2007 CET | From | Communist Party of Aldegar | To | Debating the The Privitization Act |
| Message | I'm going to get to the point - no. |
| Date | 20:43:48, March 19, 2007 CET | From | Party of Moderates | To | Debating the The Privitization Act |
| Message | No, this is absolutely unacceptable to us. Perhaps we could accept far less extreme measures, but we are the Party of Moderates, not the party of extreme privatization. Besides, we believe that it is important to have some form of a safety net. We believe that it is important for people to help each other. That is a duty. We believe the state is one way to reinforce that into people's minds and have them live up to that duty. |
| Date | 00:30:03, March 20, 2007 CET | From | Independent Right | To | Debating the The Privitization Act |
| Message | An enthusiastic "Aye!" from the Independent Right. |
| Date | 00:56:17, March 20, 2007 CET | From | Social Democrats | To | Debating the The Privitization Act |
| Message | We have once again seen the extremist views of the TCP which are to be left in the previous century. Not one bill is remotely acceptable to us, for reasons the TCP is well aware since this is not a new discussion. And to repeat ourselves yet again, nothing is black and white, just saying that person A manipulates the welfare state, a person B who was unjustly laid off and is unemployed is automatically a fraud and a user of the money the righteous rich hard working C has acquired through his incredible carreer (which he started as a heir to the biggest software company owner), that he now tears from his mouth to feed disabled people. An over-extreeme example, sure, but the proposal is even more extreme. Have you not heard of solidarity? |
| Date | 15:44:56, March 20, 2007 CET | From | Aldegar Freedom Party | To | Debating the The Privitization Act |
| Message | The TCP is very dissapointed to hear the PM's complete rejection of this bill. To the SD, who claims the TCP is 'black and white' on this issue - the TCP would like to illuminate the SD to the fact that the TCP deliberately tried to comprimise in this bill, deliberately ALLOWING a safety net so that the SD may perhaps see the logic in these proposals. For education, healthcare, and even minimum income garuntee, the TCP allowed a safety net, wishing to privatize these institutions but also wishing to allow for the fact that some people have legitimate reasons why they cannot afford these various commodities. The TCP is dissapointed that the SD still views this bill as black and white - a perception of this bill that is clearly black and white in itself. And in answer to the SD's final question - yes, the TCP has heard of solidarity. But solidarity to the TCP is everybody contributing peacefully to their society, each member of a community putting in his best efforts to provide for his family and for his country, working hard to contribute to the increase of our economy for the benefit of all, even the poor members of society. What solidarity does NOT mean, to the TCP, is some bizarre robin hood style welfare state, where people who work hard, who have great talents and who earn good money and contribute to their society and their nation's economy are literally punished for these fantastic qualities by being forced to pay for those members of society who do not have these qualities, or who cannot be bothered to contribute to their society or their nation. There is less incentive for the productive, high acheiving members of society if the government robs them of about half of their income, just because a handful of people can't earn enough money to pay a very, very minimal fee for standard healthcare. This is not solidarity - this is a tired, withered, failed ideology that socialists of various different flavours have tried to ressurrect, to no avail, because the failure of the welfare state has been proven time and time again, and will be proven once more. |
| Date | 22:22:19, March 20, 2007 CET | From | Party of Moderates | To | Debating the The Privitization Act |
| Message | While the PM views healthcare and education systems as essential services. We believe that between the choices of providing these services and heavily taxing the populace or not providing these services and levying nominal taxes upon the populace, choosing to provide the services are by far the better option. As for the minimum wage, while we agree with the TCP that it is currently too strong, we are more partial to the weaker option than the one proposed by the TCP in this bill. As for the pension system, we currently like the current system, but we may have been willing to regulate the amount given possibly to a low-moderate amount per person if that were possible. Unfortunately, the PM has seen no such option available. |
| Date | 17:22:54, March 21, 2007 CET | From | Social Democrats | To | Debating the The Privitization Act |
| Message | We wish to remind the TCP that their interpretation of the safety net being some kind of charity is rather laughable. We remind the public that the TCP stated clearly that they do not believe in a welfare state. We apologise for not taking this proposal as any kind of compromise. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | |||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 246 | |||||
| no |
Total Seats: 286 | |||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 118 |
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| Random quote: "To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is barbarity." - Maximilien Robespierre |