Let them eat cake, or
better yet let them not eat at all!
Ananish Chaudhuri
I wish to express my whole-hearted support for the proposed bylaw
making begging illegal. I am surprised that it has taken the City Council this
long to introduce this eminently sensible measure. Really! The nerve of this
people; hanging out begging for money outside fancy restaurants while I am
trying to enjoy my $40 plate of beef bourguignon!
Why can’t they get a job like the rest of us hard-working
folks?
And come to think of it – why stop at begging? How about
declaring poverty illegal? Round up the
poor folks sucking away at society’s tits for all their worth. For example,
what is up with the free meals for kids in schools? If the parents cannot feed
them, then let them go hungry. Why should my hard-earned tax dollars be used to
help out poor moochers who are too lazy to work and earn a good living for
themselves and their kids?
Also I read in the Herald that shoplifting is a major
problem; around $2 million worth of goods in our stores are being stolen weekly
probably by those same moochers who are too lazy to feed their own kids. I am
not saying we should be chopping off their hands like they do in some
middle-eastern countries. (Though I never quite understood why people get so
upset about it. No hand means no appendage to shop-lift with; makes sense to
me.) But at least can we not publicly flog them like they do in some countries?
I am sick and tired of all the abuse of tax-payer’s money.
Look at me. I come from fairly humble beginnings but pulled myself up by my
boot-straps. Yes, I went to tax-payer funded public universities and work at
one, where I sit on my plush top floor office and stare out at the verdant
expanse of the tax-payer funded Auckland domain. Yes, I drive over tax-payer
funded roads on my way to my sumptuous abode in one of the leafy suburbs of
Auckland. So what? I do not owe my success to anyone other than me. I deserve everything
I have and I worked hard for it. No one gave me any hand-outs like these
moochers constantly expect.
I am tired of this liberal welfare-state namby-pamby that we
have an obligation to help out the less fortunate. Of course not! Have you guys
never heard of “survival of the fittest”? Social Darwinism? Admittedly I have
never actually read Darwin but I am sure that is exactly what Darwin said. They are unfit and they deserve to be
winnowed out.
There are way too many takers; people who are dependent on
the government and believe that the state has some kind of obligation to
provide them with food, with shelter, with housing and health-care.
I am also heartened by the maturity demonstrated by
Aucklanders. Initially I was apprehensive that some people would be up in arms
against this bylaw since it does violate a number of fundamental rights
including the right of peaceful assembly. But clearly our citizens realize that
tough times call for tough measures: clearly not every right is important and not
everyone deserves to have their rights protected.
I commend the City Council for showing the fortitude of
implementing something that we only talk about in hushed whispers behind closed
doors in fancy soirees with no plebeians around.
What a brilliant solution to an entrenched social problem!
Declare it illegal! I don’t know why no one thought of this before.
Now that it is no longer legal to beg, I bet the lazy
buggers will get of their bums, clean up and find jobs and become productive
members of society like the rest of us.
Ananish Chaudhuri is Professor of Experimental Economics and Head of
the Department of Economics at the University of Auckland Business School.
