Ethik und die olympischen Spiele in China (German)
Posted on Friday, 18 April, 2008
English Summary: While for a long time, because of my hostility to the Chinese regime along with my free-market ideals, I have often been branded a "cold warrior" or die-hard capitalist, mainstream opinion has again grown more sceptical of China as, in the build-up to the Olympic Games, its oppression of the Tibetan people has returned to the limelight. In this article, I explain how I believe globalization and free markets enable the average consumer to exert a great deal of pressure directly on the regime. Olympic Sponsors such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's or Omega that pay a fortune in order to be associated with a murderous regime that still venerates Mao, a tyrant responsible for the deaths of far more people than Hitler and Stalin combined, should get what they paid for: the utter disgust and condemnation of the free world. Come on, people, there's Pepsi, Red Bull, there's Burger King, there are dozens of quality watch makers. There are other consumer electronics makers than Samsung or Panasonic and other credit cards than Visa. There is really no reason - and no excuse - for us Western consumers if they were to chose to become accomplices to mass murder, oppression, torture and numerous other human rights abuses by buying the products of any sponsor of the Olympic Games.
Categories: Free Thought, Free Markets
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Back to the top of this pageEU Welfare and Why It Doesn't Work (re-run, in German)
Posted on Thursday, 17 May, 2007
In my series of re-runs, here is an article that I originally wrote for the free-market think-tank formerly known as liberalismus.at (now: liberty.li). I argue that EU welfare policies are a bad idea and that open borders and markets benefit disadvantaged regions and individuals much more than EU hand-outs. Since so-called “social standards” ultimately deprive poor regions or countries of the flexibility required to compete with the rest of the EU and mainly serve to protect jobs in the rich, over-regulated EU member states, they would in fact preserve social discrepancies on this continent rather than help overcome them.
Categories: Free Thought, Free Markets
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Back to the top of this pageThe War In Iraq: Looking Back At What I Wrote In 2003 (re-run, in German)
Posted on Thursday, 22 March, 2007
Another re-run: This time I am re-publishing an incredibly long, horribly poetic and somehow pretentious, but still, I think, intelligent article that I wrote back in 2003 just during the first few days of the American invasion in Iraq. I criticized both Old Europe and the US – Old Europe for not acknowledging that their position (doing business with Saddam whilst letting the Iraqi civilian population starve to death under the UN sanctions) was in no way ethically superior to that of the United States; the Bush administration for their illusion that in a country as diverse and complex as Iraq most problems would just disappear by themselves once they got rid of Saddam Hussein. In hindisght, I have got to say that I was not that far off the mark with my apprehensions.
That being said, the best part is still the Swiss-German song by Mani Matter that I quote at the beginning...
Categories: Free Thought, Free Markets
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Back to the top of this pageThe European Union Hates Books and Education
Posted on Wednesday, 13 December, 2006
This morning I received the two excellent books “Object Oriented Perl” and “Perl Best Practices” by the eminently competent and entertaining Dr. Damian Conway that I had ordered on Amazon's US site. Imagine my consternation when the postman grinned at me as though I had illegally ordered cigarettes on the Internet again and told me: “Alright then, that would be €11.79 for custom duties.” Since my postman is more than 2 meters tall, I did not dare to object and went to get my wallet. But then I had to ask: “I am just curious, but between you and me, 12 bloody euros in tariffs? I mean, it's two books that are barely worth 35€!” As it turned out, it was only a 5-euro duty, along with a 7-euro processing fee, but still a 15% (!) duty on educational books? Are you kidding me? I mean it's not like I ordered the Great Anthology of American Porn by Hugh Hefner or How To Build A Dirty Bomb by Osama Bin Laden, but an educational book on computer programming! Isn't that at odds with the EU's purported aim to “become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world”?
Categories: Free Thought, Free Markets Web Development and Programming
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Back to the top of this pageRepublican or Democrat? Neither!
Posted on Tuesday, 7 November, 2006
CNN keeps telling me I should be interested in the American mid-term elections because they “have an impact on the entire world”. I do not really care whether the Republicans or the Democrats get a majority. What the Republicans are doing right now under the pretext of security – stifling liberty and expanding government –, the Democrats would keep doing it under the pretext of welfare, equal opportunities or whatever other reasons they come up with.
In this post, I would like to elaborate on how the neo-cons alienated me from the Republicans, why the Democrats would not be any better, how American politics are becoming more and more “European” in a negative way, why it makes sense to vote for third-party candidates, and why Americans who value liberty and their constitutional heritage should vote Libertarian.
Categories: Free Thought, Free Markets
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Back to the top of this pageWhy I Will Vote Conservative (ÖVP) At Today's Elections
Posted on Sunday, 1 October, 2006
As some of my readers may know, parliamentary elections are held in Austria today. (In fact, the title of this post is a lie since, due to an unexpected trip, I shall not be able to vote at all.) Following some vivid debate with friends and family, but also as an act of compensation for my inability to exercise my right to vote, I would like to share with you why I had decided to vote for the ruling conservative ÖVP of chancellor Schüssel even though I disagree with about 98% of their opinions. There is a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is: because I disagree with even 99% of the opinions of the other parties. Here is the long answer.
Categories: Free Thought, Free Markets Loose Talk
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