Imagine a government trying to sell to the public a new proposal to reduce murder rates by selling right to murder. The government brazenly names it the Murder Reduction Scheme.
Here is how it works. The money raised by selling murder rights could be used to subsidise terrified potential victims to arm themselves for self-protection, thus hopefully reducing their chances of being murdered.
But that's not all!
Some of the money raised from selling the murder permits would also be used to compensate professional killers and other commercial organisations that might be adversely affected.
It is hoped that over time, subtle "market signals" will force these murderous commercial enterprises to invest in non-murderous activities.
Sorry, that's just not good enough, responds the opposition that prides itself on being even more committed than the government to protect business interests.
The Murder Reduction Scheme will wreck the economy, it says. It demands the biggest killing companies be "compensated" with even more free murder permits.
Feeling the pressure, the government announces more free permits will be given out.
The government then rolls out a Clark Kent lookalike, who allegedly was once a hard-fighting union chief, to threaten the opposition: "I'm warning you Silvertails, if you force the Murder Reduction Scheme back to the drawing board, Murders Inc could end up paying more. You'll never get a better deal than this," he growls.
Meanwhile, a group of crime researchers release a new study that shows a "90% probability" that already sharply rising murder rates had been underestimated by half.
* * *
Thank goodness the real political world is not as bad as this … or is it?
Green Left Weekly is loud and clear in opposing the Rudd Labor
governments Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) — which should be called what it really is: the Carbon Pollution Trading Scheme.
It won't do anything to address the climate emergency — in fact it will make things worse.
The CPRS should be blocked in the Senate. Federal and state governments should stop playing games with our future and invest in a massive, publicly-owned and controlled, shift to renewable energy.
The total phasing-out of the coal industry and other heavy carbon polluting industries needs to begin now. The workers in these industries need to be retrained and re-employed in building up the new renewable energy systems and other projects to improve ecological sustainability.
We have the technology and the resources and it can be done. All it needs is the political will.
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