[Another one] of the inherent contradiction(s) of the Left

I previously wrote a piece on how Lefties are contradictory when they simuntaneously protect women's right to their bodies in Abortion debates, while refrain from the same protection in Labour Market debates. I added the Wage Gap vs Profit-Seeking Contradiction a few weeks ago. Here's another amusing contradiction:

We Want to Help the Poor!

Yesterday, citizens all over Sweden laid their votes for what kind of socialists ought to rule their country over the next four years. The Parlamentary situation is peculiar, to say the least:

Neither proper socialists (in red) nor the conservative/liberal socialists (in blue) want to cooperate with Anti-Immigration socialists (in yellow), which means effective governing is bound to get interesting. 

Anyways, the weeks leading up to election time has obviously been chaotic, with politicians on the streets, on tv and even phone calls tried to persuade the voters where to lay their vote. I met a guy representing the Social Democrats, with whom I argued a bit. He justified his position of taxation/redistribution with the following:

We Want to Help the Poor

Now, that's an admirable trait, I suppose, Morality/Theft/State Oppression set aside. But let me have a look at that statement. 

• Almost 100% of the poor on the Planet live outside Fort Europa.
• You raise and maintain Physical as well as Trade-related barriers against all Non-EU countries 
• You prevent third-world farmers, the poorest of the poor, to sell their crops within Fort Europa.
• You tax the entire economy, using some of that proceeds to subsidise inefficient farmers within the European Union
• You destroy crops to maintain high prices for your own wealthy farmers, while effectively keeping the poor alienated
• ... and for the few lucky ones who actually make it past Frontex or Immigration Authorities, you effectively price them out of the labour market by Minimum Wage laws or Union activity.

And while all of this is happening you're campaigning for redistribution among and within the top 5% wealthiest people on the planet?

You're not helping the poor. You're HARMING the poor with your protectionist measures. You're killing the poor with your subsidies, with your Inflation. And all of this you justify by your concern for the poor. 

You're not helping the poor. You're a hypocrite. You're disgusting. Arrogant. Egotistical to the point of narcissism. Everything you accuse the Market, the Liberals and Conservatives for. Disgusting. 

Subsidies for EU agricultue - a critique of CAP

Today I'm in the mood of attacking state-financed industry. Actually not subsidies in general, but a particularly harmful subsidy; agricultural subsidies.

Financially supporting farmers has been a key part of policies for many countries, but moreso the European Union. Since the time of ECC the framework know as Common Agricultural Policy has been in placed, disrupting markets and increasing prices for normal people. It consists of a few different components, such as encouraging overproduction, EU promise to buy at a guaranteed price and to increase general production of crops. (Here's a brief comparison over pros and con for CAP)

As this chart shows, increased European prices is not a very new phenomenon. It's been around for a while.

"The averege person in sub-Saharan Africa earns less than $1 a day. The average cow in Europe - thanks to government subsidies - earns about $2 a day. And therein lies a tale of the power of European farm interests and the weakness of African economies". Kevin Hassett & Robert Shapiro (Quote's from an article about 10 years back, so the numbers are probably not entirely accurate)

What impact does this have then? 

Not only does the CAP artificially increase food prices for European Consumers, it also harms non-european producers (predominantly African and Asian farmers, i.e the poorest of the poor) that otherwise would have supplied the European market with crops. As if that were not enough, the EU also dumps surpluses on the international markets, surpressing prices further and in another strike hurts farmers in developing countries. It's almost as if the CAP was designed to hurt African farmers as much as possible. I mean, is there anything it can do to do FURTHER harm to African farmers?

Strike 1) Block them from our Markets by Huge tariffs on Agricultural products
Strike 2) Pay our own farmers to overproduce, and sell below production costs
Strike 3) Dump the surplusses on the international markets, surpressing the price African farmers would have sold their crops for otherwise

That's amazing. Together with kickbacks and general inefficiencies with development aid and Remittances outweighting Western Development aid, the CAP is just another measure to harm poor people in other parts of the world.

Disgusting.