We do want the government to be efficient at carrying out legitimate functions, e.g. courts, police, defence.
But at everything else we should hope and pray for as much incompetence as possible, because it might mean bad programs get scrapped.

That seems hugely unrealistic to me. Until the government ceases its “illegitimate” functions, you support making government more inefficient (i.e. worse)?

You’re saying you’d prefer the government to get bigger and more intrusive, so the public is eventually convinced of your ideas of “legitimacy”.

That seems to be thinking in terms of good or bad (certain functions good, others bad/evil) rather than better or worse (smaller government/more liberty is better, bigger government/less liberty is worse). You have an ideal in mind, and are prepared to make the current situation far worse in the hope that the ideal is realized.

If Surkrit’s radical nihilism is the future of libertarianism, I am not a libertarian.

The only reason I can see (and I’m a lefty and big-government lover) for subsidized housing of HECS debtors is if they are posted to rural/provincial areas (e.g. teachers, health workers) as part of a relocation package, but this should not be in the form of subsidizing private debt, but merely housing assistance (and I’d suggest that in remote areas, shared accomodation for a number of the graduates is probably the best option).

Approaches like these might benefit those who are almost guaranteed low wages (as junior public servants) versus those who enter more lucrative private enterprise on the basis of a discounted loan to provide those qualifications.

As a “classical lefty”, I’m just as appalled by the student union’s stance, although for slightly different reasons than a “classical liberal”.

you’re implying not that government inefficiency is bad, but that a situation with zero government is the only legitimate one.

You’ve got it backwards… I’m saying government inefficiency is good. For two reasons:

1. We don’t want the government to be efficient at doing undesirable things. If the government is pursuing an officially sanctioned policy of rounding up people and shipping them somewhere to be tortured (e.g. Bush administration in the US), or if it’s cracking down on people dying of cancer trying to relieve their pain with marijuana (e.g. Bush adminstration), do we really want it to be efficient at such a job?

2. Government inefficiency and incompetence builds up public resistance to even bigger government. If our government was perfect and did everything efficiently, there would be no news stories pointing out corruption and cronyism, and people would be more likely to favour government as the solution to all of society’s problems, at the expense of individual liberty.

We do want the government to be efficient at carrying out legitimate functions, e.g. courts, police, defence.

But at everything else we should hope and pray for as much incompetence as possible, because it might mean bad programs get scrapped.

It’s not desirable for a government to do efficiently that which it shouldn’t be doing in the first place.

I disagree with this kind of radical mentality — you’re implying not that government inefficiency is bad, but that a situation with zero government is the only legitimate one. Arguing with respect to an absolute position rather than in a general direction is rarely convincing to non-converts.

Sukrit - I think your view of distracting government is rather optimistic. They will still collect the tax and bill us for their efforts.

Stats on international students defrauding the public transport authority are going to be hard to find, though there is a similar sense of entitlement on display in their campaign to get the concessions.

Government problems with tax evaders and HECS evaders are a good thing. It keeps govt. busy and prevents them from doing other things that are worse for individual liberty. It’s not desirable for a government to do efficiently that which it shouldn’t be doing in the first place.

Also, evasion demonstrates/builds up public resistance to higher taxes.

By the way Andrew, you should check up on the stats of international students fleecing the system by getting public transport concession cards. I recently met an international student friend who says that he’s managed to get a concession card two years in a row. Apparently, the train station staff are very slack at checking.