It just seems like a throwaway remark that all government interventions result in greater personal freedoms. Take for example a person that is opposed to vaccination, but is forced to do so against their wishes under a compulsory vaccination law. Would you not see that as impinging on the freedom of the person?
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Hold on a second. What roads are you talking about?
The ones around Dublin?
The Interstate highways was the late 1950s.
To be fair there were lots of causes, but World War II was the big un.
Roads all over Ireland.
Dublin is grossly underinvested in.
You’ve read it wrong, go again.
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Nonsense. First of all, in the US at least, people pine after the 80s and 90s which was the greatest period of economic growth and prosperity in the history of the country. Brought about by administrations who were pro business and strong advocates of a free market, whether Republican or Democratic, or a mixed bag.
This old trope of “socialist state intervention” in free market western democracies is complete horseshit, and is basically trotted out by supporters of the failed socialist model trying to claim the concept of welfare stems from socialism. Let’s be clear, socialism at it’s core is state control of the means of production (community control in the case of communism), as opposed to capitalism or private control of the means of production.
The latest example of this horseshit was Bernie Sanders, who must have been reading @Sidney’s posts, claiming that the US needed to embrace the “democratic socialism” of Scandinavian countries. The problem with this claim is that the Scandinavian countries are not socialist at all, their economies are actually shining beacons of free market economics. As the prime minister of Denmark stated recently (who might know something about Scandinavian economies); " I know some people in the US associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy, it is a market economy".
The Nordic model is based on free market capitalism with a large welfare state, it has nothing to do with the economic theory of socialism. Successful free market economies can afford to have larger welfare states, it’s quite simple.
You bringing some herb?
It’s heartening to see you’ve decided to join the debate, rather than responding in monosyllables.
There is a correlation between larger government and increased personal freedom and prosperity. Economies that are successful, due to the embrace of capitalism and free markets, can afford larger government. The countries with the greatest freedoms and standard of living are all capitalist, western Europe, USA, Nordic countries, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong. All of these countries strongly protect private property rights, which socialism opposes.
As always though, one has to be careful with concluding causation from correlation. As this excellent study shows, the more accurate correlation with freedom and prosperity is between quality of government, not size.
http://evonomics.com/quality-government-not-size-key-freedom-prosperity/
The 80s and 90s were an aporia pal. I don’t know if you remember the noughties. They came directly after the 80s and 90s and were caused by the 80s and 90s. The noughties brought a crashing halt to the free market and led to the austere times that we live in today.
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Always of a Saturday kid
You are having a laugh so
Ah, the old “we all partied” excuse gets trotted out.
The crashing halt was due to central banks (government) deciding the normal business cycle and healthy recessions were to be eliminated. Low interest rates maintained by the Fed and other central banks (the “Greenspan put”) led to the housing boom of 2000 - 2006, and when the Fed belatedly raised interest rate from 1% in 2004 to 5% in 2007, they burst the bubble they themselves had created. Tragically, they are following the same exact playbook today, which will have a similar outcome when asset bubbles pop.
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Remember, most of the ardent lefties on here were in here glorifying Castro when he died. A country with a dictator, a country where political opponents were imprisoned/murdered and people were not allowed to leave the island for periods. Freedom indeed.
There are some studies that say State intervention = happiness, but I have never seen the word freedom mentioned. The best measure of happiness and freedom in my opinion, is the number of people who want to migrate to your country. And the evidence is overwhelming - people want to move to capitalist countries like the USA.
Glas an co try to paint me as someone who hates all government intervention. They label you with things like “uncaring” for saying Bus Eireann drivers are overpaid. Glas is claiming here to be all about evidence, but in that thread his reaction to people bringing up facts about their pay relative to everyone else was “everyone deserves a fair wage”. It’s glib and emotive, and sadly it prevails far too much in our media, where Joe Duffy often sets the national debate on policy.
As a matter of fact, I favour plenty of government intervention. I favour infrastructure spending. I favour progressive taxation (and Ireland has one of the most progressive tax systems in the world, but this is rarely mentioned by the Irish media in the railing against the mythical 1%). I even favour a high inheritance tax, which many on the right hate.
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Only the thickest person on this site could think France is socialist and the Nordic countries aren’t.
Every economy in the world is both a market economy and a planned economy.
Cuba is a market economy, for FFS.
The Nordic countries are much more business friendly than France, and have healthier economies because of their historic embrace of free market capitalism. There is no hard left in Sweden, unlike France who have had not just committed socialists but communists in government. The left in France (unions) have destroyed France’s manufacturing sector.
But thanks for making my point by equating socialism with a welfare state.
Cuba a market economy 
Again, it’s nice to see you prove once again that you would have been on the side of the landlord class in Ireland in the 19th century.
A. I didn’t anything about we all partied.
B. Do you seriously believe that the Central Banks increasing interest rates was the sole cause of the crash?
You really are an awful fool, in fairness.
Lots of reasons for the crash, but increasing interest rates was the primary factor. The collapse in housing in the US at least was due to people (many of whom should never have been given loans), not being able to make their payments when mortgage rates adjusted up and foreclosing.
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Splendid well thought out response.