Posted on 08/17/2005 1:10:26 PM PDT by T-Bird45
I'll admit to liking the Harry Potter books, but I can't suspend disbelief any longer. The kid lives in the realm of big government, and it's interfering with my enjoyment of the Half-Blood Prince. Consider these facts about life in the wizarding world:
Huge government bureaucracies: Every time another department within the Ministry of Magic is mentioned, I wonder if the real threat to Harry's liberty is Voldemort or the Leviathan government, which has a branch overseeing all aspects of wizard daily life. There's the Improper Use of Magic Office, the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, even the Department of Magical Games and Sports, which may be needed to investigate steroid use among Quidditch players.
Most ministry departments are regulatory agencies, suggesting that Ronald Reagan's observation about how government operates ("If it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it; and if it stops moving, subsidize it") applies to the wizard world as well as to Washington. The ministry has a Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures; a Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery; a Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office; even a Broom Regulatory Control agency. The ministry interferes with free trade by banning the importation of flying carpets and prohibits the ownership of certain pets such as dragons. Animagi (wizards who can turn themselves into animals) and werewolves are required to register with the ministry. Gun owners could be next.
The police power of the state is also worrisome. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement acts as a sort of KGB, rounding up citizens to appear before the Wizengot, where the accused are tried in a dungeon while bound to a chair. The guilty might be sentenced to Azkaban, a prison worse than Abu Ghraib under Saddam Hussein; at least he didn't employ Dementors as guards. Government agents known as obliviators go about brainwashing people by erasing their memories. The Floo Network Authority gives the ministry the ability to monitor communications, sort of like your boss reading your e-mails at work. I hate to say it, but the wizarding world could use the ACLU.
Everyone works for the government: Aside from George and Fred Weasley, the young entrepreneurs who dropped out of Hogwarts School to start a joke shop, everyone else seems to work for the government. The private sector is limited to a handful of merchants on Diagon Alley and in Hogsmeade Village, and most of them seem essentially to be government contractors who supply Hogwarts students. The one bank, Gringotts, has a state-protected monopoly. Even the heretofore obscure Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Orders has a staff of 10, we learn in the most recent book. Harry himself aspires to become an Auror, a government agent, when he grows up. Do any witches and wizards earn their knuts, sickles and galleons by providing goods or services that add value?
Free national health care: No one admitted to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injures is ever asked about insurance, not even victims of the entrails expelling curse, which sounds very expensive to fix. It's the sort of situation a goody two-shoes know it all like Hillary — I mean, Hermione — must love.
Government run schools: Children are taken away from their natural parents at age 11 and remanded to a government-run school, where they are required to wear uniforms and tuition is free. After five years of indoctrination, they are given a mandatory test, the O.W.L., the results of which define what vocation students can pursue. Unhappy with the independent-minded leadership of Professor Dumbledore at Hogwarts, the ministry installed Professor Umbridge as High Inquisitor in his place. And some think No Child Left Behind represents heavy-handed federal intervention in public schools.
State-controlled press: Although the Daily Prophet is nominally independent, it is clear the ministry is able to control what stories get printed and how they are presented.
Mass Transit Subsidies: The Knight Bus and Hogwarts Express are subsidized more than E-ZPass transponders. Why anyone would need buses or trains in a world with portkeys, floo powder, Nimbus 2000 flying brooms, and travel by apparition? All these transportation systems must require costly infrastructure, which brings up another point:
No one in the wizard world seems to have to pay taxes for any of this. Now there's some real magic.
I imagine she is using her money to avoid paying taxes
They can still use spells silently. That just means that it can't be defended against as well. If you speak it then it will be blocked. If they don't know what you're doing they can't block it. It is NOT disarming like the Nazis.
And for your info. a lot of those ministries are necessary. Underage magic could be dangerous. The animals are VERY dangerous. The sports games gather attention. Throughout the whole wizarding world they have to make sure no muggles find out about them.
Let's not forget about Hermione's attempts to unionize the House Elves.
Let's not forget about Hermione's attempts to unionize the House Elves.
I have to note that the 6th book is the first one to address silent spells, and it is clearly only a well-trained, advanced student that can pull it off, because it requires incredible effort to focus the spell without the verbal componant. Although we have seen low level spells go off quietly and/or with a mere wave of the hand (Snape closing curtains, that kind of thing) the students weren't taught until their sixth year HOW to do it...and it was in the all important 5th year that the Ministry started spoon feeding them the milk of theory over the meat of actual practice.
what???
:-)
In Britain and much of Europe, you pay a TV tax to support the government broadcast system. They can determine if you have a TV in your home by checking for the local oscillator frequency that is given off by the TV, hence the "antenna van" prowling neighborhoods.
When I was in the US Army in W.Germany, a friend of mine, a civilian Army employee that lived on the German economy, was hit up by the Bundespost for the tax. He had to prove he was an American government employee that was not subject to the tax.
Well, she HAS paid over $700,000,000 in taxes ---- I am absolutely serious about that number. (70% on a billion dollars of income).
I suppose that gives her more standing than most to say where her money is spent.
That said, if what you say is true, I would disagree with her.
She has complained about taxes --- as most of her money is clearly-traceable INCOME and thus nailed by the brits.
Serious estimates are north of $700 million paid in taxes.
There is a "TV" tax in england. You pay for each set.
They drive around with sensors to see if you are cheating.
The two major factual errors in the article:
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