When walking by the river, noting those going by in their expensive boats, I often think of those craft as cumber. I cannot imagine how they can, with all the hassle they create for the owners and the noise they surround their occupants with when moving, deliver greater well-being for those on board than I can enjoy walking on the riverbank, almost costlessly and so quietly I can actually hear the birds singing and smell the countryside, rather than engine fumes.
The very idea that other peoples’ sense of what makes their life better being different from one’s own is something the Great Potato cannot understand. It’s not a good start to being a political economist, is it? For it’s a really very basic idea in that field that utility is defined by the one doing the utilising….
If he’s concerned about negative externalities he could start by shutting his ignorant gob.
To be fair people say the two happiest days for a boat owner are when you buy it and when you sell it!
Slightly OT, but he does increasingly remind me of William B. Greide as described in Paul Krugman’s 1997 article “The Accidental Theorist” (also the first piece in a book of the same name).
“Part of the answer is that Greider systematically cut himself off from the kind of advice and criticism that could have saved him from himself. His acknowledgements conspicuously do not include any competent economists–not a surprising thing, one supposes, for a man who describes economics as “not really a science so much as a value-laden form of prophecy.” But I also suspect that Greider is the victim of his own earnestness. He clearly takes his subject (and himself) too seriously to play intellectual games. To test-drive an idea with seemingly trivial thought experiments, with hypothetical stories about simplified economies producing hot dogs and buns, would be beneath his dignity. And it is precisely because he is so serious that his ideas are so foolish.” https://slate.com/business/1997/01/the-accidental-theorist.html
Man admits to lack of empathy, imagination.
The Guardian reports this morning that:
Spending extra cash on mental health services would boost economic growth and improve the nation’s well-being more than building new roads, according to an academic analysis.
Candidly it wouldn’t help Ritchie.
And when it is well known that things like increased road building solve no known transport problem
“Roads don’t do anything because supply and demand doesn’t real” – a self-identified economist
I like to use the word ‘cumber’ to describe what excessive consumption produces
Your property is “cumber”, but my property is necessary innit.
The cunt’s too fat to walk on any riverbank. These are the riverbanks of his mind, polluted by other people’s gaily painted imaginary boats, and populated by the surrealist birds of his mindless daydreams.
I think of his fridge and everything in it as cumber. I propose it is removed forthwith.
Off the topic of that frabjous fraudster, I found this article interesting, and of wider relevance to the general thrust of this blog:
https://whiskystories.com/2017/01/23/the-unbreakable-malt-mill-that-was-simply-too-successful/
When will he propose a pleasure tax? In the name of equity?
You just know he’s actually seething with envy that other people have stuff he doesn’t have.
These are the riverbanks of his mind, polluted by other people’s gaily painted imaginary boats
Keys that jingle in your pocket
Trolls that are blocked in your head
Why did Jezza go so quickly
Was it something that you said
Taxmen walk along the shore
And leave their footprints in the sand
Is the sound of distant taxing
Just the fingers of your hand?
MntM25: That was my first thought too. He would dearly love to go boating but what funds he has won’t stretch.
The boat is expensive to him, it suited the finances of the purchaser. If it were too much hassle they’d sell it.
Perhaps it was someone’s dream to have a boat?
Perhaps it’s hired for the week for a holiday.
Multiple possibilities that his giant brain – too complex to be replaced by a machine – seems to have overlooked.
This is the starting point to his thinking. I don’t desire x therefore it is foolish so I will outlaw it.
Then follows the usual gap in his thinking, the consequences – if all these boat people were walking on the bank instead he’d moan that it was overcrowded and write a taxing riverpaths report
He should just go and play with his train set and leave people alone.
He’d struggle to carry a crate of G&T any distance on foot. In a boat, easy peasy.
The rule of thumb I’ve heard for boats is that a boat large enough to live on will cost you about as much as a house in upkeep. Smaller boats in proportion.
So if you have a boat you’re basically paying for two houses. But many people don’t think of it that way.
Also, neglecting the upkeep on a boat will show much faster than with a house. So you *must* keep it up, or you quickly end up without a boat because it’s on the bottom. It’s an unusual house that sinks.
HoblinMango:
That review by Krugman is rich coming from him. He’s been talking from inside his head (or more likely his wife’s head) for decades now. Pure leftist cant.
I suppose if you think you can walk on water a boat would appear to be somewhat superfluous
Why does he assume that enjoying a riverside stroll and enjoying a trip in a little gin palace are mutually exclusive?
I saw a mink on my last riverside stroll. Harder, I dare say, to see a mink from a gin palace, at least in these fallen times when women don’t wear mink. But, on the other hand, gin.
M:
“That review by Krugman is rich coming from him. He’s been talking from inside his head (or more likely his wife’s head) for decades now. Pure leftist cant.”
You did see that it was from 1997, right?
In today’s Letter to the Editor….. “I don’t see the point in this, so why should others enjoy it!”
I suppose if you think you can walk on water a boat would appear to be somewhat superfluous
Today, Mark wins the internet.
He seems to be just stating a truism. In shared spaces, some people’s activities impinge on other users more than others. So yes. Boat users do tend to be more impinging than say anglers. On the other hand, guessing the river he’s referring to, it will owe its nature to boat users. Without them there’d be no reason to clear water plants etc. So it would be a different river.
But the same principal holds true for many shared spaces. The biggest detractor for most of them is other people’s small children. So maybe he should think back to when he was first a father & the misery that caused others. And who could deny that parenting is pure selfishness?
Interested said:
“The cunt’s too fat to walk on any riverbank. … I think of his fridge and everything in it as cumber.”
Would be better for him if it were full of cucumber.
And who could deny that parenting is pure selfishness?
Thanks, Dad.
You did see that it was from 1997, right?
Are you suggesting Paul Krugman was any less vainglorious, pandering and intellectually dishonest in 1997 than in 2024? If so, I’d like to see some support for that suggestion.
BiS
The problem with him (well one of many) is that he wants to ban both angling and the use of private transport – never forget you are dealing with one of the world’s most evil beings
– On the other hand, guessing the river he’s referring to, it will owe its nature to boat users. Without them there’d be no reason to clear water plants etc. So it would be a different river.
The primary function of rivers is drainage, especially so in the fenland (much of which is below mean sea level). That waterway will be kept clear even if the the only leisure use is fat fucks waddling along the bank.
What can I say next?
Cue…cumber.
I always wanted to be in a position to own more than one house.
When I did, it was just a damned nuisance.
I expect that I would find owning a boat a similar experience.
Pfft. Horses for courses.
Is that still true, PJF? Somerset levels it isn’t.
Would be amusing if the river bank path he’s using exists because I part because of the boat use of the waterway, there’s some lovely walks along canal paths which wouldn’t exist otherwise
Don’t forget he’s solved the problem of immigration and the small boats – apparently if we give them ferry tickets all will be well!
And who could deny that parenting is pure selfishness?
Thanks, Dad.
Funny thing is Steve, in the case of my own father I’m pretty sure it was. He liked the idea of being a father. He wasn’t too keen on that requiring a son.
@Martin Near The M25 – “You just know he’s actually seething with envy”
What we need is a way to tax envy.
OT, but this geezer always winds me up. Simon Heffer.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/americanism-english-language-simon-heffer/
I wonder how he’d like to be speaking 1776 English? With many words having totally different meanings. Modern British English as considerably diverged in the past 250 years. Is that his problem?
I like Heffer’s articles on classical music etc on a Saturday, one of the Terriblegraph’s best regular columns.
As for this one, he makes it clear that he is not railing against the inevitable evolution of the language but against the use of ugly Americanisms. The phrases he mentions are indeed excruciating.
18th century novels are perfectly readable today….
Of course, its just his inner fascist genocidal maniac peeking out.
“The very idea that other peoples’ sense of what makes their life better being different from one’s own is something the Great Potato cannot understand.”
I disagree. I think he understands it just fine. Its just that he wants a world where *his* utility is maximized – fuck everyone else.
When I retired in1998, we sold our house and moved on to a narrowboat. We spent 10 years exploring the rivers and canals of England and Wales . We met a real cross section of people, from the ” Crusties” whose craft were barely afloat ,to the really affluent to whom a state of the art new boat was a mere toy.
We cruised into the centres of all the major towns and cities of England and in contrast found peace and quiet miles from anywhere deep in the country. It gave us the chance to explore and see for ourselves what our country was really like. We spent 6 months in the centre of London without bothering about costs of accommodation ,and we saw it from behind the scenes as it were.
When we moved back onto land I was stronger and fitter than when we had started.
The Potato has shown again that he can’t understand anyone who does not conform to his view of what is correct or necessary and would seek to stop any activity of which he disapproves.
johnd @ 4.18: “The Potato has shown again that he can’t understand anyone who does not conform to his view of what is correct or necessary and would seek to stop any activity of which he disapproves”.
I think you have just described those who rule us, no?
/applause for Steve, despite the resulting earworm!
@Marius
There’s quite enough ugly Britishisms appeared in the language to go round. Some of the latest ones make me cringe. But it’s one of the beauties of the English language that it’s infinitely adaptable. It’s one of the things I tell people learning it. You can string the words in most English sentences together in several different orders & they still say the same thing. Try doing that in French. Try something like Spanish where people don’t use pronouns & you have to identify the subject through context.
The various branches of English have diverged due to isolation. Now thanks to communication, they’re converging again. What will eventually happen is there will be an increase in the degree of nuance in the way you can express yourself. And nuance is something English is really good for. English is not something we own. It’s something we share with a large part of the world. Aren’t we lucky?
@BiS
Is that still true, PJF? Somerset levels it isn’t
The Fens are way bigger than the Somerset Levels and drainage is a major concern.
“way bigger than”: fucking Americanism, as the Heffalump would doubtless complain.