politics & bureaucracy 1980's and 90's - European fish stocks fell dangerously low due to powerful owners competing for enrichment - ie "market forces" - see - "tragedy of the commons" at perceptions subindex Players: shipowners, politicos, bureaucrats (ordinary people and employed fisher-folk had no voice). Needed:- that breeding fish and young fish be undisturbed for at least five or more generations, for even limited recovery of fish-stocks. Chosen "cure" was heavily influenced by over-riding power of ship-owners, lawyers and bureaucrats - (ordinary people and fisher-folk having no power; media and party-politics are dominated by legal professions and by concentrated wealth - ie. "market forces"). Politicians' chosen method was to impose "quotas" on fish catches that can be legally retained and sold - thus syphoning-off money and power to lawyers & bureaucrats. There was no control of mass killing of fish or of the scouring of sea-beds by increasingly damaging fishing methods which also increase unemployment among fisher-folk. Result :- breeding fish and young fish are being decimated to no purpose: being thrown away or sold illegally - breeding has almost stopped. Fish stocks fall further and faster. UPDATE 24 Nov 2006 "Ban on 'brutal' fishing blocked United Nations negotiations on fisheries have ended without a global ban on trawling methods which destroy coral reefs and fish nurseries. ... Last month, an international team of scientists, having compiled a vast range of data from a wide variety of sources, warned that at current rates of depletion, there would be no viable populations of fish left in the seas by the middle of the century. Last Updated: Friday, 24 November 2006, 17:19 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6181396.stm ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- "Perceptions" note 1 Same pattern can be found much earlier, in "War & Welfare Taxes" in Britain. Britain didn't have any Income or Property taxes prior to 20th Cent. - the King (the State) got money from duties on goods, income from large estates, and some bizarre "special" taxes like an early tax on the number of windows in your house. In 20th Cent. the British government started to tax income (at 5%) using the excuse that it was to pay for the Welfare of the Poor, and, of course, for expensive wars. Very soon, with the Church of England leading the way, all rich establishment individuals and organizations had engineered more or less total exemption from "income taxes" by arranging, with their friends (and relations) in senior Civil Service and in the two political parties, for special "allowances" and "tax-free trusts" - which poor people were _not_ allowed - which gave the seriously rich many loop-holes to wriggle through. So income-tax began to bear down more heavily on those who _did_ pay it. First at 5% then rising to about 30% and finally by levying "national insurance" (Income tax under another - false - name), which the rich _did not_ pay, soon total income tax paid by an average or below average wage-earner rose steadily to more than 50% of real earnings. While the rich - who are supposed to be paying _higher_ rates of income tax (to help support the sick or the poor) - pay much less than the theoretical national tax-SPEND of 40% - 45% of GDP. [ Tax-spend is 40% - 45% but waste (& corruption) means the tax-TAKE is much higher; we calculate that taxation costs take about 70% - 80% of real earnings from the working-poor] Therefore the rich are in pocket - making a profit from the system. But the _very_ rich are even better off. The biggest landowners - gentry, aristocracy, royalty etc - can pay NO tax at all and still collect up to £20,000 per year each (1999/2000) as a free "subsidy" for simply _owning_ large estates. All now paid for by the poor, who are forced to starvation levels (especially if old) to pay for these "Welfare Taxes". Evidence - www.perceptions.couk.com/morals.html & links www.perceptions.couk.com/tax.html & links ------------------------------------------------------------- note 2 We're reminded of one of Buckle's dictums - that "Government" does no 'good' for people, at best it might only _reduce_ harm previously imposed by government. Evidence - www.perceptions.couk.com/genes6.html & links www.perceptions.couk.com/fishers.html & links ------------------------------------------------------------- FURTHER REFERENCES GO - "search perceptions" - in SEARCH-ENGINE file-ID www.perceptions.couk.com/politics.txt