Jacob Zuma and dictatorship

President Jacob Zuma’s statements on what he would do if he was a dictator to my mind illustrate how the government of our country has gone wrong.

His top three bullet points were:

• Laziness would be a thing of the past;
• Idle youth would be put to work; and
• No more freebies.

Each of those points looks an awful lot like he would basically make things more miserable for South Africans, for no real gain.

Laziness is not really our problem as a country – our problem is that a large portion of our population is unproductive, which is a different thing.

A lazy worker who finds a shortcut to achieving the same thing as a hard worker, is a better worker despite putting less hours in because in real terms you aren’t being paid for your blood, sweat and tears, you’re being paid for your work.

Laziness can translate into greater efficiency.

Our youth are not idle because they don’t want to work – they’re idle because they’re stuck in a position where they are asking themselves “work doing what?”

Saying you’re going to put idle youth to work – well, what work exactly? Digging and filling holes isn’t going to solve our problems as a country, we don’t need idle youth being put to work, we need idle youth to be productive.

As to freebies – in real terms none of the “freebies” any society offers are offered out of the kindness of anybody’s heart.

Take vaccination for example.

Consider the recent measles outbreak in America.

The outbreak was due to the work of anti-vaccine campaigners managing to convince enough parents not to vaccinate – meaning one kid goes to Disneyland with the Measles, and suddenly you end up with 178 sick kids.

Now that was due to hysterical idiocy from people who believe porn stars know more about health than actual doctors, but the motive for not vaccinating doesn’t really make a difference.

If you don’t vaccinate because you can’t afford it, you get the same result. More people get sick.

So is it really a “freebie” if your country offers free vaccines?

When you look at any so-called “freebie” you end up with the same result – we provide bursaries and grants for universities because we need the skills the kids are being trained in, and the research the universities produce.

We provide child care grants because we want the kids involved to become productive members of society, rather than gangsters and robbers.

We build public housing because informal settlements come with a host of serious social issues.

And Jacob Zuma, if he was in the position of a dictator, would do away with these "freebies". That is not what we need.

Some of what I would do if I was a dictator

I would introduce a new tax bracket for those earning over R2 million a year. The funds gathered from this tax bracket would go towards providing free university education for those who qualify.

It would also be pumped into our new research. The main focus here is to produce new patents for new technologies – thereby avoiding having to directly compete with the rest of the world.

About 80% of America's economy is down to its long standing dedication to funding research in its universities – as America winds down on that because its current leadership is 50% idiot, we can move in.

Obviously, because my main focus would be encouraging new business I would also expedite building new power-plants, and increase funding for renewable energy.

While it may be tempting to wave environmental standards in order to maintain employment, the public health costs are not worth it. It is no good having a job to support your kids, if the water they’re drinking is laced with heavy metals because your boss cut corners on the French drains.

I would push a single payer healthcare plan equivalent to the one in France. The fact is that our medical aids are downright predatory and maintaining their existence runs counter to our country’s interests.

In the main I would ignore SABC News as a propaganda arm. The news does not shift a country’s basic culture, if it romanticises things it ceases to be news, and thus loses any authority it might have had.

To shift a culture requires focusing on entertainment.

To that end I would push for TV series focused on more skilled paths to success – whether it be showing our people as heroic scientists making great discoveries or engineers saving the day in the face of some municipal disaster.

If we want skills, we need to convince our people that they want those skills, which means making those skills glamorous.

I would alter our curriculum in our schools – adding philosophy at a primary school level.

Dictating ethical behaviour does not work half as well as getting people to come up with their own ethical ideas. If I tell you not to do something, there will be a part of you that thinks “Screw you, you’re not the boss of me.”

However if I can get you to think it through, and figure out for yourself why you should not do that thing – well you’re going to be less likely to do it.

Philosophy does not provide the answers to the big questions, but a way of thinking about them, and arguing over them without resorting to violence.

I would also encourage gaming amongst the youth – it is associated with better problem solving skills and we have a lot of problems that need solving.

I may be biased on that last point.

The thing is everything I would focus on isn’t some sense of being the big strongman, of doing away with "freebies" but rather improving the strength of my people as a whole.

A powerful nation is not defined by having a powerful leader, Kim Jong Un is a powerful leader yet his nation is a joke.

A powerful nation is defined by the sum total power of its people. The more powerful the people, the more powerful the country.