Student loan morality

Today's Mary Holm column has numerous correspondents complaining about the morality of exploiting the interest free student loan policy:

The dilemma of "to repay or reinvest" is morally and ethically bankrupt, and my advice to your correspondent is: Your son should repay his dues. Student loans are not a right but a privilege. The more they are abused the less there will be for future generations.

In my view, it would be immoral to not utilise the current student loan system to its fullest, in exactly the same way as it would be immoral to pay more tax than you were required to.  An individuals responsibility is to himself and his family, not to society as a whole.  Why would I voluntarily forego some of my own wealth to the collective, to the detriment of myself and my family?

The correspondents are also only questioning the morality of receiving an interest free loan when in their view it is not required.  I assume they are equally outraged by the middle class receiving Working for Families payments, universal superannuation and other transfers?

Oh that's right, it is entirely moral to confiscate the wealth from productive individuals to satisfy the "needs" of the collective.

Intellectual property rights

British American Tobacco are to be congratulated for their fightback against the self righteous individual rights violators pushing for plain packing of cigarettes.

Not only are individual's rights to pursue their own happiness being violated, but BAT's intellectual property rights are threatened to be stripped away.

The simple fact is smoking is a conscious decision by those undertaking it.  I am not in a position to tell them what to smoke in exactly the same way as I'm not prepared to be told what to eat.

I am a free individual who should be allowed to fill my lungs with cancer causing smoke or my stomach with heart disease inducing burgers.

And BAT should be allowed to advertise and sell their product to me, including utilising their intellectual property.

To be blunt, I don't give a shit about Johnny down the road killing himself with cigarettes.  It is his right to do what he likes with his body just as it is my right to do to mine what I like.