I don't understand. The government is telling us that the businesses that mishandled their businesses need more of our business (taxes) so they can stay in business. If the government's excuse for spreading it's tyranny is to help the economy, then why reward the losers when so many others are winning? Does it make more sense for winners or losers to be at the economic helm?
Or how about there simply be free men at the helm, huh? Whatever happened to that concept? It really sickens me to see this great nation succumbing such levels of socialism. I despise socialism and I'm just torn up about the direction were headed.
Anyone else out there feeling insecure about the future? I feel like I'm seeing something dreadful approach and can't do anything or am unwilling to do anything. It really hurts. We need a voice.
"The best way to bail out the economy is with liberty, not with federal reserve notes." - pairunoyd
"The vision of the Austrian must be greater than the blindness of the sheeple." - pairunoyd
Have you talked to everyone you know about it? Have you asked questions about what is happening, to fill the voids in your knowledge? Do you have a blog? An email list of friends and family?
How about sending out some text messages? Writing a letter to the editor?
Calling your elected official? Call into talk radio. Make up a flyer and leave it lying around wherever you go.
Go to DIGG and look for stories to DIGG that are related and express your concern. Same with Reddit.
You have to take action, in my experience, the only way to stave off dread is to keep your eyes forward and your feet churning.
If you find something evil that wobbles, push it. - Gary North
It's the U.S. dollar that holds our fate. The government has assumed complete control. The presses are churning out so many piles of cash, it's unthinkable. Actions are coming quicker and quicker and with greater and greater intensity.
Is there much opposition to this in the Senate or House?
pairunoyd: I don't understand. The government is telling us that the businesses that mishandled their businesses need more of our business (taxes) so they can stay in business. If the government's excuse for spreading it's tyranny is to help the economy, then why reward the losers when so many others are winning? Does it make more sense for winners or losers to be at the economic realm? Or how about there simply be free men at the helm, huh? Whatever happened to that concept? It really sickens me to see this great nation succumbing such levels of socialism. I despise socialism and I'm just torn up about the direction were headed. Anyone else out there feeling insecure about the future? I feel like I'm seeing something dreadful approach and can't do anything or am unwilling to do anything. It really hurts. We need a voice.
I don't understand. The government is telling us that the businesses that mishandled their businesses need more of our business (taxes) so they can stay in business. If the government's excuse for spreading it's tyranny is to help the economy, then why reward the losers when so many others are winning? Does it make more sense for winners or losers to be at the economic realm?
This is no new game. This was one of the purposes for the creation of the Federal Reserve. This is the same thing that happened in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s and now this century as well. "Bail out" is the game plan when one in the banking cartel fails. Of course it's at the loss of capital of everyone else. They will also implement new rules that will make the banking game more favorable to bigger banks and permit these institutions to create more injustice. They will present it as "much needed for the people" and that the "old set of rules aren't working anymore because they are old". This will lead to more centralization in the banking industry and higher rates of capital extraction to the centralized Federal Reserve in our country.
Like you, I'm tempted to just pool some money with other people and buy allodial title to a big island and go make our own country. Lol. But in this country there are some basic rules:
1)No corporations(govt created legal fictions): These permit a person or group of people to have their bad economic decisions to fall on to their debtors instead of on the one's making the bad decisions. This is injustice.
2)Govt mints that charge a fee for converting gold or silver into coin and also having fixed weights and measures and punishing those who counterfiet the current coin emblems. Contractual disputes concerning money will be resolved in said coinage.
3)Govt is funded purely by those who create injustice(i.e. violating the person, property, or liberties of others) through fines or confiscation to pay those fines. Restitution will also be made to the injured party by the aggressor. In certain crimes, said person will be banished from the island.
4)Trial by jury will never be denied to a person accused of a crime.
5)No laws can be made besides the above stated.
The market is so unjust. We can't just let businesses fail; peopel need to work. We should prop up failure and penalize success, perferably by taxing the hell out of it. I think that's the right road toward prosperity.
Don't dispair, the US government will easily be able to pay the incompetent industries with the money they get from the successful ones
You know it's a topsy turvy world when US presidential candidates will support bailing out incompetent firms while advocating a windfall profit tax on others.
Irish Liberty Forum
This is absolutely nothing new under the Sun. Governments all over the world have done this over and over again: for example the Italian government has bailed out FIAT, the car manufacturer, innumerable times, both directly and indirectly and we all remember the wave of nationalizations and "managing" which hit Britain in post-WWII years (and how it ended). Also the US government has meddled innumerable times with the economy, both directly and indirectly: to stay in the car industry again we can remember how Buick was "pressured" by the US government to drop their revolutionary light alloy V8 because US steel industry representives instructed their lobbysts to represent this fact to politicians in Washington as a "terrible threat" which would have thrown many patriotic hardworking Joes on the street. In the end the Brits bought the engine design and rights for chips and are still using it to this day.
What set aside the current wave of nationalizations from previous episodes is basically the immense magnitude of the numbers involved. If I remember correctly the US government plans to spend 700.000.000.000 dollars on the bail out plan. Repeat with me: 700 billions. Even in Greenspan/Bernanke times that's such an immense quantity of money that I cannot even picture it. According to datas from the CIA World Factbook (as to use number from the Feds themselves again) that's more than three times Singapore's GDP, one the wealthiest countries on earth and a vital financial center. Where is all this money supposed to come from? Inflation, so they can blame it all on oil-producing countries and "price gougers"? Debt, since we all know that the US government is very good at this game? Direct taxation, maybe in the form of a "carbon tax"?
Allow me to say that this is the triumph of managed economy, a triumph I hope will be short-lived.
Yes, it's time for the Dr Goebbels show!
But it seems no matter how clear the reason for this economic trouble, people ALWAYS look to government. The government is destroying our economy, our freedom, and people look to it for the answers.
Everything is backwards. Government spending is seen as liberty. True liberty is seen as tyranny. Black is white.
I also think one place that goes unforgotten in this messed up world is public education. It seems to create the minds that will swallow these deceptions. The socialists are winning - in a rout!
Again, instead of pointing out the obvious, what do you intend to do about it?
Your epiphany is not exactly earth shattering with this crowd.
No epiphany. Ive been a free-marketer since I was in my early 20's. I'll soon be 43. It's just I've never seen such forboding circumstances.
Yea, I discuss issues w/ people. I work w/ a guy that was born into communism. He came here when Slovakia became independent, looking for a better country. But guess what. Even after being under communism and seeing it's ruinous ways, first hand, he wants Obama and every other freedom-taker in office!!! I've talked to him several times, making what I thought were good points, but he steadfastly continues to support the type government he fled from! lol
He's never even heard of Ron Paul. The guy is so pro-socialist and unreceptive that even after our many talks, he assumed I would vote for Obama. I was dumbfounded.... It'd be like assuming a fire-and-brimstone preacher is gonna vote for the devil!
I've said this on here before. Liberty needs a PR campaign. 80+% of the voters out there are clueless. And how can so-called black conservatives vote for Obama? No, I am NOT a McCain supporter. Gag me w/ a spoon. They all disgust me, except for Ron Paul. Sadly, however, I don't think Ron Paul has enough charisma to attain that office. I wish he had the political ability of someone like Ronald Reagan w/ the ideology he now espouses.
I know that the 70's had some bad times, but I think this current era just might be the beginning of the end. I'm also a Christian, so I tend to see things in an apocalyptic way. For instance, I find it to be beyond coincidence that Iraq's former leader's name, Hussein, is also our most likely president's name. That's just unbelievable.
liberty student: Again, instead of pointing out the obvious, what do you intend to do about it? Your epiphany is not exactly earth shattering with this crowd.
The sad reality is that I cannot do absolutely anything about it. Nor can the most of you. It's not because the "enemy"'s strength but because preaching the cause of liberty to the crowd is a hopeless cause. Trust me: I've been actively involved in politics for more than ten years before becoming completely disgusted and you cannot get a single good idea to take hold. All people want is a politician to follow blindly (see the recent Obama-mania in the US) and a bad guy to blame for all the evils in the world (be it Russia, "al-Quaeda" or Iran). And if things are not working out... well the next elections will fix that!
We know we are right, absolutely right, but try explaining people that rising prices are caused by monetary inflation and not the other way around and you'll be given the same kind of attention as the neighboorhood teenager wearing pointy ears pretending to be Mr Spock. In short you are a "weirdo" to be lumped together with UFO fanatics. Try explaining the goods of secession from a "national" State and the evils of the surveillance state: you'll be branded as an "extremist", probably fraternizing with the enemy and plotting to eat children. People believe what they see on television and what they read on "respectable" newspapers: their world ends there.
You are absolutely right in asking your question, the problem is I've run out of answers.
Allow me to share a true story.
Friday night, I went to my local convenience store. I was chatting with the owner about anarchism (as I always do, no lie), and a young man (around 11 or 12) comes up to the counter and tosses a handful of change, then asks "how much (5 cent) candy can I get"?
He knows that the taxes on luxurious 5 cent candy require more math than he has patience for.
The shop owner tells him 44 after counting the change, but need a calculator. The best part of the exchange was when the owner couldn't find a calculator, and the young man offered his cell phone, which had a calculator built in.
To the good part, I mention that people are becoming annoyed about politics, not apathetic. That the next generation will view politicians as the parasites they are. To highlight my point, I turn to the young man, hands overflowing with candy, and ask "Hey pal, do you know what the names of the 3 major political parties in Canada are?"
He thinks and thinks, and can't answer. Bear in mind, we're in an election season right now, and he probably passed 20 yard signs on the way to buy candy.
Finally he relents and I turn to the shop owner and say, "see? they don't care. they have no use for politicians".
And the young man comes looks at me and says, "You're right, they are all crooks. I hate them".
The moral of the story is, if you're wasting your time talking to people who need conversion, you're begging for failure. It's the people who don't vote, or are too young to vote that are the ones you want to reach. Many of them are already disapproving of government, but they might need some support or some intellectual ammunition to further develop their natural anti-state desire for liberty.
I'm working on my sister. She's tough, so it may take a couple years. But I'll get there. Gently but firmly.
In the meantime, go talk to a kid. A niece, nephew, son or daughter. Put the bug in their ear. "Some people just wanna rip you off and control you." Kids aren't dumb, they see things a lot clearer than adults. They might not know the names of the parties, but they know they are full of parasites.
liberty student:In the meantime, go talk to a kid. A niece, nephew, son or daughter. Put the bug in their ear. "Some people just wanna rip you off and control you." Kids aren't dumb, they see things a lot clearer than adults. They might not know the names of the parties, but they know they are full of parasites.
I think you're right here, the problem is that adults have lived their whole lives being fed lies about what the state actually is through the news, university, school, the workplace etc. I'm not saying it's not possible to convert adults I'm just saying that children are far more likely to see the virtues of anarchism merely because they haven't heard the pro state bullshit for as long.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"
Bob Dylan
Speaking of apathy, there's an interesting point Edward Griffin from Freedom Force International made about it. What causes a lot of apathy is a lack of perceived solution, the belief that there's nothing we can do and that we are powerless. He further concluded that when we approach people and try to convince them how government is bad and everything is wrong we actually breed apathy into them because their most likely reaction would be "what's the point of listening to this, there's nothing you can do anyway".
So it seems that it's important that when we talk to people we make sure that we offer some sort of a concrete strategy, a proposed solution; something we CAN do to make a difference and which really does seem like an effective thing to do. Sure, this wouldn't cure everyone's apathy, but it would probably result in a higher chances of people listening and taking you seriously - because at least you've got a plan and you're doing it!
The trouble is, however, that most voluntaryists/anarcho-capitalists today don't really have a concrete plan. It all comes down to a few cases of civil disobedience that most people either ignore or ridicule, a few web sites read mostly by the "friends" publishing articles from our point of view and trying to spread the idea, but the real organized effort with efficiency in mind is not quite there.
I personally favor agorism, because as a voluntaryist I can't support political action towards change. This means that my means is purely market means. Unfortunately there are very few people who seem to share this strategy and there's very little actually happening in the agorist movement. Even suggestions of developing a business without paying taxes to generate wealth that can be invested into more of the liberty oriented agorist activities are met by criticism and excuses.
And so long as we don't know what exactly is our strategy, we can't expect other people to overcome apathy and become enthusiastic about the cause. As my mom tends to say, we know everything is wrong, but what can you do? She's even afraid that I wont do "something stupid". The safest option is doing nothing, and just adapting to the system no matter how totalitarian it becomes.
That's what government does: reward those without merit.
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