Beautifully and clearly written. Suggest readers new to this concept check out "Capitalism and Freedom" by Milton Friedman. He explains this subject and more in layman's terms. He is also one of the greatest minds in recent history (IMHO).
You’re not sincere about the national debt unless you are fierce Lee advocating for a 45% income tax rate on corporate revenue after expenses on all monies created within our borders.
Not only would such a policy completely erase the national debt in less than five years is dedicated to it, but have major macro economic advantages such as allowing mom and Pop to compete.
The stupidity of your “hands completely off“ policies wouldn’t work if we all started at zero. To think they would work when there is already a controlling corporate donor class is beyond stupid. It should be a global law that any skinbag whose IQ does not equal the sum of their inseam and waist measurement be dispatched to the next space-time continuum, posthaste. By any means available at the time. I’ve got an ax handle in my trunk. Hang on a minute…
this all sounded as if nothing could be done to fix the problem, which in reality is true but not for the reasons you mentioned, and i should say what the reason is: because people need change. if they would stop spending money on stuff they do not need, spenders are the voters! if you looove Amazon and cannot live without it you could live in smaller houses, drive smaller cars etc......but people should think much more if they want independence from the government, people loove someone to take care of them, to tell them what is healthy and what not, the majority of course, and that is all that matters in a democracy. so the solution to this problem is the same as with obese people, sickness of a kind that would be painful for every cell, and no voter wants to go through that......Gini coef. for the USA is among the worst dictatorships of African or middle east type of countries...how? you can not blame it on your hands when your Body is sick! for ages.....you let it happen, not people from Mars. This is called taking responsibility on the individual level. Maybe you all just love money too much and not the Truth. You let your governments terrorize countries all around the World, while not seeing that you have been terrorized yourself all this time by them too. Lehman brothers fall? necessity or planned!??? That is when USA theft of the century happened, they stole financial assets from the Europe! 1.45 was the eur/usd back then. EU was ahead of USA! who poisoned the World in 2008?? your US rating agencies? a coincidence? yeah the same as covid 19 lab made virus
One core problem with democracy--whether the pure form of it, or the modern form that uses elected representatives and written Constitutions--is that it gives the illusion, but not the reality, of putting "the people" in power.
But "the people" will never be in power. Democracy is a system that puts the best manipulators in power.
The **monopoly** power to make the laws, enforce the laws, decide what the law means, and how it applies to specific cases, can **and will** be used to make Constitutions and democratic elections irrelevant.
“We need to give more power to the State so that the State can limit its own power,” said the idiot.
Power is power. Once you delegate it to the collective, you cannot control whether it will be used for good or evil. Nor against whom.
It's impossible to grant the monopoly power to effectively fight injustice, corruption and oppression without also granting the power to engage in it with impunity. A monopoly cannot be expected to police itself; it's a conflict of interest.
you can read some of my posts, but I am from a country with a lot of history,.....and we do not need to invent the hot water: democracy, freedom, and truth are the ULTIMATE values! there are no better values under the sun because all of these are based on the law of love! ultimate values are eternal. the majority only has to unite over 1 value, the Truth, and people do that in democratic elections...but yours have become seriously rigged as well as the markets this is the same coin, 2 sides and systems become the mirror image of human souls.....everyone sells the Truth for few coins....its not the politicians it is all of you, majority of you :) the same as with covid 19...yes sometimes to stand up for the Truth one has to loose some of its comfort of life, but not HOPE! nor faith in the ultimate values, there were only 20% of people ready to fight for the Truth. 1st step to loose your sovereignity is when you STOP thinking! and you have collectively stopped thinking long time ago....you just think in money terms
Freedom is the greatest good. That's why I'm an advocate for a strictly-voluntary society--one which comprehensively and adamantly rejects any monopoly of authority.
"There can be no such thing as 'limited government,' because there is no way to control an entity that in principle enjoys a monopoly of power." ~ Joseph Sobran
When the government is the sole arbiter of the legality of its own actions, then no law or Constitutional clause can prevent the government from doing whatever it wants.
State supremacists claim that the state is our servant, and that “we the people” are its master. But when your servant has the big guns, and controls the police and the military, and makes the laws, and is in charge of enforcing the laws it makes, and is the one that decides what the text of the laws mean, and how they apply to you, who's really the servant and who's really the master?
The purpose of the state isn't to defend the rights of individuals against either the rich and powerful or against the majority. Its purpose, in fact, is to enable the majority and/or the rich and powerful to violate the rights of the minority, and of individuals. The state exists in order to grant itself and its agents a license to kill. And steal.
"You cannot first establish a territorial monopoly of law and order and then expect that this monopolist will not make use of this awesome privilege of legislating in its own favor. Likewise: You cannot establish a territorial monopoly of paper money production and expect the monopolist not to use its power of printing up ever more money." ~ Hans Herman Hoppe
"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." ~ James Madison
“Laws control the lesser man, right conduct controls the greater one, and neither control politicians.” ~ Mark Twain
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"I freed a thousand slaves...and I could have freed more had more of them known they were slaves." ~ Harriet Tubman
“I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks — no form of government can render us secure.” ~ James Madison
"If men are good, you don’t need government; if men are evil or ambivalent, you don’t dare have one." ~ Robert LeFevre
the state should let the gameplay...and limit power from taking over the game, and power comes from those who do not play by the rules! gigantic companies....when MSFT was ousted for bad practices....what he do? went into another business.....and he was let off the hook....the law should be once you manipulate the market you are not allowed to do any business anymore! like rouge trader!
read my latest post freedom is not stable! if the majority does not seek the truth it is a fact of simple logic: divide et impera is like the law of gravity! a Truth includes freedom and love.....freedom on your terms is described in philosophy as utopia
As the philosopher Quine proved, "truth" is subjective: By adapting one's "web of belief," one can "prove" (to yourself, at least) any "truth" you prefer.
And as the philosopher Hume proved, there is no such thing as absolute proof regarding real world events or phenomena: Any and all empirical "proofs" about "objective" reality are based on proof by induction. But proof by induction can never be absolute, only probabilistic.
And that's why getting a consensus on what is true is far more difficult than getting a consensus on the value of freedom and undesirability of monopoly power.
When your best argument against not(X) is that X will happen anyway because society collectively isn't willing to stop X from happening, what does that suggest? How about this: We need to change our collective attitudes and behaviors, and stop using our current collective attitudes and behaviors as a self-referential excuse to avoid changing them?
"It is almost shocking how often people denounce or dismiss individualist anarchism on the grounds that it is a utopian doctrine. But those who insist that anarchy (an absence of imposed rulers) can never work simultaneously believe that because people are not angels, great power must be given to a gang that monopolizes violent force and inevitably consists of the least angelic of all, and that such a government can be kept limited. Who are the real utopians here?
In any event, individualist anarchists do not believe that people are angels; on the contrary. Which is why they oppose the imposed rule of a diabolical gang of disreputable wretches who fancy themselves fit to possess and wield a monopoly of violent power over their fellows. The individualist anarchists recognize the folly of destroying the people's liberties and natural rights at the outset as an allegedly necessary means of protecting them." ~ Robert Higgs
no truth is always in the equation. lies are subjective! it's all MATH!! this is not poetry...and "freedom" is undefinable........ there is no absolute truth but Newton laws are true today and forever....people can agree on the Truth, democracy works like a charm if you let it happen, sports field is evidence you can ALWAYS know who is better, and who is closer to the true game. the same is true with ideas!! just let people vote on how much the bull weighs and you will get the TRUE answer! read the Wisdom of the masses book! the biggest lie is the Truth can not be known... because the Truth is SO much bigger than lies, ALWAYS....its like missing the elephant in the room, BUT if you focus too much on just one side of the equation then lie looks like a big, but repeating the same argument 1000 times does not make it true, very simple math. this is as if you are lie worshiper.....math says you always have 50% chance to spot a lie!! that is HUGE chnace! you need just 1% and truth has 50% of evidence while if you find just 1% of a lie! you spot the liar!! do you get it?? iits math! just one small mistake by a liar and he is DONE!....why people are not good at it? becasue they too lie all the time! and think it is IMPOSSIBLE to spot a liar hahahaha...crazy! i should write this as a MATH rule :) i did but in my language...but this is now even better idea!
Beautifully and clearly written. Suggest readers new to this concept check out "Capitalism and Freedom" by Milton Friedman. He explains this subject and more in layman's terms. He is also one of the greatest minds in recent history (IMHO).
Extremely lucid and well written. The analogy of maps to land as fiat currency to wealth I will use.
You’re not sincere about the national debt unless you are fierce Lee advocating for a 45% income tax rate on corporate revenue after expenses on all monies created within our borders.
Not only would such a policy completely erase the national debt in less than five years is dedicated to it, but have major macro economic advantages such as allowing mom and Pop to compete.
The stupidity of your “hands completely off“ policies wouldn’t work if we all started at zero. To think they would work when there is already a controlling corporate donor class is beyond stupid. It should be a global law that any skinbag whose IQ does not equal the sum of their inseam and waist measurement be dispatched to the next space-time continuum, posthaste. By any means available at the time. I’ve got an ax handle in my trunk. Hang on a minute…
this all sounded as if nothing could be done to fix the problem, which in reality is true but not for the reasons you mentioned, and i should say what the reason is: because people need change. if they would stop spending money on stuff they do not need, spenders are the voters! if you looove Amazon and cannot live without it you could live in smaller houses, drive smaller cars etc......but people should think much more if they want independence from the government, people loove someone to take care of them, to tell them what is healthy and what not, the majority of course, and that is all that matters in a democracy. so the solution to this problem is the same as with obese people, sickness of a kind that would be painful for every cell, and no voter wants to go through that......Gini coef. for the USA is among the worst dictatorships of African or middle east type of countries...how? you can not blame it on your hands when your Body is sick! for ages.....you let it happen, not people from Mars. This is called taking responsibility on the individual level. Maybe you all just love money too much and not the Truth. You let your governments terrorize countries all around the World, while not seeing that you have been terrorized yourself all this time by them too. Lehman brothers fall? necessity or planned!??? That is when USA theft of the century happened, they stole financial assets from the Europe! 1.45 was the eur/usd back then. EU was ahead of USA! who poisoned the World in 2008?? your US rating agencies? a coincidence? yeah the same as covid 19 lab made virus
"We have met the enemy, and he is us!" ~ Pogo
One core problem with democracy--whether the pure form of it, or the modern form that uses elected representatives and written Constitutions--is that it gives the illusion, but not the reality, of putting "the people" in power.
But "the people" will never be in power. Democracy is a system that puts the best manipulators in power.
The **monopoly** power to make the laws, enforce the laws, decide what the law means, and how it applies to specific cases, can **and will** be used to make Constitutions and democratic elections irrelevant.
“We need to give more power to the State so that the State can limit its own power,” said the idiot.
Power is power. Once you delegate it to the collective, you cannot control whether it will be used for good or evil. Nor against whom.
It's impossible to grant the monopoly power to effectively fight injustice, corruption and oppression without also granting the power to engage in it with impunity. A monopoly cannot be expected to police itself; it's a conflict of interest.
you can read some of my posts, but I am from a country with a lot of history,.....and we do not need to invent the hot water: democracy, freedom, and truth are the ULTIMATE values! there are no better values under the sun because all of these are based on the law of love! ultimate values are eternal. the majority only has to unite over 1 value, the Truth, and people do that in democratic elections...but yours have become seriously rigged as well as the markets this is the same coin, 2 sides and systems become the mirror image of human souls.....everyone sells the Truth for few coins....its not the politicians it is all of you, majority of you :) the same as with covid 19...yes sometimes to stand up for the Truth one has to loose some of its comfort of life, but not HOPE! nor faith in the ultimate values, there were only 20% of people ready to fight for the Truth. 1st step to loose your sovereignity is when you STOP thinking! and you have collectively stopped thinking long time ago....you just think in money terms
Freedom is the greatest good. That's why I'm an advocate for a strictly-voluntary society--one which comprehensively and adamantly rejects any monopoly of authority.
"There can be no such thing as 'limited government,' because there is no way to control an entity that in principle enjoys a monopoly of power." ~ Joseph Sobran
When the government is the sole arbiter of the legality of its own actions, then no law or Constitutional clause can prevent the government from doing whatever it wants.
State supremacists claim that the state is our servant, and that “we the people” are its master. But when your servant has the big guns, and controls the police and the military, and makes the laws, and is in charge of enforcing the laws it makes, and is the one that decides what the text of the laws mean, and how they apply to you, who's really the servant and who's really the master?
The purpose of the state isn't to defend the rights of individuals against either the rich and powerful or against the majority. Its purpose, in fact, is to enable the majority and/or the rich and powerful to violate the rights of the minority, and of individuals. The state exists in order to grant itself and its agents a license to kill. And steal.
"You cannot first establish a territorial monopoly of law and order and then expect that this monopolist will not make use of this awesome privilege of legislating in its own favor. Likewise: You cannot establish a territorial monopoly of paper money production and expect the monopolist not to use its power of printing up ever more money." ~ Hans Herman Hoppe
"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." ~ James Madison
“Laws control the lesser man, right conduct controls the greater one, and neither control politicians.” ~ Mark Twain
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"I freed a thousand slaves...and I could have freed more had more of them known they were slaves." ~ Harriet Tubman
“I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks — no form of government can render us secure.” ~ James Madison
"If men are good, you don’t need government; if men are evil or ambivalent, you don’t dare have one." ~ Robert LeFevre
the state should let the gameplay...and limit power from taking over the game, and power comes from those who do not play by the rules! gigantic companies....when MSFT was ousted for bad practices....what he do? went into another business.....and he was let off the hook....the law should be once you manipulate the market you are not allowed to do any business anymore! like rouge trader!
read my latest post freedom is not stable! if the majority does not seek the truth it is a fact of simple logic: divide et impera is like the law of gravity! a Truth includes freedom and love.....freedom on your terms is described in philosophy as utopia
As the philosopher Quine proved, "truth" is subjective: By adapting one's "web of belief," one can "prove" (to yourself, at least) any "truth" you prefer.
And as the philosopher Hume proved, there is no such thing as absolute proof regarding real world events or phenomena: Any and all empirical "proofs" about "objective" reality are based on proof by induction. But proof by induction can never be absolute, only probabilistic.
And that's why getting a consensus on what is true is far more difficult than getting a consensus on the value of freedom and undesirability of monopoly power.
When your best argument against not(X) is that X will happen anyway because society collectively isn't willing to stop X from happening, what does that suggest? How about this: We need to change our collective attitudes and behaviors, and stop using our current collective attitudes and behaviors as a self-referential excuse to avoid changing them?
"It is almost shocking how often people denounce or dismiss individualist anarchism on the grounds that it is a utopian doctrine. But those who insist that anarchy (an absence of imposed rulers) can never work simultaneously believe that because people are not angels, great power must be given to a gang that monopolizes violent force and inevitably consists of the least angelic of all, and that such a government can be kept limited. Who are the real utopians here?
In any event, individualist anarchists do not believe that people are angels; on the contrary. Which is why they oppose the imposed rule of a diabolical gang of disreputable wretches who fancy themselves fit to possess and wield a monopoly of violent power over their fellows. The individualist anarchists recognize the folly of destroying the people's liberties and natural rights at the outset as an allegedly necessary means of protecting them." ~ Robert Higgs
no truth is always in the equation. lies are subjective! it's all MATH!! this is not poetry...and "freedom" is undefinable........ there is no absolute truth but Newton laws are true today and forever....people can agree on the Truth, democracy works like a charm if you let it happen, sports field is evidence you can ALWAYS know who is better, and who is closer to the true game. the same is true with ideas!! just let people vote on how much the bull weighs and you will get the TRUE answer! read the Wisdom of the masses book! the biggest lie is the Truth can not be known... because the Truth is SO much bigger than lies, ALWAYS....its like missing the elephant in the room, BUT if you focus too much on just one side of the equation then lie looks like a big, but repeating the same argument 1000 times does not make it true, very simple math. this is as if you are lie worshiper.....math says you always have 50% chance to spot a lie!! that is HUGE chnace! you need just 1% and truth has 50% of evidence while if you find just 1% of a lie! you spot the liar!! do you get it?? iits math! just one small mistake by a liar and he is DONE!....why people are not good at it? becasue they too lie all the time! and think it is IMPOSSIBLE to spot a liar hahahaha...crazy! i should write this as a MATH rule :) i did but in my language...but this is now even better idea!
it is people, individuals who sold the Truth for the money! otherwise you would never have Amazon grow that much if people just did not reward it!
Great piece!