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TDV Week in Review August 26 2012
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A lot of folks in the freedom movement who still believe in “good” and “minimal” government -- i.e. those who haven’t worked out why full blown anarchy is the best and most moral arrangement of human affairs -- tend to exhibit a distinct technophobia...particularly concerning the technological advancement brought forth by the corporations who under this fascist system of government control have no choice but to cooperate with the government.
Minus the government, such technological advances would be heartily welcomed by most people as improvements in convenience and quality of life. But even in the presence of a little government these conveniences carry the risk of state monitoring, state control and state punishment.
Would it all be better under a “minimalist” state? I really doubt it. Or at least it wouldn’t be better for long. Because any political force whatsoever eventually gets used for evil. It can’t be helped. Political force is the coercion...violence. Do as I say, or else. The state itself always seeks to grow, to monitor, to interfere, to steal, kidnap and kill. Give the state enough time and it will find more and more things to outlaw and thus create more and more reasons to use improving technology to find and punish you if you don’t fall in line.
And so it is that Facebook is viewed as a more efficient and ruthless form of Big Brother...
And handy life-transforming tools like Google and Skype are viewed as information-gathering tools for politicians and police.
The problem, however, isn’t with the companies collecting information about you. After all, their real goal is simply to serve you better. The problem is the state with its monopoly on violence which forces the companies to divulge your info to use against you. Again, minus the state, every company out there only has the goal of getting you what you want as best and cheaply as they possibly can. That’s the ruthless capitalism that turns the brains and energy of the best and brightest into customer-serving improvers of the human condition. Trying to mix that energy with the centralized violence of politics is what corrupts it.
So Google creates a car that can safely drive itself...
This would be a boon in the state-free (i.e. free of institutionalized violence) world that people like me are always yammering on about. But in the USSA where the overzealous fascist government is dreaming of being able to seize remote control of the vehicles its subjects drive, this technology is understandably viewed as dangerous.
Same with the search engine. Google itself doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what you search for. They just want to get you the information you request so that you are happy with their service. And they make it so easy to find anything. But the government cares an awful lot about what you are typing into your search boxes. And they stand ready to harass and kidnap you for those searches.
Same goes for what you post on those Facebook pages. In an ideal, state-free world you should be able to post anything that you feel comfortable with your mother being able to find. But if you live in the USSA, you need to worry about what the government thinks of your posts, too.
Brandon Raub, Political Prisoner
I try not to worry about how the government will turn consumer technological advances against me. But that’s a luxury I can afford because I avoid placing my physical person within easy reach of the of Dodge USSA and its crony nation-states. (I suppose they can grab me wherever they want if they really wanted to...but I still sleep a lot better outside the Western World.)
If you have no choice but to keep your person within easy reach of the US enforcers, at least keep some of your assets beyond their reach. Diversify your political risk. Get Your Gold Out of Dodge. And you don’t have to do all your banking with the corrupt, fasco-commie central banking US system either. You can do your banking off shore.
Till next time, vigilantes. I’ll be here posting, saying, buying and doing whatever without worrying about federal kidnapping.
Regards,
Editor, The Dollar Vigilante
Now, on to the review of the week that was…
The new TDV site is up and running, and we love its look and how it provides the best possible forum for interacting with you, our community. So what happened this week? Well, the gun control conversation continues, the state sanctions thieves, Julian Assange looks to Ecuador, society continues to corrupt and destroy civility, and Jeff checks in from Paraguay where he and TDV Passports’ Ken Johnson are finding the best ways for you to move out from under the weight of the state.
Busy week, so let’s get to the review:
MONDAY, AUGUST 20
Jim Karger on the “contemporary Richard Nixon”, Jon Corzine, another in a long line of state-sanctioned thieves.
“In the big picture, he is small potatoes. Other bigger players are being given passes for far more egregious crimes. JP Morgan, infamous manipulator of silver, stepped closer to the edge by losing $6 billion in a single trading loss. It's megalomaniacal CEO, Jamie Dimon, no stranger to truth suppression, expertly employed technique number four: “Knock down straw men. Deal only with the weakest aspect of the weakest charges. Even better, create your own straw men. Make up wild rumors and give them lead play when you appear to debunk all the charges, real and fanciful alike." Dimon took full responsibility (for a nanosecond) before blaming it all on a straw man, a rogue trader who turned out to have all the authority he exercised. No one is going to jail.”
TUESDAY, AUGUST 21
Dear Slavey — August 21st Edition
TDV’s libertarian/anarcho-capitalist advice columnist answers your questions. This week, leveraging silver and good to pay off debt.
“We can’t predict exactly when the fiat will hit the fan but if you charge up all your credit cards, pull all the equity out of your home, then default quickly before the price of gold shoots up to the moon (which it surely will), the Police State will lock you up and throw away the key.”
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22
Julian, Why the Western World?
TDV Editor Gary Gibson pens an open letter to Wikileaks provocateur and hopeful Ecuadorian citizen, Julian Assange.
“Look, Julian, I think you’re innocent of these ridiculous and sensational charges. I’m sure those women you had sex with were either government spies...or were later “convinced” to accuse you falsely. These trumped up charges are just to draw you out where the US government can grab you without causing an international incident, then try you and possibly execute you.
My question to you is: what the heck were you doing within the geopolitical lines of the Western World in the first place? At this time Canada, the UK, the countries of Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand will sit up and beg whenever their US master demands it. These are not countries where you want to be if you’re going to be a gadfly to the US.”
THURSDAY, AUGUST 23
Society in a Collapsing Empire
Mexican-based TDV Education Correspondent Jorge Gato on the corruption of civility and the absence of compassion in a failing society.
“Considering this mentality, I recall passing through O'Hare Airport recently. I asked a food stand operator and her co-worker, who had the register open and was counting currency, if she would give me a dollar's worth of change so I could make a phone call the old fashioned way. She immediately went into an incoherent rant, something about "no authorization...manager" and that I had to make a purchase. Conversely, in Mexico I recall a $2.50 taxi ride I once took to work where the driver so enjoyed our conversation on life in America that he waived the cab fare—which I of course paid nevertheless.”
FRIDAY, AUGUST 24
Feedback Friday – August 24th, 2012
In this week’s Feedback, TDV responds to our readers concerns about getting out of the USSA, even within the USSA, as well as the seemingly never ending controversy and commentary on Jim Karger’s post on guns, guns, and guns.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 25
The Weekend Vigilante August 25th, 2012
Hello from Asuncion, Paraguay! Jeff checks in from a TDV Passports research and development trip to Paraguay with TDV Passports’ Ken Johnson. While trying to find the best ways for you, dear Dollar Vigilantes, to get out from under the wrath of the USSA, Jeff and Ken ran into many TDV disciples who had already made their escape! With non-stop meetings with Paraguayan lawyers, congressmen, and judges, Jeff has just a small preview of his findings and a few other thoughts on the week in the Weekend Vigilante.
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Redmond is the Managing Editor of the Dollar vigilante and the Founding Director of the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada, the centre for the study of the Austrian School of Economics within Canada
Redmond founded the LvMIC in 2010 to address the lack of knowledge about the true cause of our booms and busts of the last 100 years and the need for sound money and sound economics to be applied to the Canadian and global economy.
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Comments (8)
It would be called a local government only if these individuals get together, and upon deciding that this is necessary to clean up the street, tax everyone else to do it.
In pure capitalism, they get together and clean it up. Notice the distinction. This isn't a government, since it isn't governing you. It only does what it wants to do, by themselves.
Right? It would be a nonsense, if they taxed everyone, you are right, that would be the usual government then again.
Are you against this way of doing things? Why? Give it a thought.
For instance, I am awaiting an arrival of a very special exotic entertainer. Very expensive. But, necessary, as I deem it for myself. It is of course, disconcerting to me, that the others living nearby are not going to participate financially. But, such is life. They don't think it is necessary. So, I just do what I think is necessary, keep my nose down and let others live as they wish.
Why can't I get the same from others?
By the way, you'd be free to associate. Say, the whole town doesn't like the dead bodies, and cleans them up. That's fine. The problem arises, only when truly become a government, i.e. when they start to govern (forcefully direct) the lives of others, say of a next town over.
I think that if you perceive the tragedy of commons as a tragedy (I think it is really a comedy), then you simply don't allow any commons. Buy that land, and don't let the bum to die on it. I certainly won't allow any bum to die on mine, because then it would suddenly become a necessity for me, in a hurry, and now I will have to go clean it up.
So, then are you inquiring about the commons?
Currently, the "tragedy of the commons" is solved by forcefully violating the property rights of the least powerful. Example: Some bum died on the street today. A government worker cleans him off, drags him off to a truck and drives him to the crematorium.
It is assumed, that I need this service. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't care. In fact, I think that cats and worms and squirrels would be better off, if we just leave the dead bum alone. Everyone cares for the whales and no one gives two bits about the larvae!
I take it that you don't like the dead bum laying on the street. My hunch is that is why you are calling his removal a necessity. Well, there is the answer. In an anarchy, you will pay for that. And others, who agree with you. But, no one else. Voluntarily, since this is important to you. Necessary even. Important enough that you want to pay.
No? Not ready to pay? They how did you know it's necessary if you are not willing to go do it or pay someone?
All of a sudden, God came into you and told you what is necessary and what is not?
How do you know what is necessary? And since you do know, think about it, what do we even need the free market for? We can just have you telling us what is and what isn't necessary, right? Sound nonsensical, isn't it?
Now you are going to plead to the majority opinion. Right?
Interestingly, that majority opinion is ready ONLY to provide their opinion, not their FUNDS. For that, they reach in my pocket, the pocket of a guy who didn't think this is necessary in the first place! Isn't this freaking comedy?
Again, the result is the same, I am forced to pay, because someone else thought that something was necessary.
Please, don't take my writing style too personal. It's just how I think.
I wasn’t trying to be flippant. I understand your philosophy but the question is one of practicality. In a pure capitalistic and/or anarchistic system how do these distasteful but necessary task get done? I believe in freedom of opportunity for everyone but let’s face it, some people are not going to make it. Maybe they’ll stay around for a while by the kindness of individual strangers; but in the end they die in the streets and who cleans up the mess? What is ther mechanism for creating these jobs? Do individual citizens get together and hire someone to do the distasteful jobs? Isn’t that called local government? mhe63
anonymous,
It is really a simple question. (Yes, there are some tough ones).
Who cleans up the bodies of those who didn't survive today? Whoever wants to do it for whatever it pays. The same exact thing will be observed in Anarcho-capitalism.
And if you meant government workers, then you probably believe that they are necessary. Since they are necessary, then the free market will always provide for them. Necessity means "jobs available and funds ready".
If you, for example, are not ready to pay for something, that means whatever that is, is not a necessity to you.
Say, the government provides us with a space program, NASA. Well, do you need it? I can not decide for you. Only you can. Yes? They pay for it!
I know, I don't need it, could not care less! I have no problem with you pursuing what you think is needed, because no one knows everything, including myself, and especially, the government.
The difference, however comes with regards to violence. Right now, say if you "need" NASA, then you make me pay forcefully, violently. In Anrcho-capitalism, you can't do that.
If you have another , even more troubling, perhaps, question regarding something that Anarchy can not do, go ahead and bring it up, - I am looking for those. Actually, because I believe in Minarchism, but, I allow a possibility that I may be wrong.
So, let's talk.
sorry - forgot to paste the referenced statement....
A lot of folks in the freedom movement who still believe in “good” and “minimal” government -- i.e. those who haven’t worked out why full blown anarchy is the best and most moral arrangement of human affairs -
I've been reading your (and the wiskey) site for a while now and I have not seen any justification for the above statement. Let me ask one question; Who cleans up all the dead bodies that don't survive in this anarchist's wonderland? How do things like this get done in your world?
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