It’s been said that good ideas don’t require force – while bad ones rarely get traction without it. True enough. But how about a qualifier?
Whose ideas?
Yours? Mine?
There is a kind of tacitly agreed upon – or at least, rarely questioned – notion that we all agree on what constitutes a “good” idea. It’s the keystone of coercive collectivism, without which that ideology loses moral legitimacy.
But in fact, we don’t agree about what a “good” idea is. Millions of individuals tend to have millions of individually variable ideas about that.
So the question becomes: Whose ideas will prevail?
If there is a free market – in ideas as well as economics – this will sort itself out naturally and non-violently, via the signals of supply and demand. Actually, those two should be reversed. It is demand which determines supply (as well as price).
A question:
Is there market demand for six air bags (and back-up cameras and tire pressure inflation sensors and anti-whiplash head restraints, etc.) in every new car?
Wouldn’t it be nice to find out?
Unfortunately there’s no way to know, because the market – millions of individual people’s freely expressed determinations about what’s “good” – hasn’t been allowed to operate. Instead, a handful of people’s idea that air bags (and the rest of it) are “good” has been imposed on everyone else, on the false presumption that everyone agrees it is good to have six air bags – and many other such things – installed in every new car. This is taken as a kind of collectively agreed upon noggin nodding. That illusion must be maintained, in order for the coercion and collectivism behind it to have any semblance of moral legitimacy.
And yet, it is obviously not legitimate because some noggins aren’t nodding – including mine.
And even if it is just mine.
Morality isn’t democratically determined.
Why should my ideas – or yours – about the “good” of air bags or any other such thing be forced to take a back seat to anyone else’s opposite idea?
That is the moral question at issue. And it goes much deeper than air bags.
It’s interesting to speculate what might be available, car-wise, if individual demand – as opposed to coercive collectivized mandate – were allowed to determine supply.
Actually, we can get a pretty good idea about what would be available, car-wise, if we were free to choose – and if the car industry were free to meet that demand – by looking at other goods which are built to suit individual demand as opposed to coercive collective mandate.
Personal computers, for example.
You can buy a high-end Macbook, if that is your preference. It will be feather light, have amazing features, a high-resolution Retina display and a handsome aluminum case. It will also cost you $1,200 to start.
Or, you could buy a $300 no-name PC.
It won’t have all the features of the Macbook. But it may be sufficient for your needs. Cool – right? The government – i.e., a handful of people who’ve somehow acquired the power to make and enforce such decisions – doesn’t (yet) mandate that you buy a high-resolution Retina display and so on. You are free – for now – to buy the computer which meets your ideas about “good” . . . and “good enough.”
Imagine that same dynamic allowed to play out with regard to cars. It’s not even necessary to imagine.
We can know.
The government only got into the car design business in a serious way in the mid-‘70s. Before then, we we were largely free to buy what we wanted – not what coercive collectivism imposed on us. There was a market for bare-bones simplicity, high-end luxury and almost every conceivable thing in between. Not coincidentally, the golden age of car design is generally considered to be the pre-government design era. Batfinned Cadillacs – and air-cooled Corvairs.
Sometimes, mistakes were made – the Edsel, famously – but nothing was forced on people. The Edsel sucked, but it wasn’t subsidized. Ford ate the loss – not the taxpayer. Ideas came – and stayed or went – on the merits. If people wanted it, they bought it. If not, they didn’t. In the case of the latter, the car industry stopped making it.
Seems reasonable.
Then along came unreasonable. Or rather, immoral.
Some people – a gaggle of pushy know-it-alls – decided their notions of what is “good” must be applied generally – even if the market rampantly disagreed with their notion. Air bags are the best example of this cross-wiring of the natural order of things.
Or what ought to be the natural order of things.
They were invented – then offered. So far, so good. The market – the free choice of millions of individuals – said nyet. And that’s where it should have ended. The bags cost too much vs. the putative value. Mark that. Value – the “good” – is a subjective estimation calculated in the mind of every human individual. I can have the air bags – and maybe they’ll be nice to have if I crash into a tree. Or I could buy leather seats, which I’ll enjoy much more.
I’ll take the seats, please!
How is this meaningfully – and morally – different than a person electing to buy the $300 tablet instead of the $,1200 Mac? Why is it ok to force people to – in effect – buy the $1,200 Mac?
Because “safety” is a consideration? Only of degree, not kind. A high-end Retina display is without question easier on the eyes – and so, safer – than a basic display. Besides, why is this weighing of the pros and cons of your safety or your health the business – morally speaking – of anyone other than yourself?
How did it happen that other people’s ideas of what’s “good” are binding on us?
It’s the craziest – and the most dangerous – thing imaginable.
Coercive collectivism – the ideology responsible for literally hundreds of millions of murdered victims – depends on maintaining the illusion that everyone is in agreement. That we are all one big “team.”
And of course, every team has leaders.
. . .
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While the Landroid M, a scant 20 pounds, has a cutting diameter of just 7 inches (the smallest of the three models shown here), we found this robot the simplest to set up, easily taking it from its box to its maiden voyage. After laying the perimeter wire, all we had to do was punch a few keys and the machine was off and running. The Landroid M can tackle up to a ¼-acre lawn with its three razor blades. Like the Robomow, this bot also has a built-in rain sensor; to ensure a cleaner cut, the Landroid M will stop mowing in inclement weather and head back to base, then launch again when the rain has passed. Using an easy-to-adjust dial, you can change the cutting height from about 1½ to 4 inches. We just wished we could access the companion app that’s available for European versions and lets you program the bot from your couch. $1,000, worx.com
I see the problem starting with the idea that car manufacturers didn’t want to have to worry about consumer options for their vehicles; they wanted everything to be standard. Or standardized. But there was also the problem of the manufacturers being an oligopoly; there were only a few choices among manufacturers for the consumer to choose from. As such, they were happy to have someone else–big government–create the rules and standards, so that no one would have a noticeable advantage.
Keep in mind that the bureaucratic mind aims toward saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafe-ty above all, no matter the cost.
Everything gets decided at the government level–Washington, DC. The manufacturers are just an appendage of government; they just carry out the rules imposed upon them by government. Since the consumer has very little real choice, they could just tell the consumer, “Sorry. We don’t make the rules. We just have to follow what government says.”
Standardization is a way for the manufacturers to lower their costs, since they make everything the same. But it also lowers consumer choice. And then we get to see dealer lots that have twenty models of cars which all look the same. But the manufacturer doesn’t care; they only care about the number of cars forced through the distribution chain.
Everything the government can do, the free market can do.
Part of the USA is decaying is because even though everything illegal, Americans are starting to question why they should obey the law when the government and illegal immigrants don’t and the US is no longer a democracy.
The US is an immoral bankrupt warmongering police state.
The USA is declining by almost every measure.
The US pretends to be a moral country, but is immoral.
The US pretends to be a free country, but is a police state.
The US pretends to be a peaceful country, but is a warmonger.
The US pretends to have a booming economy, but it is bankrupt.
Profits, copper prices, housing starts, home ownership, sales, orders, rail traffic, confidence, mortgage applications, labor participation, futures, and spending are falling. GDP is weak. Wages are flat. Foreclosures, deficits, jobless claims, debt, and inflation are rising.
Drug use, alcoholism, suicides, divorce, and STD rates are rising.
There has always been immorality in the USA, but there was a time when most Americans went to church, and homosexuality, drug use, abortions, sex before marriage, and divorces were shocking.
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2014/09/30/religion-influence-public-life-declining/16467677/
The elites, advertisers, Hollywood, and the media are trying to weaken and divide Americans by pushing immorality, welfare, debt, and illegal immigration.
No fault divorce laws, domestic violence laws, child support laws, and alimony laws discourage men from getting married. Girls would rather marry the state than marry a man. Why would men get married when marriage is so risky and men could lose half of their property in a divorce? Why would men get married if girls are willing to have sex before marriage?
Technology and science are also enabling immorality. Arranged marriages are rare now that people can arrange one night stands online. People aren’t so trusting of religion when churches have sex scandals and corruption. People have doubts when the church is proven wrong about the Sun revolving around the Earth or evolution. Why pray to God when you get sick if you can just take medicine or have surgery?
Encouraging immorality is easy since everything takes the easiest path. People, animals, and water prefer to avoid obstacles.
Why start a business when hard work is punished with taxes and regulations and laziness is rewarded with
welfare?
Why work if your taxes pay for illegal immigrants, debt, war, curfews, gun bans, NSA wiretapping, checkpoints, forfeiture, the end to the right to silence, free speech bans, torture, kill lists, no fly lists, searches without warrants, private prisons, mandatory minimums, 3 strikes laws, DNA databases, CISPA, SOPA, NDAA, IMBRA, FBAR, FATCA, TSA groping, secret FISA courts, and Jade Helm?
There’s not much hope for the US.
Americans have gone insane.
The default American response to the US collapse is to ignore the decay, excuse government abuse, attack the messengers who warn of the dangers of tyranny, and to blame everyone else except themselves for the decline.
Americans are ignoring the obvious collapse of the US by sticking their heads in the sand and focusing instead on bread and circuses, celebrities, sports, movies, music, alcohol, drugs, and sex.
Americans don’t care about government corruption and scandals.
Americans will vehemently attack anyone who dares criticize their beloved government overlords by shouting “fake news!” or calling patriots spammers, trolls, shills, bots, racists, or nutjobs and demanding that the truth-tellers be censored, banned, get IRS audits, be arrested, or be killed.
Americans quickly blame China, Russia, libtards, homosexuals, Communists, Nazis, blacks, atheists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, feminists, or illegal immigrants for the fall of the USA, but if Americans really want to know who is responsible, they just need to look in the mirror.
The collapse of the US is shocking and disgusting.
How can Americans sleep at night now?
Every country has the government it deserves.
Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a Great Leap Forward that killed scores of millions of Chinese; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia; they did not launch one aggressive war after another; they did not implement trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children. In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.
My dear friend, it seems that your reasoning is air tight. So this is a good time to bring up something for you to consider: The current system of roads, and a great many other “subsidies” which have cornered many whose noggins were not nodding into a culture dominated by the automobile, are the result of what you have called coercive collectivism. It’s a good name. You’re right. It was immoral. And my noggin was not nodding.
Roads would always exist with or without the automobile. The only subsidy with roads above and beyond the basic level as modern technology would build them without the automobile is that the individual private motorist subsidizes trucking. That is the wear and tear and more expensive roads required by the trucking industry.
Of course there are countless studies that say otherwise. They all use the same premise. First they only count motorist taxation that is earmarked for roads. They do not total the taxes and tolls nor do they deduct what is taken from the earmarked funds for other things. Furthermore they assume there would be no roads at all if not for the automobile. That is they put the entire cost of the road system on motoring. I’ve been to numerous places where the roads existed before the automobile. I even once lived along a street that was part of the route for the first automobile race in the USA. The street was there long before the automobile was.
Hi Jim,
As Brent points out, roads predate the car. Moreover, there does not have to be coercion to build them. Even today, the motor fuels excise tax is one of the few voluntary – and anonymous – taxes. It’s a fee, really.
I suppose it is “voluntary” in that the alternative is to sit on one’s ass and collect govt. funds although we have reached a point where takers (by dint of govt., i.e. force)are outstripping the crippled economy’s ability to pay instituted by the elite(moneywise, don’t get me started).
I won’t debate commercial traffic eats up the roads. Of course without it how many people would have anything To eat? We just endured an extended cold snap, well, more like a cold slap. It was gratifying to be able to buy fuel(propane, almost all of which is imported)and not freeze our buns off.
The “Road Use Tax” is another federal tax motor carriers have to pay each year. Of course getting stamps for your bingo card is no mean feat in itself monetarily.
A trucker sees nothing but hands out all the way to small town cops needing revenue and seeing a plethora of out-of-towners.
8: >”I suppose it is “voluntary” in that the alternative is to sit on one’s ass and collect govt. funds”<
There's an irony which few seem to pick up on!
It is a CRIME (so-called) to keep all of the fruit of your own labor or profits from your own property……but yet, you can make babies which you are not able to support, and they will give you the money of productive people- and for this, the government has a huge network of offices and departments and bureaucracies and employees.
So, to keep what is rightfully yours- i.e. to not be a slave = crime.
But to create a burden on society and do nothing but make babies and take up space = They reward you.
We are slaves. Everything we have is subject to confiscation and taxation. We have no privacy, as our every stitch of labor and every transaction and every transfer of property must be reported in detail to our overlords, so that it can be redistributed to leeches- be they the politicians who devise these sick schemes; the cops who kill and cage us; the mercenaries who invade foreign nations; or the lowest echelon of society, so that they can grow and out-number us.
If one knew NOTHING else about our economy, that alone would be enough to tell them where we are headed, and how soon we will be there.
Slaves have always been slaves when they refuse to fight for freedom. The problem is one of DEATH. To fight those who would enslave you –they intend to keep obedience by threat of death otherwise none would obey–requires the person to be ALL IN. If you lose the fight, expect death. So most cowardly ones accept their slavery, thinking slavery preferable to death. But once that mental position is created, you become that slave.
If they come to “mandatory vaccine’ you, will you fight them to the death?
If they come to steal your children because of whatever, do you allow them to take your children, which are ‘passed through the fire’of the belly of the System-Evil Beast, or do you fight to the death, and if need be, terminate your family before allowing them to be taken like those of antiquity who struggled against Rome, or Persia, or Babylon had to do?
If they come to steal your home because you show human kindness and charity against evil “lawzzz”, do you let them or do you fight them to the death?
If you answer NO to the above (and many more questions like those), then expect to be a slave to those who are willing to murder you for control of you. Those who get the idea that it is okay to do such to other human souls WILL NEVER STOP. They are like sharks in bloody water, or a lion that has had taste of human flesh. At that point, the only way to stop such people (or collective groupings) and intended actions is to kill them. Review history, my point is not of my making, but a blunt appraisal of how things have “gone down” in the course of history.
Freedom ain’t free. Someone has to foot the bill with their blood. Personally, I would not give my blood for slaves, since slaves despise freedom. After all, they willingly gave it away once, and are okay with you sacrificing yours so they can be ‘entertained’. That leaves us with a saying from antiquity: 1Kings12:16 “So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.”
If you are part of “O Israel”, then attend to your own and defend your own, for 1Timothy5:8 adds, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” These concepts have been around for so long, they’re even in the Bible!
The reason for so much corruption, brutality, stupidity, and doing anti-logical things is to DEPOPULATE us. Look up: those white stripes above your head is POISON. They do this to reduce global population by any means necessary. Other parts of the world, like Africa, they use biologicals (HIV, AIDS), in Europe, they use psychotronics, here in ‘Murica, they poison us.
So just remember when you “fight them” that they have already declared war on us, on our ability to reproduce (with endocrine disrupting chemicals), and now they go after your held resources. (money, home, etc. You are already “all in”, most just don’t know it, and never will. They will die glassy-eyed wondering why…
Exactly, Pyra.
Many are content to live as slaves- even when the stakes aren’t very high (“Oooo! I might lose my job!”)- but pretty much throughout history, whether the tyrants were an organized cabal called government, or a king/emperor, or the Calf-lick church; the Mafia; or just banditos, one has always had to make a choice to either live free at any risk, because living in bondage is not living; or to give up liberty for [perceived] safety.
Maybe it’s not so important for the purely secular. But for worshipers of God, the choice is even more clear, because it comes down to choose ye whom ye will serve.
And that is what it always comes down to, since governments/states are usurpers of God; competitors for adoration and obedience- alternative economies and value systems.
We shall have no other gods before Him. The chief god today is not Baal or Apollo- it is the state. Who do we ultimately obey?
Freedom of religion here or in ancient Rome, has always been the same- The emperor says you’re free to worship whatever gods you choose, as long as you ultimately obey him first and pay greatest tribute to him. When we give the necessary exclusive worship to the true God, we thus become an infidel/enemy of the state, just like our Savior.
Worship of the Living God is the ultimate act of rebellion against the state- hence their efforts to destroy any vestiges of real Christianity.
We believers learn early on who our biggest enemies are in this life; the mechanism through which Satan himself works- and that we may well have to give our lives so as not to bow to the false god, just as most true believers have down through history. (Quite different than the fraudulent no-cost “just believe” anything-goes modern pseudo “christians”).
I do have to disagree with you about the depopulation though. That is a red herring. Master does not want to depopulate his plantation of his slaves which serve him and make him a profit. This is why we see first-world countries falling all over themselves to open the flood gates to let in millions and millions of the lowest knuckle-draggers from around the world- to replenish the supply of slaves, now that the birthrate in first-world countries has fallen off sharply among the traditional inhabitants.
Just open your eyes. Do you see depopulation, or massive elite-condoned and abetted immigration? The only genocide which may be intended, is that of Caucasians -especially of the more traditional/Christian variety…..as we do not make good slaves, and we are the primary opposition to their nefarious globalist schemes; and the ones who are warning others of their intents, because we KNOW what is coming. There world is for the mixed-race, multi-cultural, ignorant, government-dependent, dysfunctional laborers whom they are creating through their social/welfare programs.
Amen, Nunzio. You nailed the topic with a one/two punch. Some think we worship at the altar of Mammon, that fat-cat faced god of money and greed (and many really do!), but ultimately, you may be a bit more right because you get down to the foundation: rebellion against the Living God by obedience to whatever else, like the Emperor, as you gave example of.
I’m not convinced that there is no depopulation going on, though. There is a man called “Kevin Galalae” on YouTube who puts some very strong and convincing arguments for it. Considering his words and what I see and have endured, I cannot help but agree. I encourage you to decide for yourself, and if you are interested in what convinced me (video-wise), https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZf9rWLgwzGW34EITo0x7fA
Ah, Pyra! This is what I call “full spectrum libertarianism”! ‘Cause Libertarianism minus the Scriptural aspect, is lacking something; and Christianity missing the Libertarian component, is certainly lacking something essential!
Even an unbeliever, Larken Rose, has the sense to realize that statism is Satanic. Too bad so many Christians seem to be blind to that these days.
But it is so well summed up in the Book of Samuel, when the ancient Israelites desired a king [Kings must’ve been on sale that week 😉 ], when God said to Samuel: “…….they have rejected ME”.
Re: depopulation:
I used to somewhat believe that myself. I’ve been “awake” since 1987- so I’ve pretty much heard it all- from the Georgia Guidestones to Bill Gates.
I believe that it is subterfuge though. It just doersn’t match reality.
Why is it that states like NY where i used to live, or CA. are purposely flooding themselves with immigrants- and even defending the inpouring of illegals?
To replace all of the traditional citizens who are fleeing those places. NY for example, would have lost 190,000 people in 2016 if not for replacing them with immigrants. But they brought in so many immigrants, they actually had a slight net gain in population.
If they reduced the population by “95%” as is commonly claimed…..there would not be enough people left to build the infrastructure; provide the services and supply the labor/capital for the elite.
Without a huge slave class, there would be no elite.
This is why no politician will really do anything to curb immigration (And why they prefer immigrants from slave-mentality, high baby-output places), and why they use taxpayers money to subsidize the making of babies among the lowest segment of the population through welfare programs.
If they really wanted depopulation, just stop all of the domestic welfare and foreign aid; and close the borders…and half of their so-called agenda would be fulfilled without them even having to do anything.
But that is not what they want. And they don’t care about the cost of it- because they are using the money of other slaves to do all of these things. Using the slaves to perpetuate and grow the slave class, because THAT is what provides the products and services of their wealth, and gives them power.
They NEED the slaves, and it takes 50% of the slaves just to sustain the rest- so eliminating 95% of them would essentially dethrone them.
This is why they perpetually harp on “growth”. A healthy economy only needs equity/sustenance. A slave economy needs growth. Sure, they’ll sacrifice a few slaves to keep the others in line….that’s the way it’s always been.
And anything which may look like genocide, like vaccinations, for one example- is really just to keep the slaves at a level which will ensure that they can do their tasks, without getting out of hand; and which will keep them dependent. And, I do think we are going to start seeing some real genocide against whites- especially Christians.
Our replacements are already being imported.
In South Africa, the white genocide is already in full swing- The communist ANC came to power, and they’re now killing white farm families by the thousands and taking their land (Where is the media on this?!).
We have soft communism here in the US now. With so many of the young people now being communists here, we will likely get the ANC variety VERY soon. I’m sure you can see the pump is already primed for this. But as long as it’s whites….no one will notice or care- not even most who are expecting the “95% population reduction”. We don’t fit the model that’s being preached. The propagandists (and the duped well-meaning people who are fooled by them, and who are parroting the propaganda) are looking for a scenario in which “the evil rich white people” are the bad guys, and kill all of the “minorities”. So what is really happening right under their noses will be ignored.
Depopulation: “purposely flooding themselves with immigrants” There are two competing interests. On the one hand you have those who think of humanity as a pox upon the earth. At the same time we have a financial system that is literally a ponzi scheme. Meaning they constantly need more skin in the game I.E. “growth” or the whole thing collapses.
True, Johnny- but the runners of the Ponzi scheme are the ones who run everything- and the only ones who see humans as a pox on the earth are those who fall for their propaganda [propaganda which is propagated so that no one will complain when those who are too civilized to be slaves are genocided].
And if you see the “pox” attitude coming from any of the overlords (Like Hitlery, who endorses the Georgia Guidestones) it is merely an act to get the people to believe the propaganda.
It’s Cambodia all over again- Get rid of all the civilized intelligent people who aren’t useful because they won’t go along.
And this is exactly what we are starting to see now, with college professors proclaiming everything is “racist”, and now starting to openly say that “de eebil white man be duh problim”.
Go to college? Work for a big corp? Work for Uncle? If you’re white, you’ll likely be forced to attend “sensitivity training”- [Or watch TV, and the same message will be instilled], which ultimately means you are being set-up for self-hate, and to hate your own people, and to accept their elimination as necessary and good “because dey be raciss!”.
The plantation owner in the old South with 100 slaves who did all the work and served him, and created his wealth….did he kill those slaves and sterilize them, or did he protect them (at least the ones who didn’t get out of hand) and encourage them to breed?
Yes. In the past they needed workers to create wealth. Now they just print up the wealth – and they need consumers to give it value. So, they print money, and give it out in welfare, where the money gets spent – which creates artificial value for the paper money, so they can print more money… if the population every stabilizes or decreases it screws up the whole scheme and you have to import the bodies you need to keep it going. Best to get Catholics and Muslims and races that breed like crazy.
No, Johnny- that’s not true. Without the labor of the slaves, they can print all the money they want to and it would do nothing.
That money is really only valuable in the slave-to-slave economy, and in so far as it allows the big-wigs to control the slaves, and extract their labor- which is what mines the resources; builds the roads and planes and cars; grows the food; cooks the food; builds, maintains and operates the technology, etc.
Without the slaves to do these things…..the elite would have to do them for themselves.
The FRNs are essentially the replacement for the whip or barrel of a gun.
Labor is not important any more. Automation has eliminated the need for labor. My argument is that slaves are not used for their productivity. they are used for their consumption. FRN’s have no value if no one is around to spend them. I’ve personally participated in the firing of hundreds of employees and selling off of hundreds of machines and tooling – all to be replaced by one guy with a cnc. Most jobs today are FAKE JOBS! At Toshiba’s motor plant, there are 30 guys making motors and 460 people farting with computers. 459 of them could be fired tomorrow and it would not change the operation one bit.
The goal is scientific management of society and that does involve the human resources costing as little as possible. To be consuming as little as possible. But the road to gather all the wealth to achieve complete scientific management of society requires all the human resources in bondage. Consumption beyond their means putting them into debt is a means to that end.
Uh, Johnny? You need labor to design, build and maintain that automation.
You need labor to dig ditches and build roads- or to build and maintain the machinery which does.
Who would produce the items which are consumed?
Consumerism is just a part of the slave-to-slave economy.
Money is essentially just a convenient way to keep track of and trade the value of labor.
Much of the technology we are seeing coming about- the automation, will be gone once the globalists have the world fully under control- as it is too expensive and not durable enough, and requires too many smart people to exist.
Once expensive labor is gone, and the majority will live in poverty [think: the way communists live] there will be no need for the automation.
Cheaper to have three slaves dig a ditch, than an expensive automated backhoe which requires programming and the maintenance of various external systems [GPS, wi-fi, etc.] to operate; as well as requiring the refinement and transport of refined fuel etc…..
Just picture how simple it is to hire 3 Mexicans or starving Americans and put a shovel in their hand, minus all the constraints we have today which have made THAT too expensive.
We are already seeing it in many places- as foreigners come here and vie for manual labor jobs; while business owners are happy to have them, because they are currently the only affordable option.
You’re not going to use automated high-tech equipment to mow a yard.
And even Americans in many places, can’t run fast enough to a new factory or service center that opmes in their area and announces it is hiring for some $9/hr jobs.
Step back and take a better look, my friend. You are falling for some of “their” propaganda- just as many fell for the idea of driving hover cars and living in colonies on the Moon by the year 2000.
Some of the stuff you are being led to believe is just subterfuge, designed to distract you from the actual truth, which is happening right before our eyes.
Good point, Brent- ‘specially about the debt.
One thing is pretty obvious: Despite the ever increasing numbers, people actually have far less today than they did for most of the 20th century.
Just the decline I have seen around me since the ’70s…..
Just a trip to the supermarket says a LOT.
The shelves may look fully stocked- but most real food has been replaced with junk.
A family on two incomes can not live anywhere NEAR how a smaller a bigger family used to live on ONE income.
People are trained to be in debt from their teenage years, but they think they have things better than their parents and grandparents, because they have some flashy gadgets….for which they are also in perpetual debt, both to continually purchase and update, as well as maintain service for.
Morning, Nunz!
In re the above: I notice people have an abundance of gadgets – including fancy smartphones they’re in hock to almost to the extent of a car payment. But do they own land/property? How much money have they got in the bank? If they lost their job, how long could they manage? Can they afford to have a kid? For one parent to remain home to raise the kid?
By those measure, most Americans are very poor relative the Americans of the ’60s and ’70s.
Nunz: “You’re not going to use automated high-tech equipment to mow a yard.”
I agree. Automation will never completely take over. But the idea of there simply not being enough productive work to employ even a fifth of the population should be taken seriously. BTW I googled https://duckduckgo.com/?q=robot+lawn+mower&t=ffnt&atb=v38-1_t&ia=products
and got about a jillion hits 🙂
Exactly, Eric!
I’ve known so many people who earn many times as much as I do- but they can’t come up with a few thou in cash; have no land; if they own a home, it’s financed for 25 years, and requires a part-time income just to pay the property taxes.
And they gladly spend THOUSANDS of dollars per year on just cell phone service and cable TV.
And the poor young’uns don’t even know what they’re missing, ’cause this is the way the world has always been for them- They didn’t see the way people lived in the 60’s and 70’s….with more kids and a stay-at-home wife, on a blue-collar single income.
Those times were like a paradise…but from what I see, they try and convince the young’uns that such a life was bleak and primitive! Ya know…”Everyone was in the KKK, and they used to roast niggers on every corner!” LOL. Meanwhile, today, the levels of violence; and intolerance (if you happen to be on the unpopular side of any issue) is reminiscent of Lord Of The Flies!
Having witnessed how good things used to be, for so many people, I now mourn the way things are- and that’s just on a material level- not even counting things like lost freedom, and the devolution of human behavior….
Nunz: “KKK” the “white haters” want to re-write history – It wasn’t the KKK it was the police. It was the Government with the batons and water hoses. Sure, some of the Governments Cops were also in the KKK. But the whole idea is to convince people that the oppression Minorities have faced is from some private militia type group, when in fact it was the Government itself that made Rosa Parks sit in the back of the bus, and the Government they love that turned the dogs and water hoses on them, and violates their rights.
Johnny, China is a perfect microcosm of what we are talking about. Once they built up a huge labor force, and got it under control- what did they do?
They instituted the 1-child policy to it self-sustaining while eliminating the possibility of strong independent families; and even that left them short, so they’re now easing up on the 1-child thing, and even importing foreign labor.
Same thing in Africa, where they drove all of the peasants off the land, and herded them into cities…because they need human capital.
Basically, what is the US doing now? Creating “refugees” through foreign policy and military action, and then offering them “sanctuary” here- which, if we cut-out the BS euphemistic language, means we are attacking other countries economically and or physically, and stealing their people.
When I first started reading the Bible 34 years ago, and read of the characteristics of “Babylon”/the world-encompassing system of the end times, and how that among it’s major commodities were listed oil and slaves, I used to wonder about the “slaves” part- after all, I then reasoned “We outlawed slavery”. But I have since come to realize that most people on the face of this earth are now truly slaves…and becoming more so.
True Johnny- Klansmen are far more beneficent than any cop- but I was just referencing the common perception.
Although cops are color blind. The media would have us believe that their abuses are heaped solely on minorities- when in-fact (especially these days) they are far more careful around minorities, while most of their abuses are heaped upon whites.
A friend of mine is acquainted with a NJ state trooper, and that porker even admitted to my friend: “3AM on the NJ Turnpike, who do you think I’m going to stop?: The Escalade full of Rastafarians who may blow my head off, or the white guy in the minivan who will be shaking in his boots and thank me for giving him a ticket?”.
Does a Robotic Lawn Mower Really Cut It?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/does-a-robotic-lawn-mower-really-cut-it-1460488911
Let’s see it trim the hedges; blow off the driveway; plant flowers; weed-eat…….
Even if they worked perfectly, I don’t think Hitlery will be firing her grounds maintenance staff any time soon….
Probably like robotic vacuums and robotic pool cleaners….more crap for the masses to waste their money on, but can’t even replace one simple non-Englsih-speaking Beaner….
Funny that this subject should come up…. I just bought a new push-mower yesterday! (It’s still in the back of my Excursion).
I have a zero-turn with a 60″ deck, and 2 tractors with belly mowers….but I still like to push mow too. I LOVE mowing! I can’t wait till it’s mowing season again!
And who’d figger? I got a better deal on the Honda mower at the local John Deere dealer (of all places!) than if I woulda driven all the way to Home D-pot. Even better than any price I could find online. And I ALMOST wasn’t going to even try that place!
Now I just can’t wait to use the damn thing!
A robotic mower to deprive me of the pleasure of mowing? Pfffft! Not in this life! (My mother turns 93 tomorrow, and SHE wants to use the darn thing! If I were to teach her how to start it, I’d be screwed!)
And just think: If the government didn’t build and maintain supermarkets, where would we get our food?
Oh…wait…the government doesn’t build and maintain supermarkets….thank goodness- or a can of beans would probably cost $18 and require a tax subsidy. No, the free market fills such needs, just as it always has before centralized collectivist control came about.
Nunzio no you didn’t. On this forum? You think the Government doesen’t run grocery stores? There must be hundreds of thousands of state and federal regs for Gorcery Stores. Here is the tip of the iceberg:
https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/RetailFoodProtection/FoodCode/ucm122814.htm
But Johnny, the government doesn’t build supermarkets. It doesn’t have to build or subsidize supermarkets; and in fact, it regulates and taxes such, thus making it harder/more expensive/prohibitive for the free market to do so….
Just as the government never used to build roads, and yet they existed…..
Walmart gets billions in subsidies. AND they get their property TAX FREE to “entice” them to open a business in a certain area. So do all the other Grocery stores.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/walmart-government-subsidies-study#51652
That’s a more recent thing, and only true in some places. Although it is becoming more popular, as the government keeps on grabbing more and more control of everything.
And in fact, giving special deals to Walmart, makes it even harder for the local independent stores to compete- so, far from gov’t building supermarkets…they are instead destroying them- just as their subsidy programs have destroyed farming- driving the family farm out of business, and making it so that local farmers only raise cattle feed and ethanol, while our food must come from half way around the world.
The salient point is the government doesn’t “give” us roads. They are built by contractors.
Just because they put sign son them and claim jurisdiction over them. The public right aways are all built by regular fold.
Not a conscripted military. Or a bunch of welfare leeches ou there trading food stamps and prole housing for a few miles of blacktup.
and Speaking of the good ol’ days…
Remember when everyone in 1972 used to sit out on the porch and play music. Enjoy some homemade moonshine and hand rolled cigs.
Those were good times.
DUELING BANJOS ~ Guitar & Banjo Song ~ Deliverance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsC4kf6x_Q0
You could tell someone they had a purty mouth and no one even squealed about it. As long as it was consensual.
Yep…it’s our money; our labor; our property…. imagine if the same resources were used so much more efficiently by the free market and without many layers of elected leeches taking a cut at every level, and wasting half of it on multi-million dollar “environmental studies” etc.!
Elon is a capitalist, for all his faults. Sure he cheats massively.
But at some level he’s constrained by market discipline.
Is he on balance constructive or destructive. That’s the question I have.
How do you tell a crony from a pure capitalist, and does it matter?
La increíble vida y fortuna de Elon Musk: así vive y así gasta
https://www.businessinsider.es/increible-vida-fortuna-elon-musk-asi-vive-asi-gasta-178926
A real capitalist makes his money in the free market.
A crony makes his money in whole or in part by taking advantage of government schemes, such as sudsidies; government contracts; and programs which eliminate competition/manipulate the market/give unfair advantage/used coerced taxpayer funds to establish an infrastructure needed for the product…..
Agreed
but how do you sniff out a Crony in the field?
Do you use a DRE type of dog or expert who somehow smells the Crony?
The problem is Musk does a lot of things older guys don’t like.
But it might be the case younger kids approve of him.
How come we don’t talke about Bezos the biggest capitalist of all time?
Is Amazon a crony business?
Everyone is using the service these days. Or shops Whole Foods.
It does seem a bit like the Salem Witch trials.
I don’t think its that easy to separate a crony from a “real” capitalist in objective reality.
That is the problem with our muddled society.
Trump promised To be Ayn Rand’s Foutainhead.
Its beocome hard to separate heads from tails anymore.
Is anyone John Galt?
From guys I’ve talked to, SpaceX is a real deal company. They don’t hire based on degrees. They work you hard and Jew you out of a salary.
Which is what capitalism is these days..
Where is the ideal non crony we can all look at for inspiration and guidance.
Who do we approve of if anyone?
Libertarians are pro capitalist.
If Warren Buffet is a carpet bagger, who is the righteous man then?
Technocracy as Brent calls it is the problem.
But what can be done in the interim?
Man does not live by NAP alone.
I am on your side, but just reading the good book, saying the good things, acting in the good way doesn’t provide us a good living.
Some of the bounties we enjoy are tainted. But I don’t see why we should sacrifice too much.
At a certain point, you have to make a compromise or three, I would say.
When I say my nightly prayers and say “forgive us our trespasses”
I truly think the trespasses are our the NAP violations which I am part and parcel of, and I can only hope to be forgiven and try to make things better in the future.
Don’t forget the Gospel of John Galt.
I promise never to aska nother man to live for me, nor to live for the sake of a nother man, and I mean it..
“is Amazon a crony business”:
Amazon’s record for state and local subsidies at just over $1 billion
AND the susidies are nothing compared to the Government contracts http://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2017/11/amazon-web-services-announces-secret-cloud-region-cia/142662/
SpaceX the real deal? NOT! Their business is entirely dependent upon state-developed technology, and government contracts; and upon being the favored son.
As for Jeff Bozos: What Johnny said!
Fact is, in the Jew-S-A today, if you’re a corporation, you’re really outside of the bounds of what can be considered the free market, because you are already given special privileges (protection from personal liability, while at the same time having your business organization recognized as a “person”- a creation of the state), and are thus essentially a deputized agent of the state, obligated to follow certain artificial rules, and to collect taxes from customers for the state, and to pay taxes to the state.
There is essentially no free market left in the US, or much of the world for that matter, except for those who operate on “the black market” or “underground economy” or barter with their friends, relatives and neighbors.
tons of money – Government definitely picks the winners and losers in the grocery business. When is the last time you saw a small family owned grocery store?
http://5newsonline.com/2017/10/19/arkansas-tax-incentives-may-be-historic-for-new-wal-mart-hq/
Roads are for moving armies. Any use by the public is incidental.
…and that was the exact excuse used by the feds to justify building the interstate highway system…..
Nunz, exactly. But at least when the IHS was being launched in the 40’s its proponents at least tried to justify it through the constitution. Now the feds do whatever they want without even the pretense that they have the actual authority to do it. Same with alcohol prohibition v pot prohibition.
Exactly, Skunk. They used to at least make an effort to at least do lip service to the Constitution; to at least make excuses which would give them some justification in the eyes of people who didn’t know any better/didn’t care. Now they just do whatever they want, because we are powerless to do anything about it.
And look at the Supreme Court decisions: Often they come down to the tie-breaking vote of one person. If these people are so “scholarly” and edumacated and wise and knowledgeable and well-intentioned, how is it that at any given time, half of them disagree about what should be the simple execution of a precept of a clear and simple document written 200 years ago, whose authors writings are still with us, to clarify the exact meaning and intent of what they wrote?
This isn’t exactly related to the topic at hand, but I wanted to notify everyone of something I recently discovered.
We should beware of certain groups infiltrating/using the libertarian name as a label for themselves, when they are nothing like libertarians.
I have met someone in real life who is a leftist, but claims to be a libertarian. I think that maybe, certain people don’t want to be labeled as the joke the left is these days, so they hijack the libertarian name.
If enough people do this, this will dilute the libertarian name just as it starts to gain strength and recognition (or maybe this is the source of its increased growth and recognition?).
This person is a “pistols ok, assault rifles are not” person. This person believes in open borders (I know some libertarians do). This person is pro speed limits. Gets their news from the likes of CNN, and Facebook. Is against the tax cuts (I thought less theft is better)… seemingly just because Trump is the one doing it. This person is a closet-feminist (not proclaimed of course, but based on how poorly SHE speaks of men, I imagine so). This person would have preferred hillary win over trump, and reminds everyone that she did not vote for him (she supposedly voted for gary johnson).
As far as I can tell, this person is a leftist who calls themselves a libertarian. To observing, ignorant 3rd parties, they may actually believe that this is what libertarianism is, and shut it out, or like it for the wrong reasons.
Has anyone else encountered this? How do you fight it?
Is ideology even worth defending?
Lots of leftists that claim to be libertarians. Even a few conservatives too. To be honest most political labels are outdated.
The “Libertarian Party” pretty much queered the name of Libertarian for me. That’s the problem with labels- once someone else appropriates your label….it’s ruined. I hate to say that I’m an Anarchist, in public, because the media has for so long associated that term with violent maniacs and leftists, that that is what the general public thinks of when they hear the term.
I remember 20 years ago, when I was a Constitutionalist [I mistakenly thought it was compatible with real Libertarianism], I had one real life friend who was a Libertarian, and who would try and convince me to be a Libertarian- and even then, I remember telling him “They seem to be too agreeable to the left”- because even then; even with my limited exposure to Libertarianism at the time, I had seen that there was a strong segment of leftist types claiming to be Libertarians.
Morning, Nunz!
Yup, exactly so.
“Liberal” used to mean one who favored a small government and maximum individual liberty; today of course it means one who favors government-enforced “diversity,” extortionate taxes and micromanagement of our business affairs.
A “conservative” was once someone who was suspicious of the government, sought to restrict its powers and eschewed foreign adventurism. Now it is a Jesus Freak who is champing at the bit to execute pot smokers, establish a theocracy at home and send at least 50 percent of all tax receipts to Israel.
Guys like Gary Johnson ruined “Libertarian.”
Etc.
Funny, Eric. I was thinking of those VERY things when I wrote my previous post! Gary Johnson, et al!
Well if this has been going on for the past 20 years then I guess I shouldn’t worry about it. But I’m glad I discovered the correct “libertarianism”. What if I discovered one of these people and they taught it to me? Scary thought. Think of how often this happens still.
Brandonjin, those who have a love for the truth will come to the truth. In looking for support and camaraderie, they may end up in some alleys along the way, instead of on the highway….but while they are in the alleys, they will know something is missing; something is not right….and they will keep searching for the highway- whether someone leads them to it, or they have to walk alone to get there.
Libertarianism/Anarchy is an ultimate truth. Those who love liberty, both for themselves and all people, can not countenance anything which is contrary to that truth. Because once you see a bright ray of the sun of that truth, there is no going back; no accepting of substitutes.
It’s kind of like myself, years ago, when my real-life friend [not my imaginary one 😉 ] used to push the Libertarian Party brand of Libertarianism, and I resisted. I was already a Libertarian/Anarchist in thought and action, although I didn’t know the nomenclature or all of the underlying philosophies…but I could already see that the LP brand of Libertarianism was a step backward from what I already knew and believed.
So too, these leftist “libertarians” aren’t going to snag anyone who cherishes liberty. They will attract those who prefer a particular brand of leftism, but who are just looking for a little freedom from the mainstream leftists.
Some people say “independent” or “Libertarian” just because they know the R’s and D’s all suck. The LP used to show up at gun shows with a quiz, you answered and then saw where you fall in the political spectrum. Something like this:
https://www.cato.org/libertarianmind/libertarian-quiz
Also https://www.libertarianquiz.com/
Ah, Fork, I scored 100% on that test , so I guess I had better be rooting for a viable third party.
Just reading the intro was enough to dissuade me from taking the quiz!
“Libertarians believe in the goodness of people”. [If even a fraction of the population were good, it would be impossible for tyranny to exist]
“Libertarians believe in low taxes”
[Taxation is theft and slavery, and requires the existence of a ruling class, the initiation of coercion and violence, and the subjugation of the rights and property of some for the benefit of others. Hmmm…I thought all people were good? Good people would not want the aforementioned things imposed on anyone.]
“Libertarians……believe in limited government”.
[Been there, done that. The most limited government is still a ruling class, which establishes special rights and privileges for some at the expense of others. And no matter how limited…it just grows and becomes unlimited, quite quickly.]
I wonder if they even have an option for us Anarchists?
Oh… It’s from the Libertarian Party…. No wonder.
Low taxes is like saying “I believe in stealing just a little bit. Not a lot, like them Repugnantcans and Dumbocraps…just a little, so that makes me a great guy!”.
Brandonjin, the way to spot a phony Libertarian is to ask him/her if they follow the NAP. One either does or one does not. It is black and white. If they say yes but with conditions then they are not a Libertarian.
Yes, this ideology is worth defending because it is the only moral path.
Or ask them what kind of tax plan they favor! If they say anything other than “NONE!”, they’re not a Libertarian, nor a follower of the NAP, because they then support theft/coercion/violence.
The head restraints are a prime example of being forced into something horrible. Every vehicle manufactured since 2007 or thereabouts, which I’ve had the misfortune to ride in or drive has these perfectly awful head restraints. You cannot avoid them, and unless you are exceptionally tall, they will force your neck into an awkward, downward position. Which means you are looking up to drive. Supposedly, people who drive lying down do not have this problem. I am not one of those people. I sit erect in my car seat, practicing good posture. The back of the car seat is behind me so that I can lean against it if I should so desire. It helps to support me as I drive. Supposedly, the head restraints are to prevent whiplash in the event of an accident. Not sure how they’re going to prevent a sprained neck. In the event of a crash, you’ll still hit the thing with enough force to injure yourself. Fortunately, I drive a vehicle manufactured well before those abominations were forced upon us. Everyone should be so lucky.
I have a friend who drives with the seat leaned all the way back into the second row. No idea how he does it.
He is probably trying to keep away from the airbag. I try to stay back too (not into the back seat though). If you have had one go off in your face, you would try to stay back too.
How about those knee-grows who lean way to the right while they drive? (They do that because they think the smell is coming from the outside 😉 )
Rich, I was thinking more about the discomfort in the neck of having to stare down the whole drive.
Don’t worry Nunz, I thought it was funny… I mean, my friend did… certainly not me.
Great article, as usual – thanks.
What about food, like white sugar?
White sugar is among the biggest causes of disease today. There is nothing “safe” about consuming white sugar but instead of banning it it is subsidized. This makes no sense.
Eric, this single post today is a VERY clear and concise “primer”, if you will, for why many many things in American culture today are just flat-out “wrong”. And it ALL starts with coercive will being leveraged across HUGE swaths of the population (as you so ably pointed out).
My favorite concept you threw out there was this one single idea:
>>Instead, a handful of people’s idea that air bags (and the rest of it) are “good” has been imposed on everyone else…
Key words: a handful.
And then it hit me: most of the folks “on the street” (including ME before I was “woke” (that’s what my kids call it…various definitions apply…pick yer favorite)…anyway…most folks have absolutely NO concept of how a gaggle of very FEW people are making their ideas/opinions/morals/whatever completely ENFORCED on the rest of us. It takes most people months or even years to fully understand ALL of the areas in which we have had freedoms taken away, and probably in most of those cases, our freedoms were taken away by A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE. That’s absolutely NUTS to me when I think of how many humans inhabit this earth. It’s actually diabolical when you think it through.
But back to the point at hand, some of the clearest writing about coercion, and all that it entails, was driven home to me when folks kindly pointed out how it truly takes a government to wipe out LARGE numbers of people. When I saw that, juxtaposed with all the hollering in the streets for “saaaaaaafety from the terrists…moar saaaafety” and I realized that a single terrorist (or gosh let’s just say the 9/11 hijackers…11 or 12??) can only take out a few thousand humans. A lone gunman can maybe get in the hundreds… Governments, meanwhile, take out MILLIONS and simply snuff those lives out. Just like that.
When I began to look at life with this new, clearer understanding and outlook (in other words, be suspicious of nearly EVERYTHING that governments do *and* take the time to compare it to other risks and dangers and so-forth) I began to “see through” the fog of the media, the fake and non-fake news and what-not. It really does open up one’s eyes.
We are being milked like cows while being led like lambs to the slaughter. It’s sick.
Finally…auto insurance…hoo boy…THAT is a sore subject for me.
I have 4 children, the two boys (older) don’t drive at all nor do they have driver’s licenses (oh…I meant…a permission slip from the government for something the Constitution already guarantees…see…I’m learning!). Now…them being boys and them being not that mature yet, I’m actually kind of glad they don’t drive because I would no doubt have THEM on my insurance too…for awhile anyway.
Meanwhile, the twin girls are 18 in a few weeks and they both drive older vehicles and then my wife and myself drive older vehicles.
My monthly auto insurance is over $500 (which might sound high, low, or medium to you folks…but to me this is HIGH!) and it’s partly just because insuring 4 cars and 4 drivers ain’t cheap, but it’s ALSO because the two girls each got in very minor fender bumps in parking lots.
Now…the cost itself is enough to make me feel murderous (you know…like all those drone operators…still operating)…BUT what makes it absolutely nails on a chalkboard maddening is that in the great State of Washington (the Pacific Northwest one…not the hell-hole-swamp-STD-pit-O’-slime one) we have mandatory insurance before you are “allowed” to travel in your vehicle of “choice”. Gee…you don’t suppose poor people will choose to FOREGO insurance and still drive anyway? And then if THEY hit YOU, your insurance company simply says “go after their insurance”…and they have none. Oh…but your insurance company offers “underinsured insurance”…you know…for those times when someone hits you and they DON’T have the mandatory insurance (that they were supposed to have or they SHOULDN’T drive…you know…the insurance that YOU pay for because YOU are actually obeying the law). At this point, the arguments and overall ideology are so circular and ridiculous that I have to quit thinking about it. Punish the obedient…
I cast my net around my three cities for an insurance company that could compete with my existing and surprise: they all hemmed and hawed and couldn’t really get close or whatever the excuse was…and therefore, the idea of an insurance “mafia” (where “family” is important…meaning the “family” of all the colluding insurance companies) becomes reality. Oh…and the head commisioner of the state is basically the boss of this mob. Egads it’s crazy what we put up with.
Anyway…thanks for the great articles through the years. I’m a lurker…but I’ll hopefully pipe up from time to time.
Sorry for the somewhat rambling missive today…I’m still pissed about my wife getting hit by an UN-insured (not “under” insured) motorist…sigh…
K
Kevin, $6K a year for insurance that you have to have just “in case” you do some damage one day, is high in any reasonably sane person’s book. It may sound reasonable to someone living in NYC and paying that for one car’s insurance….but then, anyone who’d live in that oppressive hell-hole is hardly sane.
Suddenly, I don’t feel so bad about paying $300 per year per vehicle…..
“our freedoms were taken away by A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE”
Scientific management of society. Largely developed in the half century leading up to 1935. Mostly refinements and improvements since then.
if it were just them and us, it would be no contest
they need us,, but we did not need them
we could start over with nothing and be up and running again quickly
they would die without us after eating each other
the way they stay in control is their production and maintenance of millions of predator bots and 100s of millions of parasite bots
they win by creating inhumans who are more destructive than constructive
and then they program deploy and control and the bots
overtime the bots would become us if not for their matrices
we should always be militantly anti bot in the same way eric is anti smoking
even to the point of not practising the golden rule with them, especially the worst of them, because we are in crisis survival mode in the US now
altruism is unsustainable and eventually fatal
the world is a bizarro class system where we re at the absolute bottom
our survival requires always placing producers first and foremost, never even considering parasites and predators
damn the murderous beggars and strong armers, may they soon perish
“we should always be militantly anti bot” Or, alternatively – we could just hide out in the woods until the Lord takes us.
“Handful of people” That handful of people are LOUD. We literally BEG the Government to “do something” about all these traffic deaths. It is our (the people’s) fault. We have been taught the Government is great at solving problems, when the exact opposite is the truth.
The last new car I bought, and my current vehicle, a 2007 Toyota Yaris hatchback, was available with or without optional side impact air bags. I opted for a Yaris without them. The car salesman thought I was nuts. I’ve been taking my chances in that car ever since, and so far no side impacts!
Side impact air bags are a terrible replacement for what we used to have: Rear seat gas bags- a.k.a. mother-in-laws! (At least ya didn’t have to pay extra for the MILs, and you could always throw them out or disable them…) 😉
All these ‘safety’ related gewgaws are a handy way for insurance to total an otherwise perfectly useable vehicle after they are triggered in an accident, which means more business for the auto manufacturers.
That $300 PC running Linux will perform just as well as that $1200 Mac (whose Kernel was derived from unix also) It is Windows that breaks the PC
True Johnny- I’m on an 11 year-old $300 Linux box right now….. No frustrations; no maintenance; no viruses; never crashed.
but there is that SCREEN….. the one I’m looking at this instant is infiinitely superior to anything on a cheap heavy bulky windows machine.
A freakin’ Etch-A-Sketch
[ https://i.ytimg.com/vi/q4CTyWwQrMo/maxresdefault.jpg ]
would be superior to ANYTHING with Windows!
re this: “It is demand which determines supply”
Technically, no, at least in a free non-coercive market, using the economic definition of those terms. If you have no supply of goods or services that another individual desires, any attempt to non-coercively demand something from that individual will be rebuffed.
However, if you have a supply of goods and services another individual desires, you can demand goods or services from them up to the value they place on your stuff, and a rational actor will make the exchange because it is in their best interest.
Love the Coercion poster. It really is a simple yet stark concept. Common sense really. So why is it not commonly accepted? Have people lost their senses? Or is it that people have been conditioned to ignore what is true?
Yep: Then there’s all the secondary things, especially related to CAFE. Since Ford sells a bazillion F-150’s, and those trucks go into the CAFE calculation, we are now seeing the double-turbo, high strung engines in those trucks. But also…. across the rest of the Ford line! I was looking at an Escape AWD, but it has a 1.6L eco-boost (i.e. direct inject plus turbo) and immediately gagged, “No thanks”. Years ago, that car would have (& still should), say a small V-6 as powertrain for a little AWD car such as that. But alas, now that choice is precluded b/c of the CAFE on the thousands of trucks Ford sells. (They have to harvest CAFE mpg’s from across their whole lineup…) Eric has pointed out, correctly so, that Nissan & Toyota, who do *not* sell lots of full-size pickups, offer V-8’s as standard equipment. That’s b/c they have CAFE points to spare, due to selling primarily cars…
It’s all about the benjamins.
The insurance “industry” has grown so large, and rich, that it now is an integral part of the military/”industrial” complex that we were warned about. The halls of congress are lined with insurance lobbyists that influence many aspects of the mandates that manufacturers must comply with to be allowed to market in these united states of amerika. The logic is that if we can be made to pay for things that reduce the insurance companies exposure, it’s a win/win for them. Just like with cell phones. We gladly pay for the latest and greatest spyware and tracking technology to be used against us. As long as it’s got some convenient features that we like and want to use…
Hi Matt,
Agreed. The insurance mafia – and that’s exactly what it is, a mafia – has long been a pebble in my shoe. Whether car or health or otherwise. I’ve been arguing for years that one of the reasons the average person has no money is because so much of his money is forcibly extracted and paid over in insurance.
This is bad enough, but even though people are “covered,” they still have to pay.
There’s not a ditch big enough – not enough kerosene.
eric, I was incensed yesterday by a move that’s all but become an insurance standard to install age discrimination as policy. A man I respect a great deal was “let go” yesterday by the boss who was incensed himself. The guy had been working for the company for nearly 15 years, was a good hand and reliable. He is 84 years old and stays(stayed)out there every day with us youngsters of only late 60’s. He didn’t do stupid stuff or let emotion affect his operating a truck. He’d been a truck driver for 60 years plus and only this year had an accident billed to him which was a miscarriage of law by DPS. He stopped at a 4 way stop and proceeded to turn. He rig was in the intersection when a fool in a pickup ran the stop sign and hit him. The DPS said Tony was changing lanes which is pure horseshit and charged him with the accident.
That same occifer charged another driver a couple weeks ago in failing to “protect” his inside lane while turning which technically was true but the woman in a pickup really squeaked in there and had to run into the curb simply because she’s an idiot. This guy is trying to make the company leave a town where we do a lot of work. He obviously has someone he’d rather put into that position and is using his power to implement it even though it won’t ever happen. Collusion between two companies is what a free market is supposed to be.
But getting back to the insurance side, the company is now bound by a new policy to not hire anyone over 65. Get another policy you might say but one company pushing this is just the sign all insurance companies will be requiring this of their customers also. I can retain my job because I’m already an employee. I have effectively been shut out by proxy….of changing employers by the insurance mafia.
If this isn’t age discrimination I can’t imagine how else you’d define it. One of my favorite drivers to pair with, we do this often to keep at least a couple trucks together so each truck operator doesn’t have to run every gate or similar thing one at a time, is 80 years old. I like to run in the back and “clean up” for the older guys although the 80 year old recently told me he relished running gates since it gets him out of the cab and he can stretch his legs and water the grass while checking his rig.
The sort of work we do doesn’t attract young people. It’s physically too hard. We run over ground so rough it eats trucks and drivers. 10-12 hours of this every day doesn’t appeal to the “new” crowd. Our latest “hiree” is a weenie, out and out. He can’t even lock the yard gate because the lock has to be struck by hand to shut and he can’t do it. What is appalling is he was told to shut the gate one day (by me)and he got out of the crew truck complaining it hurt his wittle hand. The driver said “just let us know you need a real man”. Can you imagine a challenge like that and not performing the task? Nobody else would have returned to the crew truck without completing the task…..but he did. The driver repeated his challenge and then got out and locked the gate. He’s unusual in being such a wuss but it’s a sign of the times the boss has to hire someone of this caliber.
This country sucks. It wasn’t always so and I remember it well. There are times when I’m glad I won’t have to see what’s coming down the pike for several more decades.
I’ll contribute on the kerosene and dig the ditch for you…..Have D8, Will Travel
8, what you describe is the confirmation that the decay of this society has penetrated through all levels now, and has now reached the nuts-and-bolts bread and butter level top of the supply chain, which everything else is reliant upon.
I’ve seen it from the other end. When I moved here to Bumblephuk 16 years ago, the old guard was still running the show- from gov’t and bidness positions, down to mechanics and store clerks.
During the time I’ve been here, that generation has already mostly been replaced by the younger generation. Just seeing the conduct of a typical store cashier tells the story.
The older ones would call ya “Hun” and make small talk, as they competently and quickly did their jobs. The new ones? You may as well be invisible. They shiftlessly and unconcernedly move, while gossiping with another cashier who has nothing to do, or playing with their phone- not even noticing or caring what is going on as they mindlessly scan your items.
Then, when they screw up, they stand there like a deer in the headlights, and you have to do their job for them. And don’t bother asking them a question….they won’t know the answer, and can’t be bothered to ferret out someone who does.
We are in the midst of a collapsing society. And it is too late to fix it, even if we had the freedom to do so.
This is why you contribute to the campaigns of, and know on a first name basis, your county traffic judge.
Ya gotta feel sorry for Edsel. It didn’t “suck,” but was every bit as good as any Ford because that’s what it was. I’ve a soft spot for the marque because at one time they were plentiful and cheap, and my dad bought several. They served us well. To have that old Edsel station wagon parked in my garage now….
Imagine being able to use the best of all era’s. The design, look and larger sizes of the 1960’s. The overdrive transmissions and disc brakes of the 80’s. The basic computers of the 1990’s for easy but not intrusive reliability and pollution control. Today’s far stronger, virtually rust free steel, smoke free engines and top end build quality. Today’s paint and tires.
We could be building cars that would easy last a lifetime.
Ever notice how so many of these good ideas profit the people who push them?
Sure the busy-bodies profit with the joy they get from bossing other people around but so many things come from those who monetarily benefit from the “good idea”. Like GM’s idea to mandate DRLs. They had purchased a DRL company and had a market advantage so they tried to mandate them in the USA. They failed, but many such good ideas don’t fail to be mandated.
Yep, this is where I was going. I’d be willing to bet it was insurance companies along with manufacturers that pushed for state involvement.
sort of like how full body “security scanners’ were depoyed in most airports across the nation f=right after a rather dodgy incident with some clown trying to light his panties on fire whilst riding in an aeroplane? Whcih “some guy” was allowed to board thatairdcraft under VERY suspicious circumstances? Yeah, right.. hundreds of those units were sitting in warehouses waiting to be deployed, but only lacked a plausible excuse to trigger their “sale”. Yeah, RIIIIgggghhhhtttt.tt….
We need secure foam!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnyhkBU1yaw
Cheers,
Jeremy
And now…[drum roll]…., to see a perfect illustration of what happens when government controls a once free market: I give you, what was formerly one of the richest cities in the US: Detroit!
And, as an added bonus: Said city does double and even triple duty! Not only showcasing what government can wreak upon a once-prosperous free market; Not only illustrating what the organized-crime syndicates known as “Labor unions” can accomplish; but also standing as the head poster-child, along with it’s siblings, such as Cleveland, Flint, Gary, Philly, Baltimore, et al, of what democratic “social programs” and “urban renewal” can accomplish!
Yay!!!
And as goes Detroit and all of her bastard siblings, so goes the country., for THIS is what a bunch of lying perverted tyrants can accomplish with the extorted wealth of what was once the most prosperous nation on earth.
We just must be missing something, because everyone around us seems to think that these things are so wonderful, that they just keep screaming for more.
It is the simplest question.
I’ve asked this to many of defender of the EV and Driverless Car.
If the market wants it, why is government involved? Their defense falls apart quickly after that.
But what would you have the government people do?
Engage in the free market?
Could you imagine the cop in Suffolk county, NY. (starting salary for cops there: $104,000 per year), being in NY.- a state in which (as per a recent court case) they will not hire anyone with an IQ higher than 103 to be a pig- what opportunities might be available to him on the free market?
Oh, wait, there is no free market in NY.
So now, they guy who is barely qualified to dig a ditch, gets to play schoolyard bully all day….while they have to import endless foreigners to mow lawns and dig ditches……
103 is a huge IQ for a cop. I thought it was more on the lines of over 60 IQ would disqualify you for cop status.
I guess they need a few 103’s, in case they encounter a capable 7th grader, or need someone to promote, or talk to the Jew media. 103 is the MOST they can have….so I’m sure there are plenty of 60’s to go around- which does seem to be about the average of the typical pig on the street.
How’s about finding jobs that actually PRODUCE and bring a return for the investment in their time spent whilst ‘on duty”? Or at the VERY least, quit their gummit “jobs” and go on welfare. It would cost us less to subsidise them on welfare, and they’d no longer be torturing the rest of us with their abominable “work product”/