Let’s begin with a question rarely asked – and almost never answered. Probably because of the answer:
Who owns you?
This is the fundamental moral – and political – question. Because everything that follows depends on how it is answered. Here is how libertarians – uncapitalized, to differentiate the more/political philosophy from the political party – answer it:
I own me, you own you. We each own ourselves. No more – and no less.
No one else owns anyone else, as that would be an affirmation of slavery, to whatever degree.
Slavery is a moral outrage, to whatever degree.
Those who advocate for it are immoral – are criminals, if they practice it.
Some hold that there is a creator God who owns everything, being the author of all of it. This may be so. But if so, his ownership does not convey title over his creations to some of his creations – to lord it over them. If there is a creator God then our relationship to him is individual – entre nous – and cannot be conveyed to other individuals.
Nonetheless, the claim to title is regularly asserted. Originally in the form of what was styled the “divine right of kings,” who claimed their sovereign right to lord it over over others, having been “anointed” by god.
Or so they said.
This claim to title was rejected, most eloquently by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. But without sufficient clarity. Which is why the “divine right” of individual sovereigns over sovereign individuals became the “divine right” of some individuals, who asserted their collective sovereignty over all other individuals.
This form of “divine right” has been called many other things, such as democracy, for instance.
But it amounts to the same thing as the individual is no less a slave if he is enslaved by several rather than one. If anything, it is a worse form of slavery since it is harder to recognize it – and easier to disguise it. Give the slave a vote over who his master is to be and he may think he is free. Grant him the power to enslave his fellow man by voting to do so and you have used a slave to enslave – and degraded the condition of both.
If self-ownership is acknowledged – Jefferson styled this all men are created equal (he meant before God and the law, not in terms of their endowments or their gumption) then it follows that we have an inalienable right to not be owned.
That we have the right to not be enslaved, to whatever degree.
And a slave is not merely owned.
He is controlled.
His freedom to act – even to think – is chained by whomever has the power to prevent him from acting, or to punish his actions or thoughts (as expressed by words) when his actions and thoughts have caused no harm to another person. This is the soft slavery of “laws” without harms.
Of punishments, without crimes.
Of “crimes” without victims.
It has become the bedrock basis of a criminal system which enslaves everyone, materially as well as functionally.
The fact that many do not see their chains does not alter the fact of their condition.
That they are controlled – and thereby, owned.
A slave is not free to leave the plantation – or even to select the kind of clothing he wears, or his family and other personal relationships. It is not merely that the fruit of his labor is stolen from him. Something even more intrinsically necessary to his humanity is also taken from him – by those who control him.
Who are they?
The same masters who assert ownership over their slaves materially, by claiming the right to take whatever arbitrarily decided portion of the slave’s property – his labor – it is claimed the slave “owes,” as via the euphemized theft styled taxes.
The worst of these “taxes” obviate the concept of property itself by rendering ownership itself an impossibility.
By hiding the fact of enslavement.
If you are only permitted to possess a thing – land, for instance – for so long as you continue to pay whatever “taxes” it is claimed you “owe” as the condition of the land not being seized from you, then it is self-evident you do not own it.
Those who “tax” it do.
You are their slave, for it is their property – and so, by dint of that are you.
These masters are the same people who control how you may use their property – which you are permitted to conditionally possess, for as long as you continue to use it as they direct – and pay the “taxes” they say you “owe.”
But how is it that one “owes” a sum of money – or any other material thing – to someone else, who was not a party to its creation?
Who has no rightful claim to it?
Which raises another question: What constitutes a rightful claim?
There can be only one morally unimpeachable answer to that question. The only rightful claimant to property is he who used himself to create it. The property being the work product of his body – of his mind. If he did not use the body or the mind of another person to cause the property to come into existence, then no other person has the slightest rightful claim to any portion of it, or its value.
To assert otherwise is to deny self-ownership, to whatever degree.
Which is to assert ownership – slavery – to exactly that degree.
Inevitably, such an assertion leads to slavery in every degree.
If you abhor slavery in principle, is the practice of it in any degree less loathsome? If you would not be owned, would you assert ownership over another? And if you do assert it, then by what right would you deny the similar claims of others, over you?
Many have never considered these questions, which those who would be masters understand must never be asked – in order to prevent them from being answered.
Which might raise questions about these masters – and their claims to title in fief over us.
. . .
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Which is the most Libertarian state?
What is a libertarian?
I’ll ask a related question: How can I find out where the Libertarian Party stands on issues and current events? Are there any websites?
Welcome aboard!
Yes, ‘ownership’ and ‘control’ are synonyms.
The same back, bog –
Good to have you with us!
All of what Eric has written is 100%
You can either believe in freedom or slavery.
Freedom has to be adhered to 100%
Slavery just a bit.
There is no valid claim of one man over another, except by agreement.
I know of no one alive that has given his consent to be a slave of the state.
And if one were to agree, the state must uphold its promises or you would be relieved from your agreement.
But freedom is slavery.
Doubleplusungood wrongthink.
Dan, they make no claims for anything. Their power resides in pure naked force. It is normally kept veiled. But make no mistake, that is the most basic foundation of government. All of the nonsense about the consent of the governed, and the social contract, and a government of the people, by the people and for the people is just that, nonsense.
Over the ages, the court “intellectuals” have spoken (and then written) of all manner of
such excuses. But the fact remains that government is nothing more than a Gang
of thieves and murderers writ large.
“Their power resides in pure naked force.”
true
COVID WORLD WAR 💀💀💀 Are They Going to Kick Our Doors In?
https://www.bitchute.com/video/5YBgNLFcwWyY/
No. Do you have ANY idea of the logistics of such an operation? Its not only impractical, but on a wide scale impossible. They simply lack the enforcers, and logistics for that. Especially in much of the US. Any
attempt at such a wide spread operation, would result in so many
enforcer losses, that their own enforcers would eventually turn on
them. This by the way is from their own internal reports.
Lets not do the enemies job for them, by spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt).
in the video they figured it wouldn’t happen because public opinion would turn against them…..f = head u = up d = ass referencing fud is not smart that is leftist globalist propaganda deflection
Nice explanation Eric. In my mind, most of what bogles us up as a country could be eliminated if we stuck to one main principle. No victim, No crime. 75-80 % of the current government NPCs would be rendered non-essential if we followed this maxim.
Hi Norman,
Well, if the State limited itself to prosecuting only actual crimes, it couldn’t exercise much power over us.
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.” – Ayn Rand
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
Murder death kill, rape and theft should be the totality of Governments responsibility. Even if we achieved that I have no doubt mission creep would set in and they would find something else to harass people about. The war on drugs is almost over and look what they’ve replaced it with, the war on pure bloods.
Where I live, out of the ten families that live within a half mile square, nine don’t give a rip what their neighbors do with their private property. We have one New York female of Jewish persuasion who cries out to the county whenever someone adds a trailer or puts up a building without a permit, all things which are none of her business. After living there twenty years, she still doesn’t get it. I would hate to be her during the coming battle.
I’m a live and let live Libertarian who would do just about anything for my neighbors, but I wouldn’t piss on her if she were on fire.
I think it was Voltaire who said it best. Its been awhile but I think it went ‘Let us tend our own gardens, become free of the chains that bind us, help one another, and live by the golden rule.’
I would humbly add “If that fails, let us build a giant bonfire and burn the whole thing to the Mother Fucking ground, then star over.” Huzza
When in fact, real crime, mainly regarding theft, has increasingly diminished as a crime at all. Most of us gain our property by the investment of time and energy, a part of our life, gone forever. When one steals or destroys it, they have stolen or destroyed that part of your life that is now gone forever, as well as the product of that investment. A partial murder. Stealing horses or cattle was once upon a time a capital offense. Now, in San Francisco, you get the first $950 free and clear. If you try to defend your property, you are more likely to go to jail than the thief is.
We saw Matrix: Resurrections yesterday, and I thought they did very good job purveying an updated version of the message of the original. Yes, it was also a good movie in general, if you’re a fan of the older movies and the sci-fi genre, though some might find some “wokeness” to complain about.
Particularly poignant was a thinly veiled reference to the changes of the last 20 years, and how so many that used to want freedom now only wanted safety and peace, and the impetus to fight for freedom is nearly extinct.
The libertarian underpinnings were still evident in this new flick, luckily, as was what seemed to be a swing at medical tyranny. Also, there was the age old theme regarding the power of love defeating the love of power, as Bob Marley might have put it.
And Jimi Hendrix did put it. “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”
…Maybe I got my rock stars conflated. Not surprising given my crossed synapses. 😉
Marley may have said similar. I don’t know, since I was never a fan. He was equally a champion of the power of love.
“The Constitution has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.” – Lysander Spooner, 1870
One other question that is never answered properly – I don’t have any authority to bind my daughters, nor my grandchildren, nor their grandchildren to a contract. So how does James Madison, et al, have any authority to bind me to their contract (the Constitution) written a couple of centuries before I was born? Answer – they don’t.
Here’s a website I discovered over the weekend (where have I been? this has been around for several years) – http://www.thetruthaboutthelaw.com/. Lots of interesting reading.
Legalman is great! I highly recommend his podcast as well.
Frank Herbert put forth the proposition that the “law” was merely an excuse for tyranny, in one of the later Dune books. Paul also forbid a “constitution” anywhere in his empire for similar reason.
Lysander Spooner – should be a patron saint of libertarians in this country…
anon 1
The monsters bringing in the new one world government see themselves as the new Olympians, a different species, they think they are gods, as in…… god owns, creates and controls everything. They have a material only view of the world (so this thinking gets you into nazis and eugenics) so people are just the same as cattle, something you control, manage and cull. They see the useless eaters as an invasive species now that must be depopulated. Some useless eaters have Libertarian ideas but the gods on top laugh at us and say you are just useless eaters/cattle. We are at the culling stage, schwab said there is global warming (it is a lie) so we have to depopulate, then more real estate for the gods.
**”Some hold that there is a creator God who owns everything, being the author of all of it. This may be so. But if so, his ownership does not convey title over his creations to some of his creations – to lord it over them. If there is a creator God then our relationship to him is individual – entre nous – and cannot be conveyed to other individuals.”**
Well-said, Eric! Proves what I’ve often said that one must be (or become) an agnostic before they can find God; otherwise, their faith will be built upon supposition, assumption, and tradition.
The Declaration Of Independence speaks of some of the aspects of The Creator and His dealings with the world at-large as being self-evident; pity that it failed to also mention that what is also glaringly self evident is that that Creator did not give men dominion over other men.
It is not surprising that we now see government in diametric opposition to God- as they claim that some men have dominion over other men (and that we’d better fear and tremble and bow before their dominion!) while relieving us of the dominion which God has delegated to us- that dominion being over our own lives, bodies, families and property and the natural world around us- which it seems to be the very purpose of government to keep us from these days- and no surprise there, seeing as how Scripture reveals that these governments are ultimately controlled by Satan [The archangel who rebelled, not being content with his position, but desiring instead to be God- which “coincidentally” is exactly the course being pursued by government… ] and that the men who control/comprise them delegate their own wills to Satan in exchange for some authority and riches.
[Bonus: Fun facts:]
And here we are, near the end of the game, where it is apparent that the Mark Of The Beast is being rolled out…..
The Greek word for mark is charagma. Strong’s Concordance defines charagma as “”a scratch or etching””, “”a badge of servitude””, “”graven””, and “”mark”” . Strong’s also notes that charagma is directly related to the Greek word charax, which means “to sharpen to a point” and also describes “a stake”.
Liddell and Scott’s An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon defines charagma as “”the mark of a pointed instrument, a tattoo-mark, brand”” [Remember, they didn’t have syringes or vaccines 2000 years ago when Revelation was written- the first thing being recognizable as a hypodermic syringe not being invented until 1853 -and thus there being no specific word for such a thing which did not yet exist].
” pity that it failed to also mention that what is also glaringly self evident is that that Creator did not give men dominion over other men. ”
Well said. Perhaps the Founders, for all of their fine qualities, simply didn’t want to address the issue that was so personal to them, because they were exercising dominion over men in the form of actual slavery.
…which leads us to where we are today.
The sins of the fathers are visited on their children for generations to come.
Excellent point, Anon!
And here we are…all slaves- only our labor instead of being taken directly, is taken indirectly via taxation. We need papers and insurance to travel; we cannot choose whom we will or will not do business with or associate with or rent/sell our property to; and we may “own” property, but in name only- we must pay it’s ‘true owner’ if we wish to retain use of it, and use it only in accordance with their discretion and permission.
Nunz, we have the most heavily armed flock of sheep on the planet. Mores the pity.
Datos, ne quisquam seruiat, enses.
(The sword was given for this, that none need live a slave.)
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus
Yes.
Which naturally pairs with Molon Labe.
Roughly, come and take them.
attributed to King Leonidas I
Not even concealed. If one is required to bake a cake for someone, despite our wishes, how is that not involuntary servitude? Likewise, how is conscription, which men are still required to register for at age 18, not also involuntary servitude?
Because of a “compelling state interest” of course John. If you examined the mental gymnastics of the judicial branch, when excusing the actions of the other branches, you’d be quite dizzy.
Oddly enough, its almost as if they are on the same team…
Legalman has some interesting insights into those antics.
Or, they considered the notion obvious, without need of explanation. Regardless their personal guilt. Just as Thomas Jefferson owning slaves, in no way disqualifies him speaking against it. We should all strive to be better than we are.
fun fact – at least the way I heard it:
Original text was “Life, liberty, and property”
This was changed to “pursuit of happiness” so property would not be claimed to be slavery, and thus we were declaring independence to keep slaves.
And keeping the door open to disposing of slavery. Which was the exact purpose of the 3/5 rule.
“Keeping the door open…” for someone else to do the dirty work of disposing of slavery.
Surprise! Slavery is still with us. You’re the slave.
Nunzio,
Depending on how “charagma” is defined, the vax may or may not be the Mark of the Beast. That said, I think that, at the very least, it’s TRAINING for taking the Mark! In Rev. 13, it talks about how no one will buy or sell, save he that had the Mark. Well, what’s being done with the vax? In many places, it’s increasingly hard to buy or sell much of anything besides food, and even that’s a problem for some people in more authoritarian jurisdictions. SO! At the least, the vax is training for The Mark of the Beast, since it gets the vaxxed in to the frame of mind that they must do what the Overlords tell them if they want to live anything resembling a normal life.
Personally, I don’t think that the vax is the Mark. Why? The Antichrist hasn’t been revealed yet. In Rev. 13, it’s quite obvious that the Antichrist has been revealed, and that a world gov’t has been established. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re close. Again, I think that the vax is training, so as to accustom people to the frame of mind necessary for mass adoption of The Mark…
Another admirable article, Mr. Peters. One of the several things so very well stated:
“If you are only permitted to possess a thing – land, for instance – for so long as you continue to pay whatever ‘taxes’ it is claimed you ‘owe’ as the condition of the land not being seized from you, then it is self-evident you do not own it.
Those who ‘tax’ it do.”
I’m tempted to supplement what you said about the great White Thomas Jefferson, but I think it best to just re-emphasize what you have said.
Excellent dissertation Eric!
Sadly as I’ve seen throughout my 74 years on this planet there are way too many who don’t mind being told what to do and how to do it, just basically lazy; may their chains rest lightly ☹️
It’s somewhat of a circular firing squad Mike. Public education doesn’t teach them how to think, so they need someone to tell them what to do. I don’t fault those who are lazy. It’s kind of a standard thing among many mammals. I don’t know how many deer I’ve killed by simply mowing them a path to walk on. Lots. I do fault those that indulge in their laziness, to the point they can’t or won’t take care of themselves.
“I do fault those that indulge in their laziness…”
It is apparent laziness for folks having strong “opinions” on politics and evil government, but not being engaged to do anything about it – just BS complaining, while denigrating organizations or individuals who are engaged.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” -Edmund Burke
I think a great many would act, if they knew HOW to act. If one is going to pledge their “lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” we would prefer it to be just and effective. Personally, I’m near invalid, so my options are limited.
And may history forget that they where once our countrymen…
‘If you would not be owned, would you assert ownership over another?’ — eric
Nine thoroughly co-opted government apparatchiks will decide a current instance of that question on January 7th.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hold a special session to weigh challenges to two Biden administration policies covering vaccine requirements for millions of large employer and health care workers.
The high court’s hearing on Jan. 7 is an extraordinarily fast timeline. The court had not been scheduled to hear cases again until Jan. 10.
Both issues arrived at the court on an emergency basis. The court usually quickly decides emergency applications without the more typical full briefing and oral argument.
The Supreme Court announced earlier this year that all the justices have been vaccinated. Because of the coronavirus, however, the court is not open to the public. Lawyers arguing cases must test negative COVID-19 and journalists observing arguments must also have a negative test.
————
This hearing will result in injunctions being either sustained or lifted, pending litigation on the merits. But politically, this early-stage ruling is likely to be decisive.
If mandates are put on hold, they are doomed. The combination of vaccine failure, milder strains of covid, and (finally) authorized early treatments will pop the bubble of vaccine hysteria.
Whereas if injunctions are lifted, we’ll see an unprecedentedly ugly Vaccinacht, with the vaccinazis riding higher than the Ku Klux Klan did a century ago, brandishing their burning syringes.
Putting our sacred right to bodily integrity in the hands of nine sold-out old doofuses is an insane, reckless crapshoot. But that’s what it’s come down to: showdown time for freedom
This weighs heavily on my mind as well.
Don’t let it weigh you down. It is what it is. The SCOTUS hasn’t exactly been a paragon of liberty in like, forever. They won’t try to force vaccination, as they appear prepared to do in Austria, because they are allergic to being shot at. But one may have to pay a price for their liberty, which is not an unusual thing.
Reading your comment caused me to think of this bit:
“In other words, we need to make GloboCap (and its minions) go openly totalitarian … because it can’t. If it could, it would have done so already. Global capitalism cannot function that way. Going openly totalitarian will cause it to implode … no, not global capitalism itself, but this totalitarian version of it. In fact, this is starting to happen already. It needs the simulation of “reality,” and “democracy,” and “normality,” to keep the masses docile. So we need to attack that simulation. We need to hammer on it until it cracks, and the monster hiding within in appears.” …
https://consentfactory.org/2021/09/02/the-covidian-cult-part-iii/
Indeed, won’t it be curious how the Austrians react to becoming state owned cattle? Will they remember, or submit?
“The Supreme Court announced earlier this year that all the justices have been vaccinated. Because of the coronavirus, however, the court is not open to the public. Lawyers arguing cases must test negative COVID-19 and journalists observing arguments must also have a negative test.”
The fact that our nation’s highest court is “suffering and permitting” this travesty right under their noses doesn’t bode well for the rest of us.
anon 1
the judges and courts are all exempt the extermination injection, sounds like bs
No matter what 5 political lawyers say, they can’t change what is right, just & moral.
They can only affirm it.
SCOTUS took for themselves the power to tell the rest of govt what to do.
They only have that power as long as everyone plays along.
Actually Congress DOES have the power to put just about any subject “off limits” and not subject to “supreme court” jurisdiction but almost never exercises that power…
The very document the SCOTUS claims authority to decide upon does not grant it authority to do so. It is one of, if not the very first usurpations of power by the Federal government. SCOTUS usurped that power by making a decision that granted itself power to do so.
I wouldn’t look for either Congress or POTUS to do anything to rein in the SCOTUS. Why? Because it’s politically expedient, that’s why. A politician can throw up their hands and say, “it’s not me; it’s that crazy court!” Donald Trump caved to the court when they told him that he couldn’t reverse DACA, which, BTW, was an EO of the PREVIOUS administraiton! He caved to the court on the wall and other things too. That way, he could placate his base saying that he tried, but the SCOTUS took things out of his hands.
The thing about EOs is they automatically expire at the end of the administration they were executed in, unless they are renewed by the current administration.
The blame is squarely on the Orange Fop.
I’m not seeing the “showdown”.
Nine bodily desecrated robewraiths are going issue a wordspell from their lofty palace, which will wreak havoc, terror, and industrialized mass murder over the helpless, hapless masses of teeming humanoid worms.
That’s not a “showdown”. It’s just a fucking slaughter.
Let them. The Nine Riders of the Bench can make any pronouncement they wish.
Matters have proceeded beyond they or their ilks control. You and others continue
to think in terms of numbers. Numbers only matter when both sides are playing
by the same rules. Only a great fool would play the enemies game, by the enemies rules. Which is why the Empire has lost every war since World War II.
One can win every battle, and still lose the war. The Empire has demonstrated
this time after time. Times are changing. Think differently. Act differently.
I have zero idea what you’re getting at.
This is because you are speaking in only the vaguest and glittering terms.
Then you must continue to stare at the shadows. I bid you well.
I am both a Christian and a little-L libertarian. IMHO they’re not mutually exclusive. Laurance Vance on lewrockwell.com routinely makes that case.
Anyhoo, my answer to ‘what is a libertarian’ is simple:
a) I own me and
b) honest application of the non-aggression principle
Amen, Mike!
I’m not a formal Christian, per se. But I see no contradiction. Indeed, I see a lot of commonality. Libertarianism – small “l” – is about the sanctity of the individual; about the exercise of free will – without which there is no such thing as the sanctity of the individual. As I understand Christian theology, we have the right to choose. And to be held accountable. This is also what libertarianism espouses.
Exactly Eric. Both are belief systems. As long as neither violates the others principles, I see no conflict. Its like Science and Religion. They apply to different areas of human life.
Remember this old meme? “Libertarianism; The radical ideal that other people are not your property”.
Hey Mike, Eric and Nunz,
I posit that there are five imaginable states of ownership: God-owned, self-owned, State-owned, collectively-owned and un-owned. God ownership and self ownership produce the same moral constraints on our behavior with respect to others. However, God ownership imposes additional constraints on our behavior with respect to ourselves. For instance, suicide and other forms of self abuse are sins from a God owned perspective, but not from a self owned perspective. Libertarianism and Christianity are compatible, but the former deals exclusively with defining the allowable treatment of others, while Christianity also asserts that there is an allowable way to treat ourselves. But, there is nothing in libertarianism that precludes us from imposing restrictions on how we treat ourselves, it’s just not essential to the philosophy.
Collectively-owned and State-owned amount to the same thing as “collective ownership”, outside of small, voluntary communities, is an abstract euphemism for “State ownership” (try to assert a property right in a National park and see what happens). State-ownership proscribes arbitrary and changing limits on how we may legally treat others, but no binding or principled limits on how the State may treat us. As John Kable tirelessly explains, every government assumes the authority to kill you if you don’t obey, it matters not if its’ edicts are reasonable or just.
Cheers,
Jeremy
I tirelessly, and repeatedly explain it because it is the most critical aspect of government, but is not readily apparent, and so is easy to forget, because most obey to sufficient degree they are not killed. Damn few will get murdered over a parking ticket, but the threat is there. If you refuse to pay, and successfully refuse to submit, because you are doing a better job beating the crap out of them than they are beating the crap out of you, the goons are indeed authorized to kill you. Over $20. Or whatever a parking ticket is these days. I don’t go downtown much anymore.
Lew himself, among others on his site, have fairly stated that the success of NAP, requiring a moral foundation, is dependent upon spiritual belief. Molineux argues that certain morals are inherent, and some are, since they are survival traits. The rest come from spiritual belief, whether one holds that belief or not.
John, while the NAP is necessary, it alone is not sufficient. It does indeed require some additional beliefs. Those need not be religious, but that will do. Our basic foundation is a great start. Its far better than what all governments are based upon.
Have you ever listened to Michael Malice? He is a fascinating fellow. I don’t agree with everything he speaks of, but he is an anarcho capitalist worth listening to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5rNoV1Qy_Q&t=283s&ab_channel=LexFridman
Would that I could in good conscience do so, but I refuse to have anything to do with Google/Alphabet.
‘I pay my property taxes in person’ — John Kable
A three thousand dollar property tax, rendered in legal tender pennies, would weigh just over 1,650 lbs. Call it fifteen wheelbarrow loads.
Whereas rendered in gold, it would be under two ounces. You could carry it in your pocket.
Someone tried that (the pennies). His unconventional compliance was somehow redefined as prohibited defiance. And it was ALL LEGAL! *wink*
What Has Government Done to Our Money? asked Murray Rothbard in a 1963 book, when they came for the silver coins.
Without the ability to produce counterfeit keystroke currency, the welfare/warfare state in Washington DC would collapse under its own weight.
And as small as it may currently be, the Fed charges interest on that “money” they create out of thin air.
Hence the power they wield. Fractional reserve banking is just part of their global banking cartel scam. Central banks have supported most (if not all) of the wars,
and “social programs” governments (world wide) has engaged in for a very long time.
I don’t think banks are even required to maintain a fractional reserve anymore. If so, it isn’t much. When there was such a thing, it still enabled your local bank to create money out of thin air. You borrow $10k to remodel your kitchen, which the bank was only required to have a fraction of (let’s say 40%), and you deposit it in your account. Which allows the bank to use THAT money as part of its fractional reserve, and loan out $25k to another.
So the bank has now loaned out $35k on a $4k reserve.
The reserve requirement is now zero. Its been that way for years now. There is effectively no limit to the amount of currency they can create out of thin air. That is very dangerous. If the velocity of money wasn’t so low, matters would be much worse than they are.
So instead of a “fractional” reserve, we have a “fictional” reserve.
anon 1
The central bank in Japan is the leader in debt creation, they even buy stocks and etf’s there to prop up the market. The federal reserve started doing the same, buying corporate bonds, junk bonds,
To quote Bob Rodriguez,
With the initiation of the Fed’s complete takeover and control of the US financial economy, there is now absolutely no accurate pricing discovery in the capital markets and we have entered a period of total manipulation. In light of this, the only markets I have an interest in are those where the heavy hand of government is not involved or only minimally involved. This leads me to rare commodities and collectibles. The public equity and debt markets are now nothing more than greater fool markets that are led by the greatest fools of all, the Fed and the Congress. US capital markets, RIP!
Bank of Japan’s balance sheet now larger than country’s GDP
The BOJ has become the world’s second central bank after the Swiss National Bank and the first among Group of Seven countries to own a pool of assets bigger than the economy it is trying to stimulate.
the fed’s balance sheet is only 28% (more today) of gdp so there is lots of room left.
Real money clinks when you drop it. The Fed is all in on shuffling debt to create “wealth” out of thin air. The “new and improved” economy where investment of time and effort is not required to create “wealth”. Money can be printed. Wealth cannot be. Is it not remarkable that so many Ivy League economists cannot grasps such simple truth?
That’s the difference between Keynesianism. and real economics (Austrian school). Real economics deals with the results of Human Action (sorry I had to… 🙂 ).
Keynesian voodoo deals with various unwarranted assumptions (like aggregate demand as just one example). Then they weave various mathematical spells around them to come to their predetermined conclusions. Why is Keynesianism
the main stream version? Simple. Because it supports government and central bank intervention into the economy. Austrian does not.
anon 1
The leftist communists love the new MMT, you can just print money, no need to work. insanity….
re: money clinking, gold and silver are the hardest currencies……but there is a new opinion now…….bitcoin is the hardest currency.
fiat currency goes to zero value in 100 years.
gold and not so much even rarer silver can also lose value because of new found supplies,
bitcoin is a fixed amount, only a limited number will be produced, so difficult for it to lose value.
bitcoin: one of the main purposes was to escape central bank printing.
anon 1
There is a theory about that: they are printing money like crazy, bailing out the billionaires, (from the financial crash in 2009, 20 trillion $ printed, and the repo blowup in 2019, another 20 trillion $ printed the last 2 years, making them even richer, so the covid hoax (the excuse) is designed, for one reason to slow the economy down a lot to create deflation to offset the money printing inflation. Catherine Fitts says all the money has been moved offshore, there is nothing left, so cull the useless eaters before they figure out the robbery, no money left for pensions or other entitlements/promises etc., reason #2 for the hoax.
Government won’t accept your gold at gold value. It will only accept it at the face value of the US coins.
From the, title in fief’ URL:
“Eventually, great feudal lords began to seize governmental and legal authority”…
Compare that, to today:
“Walensky’s power grab is a prelude to a future in which administrative power so vastly outstrips representative government that we will, or perhaps already live, in the Regulatory States of America. If totalitarianism comes to the United States, it will come from an Administrator. It will be preceded by an emergency, and powers like the power seized by Walensky will be assumed. Even now, the Administrative State is not at all different from the Administrative Soviet government. We increasingly live by decree of administrative rule,” …
https://popularrationalism.substack.com/p/regulatory-capture-is-killing-us?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyMTU4NjM2LCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0NTk2NDAzNiwiXyI6ImNxWXVyIiwiaWF0IjoxNjQwMzc1ODEzLCJleHAiOjE2NDAzNzk0MTMsImlzcyI6InB1Yi00NzUxMjQiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.l1MIsLasmGEEWcCiDMCnz_mfsN_ZpiEGWD5R_7N9-Vo
It all fits in with the book, ‘Three Felonies a Day’ written by, Harvey A. Silverglate.
Also reminded of this quote:
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The huge roadblock to a libertarian movement is the assumption that somehow, community efforts cannot be done without threatening to kill people to collect taxes so they can be done. As if people are simply unable to come to agreement without that threat, in their own self interest. What thing has government ever done that private enterprise does not do better, and cheaper?
This was the role of religion. Oh sure, we’re not going to hurt you (usually… As always when it comes to humans there are notable exceptions), but if you don’t do what we say you will face an eternity of hell. If you play along you’ll be rewarded in heaven. When this began to be questioned during the enlightenment the state decided to make heaven and hell a more tangible concept.
I don’t recall exactly when, but in my lifetime, and possibly still so, the Catholic Church was the wealthiest entity on the planet. Literally selling absolution and eternity in heaven. A business venture.
All of today’s religions are “business ventures”…
Indulgences for cash was an abomination…
That being said…
There are differences in the way Protestants treat the bible versus Roman Catholics.
The Bible was written by MEN, many with their own (hidden) agendas.
For example, it was the King James version of the Bible that codified “the rights of kings” (and nobles) to lord over (take advantage of) the ordinary (non-connected peasant) populations.
“Sola scriptura” (meaning the biblical “word” is sacrosanct and is “divinely inspired”) is a commonly accepted precept among Protestants, whereas Catholics use the bible as a “historical guide” recognizing that every translation injects the author’s own biases into the text.
The old testament “god” is a “god of vengeance”, the celebration of conquest and genocide being a part of every jewish “holy day”.
Contrast that with the “god” of the new testament”, a “god” that recognizes mankind’s failings and is based on “mercy and acceptance” versus the jewish “god” of vengeance.
I maintain that it was a mistake for Christianity to incorporate the “old testament” into its teachings, rather than using the “old testament” as a “historical guide” and not the “inspired word of “god”…
Perhaps not a mistake, but the intention of incorporating their authority.
anon 1
there was a joke about that….the quickest way to get rich is to start your own religion…..
I agree, John –
And the fascinating thing is that all of us practice this sort of anarchic system every day, in our personal (and even many business) relationships. Consider this site as an example. No one is compelled to visit here – much less support what goes on here. Nor punished if they do not like what they find here.
But many do come here, regardless – all of us freely engaging in society without compulsion.
It’s all around us. We’re just trained not to notice it is.
A good example is that people don’t drive 80 mph down your cul de sac, in spite of the fact that there isn’t an armed goon at the turnoff to keep them from doing so. Imagine, if defense spending was a voluntary payment to a contractor. Want to be a hawk? Be my guest, but you will pay the bill.
Another simple example is grocery store isles. There are no grocery cart speed limit signs posted, nor divided yellow & white no passing lines painted on the floors, yet somehow, human beings manage without grocery cart laws.
Unwritten cultural norms & grocery store policies seem to work in unison.
Anyway, is it correct to presume that anyone who declares they are Not a libertarian is by default accepting of the anti-human ideal, “the goobermint owns me… & my children”?
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/children-belong-to-the-state/
No, that just happens to be where you end up if you pursue the reasoning to its logical conclusion.
But people are lazy a-holes. If there is someone else who will have to clean up the mess or will suffer from them putting forth less effort and energy they will make the mess and they will not put in the effort by and large. I don’t know if this human nature or just the result of the statist systems in their upbringing. I like to think it is the later it seems if they can be lazy a-holes and nobody is going to punish them for it (socially or otherwise) or worse the law allows for it, they will be.
Ah, but what of the people who cannot abide your site’s existence? Right now another site I frequent is being attacked with a massive DDOS that began sometime this morning. Or at least that’s the what the Cloudflare splash-page says. Freedom to associate with whom you wish is only possible as long as the unruly mob doesn’t notice you. The minute you’re outnumbered you’re done.
That’s become par for the course. That’s why sites like the Unz Review are behind massive DDOS shields. The mob obviously hasn’t thought this through (no surprise…). By normalizing these antics, they encourage their use against them. There are a great number of very good techs, that seriously hate the Wokistas.
The people always chanting about democracy deride libertarianism as rule of the strong, that if it wasn’t for the state someone stronger or a mob would come along and ruin you. Then they practice the same thing through mob rule and government violence and don’t even realize it that it is the same.
Gang rape is democracy in action. The 51% holding a gun to the heads of the 49%, and forcing them to abide by the dictates of the median IQ.
But BrentP, WE are the government! Sigh… With most of these people, its really pointless to bother. They are so brainwashed that they have only a faint grasp on reality as it exists.
The vast majority are so wrapped in illusion/delusion and so absent any critical thought, that they might as well be NPC’s.
For non gamers, this is a definition.
” NPC
A play on video games “non-player character” mixed with a play on The Simulation Hypothesis.
An NPC is seemingly a human that is unable to think objectively.
We exist in a simulated reality and some humans take on the role of NPCs, spouting “opinions” they are programmed to spout and repeating in a cult-like manner.
Liberal: (Yelling) Fuck Trump! Ban guns!
Conservative: (Yelling) Fuck Hillary! Ban immigrants!
Friend: Bro, I’m sick of all these people just repeating shit…
Me: Its hard to move forward with all these NPCs.
by shimokuma July 03, 2018″
I used to play old pencil and paper role playing games back in the 1980s. I know the term NPC well. Long before it became a meme, years before, probably around 2003ish I began to wonder, if life on this rock is a simulation, that would mean the vast majority of people are NPCs. They behave like it too. I put the thought away for the most part and then years later it became a meme.
That’s true, RK –
But it doesn’t cause me to flinch. Fish heads, for them. I won’t shut up to make them happy.
Indeed Eric, don’t quit until they make you quit, then see about a way NOT to quit. May bear looking into right now.
I’ve mentioned that from time to time John. Planning now, while options are still available, would be a wise course of action. I’d hate for him to lose his audience, after having spent so many years building it up. Substack might be worth looking into.
https://substack.com/
For the sake of completeness I feel the need to revise my post, unlike The New York Times. The site admin had set a hard limit on connections while he was upgrading (then, unfortunately downgrading) the servers.
But it did get me thinking about what recourse can be taken against such activity. Seems to me IPv7 should include a way to disable another’s IP address. This feature should be avilable to every node on the network and should be part of every network stack with clear instructions on how to deploy it.
Oh sure the first few weeks would bring chaos as everyone would be randomly kicked offline repeatedly by kids and assholes, but very soon we’d figure out that everyone having a defensive weapon pretty much keeps everyone else in line. Eventually groups might delegate their disabler to a trusted authority or commercial enterprise, or maybe in totalitarian states they would be seized by the state. Automation could be implemented as well as whitelists (or whatever the newspeak term is) for trusted nodes.
That’s because community efforts are now something some people want but don’t want to pay for or want other people to subsidize it.
Instead of buying their children Ipads they decide the school should provide them. This way they get to have their neighbors pay for 99% of the Ipad for their kid. Without government violence this can’t be accomplished.
Also a lot of people demand everyone else choose as they do. That’s why the jab is being forced and lots of other things have been foisted upon us in the past. They cannot accept someone else chose differently. Feminism is an example of both using government to take from others and demanding others make the same choices. That makes it especially damaging to society before the details are even looked at.
I find collectivists are just nasty people who want to live at the expense of others and cannot stand any real diversity, which is thought, choice, and action because someone else might have a better outcome than they have.
Every single government on the face of this planet is built upon its assumption of authority to kill you if you don’ t obey. The same as any other slave. If you are property, you have no rights.
How many of us would pay ANY tax without that threat of murder? I pay my property taxes in person, which I will be doing this week, for the purpose of telling them “I’m here to pay the extortion that prevents you from stealing my property.” And if I’m in a particularly grumpy mood, “why don’t you find some honest work?”.