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Mike Krieger On Our Road To Serfdom
The Road To Serfdom, By Mike Krieger of KAM LP
As is true with respect to other great evils, the measures by which war might be made altogether impossible for the future may well be worse than even war itself.
- F.A. Hayek in The Road to Serfdom
Those who preach a “New Order” which is no more than a projection of the tendencies of the last forty years, and who can think of nothing better than to imitate Hitler. It is, indeed, those who cry loudest for the New Order who are most completely under the sway of the ideas which have created this war and most of the evils from which we suffer.
- F.A. Hayek in The Road to Serfdom
I recently finished reading F.A. Hayek’s classic work The Road to Serfdom and quite frankly I was completely blown away. Its author is one of the greats in Austrian economic thought and he won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974. The Road to Serfdom was first published in Britain in 1944 and in the United States the following year. I found the book to hold such significant lessons about the dangers of concentrated political and economic organization that I was compelled to write down many of my favorite quotes and passages in the email below. Where I have found the need to comment I have added “my two cents.” I suggest everyone on this list buy this book and read it if you have not already and to reread it if you had in the past. It’s almost scary how he seems to be describing many of the exact same things that are happening today. I guess that is because as much as things change, human nature never really does. So we create the same disasters over and over.
I am about to head out on the road (not to serfdom hope!) and before I do I want to issue a rallying cry to everyone that craves freedom both politically and economically. We must all at once stop identifying ourselves as Democrats and Republicans. The elites use these definitions as part of a divide and conquer strategy. In any event, Bush and Obama seem pretty similar to me anyway. Two thugs. We must get back to our roots and what made this country great. The enemy is not someone from a different political party or a “capitalist” or a “socialist.” The enemy is collectivist thought imposed on humanity from the top down. Top down collectivist thought has taken on many forms whether it is Communism or Fascism but in the end what happens is a small ruling elite run the lives of 99% of the population. Those that resist are killed or imprisoned. I certainly do not think I have all the answers. What I do know is that freedom loving people the world over must shed their prior false political identities and together agree on certain key principles. There is a battle going on between a small highly organized group that wants a collectivist top down structure of world government and they are rushing to put these plans into action. This is not conspiracy theory it’s very obvious if you open your eyes. Get your money into real assets and get prepared so that you are not destitute when it comes time to stand up and rebuild. We can make this world a better place but it’s not going to be easy. I will be in touch.
The Road to Serfdom: Favorite Passages and Quotes
What in the future will probably appear the most significant and far-reaching effect of this success is the new sense of power over their own fate, the belief in the unbounded possibilities if improving their own lot, which the success already achieved created among men. With the success grew ambition – and man had every right to be ambitious. What had been an inspiring promise seemed no longer enough, the rate of progress far too slow; and the principles which had made this progress possible in the past came to be regarded more as obstacles to speedier progress, impatiently to be brushed away, than as the conditions for the preservation and development of what had already been achieved.
- Chapter One “The Abandoned Road”
My Two Cents: Basically as mankind advanced and become more free and standards of living advanced, a trend toward idealist and impossible to achieve utopian concepts became increasingly prevalent and the attempts to implement these have actually cause immense suffering and in the process many forgot the actual methods by which the prior progress had actually been achieved. I think this is a great parallel to the modern United States where we have forgotten the roots of that which made this country great. An attempts to rediscover those roots is burgeoning with the current Constitutional movement, which I fully endorse.
The complete collapse of the belief in the attainability of freedom and equality through Marxism has forced Russia to travel the same road toward a totalitarian, purely negative, non-economic society of unfreedom and inequality which Germany has been following. Not that communism and fascism are essentially the same. Fascism is the stage reached after communism has proven an illusion, and it has proved as much an illusion in Stalinist Russia as in pre-Hitler Germany.
- Quote by Peter Drucker used by Hayek in Chapter Two “The Great Utopia”
Many people, on the other hand, who value the ultimate ends of socialism no less than the socialists refuse to support socialism because of the dangers to other values they see in the methods proposed by the socialists.
- Chapter Three “Individualism and Collectivism”
Or, to express it differently, planning and competition can be combined only by planning for competition but not by planning against competition.
- Chapter Three “Individualism and Collectivism”
My Two Cents: Planning an entire economy doesn’t work! Look at the mess China is in. Believe me, they have a major mess on their hands and if they don’t either appreciate the yuan or back their currency by gold soon I expect a total collapse there.
It should be noted that, moreover, that monopoly is frequently the product of factors other than the lower costs of greater size. It is attained through collusive agreement and promoted by public policies.
- Chapter Four “The ‘Inevitability’ of Planning”
My Two Cents: Can you say the modern U.S. corrupt and rigged economy.
While there is nothing in modern technological developments which forces us toward comprehensive economic planning, there is a great deal in them which makes infinitely more dangerous the power a planning authority would possess.
- Chapter Four “The ‘Inevitability’ of Planning”
My Two Cents: And this was written in Hayek’s time. We must be more vigilant than ever to protect against an authoritarian government since the technology available to them to enforce tyranny is beyond nightmarish. Why anyone has any trust in the Federal government of virtually any nation to do the right thing is beyond me.
From the saintly and single-minded idealist to the fanatic is often but a step.
- Chapter Four “The ‘Inevitability’ of Planning”
That in a planned system we cannot confine collective action to the tasks on which we can agree but are forced to produce agreement on everything in order that any action can be taken at all, is one of the features which contributes more than most to determining the character of a planned system…It is important clearly to see the causes of this admitted ineffectiveness of parliaments when it comes to a detailed administration of the economic affairs of a nation. The fault is neither with the individual representatives nor with the parliamentary institutions as such but with the contradictions inherent in the task with which they are charged.
- Chapter Five “Planning and Democracy”
Yet agreement that planning is necessary, together with the inability of democratic assemblies to produce a plan, will evoke stronger and stronger demands that the government or some single individual should be given power to act on their own responsibility…Hitler did not have to destroy democracy; he merely took advantage of the decay of democracy and at the critical moment obtained the support of many to whom, though they detested Hitler, he seemed the only man strong enough to get things done.
- Chapter Five “Planning and Democracy”
My Two Cents: As if dealing with the current inept and corrupt administration is not bad enough. What we get in the backlash to this administration could be worse. We must all agree on the Constitution so that we do not put in a demagogue after Obama or in a “crisis” that makes us afraid.
It may well be true that our generation talks and thinks too much of democracy and too little of the values which it serves…Democracy is essentially a means, a utilitarian device for safeguarding internal peace and individual freedom…and it is at least conceivable that under the government of a very homogenous and doctrinaire majority democratic government might be as oppressive as the worst dictatorship…The fashionable concentration on democracy as the main value threatened is not without danger. It is largely responsible for the misleading and unfounded belief that, so long as the ultimate power is the will of the majority, the power cannot be arbitrary. The false assurance which many people derive from this belief is an important cause of the general unawareness of the dangers which we face…Democratic control may prevent power from becoming arbitrary, but it does not do so by its mere existence. If democracy resolves on a task which necessarily involves the use of power which cannot be guided by fixed rules, it must become arbitrary power.
- Chapter Five “Planning and Democracy”
My Two Cents: So prescient. Don’t fall for the propaganda that because we are in a “democracy” all is ok. Just look at how the Congress rams through extremely unpopular bills and refuses to pass a real Audit the Fed bill when 80% of the population wants it. America was founded as a REPUBLIC. There is a difference. Look it up.
The more the state plans, the more difficult planning becomes for the individual.
- Chapter Six “Planning and the Rule of Law”
It is the Rule of Law, in the sense of the rule of formal law, the absence of legal privileges of particular people designated by authority, which safeguards that equality before the law which is the opposite of arbitrary government…To produce the same result for different people, it is necessary to treat them differently.
- Chapter Six “Planning and the Rule of Law”
My Two Cents: There is no rule of law in America. Obama basically suspended it during the financial crisis. Remember, rights and the rule of law are always removed by autocratic leadership in a crisis. Think 9/11 and the financial crisis.
It may well be that Hitler has obtained his unlimited powers in a strictly constitutional manner and that whatever he does is therefore legal in the juridical sense. But who would suggest for that reason that the Rule of Law still prevails in Germany?
- Chapter Six “Planning and the Rule of Law”
Nothing would at first seem to affect private life less than a state control of the dealings in foreign exchange, and most people will regard its introduction with complete indifference. Yet the experience of most Continental countries has taught thoughtful people to regard this step as the decisive advance on the path to totalitarianism and the suppression of individual liberty.
- Chapter Seven “Economic Control and Totalitarianism”
My Two Cents: This is HUGELY important. Once the FX controls really kick in you will know deep trouble lies ahead. I expect this within 1-2 years at the latest.
The reader may take it that whoever talks about potential plenty is either dishonest or does not know what he is talking about.
- Chapter Seven “Economic Control and Totalitarianism”
My Two Cents: Potential plenty is a myth used by collectivists since the beginning to market their ideas to a naive public. It is still used today. It’s a sham.
To believe that the power which is thus conferred on the state is merely transferred to it from others is erroneous. It is a power which is newly created and which in a competitive society nobody possesses.
- Chapter Eight “Who, Whom?”
My Two Cents: Decentralized power is always inherently less dangerous than centralized power. Nothing is more dangerous than a “global centralized power.” This is the direction the elite and oligarchs are attempting to take us in to create a neo-feudalism with them and their progeny as the aristocracy.
It is not rational conviction but the acceptance of a creed which is required to justify a particular plan. And, indeed, socialists everywhere were the first to recognize that the task they had set themselves required the general acceptance of a common Weltanschauung, of a definite set of values.
- Chapter Eight “Who, Whom?”
There is a great deal of truth in the often heard statement that fascism and National Socialism are a sort of middle-class socialism –only that in Italy and Germany the supporters of these new movements were economically hardly a middle class any longer. It was to a large extent a revolt of a new underprivileged class against the labor aristocracy which the industrial labor movement had created…They were quite ready to take over the methods of the older socialism but intended to employ them in the service of a different class.
- Chapter Eight “Who, Whom?”
In a society used to freedom it is unlikely that many people would be ready deliberately to purchase security at this price. But the policies which are now followed everywhere, which hand out the privilege of security, now to this group and now to that, are nevertheless rapidly creating conditions in which the striving for security tends to become stronger than the love of freedom. The reason for this is that with every grant of complete security to one group the insecurity of the rest necessarily increases. If you guarantee to some a fixed part of a variable cake, the share left to the rest is bound to fluctuate proportionately more than the size of the whole. And the essential element of security which the competitive system offers, the great variety of opportunities, is more and more reduced.
- Chapter Nine “Security and Freedom”
My Two Cents: This is the real reason the welfare state is so dangerous. It ultimately collapses and then in the chaos and vacuum that follows freedom is often sacrificed. We must never allow this in the United States.
Just as the democratic statesman who sets out to plan economic life will soon be confronted with the alternative of either assuming dictatorial powers or abandoning his plans, so the totalitarian dictator would soon have to choose between disregard for ordinary morals and failure. It is for this reason that the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful in a society tending toward totalitarianism.
- Chapter Ten “Why the Worst Get on Top”
My Two Cents: Look at how we reward failure. The Treasury Secretary couldn’t pay his taxes. What a clown he is and what a clown Obama is for keeping this clown around.
He will be able to obtain the support of all the docile and gullible, who have no strong convictions if their own but are prepared to accept a ready-made system of values if it is only drummed into their ears sufficiently loudly and frequently. It will be those whose vague and imperfectly formed ideas are easily swayed and whose passions and emotions are readily aroused who will thus swell the ranks of the totalitarian party.
- Chapter Ten “Why the Worst Get on Top”
My Two Cents: We must all work as hard as possible to inform the largest number of people as possible ahead of the collapse so that some when we rebuild the demagogues do not come out on top in the battle of ideas.
Collectivism on a world scale seems to be unthinkable –except in the service of a small ruling elite.
- Chapter Ten “Why the Worst Get on Top”
My Two Cents: G20, Bilderberg Group. Any secretive group of elites must be examined much more closely by the populace. Time to grow up.
To split or decentralize power is necessarily to reduce the absolute amount of power, and the competitive system is the only system designed to minimize by decentralization the power exercised by man over man.
- Chapter Ten “Why the Worst Get on Top”
The principle that the end justifies the means is in individualist ethics regarded as the denial of all morals. In collectivist ethics it becomes necessarily the supreme rule; there is literally nothing which the consistent collectivist must not be prepared to do if it serves “the good of the whole” because to him the “good of the whole” is to him the only criterion of what ought to be done…There is always in the eyes of the collectivist a greater goal which these acts serve and which to him justifies them because the pursuit of the common end of society can know no limits in any rights or values of any individual.
- Chapter Ten “Why the Worst Get on Top”
The moral consequences of totalitarian propaganda which we must now consider are, however, of an even more profound kind. They are destructive of all moral because they undermine one of the foundations of all morals; the sense of and respect for truth.
- Chapter Eleven “The End of Truth”
My Two Cents: If you haven’t noticed the mainstream media is full of lies and trite stories. The government is the most consistent liar I have ever encountered.
It is not difficult to deprive the great majority of independent thought. But the minority who will retain an inclination to criticize must also be silenced. We have already seen why coercion cannot be confined to the acceptance of the ethical code underlying the plan according to which all social activity is directed. Since many parts of this code will never be explicitly stated, since many part of the guiding scale of values will exist only implicitly by the plan, the plan itself in every detail, in fact every act of the government, must become sacrosanct and exempt from criticism.
- Chapter Eleven “The End of Truth”
In particular, they all (totalitarian systems) seem to have in common an intense dislike of the more abstract forms of thought –a dislike characteristically also shown by many of the collectivists among out scientists.
- Chapter Eleven “The End of Truth”
In any society freedom of thought will probably be of direct significance only for a small minority. But this does not mean that anyone is competent, or ought to have power, to select those to whom this freedom is to be reserved…The tragedy of collectivist thought is that, while it starts out to make reason supreme, it ends by destroying reason because it misconceives the process on which the growth of reason depends.
- Chapter Eleven “The End of Truth”
Still less was the cause (of the rise of National Socialism in Germany), as so many people wish to believe, a capitalist reaction against the advance of socialism. On the contrary, the support which brought these ideas to power came precisely form the socialist camp. It was certainly not through the bourgeoisie, but rather through the absence of a strong bourgeoisie, that they were helped to power.
- Chapter Eleven “The Socialist Roots of Nazism”
My Two Cents: There is nothing more dangerous than a society where a vibrant middle class is destroyed. This is happening in America right now and is far and away the most concerning thing I see. Obama’s polices, intentionally or unintentionally are consolidating power and wealth into a small elite of government officials and corporate oligarchs that want to run your life.
“Conservative Socialism” (and, in other circles, “Religious Socialism”) was the slogan under which a large number of writers prepared the atmosphere in which “National Socialism” succeeded.
- Chapter Eleven “The Socialist Roots of Nazism”
My Two Cents: George W’s “Compassionate Conservatism” comes to mind. There was nothing compassionate or conservative about it. That administration ran America like a bunch of thugs using the “war on terror” as a cover. Unfortunately, Obama is doing the same thing.
In past ages intellectuals engaged in a disinterested search for universal truths; they searched for ideals that transcended the need of the state or society in which they lived. In recent times, however, intellectuals have become more and more the handmaiden of political and national causes. As a result of this betrayal of the intellectuals, extremist political passions had recently become more universal, coherent, continuous, and preponderant.
- Quote by Julien Benda from her book La Trahison des Clercs used by Hayek in Chapter Twelve “The Totalitarians in our Midst”
My Two Cents: This is a total tragedy and has clearly accelerated in modern times.
The impetus of the movement toward totalitarianism comes mainly from the two great vested interests: organized capital and organized labor. Probably the greatest menace of all is the fact that the policies these two most powerful groups point in the same direction.
- Chapter Twelve “The Totalitarians in our Midst”
My Two Cents: Obvious parallel to today. Look who has benefited the most under Obama. The elite use a divide and conquer strategy to keep the serfs bickering on issues away from the big picture. The truth of the matter is much of big business (especially the large banks) and big unions are so corrupt they are both the enemy of the middle class. We must step out of the left-right paradigm and see who is really screwing us!
The movement is, of course, deliberately planned mainly by the capitalist organizers of monopolies, and they are thus one of the main sources of this danger. Their responsibility is not altered by the fact that their aim is not a totalitarian system but rather a sort of corporative society in which the organized industries would appear as semi-independent and self-governing “estates…”But while the entrepreneurs may well see their expectations borne out during a transition stage, it will not be long before they will find, as their German colleagues did, that they are no longer masters but will in every respect have to be satisfied with whatever power and emoluments the government will concede them.
- Chapter Twelve “The Totalitarians in our Midst”
My Two Cents: The big banks and many of our corporate leaders (Warren Buffett in particular comes to mind. He is such a good actor he should win an Oscar) sold us out to “team up” with a corrupt government in the aftermath of the financial crisis. They think they will be “winners” with the government. I have my doubts. When this thing collapses and the administration needs a scapegoat they will go down and in an epic fashion.
But if the place of the opposition, in public discussion as well as in Parliament, should become lastingly the monopoly of a second reactionary party, there would, indeed, be no hope left.
- Chapter Twelve “The Totalitarians in our Midst”
My Two Cents: This is precisely what we have today with the Republican and Democratic fake choice system. We are offered coke or pepsi. We must stand up and say neither. We want the Constitution.
Though it is natural that, as the world around us becomes more complex, our resistance grows against the forces which, without our understanding them, constantly interfere with individual hopes and plans, it is just in these circumstances that it becomes less and less possible for anyone to fully understand these forces…But they are mistaken when they carry the comparison further to argue that we must learn to master the forces of society in the same manner in which we have learned to master the forces of nature, This is not only the path to totalitarianism but the path to the destruction of our civilization and a certain way to block further progress. Those who demand it show by their very demands that they have not yet comprehended the extent to which the mere preservation of what we have so far achieved depends on the coordination of individual efforts by impersonal forces.
- Chapter Thirteen “Material Conditions and Ideal Ends”
We must now return to the crucial point –that individual freedom cannot be reconciled with the supremacy of one single purpose to which the whole society must be entirely and permanently subordinated. The only exception to the rule that a free society must not be subjugated to a single purpose is war and other temporary disasters when subordination of almost everything to the immediate and pressing need is the price at which we preserve our freedom in the long run.
- Chapter Thirteen “Material Conditions and Ideal Ends”
My Two Cents: His observation about war is extremely important. Our leaders understand this. This is why we have been sold a never-ending “war on terror.” That way you can always be reminded we are at war so you have to give up this right and that right because someone went on a plane with a firecracker in his underwear. If someone wants to blow something up they will find a way. We can’t let fear take us over so much that the government can just poke and prod us like animals everywhere we go. Freedom in the number one priority in my opinion.
As the glib phase runs, it must be accomplished “at any price.” It is, in fact, in this field (the reduction of unemployment) that the fascination of vague but popular phrases like “full employment” may well lead to extremely shortsighted measures, and where the categorical and irresponsible “it must be done at all cost” of the single-minded idealist is likely to do the greatest harm.
- Chapter Thirteen “Material Conditions and Ideal Ends”
My Two Cents: Amazing that he used these exact phrases that you now hear so often from the administration and its minions. These phrases are not new and we must understand that as well as the dangers those that use them pose to us.
It should never be forgotten that the one decisive factor in the rise of totalitarianism on the Continent, which is yet absent in England and America, is the existence of a large recently dispossessed middle class.
- Chapter Thirteen “Material Conditions and Ideal Ends”
Outside the sphere of individual responsibility there is neither goodness nor badness, neither opportunity for moral merit nor the chance of proving one’s desires to what one thinks right…A movement whose main promise is the relief from responsibility cannot but be anti-moral in its effect, however lofty the ideals to which it owes its birth.
- Chapter Thirteen “Material Conditions and Ideal Ends”
My Two Cents: Morals only exists with the freedom to make such choices. If the government imposes morals and makes the whole of humanity acts in a way the rulers deem “moral” there are no morals and the concept is dead.
It is one of the most fatal illusions that, by substituting negotiations between states or organized groups for competition for markets or for raw materials, international friction would be reduced. This would merely put a contest of force in the place of what can only metaphorically be called the “struggle” of competition and would transfer to powerful and armed states, subject to no superior law, the rivalries which between individuals had to be decided without recourse to force.
- Chapter Fourteen “The Prospects of International Order”
My Two Cents: Such an amazing quote. This is precisely why we face a major war right now. Too much power is concentrated at the top and when the elites of one nation sell out the elites of another nation which always happens at times like this, they start a war. The elites don’t suffer the people do. Let’s not let them do this to us.
But one has only to visualize the problems raised by economic planning of even an area such as western Europe to see that the moral bases for such an undertaking are completely lacking.
- Chapter Fourteen “The Prospects of International Order”
My Two Cents: Western Europe would have been difficult enough! I can’t help but think of the Euro. What an absurd concept it was. Be aware that the elite would like to use this crisis to bring in a global currency managed by a global central bank. You thought the euro was bad. This is would be the end of all economic and individual freedom on a global scale. SDRs are just another fiat scam joke. We must never ever agree to it.
If most people are not willing to see the difficulty, this is mainly because, consciously or unconsciously, they assume that it will be they who will settle these questions for others, and because they are convinced of their own capacity to do this justly and equitably.
- Chapter Fourteen “The Prospects of International Order”
My Two Cents: The most dangerous people are those that think they “know best.” This attitude is the DNA of dictators.
Planning on an international scale, even more than is true on a national scale, cannot be anything but a naked rule of force, an imposition by a small group on all the rest of that sort of standard and employment which the planners think suitable for the rest.
- Chapter Fourteen “The Prospects of International Order”
What these dangerous idealists do not see is that where the assumption of a moral responsibility involves that one’s moral views should by force be made to prevail over those dominant in other communities, the assumption of such responsibility may place one in a position in which it becomes impossible to act morally.
- Chapter Fourteen “The Prospects of International Order”
My Two Cents: This is the ultimate contradiction of the idealistic planners. Their good intentions end up creating the highest of degrees of human suffering.
It is significant that the most passionate advocates of a centrally directed economic New Order for Europe should display, like their Fabian and German prototypes, the most complete disregard for of the individuality and of the rights of small nations.
- Chapter Fourteen “The Prospects of International Order”
My Two Cents: Any leader that talks of a “New Order” must be seen as potentially very dangerous. It was used by Hitler and others often back in Hayek’s days.
We shall all be gainers if we can create a world fit for small states to live in.
- Chapter Fourteen “The Prospects of International Order”
Neither an omnipotent superstate nor a loose association of “free nations” but a community of free men must be our goal.
- Chapter Fourteen “The Prospects of International Order”
Have a great long weekend,
Mike
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You remind me of a thoroughbred racehorse. Thoroughbred racehorses perform with maximum exertion, which has resulted in high rates of accidents and other health problems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoroughbred
I will spend a few minutes on history with you, but after this, you must find your own way.
Liberty: The citizens held the power in early Sumerian cities. Decisions were made in an assembly.
Slaves: Slavery was an accepted part of life in Sumer and slaves were the lowest in the caste system. A person could find themselves a slave for several reasons, such as prisoners of war, debt, or born into slavery. Husbands could also sell their wives into slavery and parents could sell their children into slavery. Slaves did hold a few rights. They could borrow money, own property, engage in trade, serve as a witness in a legal matter, and buy their freedom. A slave who purchased their freedom or was freed by their owner could not be forced back into slavery. The slave class did not appear to hold any particular negative social stigma with Sumerian citizens. They held the belief that a person who found their self a slave did so out of misfortune rather than any fault of their own.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:SAaUW9xvJcoJ:www.sarissa.org/sumer/sumer_s.php+Sumer+property+rights+slavery&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk
Property Rights: In fact the Sumerian judges scrupulously guarded property rights of individuals.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hZOwPdNkploJ:www.virtualsecrets.com/sumerian.html+Sumer+property+rights&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk
Land Grabbing:
Sumerian kings sent men out to plunder people in hill country, and they acquired slaves. The Sumerian name for a female slave was mountain girl, and a male slave was called mountain man. The Sumerians used their slaves mainly as domestics and concubines. And they justified their slavery as would others: that their gods had given them victory over an inferior people.
As Sumerian cities grew in population and expanded, the swamps that insulated city from city disappeared. Sumerians from different cities were unable or unwilling to resolve their conflicts over land and the availability of water, and wars between cities erupted -- wars the Sumerians saw as between their gods. And the Sumerians made slaves of other Sumerians they had captured.
It was a new kind of warfare. In herding and hunter-gatherer societies -- mobile societies -- the entire community might enter the field of battle. In settled agricultural communities such as those of the Sumerians, the younger and stronger, maybe fourth or fifth of society, went to war. The others remained at home, working at farming or other chores.
Some people associate Uruk with the city commonly spelled Ereck in the Book of Genesis 10:10
Wars with distant people were fueled by the greed and ambitions of kings. The Sumerians described this in a poetic tale of conflict between the king of Uruk [note] and the distant town of Arrata. It was a tale written by a Sumerian some five hundred years after the event, a tale of which only fragments remain. Here was reporting as it would be for more than 3,000 years, as it would be with Homer and his Iliad, the sacred writings of Hindus and with the Old Testament, with gods in command and not disapproving of war.
Among the Sumerian cities was an impulse to be supreme, and, around 2800 BCE, Kish had become the first of the cities to dominate the whole of Sumer. Then Kish's supremacy was challenged by the city of Lagash, which launched a bloody conquest against its Sumerian neighbors and extended its power beyond Sumerian lands. A bas-relief sculpture uncovered by archaeologists depicts a king of Lagash celebrating his victory over the city of Umma, the king's soldiers, with helmets, shields and pikes, standing shoulder to shoulder and line behind line over the corpses of their defeated enemy.
DissentCivilized societies had more diversity in opinion than existed in the less populous societies of hunter-gatherers. And civilized societies had dissent -- something authoritarians would never be able to extinguish. Sumerians complained. A Sumerian complained in writing that he was a "thoroughbred steed" but was drawing a cart carrying "reeds and stubble." Another complained of the futility of wars of aggression, writing "You go and carry off the enemy's land; the enemy comes and carries off your land."
Rather than docility, people in the city of Lagash instigated history's first recorded revolt. This came after Lagash's rulers had increased local taxes and restricted personal freedoms. Lagash's bureaucrats had grown in wealth. The people of Lagash resented this enough that they overthrew their king -- probably believing that they were acting in accordance with the wishes of the gods. They brought to power a god-fearing ruler named Urukagina, who eliminated excessive taxation and rid the city of usurers, thieves and murderers -- the first known reforms.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:izWoFAj4dE0J:www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch01.htm+Sumer+war&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk
them cycles, they've been spinning for quite awhile for sure. nice to have you around lazarus bob.
thanks. good to be here.
oh, I forgot. Checkmate.
Checkmate?
How so?
I dont think you read well the first comment.
I asked what the US added to the world. Duplicity?
Of course, Sumer had slaves. But where is the duplicity when slavery is admitted and recognized?
For a proof of duplicity, you have to provide an evidence that Sumer preached for liberty (on similar terms as the US, please refer to the Declaration of Independence) because a civilization preaching slavery and practizing slavery is not duplicious.
The very same for private property rights. Find me a Sumer text claiming that outsiders were entitled to private property based on their humanity, an condition equally shared by anyone on Earth and not that Sumers were entitled to private property rights.
As soon as you fail, please feel free to provide those other examples you are bestowed on thanks to your knowledge of human nature.
I must sell that knowledge very high.
I have no doubt about that. A Fed like business. Selling what you dont have.
I told at the start that I would unlikely learn about human nature but that I would most likely learn about you.
The legacy of the US will then be duplicity. This is the only thing the US has added to the history of societies.
ziyou
Mmmm, let's see....
Rome, China, Persia, Greece, Germany, Russia, Italy, Egypt, the Aztecs, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, the Incas, Japan, the Ottomans, the Holy Roman Empire (Charlemagne), Mohamed's Arabia, Greater Mongolia, the Hun Empire.
Yeh, yer right, hardly any other political empire practiced duplicity, slavery, and land grabbing.
The U.S. invented, patented, and holds a monopoly on duplicity. (Note: you cannot use the word "duplicity" without the prior consent of the (evil) American Empire.)
We must all at once stop identifying ourselves as Democrats and Republicans. The elites use these definitions as part of a divide and conquer strategy.
The differences between the parties are biological-not political.
We must all at once stop identifying ourselves as Democrats and Republicans. The elites use these definitions as part of a divide and conquer strategy.
The differences between the parties are biological-not political.
Come again?
The primary cause of the rage of so many middle-class Americans is this childish sense of these very people as "what made this country great." What made US great was just great reserves of oil iron copper farmland, which reserves were developed with British capital just as any other British colony de facto or de iure. A false estimation of one's value when conflicted with a true estimate is a cause of great rage, and Americans will continue to be enraged as long as they continue to falsely estimate themselves to be "special".
Come on Coggy
didn't your mother tell you - you're special...
I think most Middle Class Americans are pissed about the failure of leadership.
Why didn't Obama belly up to the bar and "own" the BP blow-out fiasco; why not do the right thing, for the country, not sit back like Foghorn Leghorn scratching for worms.
After fiat fails, g-strings will be modified to accept silver eagles..and so the rest of society will follow. Gold, Silver and Hot Tits 3 things that never lose their value.
In order to avoid a fate, you must proffer another. Merely resisting centralised economic and political entrappment is like trying to clap with one hand. I think wepollock channel youtube, buckminster, 'critical path' book has interesting views also. This is a period of steep-curve self realisation for this species.
Peace
Are you zerohedgers so dumbed down by your education that you embrace a democratic, positively enumerated list of privileges as a dumbed down system of governance for plebs?
Is there no virtue and intelligence left in this country that we must submit to the greatest level of control into the lives of individuals in the body politic?
Not dumbed down but confident enough they are going to be bailed out of their poor decision because of the strength of their group.
This is what they save them.
Just finished Atlas Shrugged, an excellent book. It makes it crystal clear why capitalism is boss, and why Socialism sucks! If you kill the providers, the looters and moochers perish.
"Get your money into real assets and get prepared so that you are not destitute when it comes time to stand up and rebuild. We can make this world a better place but it’s not going to be easy."
We have two chaplains in our green movement, a pastor and his wife. She told me of a dream where she saw people going back to making wood soled shoes, like it was in the 1920's (where we live, in the Caribbean), because of the money/supply shortages and the debris everywhere.
Lots of people know there is something wrong with the food prices but don't want to go through the effort and learning curve of growing and caretaking a garden. I do not teach gardening as part of our educational work--I teach short workshops in basic seed germination. Still, it is very hard to get the younger ones interested. It's going to be awful.
My suggestion: 1)buy several pairs of workboots and gloves; stash and protect them from mold. 2)learn how to sharpen hand tools with files and stones. 3)start buying files and oilstones. A 50/50 blend of kerosene & #30 motor oil does the same job as expensive, store bought honing oils.
This is the smartest post on this whole thread. Gold is for buying your way out of the city and for those whom manual labor is foriegn. If you've got to learn to garden now, sorry, winter's coming and .... Which leads to guns, which are for stealing from other's gardens. Luck to all.
While were on philosophy- East Indian philosophy states that every country has the leadership and welfare which it deserves (law of karma). Hmmm
Read Footloose in India and you will renounce karma.
The problem is, "Freedom-loving people", are in the minority.
The elite aren't so much imposing collectivism on the masses without their consent, the masses for the most part aren't the freedom-lovers that you presuppose.
THAT may be more what the elites have done through control of the public education system, beginning in about 5th year of a child's existence, one can see how the creativity, innovation, pure joy of discovery that is so captivating in small children, gradually is snuffed out in the succeeding years of indoctrination.
I was first going to comment on Kreiger (hint: I agree) but CHumba's comment on Horowitz made me veer. You are WRONG, IMHO. I understand, your being Palastinian and all, how you might hate, dispise (fill in your own word), Horowitz - a former communist-turned conservative, who fights fir the rights of Isreal. He's been in t he trenches on both sides of the argument. He believes so strongly in his views he's willing to risk his life to spread the word about radical islam. God bless is boldness.
I had to comment and disagree Chumba, b/c you have solid opinions much of the time. Please stick to money matters as your politics makes me not want to read any of your comments.
I believe Chumba is of Jordanian origin, not Palestinian... not the same. At all...
Correction: He's Syrian.
a real CIVILization has no need for government
are we civilized?
as much as i want the collapse of the elites, the Lord of the Flies 5-10 years wont be fun
Hey koaj
Are you sure you don't want to sharpen some wooden sticks, rub yourself in pig's blood, and raid Wall Street ???
Kill the Pig, Bash him in. After the Insanity, slowly comes Sanity ?? N'est pas ?
The Munder Stand Up and Rebuild Fund.
I would agree with the anti democrat / repub sentiment / party affiliation here. I would also say however, that I don't like how some of the tea party movement has allowed themselves to be infiltrated by mainstream political individuals (palin et al) who pretend to be part of the movement when all they wish to do is acquire support or attempt to move support to the existing republican party.
The philosophy should be to find the candidate who best reflects your views regardless of party affiliation, and support that candidate. Republican and Democrat are just labels and too many people focus on the label.
Cronyism is choking the system, killing the will of the people. Financial institutions be damned, the country doesn't belong to financial institutions, it belongs to the people.
If big government isn't reigned in, and there's no sign it will be, the system will not change until this mess collapses under its own weight. There's no acknowledgement in DC that there's a problem, which is typical for those who are part of a problem.
What a great comment. The Country belongs to the people not the Banks. I think the Government, the Congress, the Senate have forgotten who the Country really belongs to.
What a great article about Hayek, whom I've been too lazy to read so far. I fully expect we will learn the lessons our folly in time to prevent our degenerating into National Socialism. This is not Europe. Lincoln nailed it, "last best hope..."
"...If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election.
Whether we believe in our capacity for self government, or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite, in a far distant capitol, can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well, I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There's only an up or down. Man's age old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course."
-- Ronald Reagan, in his great speech titled "A Time for Choosing", delivered while stumping for Barry Goldwater on Oct. 27, 1964
The problem with your thinking is the belief that we are individuals with free will. Very few people have thoughts that were not programmed from birth. Our fellow men are the Black Magicians and have chained us to our current thoughts and feelings. Everything we know about the world at large was taught to us by our fellow man.
If one ponders the universe at large, and a little closer to home our galaxy and our solar system, one can see that we are already part of a colectivist system.
Our planet revolves around the sun, while the sun and the solar system resides in one of the arms of the Milky Way Galaxy which itself is revolving around the center of the Galaxy which contains a super-massive black hole.
Within the Universe itself, galaxies cluster together in a structure that resembles a spider web framework.
Closer to home, gravity forces us to collect on the surface of the Earth to live out our lives. Gravity also keeps the atmosphere we need to breath from floating out into the vacuum of space.
On the National Geographic channel an experiment was conducted by an astronaut in space above Earth on the Space Shuttle whereby grains of sand, rice, or other small particles were placed in a medium sized plastic bag. The bag was shaken to spread the individual particles apart. The small particles then started to accrete naturally or collect together to form a larger whole without any interference from the astronaut. The show was about how the solar system started and how the planets formed.
People naturally tend to collect or form groups of like minded people. You have all types of like minded people forming political parties, motorcycle clubs, beading clubs, social clubs, beer drinking clubs, child pedophile clubs (see NAMBLA), homeowners associations, eco-terrorists, and any other form of social interaction where like minded people collect together to interact and talk about what they believe in as long as it conforms to the current collectivist groupthink of the group at large.
People also like to collect together to form couples, familes, towns, cities, and nations.
In fact, ZH is a form of collectivisation where Tyler and Marla centralize a lot of the discourse and the content of the website and like minded people collect to vent, rage, tell jokes, pass along information, and occassionally shank each other.
My main point is that collectivistaion is a natural force prevalent in the Universe. Collectivisation is not always evil, as the citizens of the US working together to make their country a place where people can live in liberty and material comfort, as opposed to what's happening in North Korea.
Obviously governments and groups can go to far as in the case of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Ill, Fidel, Chavez, Obama, and all the rest of the ilk that enjoy oppressing their fellow human beings through overt contol of their actions and beliefs. And, that is why the peasants need to arise every once in a while and remind the elites that they are not gods but mortals like the rest of us.
As Jefferson liked to say, "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
+1. If the SHTF, the first thing you'll need are the people around you. Your profile pic, coupled with your reasoned comments, make for a fantastic oxymoron. Bravo!
Interesting post, but dangerous. You blur the line which was made very clear above.
Yes. We are at that point. And those among us that believe intellectual collectivism is a good thing will vote. Those that do not will boycott. Voting is consent to be governed. I no longer consent to be governed by DC and their paid cheerleaders on the local level.
The time for politics is over. There is no peaceful solution as evidenced by daily massacres in the Sandbox Warz. Yes troops will shoot their own, lawfully resisting citizens. It has happened before. It will happen again.
Ask this guy which Amendment should have been exercised:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A0n2qMxf0c
We'll see plenty more of it until fellow citizens come to each other's aid. Wonder will it will start first.
One person, one vote. Scares the elites the most.
So Boll Weevil
My personal, selfish philosophy is Government (the Collective) provides the minimum necessary in infastructure and security, then it gets the hell out of the way.
Large Corporations, including banks (of any description), and their combined subsidiaries, direct or indirect, cannot become greater than 1/4 of 1 percent of GDP, otherwise smash them up with a sledge hammer.
I don't know if Jefferson or any of the Founding Fathers could have envisaged that Corporations would have the same inalienable rights as flesh and blood people, or that political contributions and lobbyists would sit like an armed camp at the nations capital, but I think if they could see this nation now, they would weep.
good on ya.
No! Bad Krieger!
Our 700+ year experiment with freedom and market economics was a total failure. We need to admit it and return to the protection and surety of our feudal lords and masters. Don't fight it, it will only make things worse.
700+ year experiment with freedom and market economics? Started when? Where?
Perhaps with the Magna Carta:
Magna Carta is normally understood to refer to a single document, that of 1215. Various amended versions of Magna Carta appeared in subsequent years however, and it is the 1297 version which remains on the statute books of England and Wales.
English based propaganda. But in this case, freedom started much before than 700+ years ago.
You depicted a society of peers where peers agree on rules of internal organization. Primitive men had this.
Well now AnAnon...
"Primitive men" ^agreed^ on rules of internal organization. Huh, what ??
Where's your proof- as you have asked others...
I suggest to you- any "agreement" of Primitive Man was determined at the end of a club. Thirst, a hungry belly, of the enticing legs of Olga the Primitive Woman, was not settled by the rules of etiquette. Just my (humble) opinion.
Getting to know ya, getting to know all about ya, gosh I love that song.
Goodnite- got ta get back to Primitive Woman (hope she shaved her legs).
Stop being so bloody serious. ZH is a lite intellectual spritzer...
Magna Carta was written in Latin by Normans for Norman, as Celts and Saxons couldn't read; thereby Norman masters codified rights among themselves--Norman nobles and the Norman king; thus Magna Carta is a Norman/Roman document and not an English one.
Totally agree, the Horowitz experience is endowed with true insight and little dogma. Some might be better to observe a little more oftwn and prattle on less.
F.A. Hayek was truly ahead of his time. He foreshadowed Godwin's Law long before it was formulated.
Not thinking of us in terms of "Democrat" and "Republican"...for sure. Neither party has the political will to derail the gravy train of unaffordable entitlements (which will happen regardless) nor will they bite the hands that feed them, namely "organized capital" and "organized labor" as Hayek put it. The only difference between the two parties is the speed at which we will drive off the cliff.
"Right" vs. "Left", however? Maybe the terms are inadequate, but we're talking about those who want to return to a free market with enforcement of the constitution vs. those who want a command and control economy (but somehow retain personal freedoms). I prefer the terms "free-marketers" vs. "crybabies".
I was hoping I didn't have to point this out (again) on a thread, but here goes:
In a democracy, you have the "tyranny of the masses", the democrats alledgedly represent the interest of the masses. On the other hand, you have a party that should protect the wealth (private property) of individuals against the "tyranny of the masses." Communism in one extreme, Fascism on the other.
We live in a republic that historically has done a pretty good job balancing these two interests, protecting private property from the masses, and the masses from getting trampled on by the wealthy.
That being said, the wealthy do not want free markets, never have and never will.
The Indians were indeed offer nice protection from the masses.
All these US citizens unable to accept their past and relish on a fabled past.
Bear with it, the land grabbing was instrumental in the developpment of the US. Extorting the weak, farming the poor works.
Problem is that now, as the usual suspects are already yielding as much, the crowd needs to be enlarged and some US citizens who are now tossed out of the bowl do not like it.
I believe you are referring to the shrinking middle class. Some people in the middle class think they are wealthy. Compared to those in poverty they are, compared to the elite... it's definitely a mind-fuck. The trick seems to be toget the middle class to cannibalize itself...
In modern democracy is there not an alignment of private propery rights and wealth with the masses? Don't you believe the democratic masses want these rights protected by elcted officials that work for them, not communists dictators, or oligarchial/bank fascists? I understand your point from an early democratic developed society point of view, but not today. People in the US will vote out the fascists as they have already started to do; this is what a real democratic society needs to do to survive, and survival is the strongest instinct
It is a simple game theory. If everyone is voting in their own interests then you simply take the total wealth of the nation and divide it by the population. If the rules of the game are fair and everyone has equal say and access to information, then you couldn't not have different results in a democracy. That's why we don't have one.
Thanks for the civics lesson professor pan.
I've read RTS, a great work, but stopped reading your piece right after you revealed your naivete and ignorance with
"Bush and Obama seem pretty similar to me anyway. Two thugs."
In a truly free market economy without any safety net whatsoever it would become painfully obvious that a good number of individuals have nothing of value to share with society in exchange for consideration. They cannot earn enough to cover the cost of basic subsistence. They can beg, turn to crime, or die. The social net is not only about helping people who temporarily need assistance in hard times. It is also a mechanism to mitigate the social consequences of having people who by their very nature are free riders and will always be no matter what. The question of welfare that all States must ask themselves is how high or low must be placed the bar? Although the question is kind of moot now for the U.S.
As it relates to the Road to Serfdom it seems to be that it is America's descent into CORPORATE welfare that is driving it straight into the hands of fascists and not it's relatively meagre social spending relative to places like Canada or Scandinavia which are doing quite well these days... they won't be immune to the Coming Unpleasantness.. there will be nowhere to hide from that...but they are less likely to break down into total anarchy which is what I fear most for the U.S. Could you imagine a Bangkok style police action to disperse oil-covered, hurricane-battered Southerners rioting as they realize that they are incontrovertibly fucked for life? I wouldn't rule out spontaneous rioting in several U.S. cities the minute innocent people are "accidentaly" shot by police or national guard. The 60s civil rights riots were nothing but a dressed rehearsal for what's to come.
The "social net" is theft from the producers at the end of a gun in order to placate the non-producers, or "free riders" as you call them. And your apparent solution is to make sure this arrangement stays in tact, because the free riders will always exist. Does that not seem completely bass-ackwards to you? That because a portion of the population is content being useless, and may become violent if they are not cared for, we should then make sure we appease them? If this is your logic, I demand you send me all of your monies, or I may become violent with you. I question, also, your logic that these free riders will always exist no matter what. I would posit that they only exist because we encourage them do so, by paying them according to their uselessness.
I also take issue with your assertion that the larger the welfare state, the less pain the citizenry will feel in the coming collapse. Indeed, it is quite the opposite. Imagine, if you will, a thoroughly anesthetized population that is cared for from cradle to grave having the rug pulled out from under them during an economic collapse. No more government cheese, no weekly checks, no nothing that they can't produce on their own. Talk about a perfect recipe for complete chaos. Witness the Greek population's response to a meager increase in the age of government-subsidized retirement. "ROAR. SET BANKS ON FIRE. BURN POLICEMAN WITH FIREBOMBS." Wtf mate?
I do agree, however, that regardless the State in question we are in for some "interesting" times that should make any previous civil unrest pale in comparison.
The police, the fire department, the army.. these exist to deal with problems of collective action. Everytime someone cuts in line the entire line behind him must wait longer before getting to the booth. If everyone tries to cut in line simultaneously you get a cluster fuck. Without rules, regulations and some redistribution of wealth what you end up with is a bunch of crabs in a bucket pulling each other down as each individual crab tries to escape the bucket and find liberty... of course this fails and the entire bucket gets tossed into a boiling pot and eaten.
People don't care so much about the absolute value of their wealth. What they care about is their wealth relative to those around them. The failure of America, and the U.K. which adopted forms of Reaganomics under Thatcher, is the the gap between rich and poor has gotten so vast that political instability is assured and collapse a distinct possibility. You've pushed the envelope too far. Again I will repeat that it is the descent into CORPORATE Welfare that is necessitating an increase in expenditure on social welfare. There are no jobs to be had because your government wasted their crisis and instead of breaking up the banks and unwinding their toxic balance sheets decided to bail out the banks on the backs of who knows how many generations. Of course the Oligarchs would like nothing more than to turn around and use this opportunity to destroy what meagre safety net America has left from the New Deal in the name of Austerity, if only to ensure that they get their 100 cents on the dollar that they foolishly lent out to those they KNEW could never hope to repay.
It is all very cynical as Wall Street and Washington have been operating as a proto-fascist regime for some time now. A regime whose sole interest has been to preserve the power and dominance of monopolies across all industries via indiscrimanate deregulation and poor administration of regulation where it was allowed to persist. All you have now are a handful of giant media firms, giant Internet firms, giant Finance firms, giant Agricultural firms, giant Entertainment firms and worst of all giant RETAIL firms.
It struck me the other day how driving through the most recent residential developments, here in Canada, was depressing for its uniformity of boxstore architechture with all the SAME BRANDS I see in every other North American city pasted on the walls like SLOGANS from some Authoritarian state. We imported this from the U.S. and it pains me that we have. For whichever city you go to it's the SAME THING. Everything is identical. The forces of Globalization have unified standards in the name of production and distribution efficency. I used to support globalization. And while I still believe in the underlying principle of comparative advantage and pareto efficiency, the West has allowed this to go too far. This is not freedom. Is it worth having $15 toasters and $20 pants in the same store at the expense of a vibrant sense of community? These mega boxstore communities are what a world driven by credit looks like.
America, with the U.K., has amongst the lowest levels of social mobility in the free world. This means that if you are born poor you are likely to die poor. This is the very antithesis of the American Dream.. In countries with single payer health systems and state subsidized education individuals are freed from the burdens of having to worry about these things on a daily basis. They are free to pursue their innate interests as opposed to subverting them to economic necessity.
This may seem completely Satanic to Americans but the Canadian system has "have" and "have not" provinces. Alberta at the moment is our flaghsip "have" province and she subsidizes the likes of Quebec and...Ontario.. which was a "have" province until the automobile insurance imploded in 2008. Newfoundland used to be a "have not" province but then discovered oil..and started paying back into the system.
The system is far from perfect and induces much hair pulling between jurisdictions. But our country is founded on the principals of "Peace, order and good government". It certainly lacks the guns a'blazzin' bravado of "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" but we generally do have good government. We believe that opportunity rises from equality of access. In America you say that all men are born equal which is true.. All men and women are born naked and helpless.. and you seem to leave at that. In Canada we believe that equality can only be achieved through the collective action of giving access to health and education through the redistribution of taxes. The American policy of extending opportunity through the generosity of credit creation has wrought nothing but the inflation of education and health costs while simultaneously eroding the quality thereof.
There is one thing I would like to point out and it is not generally discussed here. It is very easy for Canadians to be smug about sitting pretty during this mounting financial crisis.. That undefended border we share? Who's faith is being tested there? Our military sovereignty is tacitly backed up by a promise of a U.S. military bailout should we be faced with invasion...unless of course America is the one invading.
The points you made me think that there is Welfare at the top. Banks, AIG, FRE, FNM, GM, etc. And Welfare at the Bottom. Welfare, Food Stamps, Section 8 Housing.
Seems like the only people left out of the Welfare and are paying for all of it is the Middle Class.
Interesting.
Excellent observations on the nature of globalisation but I can't help but disagree with your views on the extremely imperfect Canadian system.
Equality of access? Where? Inequality is built into the very structure of our democracy. We have no proportionate representation. In our "first past the post" system a vote in Ottawa counts for more than a vote from Alberta. Our universal healthcare is, at a minimum, a 4 tier system (politicians/celebrities/hockey players/people in the medical profession, the rich who can afford to seek private care internationally, people who know people in the medical profession, and everybody else). The healthcare system does not, and can never, run in the black and any cost reduction initiatives threaten the livelihood of governments attempting those reforms. We still house our Natives in "Reserves" where we subsidize self-destructive lifestyles with all the cheap drugs they need (cigarettes and alcohol aren't subject to the massive sin taxes as outside the reserve, and crime is so rampant on them you can get all the other drugs no problem). When you say "They are free to pursue their innate interests as opposed to subverting them to economic necessity," are you counting only affluent white people? Are you even counting or just advancing a fallacious theory? Government provided education and healthcare does precious little to free our lower class from the shackles of economic necessity when their marginal rate of taxation still binds them to their class.
Oh, we have our peace alright. At the expense of everyone under the boot of the American Military-Industrial complex, and we have our order in the demonstrated acceptance of the imposition of martial law (for those that are curious, wikipedia "October Crisis"). And while our government may be more "sane" than the one in America it still commits the same follies, just on a smaller scale. The pension system is destined to implode, and the equalization payment structure you refer to can be built up on the backs of the "have" provinces only until we deplete the non-renewable resources located within their borders that are abundant enough and cheap enough to export abroad. We're following the US housing playbook to a tee and our Central Bank dances to the beat of the Fed.
Where do you see "good" government? Intentions are all well and good but the people who need this "equality of access" you espouse have no voice and the people who do don't care. It suffers from the same flaws as governments everywhere else.
All your points are valid. Our system is far from perfect. But, without going into detail, I would argue that our system is more egalitarian than the U.S. one. And yes I will concede that I was referring mostly to middle class Canadians, a class which includes more than it's fair share of non-whites might I remind you. Affluence in Canada is certainly not limited to caucasians.. far from it.. Been to Vancouver,Toronto or Montreal lately where more than half the population is non-caucasian? Maybe Alberta is all affluent whites and poor natives. I couldn't tell you as I haven't been there recently. The Native situation is also quite variable across the nation. In and around Montreal natives are quite affluent (the contraband tobacco trade and reserve casinos certainly help). As you move North and West the situation is quite different. I agree that there is MUCH progress to be made here.
As for the October Crisis...bombs were going off in mailboxes and a politician was kidnapped and murdered. Neither of which have occurred since.
Our government if far form the worst example of how to govern a country. Some systems are far less imperfect than others.
In Canada, half the population works, the other half suck the collective teat.
The problem with the U.S. invading Canada is the working half would welcome them and the chattering, teat sucking class would say bad things about them. You know- hurt their feelings and all...
The U.S. doesn't need another lazy, dope enamored bunch of left wing whiners to look after.
Perhaps not but you'll need our fresh water and you'll need our gooey tar sands so chances are there will be some sort of political clash between us. BTW unemployment in April in Canada was 8.1% compared to 9.9% in America.. No doubt the stats are measured differently but I believe it is fair to assume that the U.S. figures far understate the reality when you consider that for people who earn under $22 000 in the U.S. the unemployment rate is closer to 30%... We can look after ourselves thank you very much. And the dope here by the way is FANTASTIC!
Not only that, but you have Universal healthcare. Our 'Socialist' president passed a private tax for the insurance industry. (Government handouts to business is only bad when a democrat does it.) I suspect that Canada will be overrun with US refugees sooner than later, I might be one of them.
"If you guarantee to some a fixed part of a variable cake, the share left to the rest is bound to fluctuate proportionately more than the size of the whole. And the essential element of security which the competitive system offers, the great variety of opportunities, is more and more reduced." This statement encompasses the moral dilemna of the upcoming politcal clash between the growing public section of workers plus the bankers and the military industrialists against private small to mid size businesses.
What utter rubbish is printed on these pages--
negative rights, free market capitalism, command and control economies combined with personal freedom?
Are you so dumbed down in your education that you are ready to embrace a dumbed down, corrupt, high control form of governance over individual actions in the body politic?
Is there no virtue and intelligence left to know the difference?
By "command and control economies combined with personal freedom", I am referring to those who want to enjoy personal freedoms while demanding government interference with all levels of the economy and/or the environment (i.e. leftists). This combination is, of course, ridiculous and mutually exclusive. Almost as ridiculous as the aging right-winger who rails against high taxes but will be the first to protest against even the smallest cuts in Medicare or Social Security.
It does seem moot though, doesn't it? Especially as governments around the world have decided upon the slow death of currency devaluation and printing to infinity rather than a quick death and reset. Both options result in mass starvation but the first ensures that the beast is the last one to run out of food.
No system works with rampant corruption. But, you cannot place a policeman on every street corner or in the middle of every transaction. The current system suffers more from personal and societal corruption than a design flaw.
Leadership of a generation ago was willing to redisribute enough to ensure we didn't have a permanent underclass and that everybody who wanted it could aspire to social and economic mobiity. That promise is rapidly evaporating and will eventually cause societal stress. Perhaps dire.
The economy is there to serve the populace not an oligarchy. That's everybody. Not just the top 10%. The fact that there is such a disparity signals that something is indeed out of balance and will need rebalancing.
The nail on the Head, my friend, the nail on the Head.
Trust has been (perhaps irretrievably) crushed.
All our politicians, including contemporary Presidents are simply talking heads.
I wonder if Obama senses that he is becoming a caricature of himself. Oh so serious, so pompous about nothing....
Without trust we have nothing....
It all seems ridiculous since there is no money (specie gold/silver) and the western governments have been bankrupt since 1933. If you look at Modern Money Mechanics and the rules of discharge of debt under the Uniform Commercial Code, everybody should Accept for Value and return for discharge and settlement of the account.
In a debt-based monetary system that is what you do: discharge the debt by sending a piece of paper to the lender in the form of a negotiable instrument.
(Slap upside the head for believing money is still silver and gold coin adjudicated under the Common Law.)
A discharge instrument, a discharge instrument, my country for a discharge instrument.
daddy bush was the first president to hail the new world order after hitler made much use of it.....the bush crime syndicate is the 4th reich and it is every bit as powerful as nazi germany....
daddy bush ruled from 1980-2010....he ordered us troops to the middle east under the 9/11 charade....not sure who is taking over bush's position but the obama administration signaled a new leadership - but not by obama who is but a cipher and marionette....
www.ae911truth.org
www.obamacrimes.com