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This is Why Socialism Doesn't Work
By: Chris Tell at http://capitalistexploits.at/
Today's article comes from a gentleman I've yet to meet, even though Mark and I know his brother well. Josh Galt is an extreme athlete who has traveled the world extensively and has built himself a life and lifestyle out of his passions, which in his case entails riverboarding some of the most amazing and dangerous rivers this planet has to offer.
He is a kindred spirit. A man who is driven by creating, learning and doing. I'd like to share with you a post he wrote recently which embodies much of what excites us about some of the rapidly growing economies of the world and opportunities.
You can find out more about Josh on his website. Enjoy!
- Chris
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I met a cute Cambodian girl the other morning as I headed back to my hotel after a run on the beach. We went to breakfast, and she told me she knew a great place to go snorkeling, which was our plan for the day.
She was fun and hot and spoke English, so of course, I told her to come with us! :) I didn't realize she would teach me a profound lesson about what it really means to be a bootstrapping entrepreneur.
When we reached our first destination, she jumped in with me and swam around for a few minutes, but then she headed back to the boat. I figured she was going to be a diva relaxing on the boat the rest of the day, or start complaining about being bored. I quickly saw that I was very, very wrong.
She proceeded to wrap fishing line around an empty water bottle, tie on a small metal hook she got from the boat driver, and then jump back into the water wearing a life jacket for extra flotation. From there, with a dive mask on for vision, she began fishing.
After a while she moved back into the boat, leaning over the edge, hook dangled into the water. Aside from the times I was in the boat or water with her, or when we were moving from island to island, she fished this way all day.
I had told her before we headed out to sea that I had to leave as soon as we got back, returning to the city. So, she caught her own dinner.
But maybe she would have done it anyway, because it's just what survivors do – they survive (and some thrive) by seizing every opportunity that they can grab hold of.
That determination of spirit shines in stark contrast to what has become the prevailing western mindset. She knows there are no handouts. She knows opportunity when it presents itself. And she probably knows real, painful hunger in a way that none of us can imagine.
So she made the most of it. And not in a 'woe-is-me-I-have-to-catch-my-dinner-why-won't-someone-take-care-of-me' way. She laughed and had as much fun all day as I did. With me, and on her own. She'd yell out to me every time she caught a fish, beaming from ear to ear, proud of her success.
I was simply looking at pretty fish, while she was surviving. And yet because it's just a way of life, she was very happy doing it.
The opportunity to do so had presented itself, and she seized it without hesitation.
When we arrived back at the beach, she took her fish to a local restaurant. They traded her some veggies and rice for a couple of her fish, for when she returned later when they'd fry the big one up with it for her dinner. A simple trade – a hot meal for a day's work.
What people in the western world don't understand is that in 3rd world countries, EVERYONE is an entrepreneur, because they have to be! And thankfully, there are few regulations stopping them from being such.
Every house is selling something out front. Every person has something they will offer you or pitch you on the street, to maybe make a few cents, or a whole dollar. If they don't work with what they have, they starve to death. Simple as that.
There are no food stamps to buy steak and lobster. No free Obama phones. No handouts.
There is simply the freedom to hustle. The freedom to use what you have, to get what you can, to make it through another day.
In Asia, people seem to understand this better than most anyplace I've ever been. And that's why I'm staying (along with this). I've said it before, and it bears repeating here:
I would rather live surrounded by the exciting chaos of birth that is Asia, than the struggling chaos of death that is the West.
There is no perfect system or place on our blue planet, so spare me your pious lectures about poverty in the 3rd world until, say, you've fixed your own fucking Detroit.
Because people in the 3rd world are working their way out of it. People under socialist control are not allowed to, and so poverty and crime get worse as economies decline.
In the West, this girl (and the restaurant, the boat driver, me the tourist) would have been in violation of numerous health codes, fishing laws, OSHA standards, tourism permits, and more. Leaving her with only one real choice – dependence on a flawed welfare system.
With freedom, though, she could happily get her hands dirty to catch her dinner while laughing and enjoying life, and become an image of human resolve and the entrepreneurial spirit that I will never forget.
Where there's a will, there's a way... as long as the freedom exists to grab hold of the opportunity to work for it without regulation.
"The entrepreneurial instinct is in you. You can't learn it, you can't buy it, you can't put it in a bottle. It's just there and it comes out." - Alan Sugar
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Straw man fallacy: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/strawman
How does criticising Rand == socialist?
The woman was a textbook female psychopath and an awful writer to boot. Having suffered through her 1084-page pile of literary dog faeces, pooped out of a clearly ill mind, I find her a pretty easy target.
No that does not make me a "commie". My in-laws lived under the USSR and their first-hand descriptions of life during that time provide far more insight than anything I get from Rand (hint: it wasn't ALL bad).
It's possible and logical to take a middle ground between individualism and collectivism, recognising the fact that both extremes terminate violently at the very same point: a small bunch of psychos dominating everything and messing it all up for the rest of us.
"He was being redundant. Socialist and scumbag are the same."
So you used a lame old joke line to reintroduce multiple logical fallacies as your own ad hominem attack for starters. Where is the creating in that.
"Why do you feel you should have the power to take things from me?"
Who are you talking to and/or about? No one said this to you. This may be the first time I have encountered a "straw paranoid hallucination argument", and missing the non-existant the point". "Changing the subject" goes without saying with such a clinically disturbed mindset.
"what makes you think you are bulletproof?"
Where did the bullets come into this?
"What those questions mean is that you are a little tyrant wannabe and you'll get shot if you lay your filthy grubbing hands on my "stuff".
Oh, I see, you are threatening an extrajudicial execution for a paranoid projection escaping from your fevered mind which you have overlaid on me. And, the penalty for stealing your imaginary "stuff" (stuff, which I could care less about and didn't mention) is summary execution by some sort of (hopefully hallucinated) fire arm you own. So, I might ask, why do you think "you have the power to take things (my life) from me" over imaginary “stuff” never mentioned in any of the entire set of comments to this post?
Is it possibly you who seems to be some kind of Tyrant? or more obviously...,
Well, you pretty much aced the paranoid schizophrenic test.
Yup, this is your mind on propaganda.
"It's that simple."
I'm afraid it's not that simple, because this article serves its story with the sunny side up. Ok, while we're chocking on a multitude of restricting regulations, demotivating entitlements and debt as far as the eye can see, this girl is merely sustaining herself, with few or no possibilities for any meaningful advancement in life. Would you trade places with her? I mean this, would you really? Because I not only see personal freedom, but also vulnerability with very little possibilities of protection.
I always like the free spirits who tell us life is so much more enjoyable and liberating in all those faraway places, but that mainly holds true for those westerners who are emigrating with an impressive stack of dollars or euros. If you're Jim Rogers or Marc Faber, then yes, I agree life in the Far East can be quite enjoyable indeed. I have learned these lessons in Paraguay and Tanzania.
So, although I agree with the lesson the writer shares with us, I find his story unfairly one-sided.
I'm posting on Zerohedge because I share most of your concerns: we've gone too far and we'll pay a very heavy price for our stupidity and hedonism. But all is not dreadful over here, as all is not hunky-dory over there. There are parts of my own heritage I'm still very proud off.
Finally the debate has reached a level where you can have a say.
What, this girl had no fishing and business licenses? And how can she trade fish for veggies without a vendor's license? Hope she has a good accountant to insure she pays her appropriate sales city,state, and federal tax on this sale/barter. The story did not include the necessity of the FDA inspecting that fish. These poor third worlders who cannot operate in a FREE MARKET like our own.
"Many still believe in the myth of the free market. They have an ideal situation in mind where everyone will be free from the state suppression and the free market will drive societies and individuals to balance and prosperity. It's just an illusion because in reality the game is more rigged than ever. We are not talking about capitalism, not even neoliberalism. We are talking about the new global, brutal feudalism!"
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/08/the-dominant-elite-ready-to-b...
socialist parasites, eg YOU, are the draain on the earnings of productive successful people, NOt your bogey man the banksters
Banksters are not the bogey man you say. This is only neoliberal propaganda. Banksters are the real parasites as they've been bailed out everywhere with taxpayers' money at the same time societies are sinking to poverty. Wake up.
Yeah, sure. It was that lazy-ass good-for-nothing, bong-smoking Free-Shit Army that would never get to work on time if they ever had a job but they always turned up in significant number to vote!!! And all the politicians were shit-scared of being voted out by the FSA and so they gave the FSA everything they asked for because the FSA always outnumbered hard-working Americans and hard-working Americans never voted in significant number and that is why their desires were always ignored.
It was the bong-smoking FSA that secretly lobbied the government and said, "Give us free telephones right now or else in four years time we will vote for someone else!!!"
And then the FSA diligently formed a lobby group and went to the gummint and sed, "You must force the banks to LEND us moar money so we can buy houses that later get foreclosed and repossessed from us when we don't make repayments or else you'll never see the other side of the next election".
And then the FSA got off their collective asses and demonstrated outside of the White House, chanting, "YOU MUST BAIL OUT THE BANKSTERS SO THEY CAN LEND US MORE MONEY AND PAY THEMSELVES HUGE BONUSES!!! YOU MUST LET THE BANKSTERS KEEP THEIR BONUSES SO THEY CAN LEND US MOAR MONEY!!!"
And the poor little guvmint got shit-scared and gave the FSA everything they asked for because there is nothing as scary as a bunch of bong-smoking FSA losers who get out of the bed at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then go and vote against you. And the poor little hard-working, defenceless banksters had nothing to do with it at all. They sadly took the billions of dollars that was forced onto them and said to each other, "Gee. We're no match for the FSA. I really wish they wouldn't force us to sell them houses and then package up the sub-prime loans into CDOs and CDSs and synthetic CDOs and onsell all that toxic paper to investors and pension funds. And I really wish the FSA would stop forcing the ratings agencies to rate that toxic debt AAA."
Actually, NO. Come back here after you have got yourself an education.
And poor Linda Green sat there, furiously signing pieces of paper as quickly as she could as the angry mobs chanted outside her window: "LEND us some munny! LEND us some munny! LEND us some munny!"
And she whispered to herself in fright, "I sure hope they don't force the banksters to pay themselves huge bonuses with the bailout money! But I suspect it will be okay if the banksters are adequately compensated for the risk that they may have to ask for some more bailout money."
What is it with all these guys who worship a 2000 year old Jewish zombie that walks on water and performs magic tricks? Why do they have to peddle their psychotic delusions here?
1. 'cos a lot of atheist's complaints were addressed earlier in a 2000 year old book.
2. 'cos a lot of other atheists are hell-bent on bringing biblical prophecy to fruition while simultaneously saying, "No we aren't".
You have to be one ultra Christophobe to hate this guy and accuse him of evangelism in this story. Repent! Now you can accuse me . . .
I think the entrepreneurial spirit is still alive in our country, just buried. When challenged, it may rise again.
Several years ago severe rains washed out the private main road to our house and many other families that live on our Mesa. We got everyone to safety but were faced with the dilemma how to fix the damage being not on a county maintained road. Just to do basic work was estimated at 50k, ultimately up to 100k, and all of us could not come up with that kind of cash.
It was amazing to see what followed. Someone had a friend with heavy equipment ( large backhoes and graders) and agreed to lend them to use. Someone found a large used cement culvert he could get cheap. Another found some ground asphalt we could get to reconstruct the road. People with cars on the other side of the washout were driving to town to get supplies to those who had no access. When it was finally completed, it cost 10k.
I met a lot of my neighbors during that time bringing warm coffee and food during the night as the men worked. This disaster has brought us all closer and the government gave us no help whatsoever.
Miffed;-)
Entrepreneurial spirit or community spirit? Explain why.
And no-one explains why. Fair enough, take your time. You'll come up with a better answer that way.
We need a Government like a Goldfish needs a bicycle.
An extreme athlete who is driven by creating--- what did he create, exactly, sweat ?
Dear SAT,
You are a Master of linear thought. Cause and Effect. The lauded state of the Analytical and Rational vs the feared state of Mysterious and Unexplainable from which you run.
The extreme athlete creates the State of Creation by pushing the rational boundaries. Because he finds these boundaries are often rooted in irrationality though guised as Rational.
Miffed;-)
You never replied to my question about Kary Mullen; or whatever his hame is; do you approve of him?
I did reply to you. I assumed you could find the comment on the pertinent thread. I had respect for your intelligence. Perhaps it was misplaced.
Miffed;-)
Oh boy; and you're supposed to be a scientist; are we ever in trouble.
He had me at LBFM
Gee, Josh. You've clearly never had to work for a living. You travel the world playing. You get hard for some girl you've known for a few hours. How exactly does that qualify you to speak about socialism, poverty, Detroit or really anything beyond your trendy North Face clothes?
If there's one type of movies I can't stand is the "American over the world" ones, where there's this American in a foreign country doing whatever. I can't stand them, because like this article, they think they get it but they never do.
Agreed. When I lived in Mexico for six months at a time; I dressed like a Mexican and pretended to not speak English; so i wouldn't be annoyed by these people. (I spoke Mexican, ((not quite spanish)), perfectly at the time, less so now).
Right! I wonder if this guy ever reflected on the fact that Cambodia was a peaceful successful burgeoning country until the US decided to call it a domino and destroyed the fuck out of it. Pol pot?
Cambodia or Vietnam? Hmm...
I've felt the same way, so called third world countries, for the most part seem to allow people to scratch up a living for themselves. The U.S. is working on the worlds largest case of financial constipation. Look out when the plug is removed!
If welfare disappeared, who would vote for liberals, democrats or RINO statists?
Ask Detroiters.
Mises, Rothbard and Hayek wrote that the main problem with socialism, communism by extension, is the problem of "calculation."
I would say that the main problem is the thieves doing, or attempting, the calculation--"One for you, 8 for me..."
But then the west's, especially the DC US', main problem is fraudulent-reserve bankster based crony capitalism, banksterism, not socialism. The banksters and their pol and crat puppets need as many schemes as possible to use as an excuse to create debt and then spend that debt on. Welfare is just one of those schemes.
An American, not US subject.
"The ONLY difference between socialism and the free-market is that under the free market I can fire those that steal from or fail me."
Hello, my name is Oleg. Give me fish you catch or I kill you. You have sister? Cousins? They work for me or I'll kill you. You make money selling trinkets? Give me most of it or I'll kill you.
Fucking morons.
hi Oleg
ever see "Liberty Valance"
we have thing here called 2nd amendment
Oleg best have eyes in front and back of head, and stay awake 24/7
cowboys may ride into town and shoot it up for a few days, but they rarely stayed long or ever took it over, because sooner or later the day of reckoning comes.
Oleg want piece of action? we give him all of action he can handle.
Oleg by himself is no long term threat. Oleg only dangerous when he finds way to take over government and writes laws justifing his thiefts by calling it equality and wealth redistribution, and hides behind an army of politicians, taxmen, police, and soldiers doing his dirty work for him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CQ1oSJXQT8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMQeuR8oGAo
Wrong grammar ! It's just "Fucking moron", without the final "s". It's singular, and applies only to yourself...
I was recently in Thailand; a two hour taxi drive cost $6.00. At the Dunkin' Donuts (free Wi-Fi) the donuts are delivered to your table. I was there for my daughter's surgery, I have no insurance, $40K here, $10K there.
The people there, hustle. The people here wait for their government handout.
oh pssshaw, we hustle down to walmart on the 2nd of every month
Great story >
I have lived this exact same story numerous times in Asia and could not agree more with the conclusions. If government bureaucrats would just get the fuck out of the way, we would all be a lot better off.
they'll stop sucking when we stop paying (taxes)
Nah - in the future "taxes" will be completely unavoidable - besides the real sycophants are sucking the life out of you all regardless of taxes...
Not if you go Galt and above all stand on the side of life and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ that He will deliver you. Only believers on the Lord will be able to resist the mark of the beast. Who will you serve?
1) Have no other gods before me
Where does this leave Geezus?
God wants NO part of whats going on and coming to this planet. Hope is the WORST word in the dictionary as it is always in the future. People 'hoped' about O'golfer in chief, religious folk 'hope' that their god will save them and when he doesn't its always, "We'll this is just gods plan". Time to live in reality folks.
As someone famous once said " You can deny reality all you want but eventually you cant deny the consequences of reality " [hope I got that right]
According to your post you sound like you have several hopes. One hope is that people do not become religious, Chistian specifically. Go join Stalin pulling down churches and see where that gets you.
Christ died for us. He paid the ultimate penalty for our sins. I fear nothing but Him. I am on the side of life, and that includes guns, gold, food, etc., but my trust is in Christ the Savior. This is about eternity.
Yes, the thread has gone far off topic of the orignal article but it not worth the down votes.
Please allow me to submit the following recommended book
http://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Carpenter-Josh-McDowell/dp/1414326270
Here i hope to attract intellectuals who have rejected Christiantiy to take a logical look at the actual historical figure of Jesus and consider the evidence presented in this easy to read book with your own full skepticism intact.
Some have an emotional adversion to Jesus and my encouragement would be to possibly consider the cause for this emotional reaction has more to do with the very real failures of those who have claimed to be Christian, and not with Jesus himself.
Great Lord Awmighty !! I sees the Light !! I is saved; saved, I say; by Jebus, the white ghost in the sky. Thank You Brother !!!
No he didn't. He likely died because he challenged the establishment.
Eternity is you become carbon, to be used or not by some future lie form.
And nothing else.
You and billions of you who refuse to accept this one life, for better or worse, are deluded beyond measure, believing in some fiction to help you get thru life.
But I'll give you this. The music from organized religions is contrapuntal to the havoc, death, genocide, and terrorism they have spawned for millennia.
"He likely died because he challenged the establishment."
Upvote for this.