Keep your hands off my booze
So as I sit here sipping my Bicardi and cola, I have to wonder at the absurdity and--not to put too fine a point on it--wholesale injustice of the fact that the "great" state of North Carolina controls my natural human right to purchase liquor and does so with an iron fist one would expect to be reserved for the most heinous of inhuman acts. How, in the 21st century, do we stand idly by and allow ourselves to be strong-armed by the state in our enjoyment of our spirituous refreshments?
Under the regime of the state of North Carolina, I could be thrown in jail (or killed, if I resist) just for distilling my own special brand of whiskey and attempting to sell it to my neighbors, who are willing buyers. Why do we permit a group of people lacking natural authority over our actions (but claiming for themselves some arbitrary authority granted by nonsensical democracy and social contract theory) to tell us what beverages we can or cannot buy and sell? And why do we (now speaking for the polity as represented by the organized crime cartel known as the government) insist on initiating force against our neighbors for their choice of livelihood? What right have we to assault and kill our fellow man for creating and selling a particular kind of drink that is in demand by others?
I say enough is enough. It's time we learned to grow up and behave in a civilized fashion. All state alcohol control authorities, including my own state's despicable Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, must be fought and ultimately abolished without delay. Write letters to the editor of your local paper, call and write your state elected officials, be creative! Above all, don't ever--ever--accept the notion that the state has legitimate authority over you. Your only authority is you. Now, in the spirit of my Irish heritage, let's drink and fight!
[Update: I have submitted concatenated versions of this post as letters to the editor of both the Herald Sun of Durham and the News & Observer of Raleigh. Both papers are already familiar with my work. He he he. ]
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What Global Warming Consensus?
Veeeerrrrrry interesting:
Myth of Consensus Explodes: APS Opens Global Warming Debate
More evidence for a lack of consensus on climate change. As I've said before, even if we were significantly affecting the climate in some way, it's such a complex system that we have no clue what affects various proposed policies might actually have. And since such policies are typically estimated to impoverish humanity to the tune of trillions and trillions of dollars and necessarily require the initiation of force against individuals, there is absolutely no way--no way--to morally justify any action by government to 'fix' the climate (I should specify--the government should take no positive action; the government most certainly should take the negative action of immediately abandoning all publicly owned property and ceasing all taxation, regulation, and other coercion, which would not only do wonders to help the environment but would allow economic growth and productivity on an unimaginable scale).
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Today’s Thoughts on Capitalism
On a forum somewhere in the far reaches of cyberspace, someone commented to me that in a "purely capitalist society," there would be greed, exploitation, and few in control of the many.
I have an irrepressible need to correct such disturbing misunderstandings. I know that the vast majority of people who hold such views are closed off to conflicting information, but I also know that occasionally someone is open to new ways of looking at things, and some of them might stumble upon my lowly blog.
So while I'm mostly preaching to the choir, here's my response to that all-too-common assertion that capitalism results in greed, exploitation, and the few controlling the many:
Actually, there is greed in every possible system because that's part of human nature. Furthermore, I would submit that greed is not bad--it's the aspect of our nature that involves striving for ever greater happiness, and that can only be good. Can people do horrible things because of their greed? Certainly. And we see this most clearly in places like North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and the former Soviet Union--those greedless eutopias where an elite group has gained control of the means of production as communism demands. We see the greed of those in power, who kill and enslave any who dare challenge them. We see neighbor turning on neighbor in the hopes of gaining favor with the ruling class and getting an extra share of the artificially restricted production of the economy. Of course, all this happens in the United States but to a lesser degree (so far). In a free society greed leads to ever increasing economic production and ever higher standards of living--that is, it increases happiness.
As for exploitation, that is what the government and other coercive entities do. In a "purely capitalist society," human interaction is based on voluntary choices, not government decrees. Oddly, in today's world what many people think of as exploitation (i.e. children and poor people working for $2/day in facilities of questionable structural integrity) is actually an example of a willing buyer (employer) and willing seller (employee) coming together in a mutually beneficial transaction (after all, if it didn't make both parties better off, it wouldn't happen). And what most people see as the government "sticking up for the poor exploited worker" (i.e. minimum wage laws, workplace safety rules, etc) are actually examples of true exploitation, because a group of people are using violence to get a better deal for themselves than peaceful voluntary action would provide--just because they use the government to enact their violence doesn't make it any less wrong. So from a moral standpoint, it's employers who are being exploited by workers through the anonymous vehicle of government. Not to mention the fact that artificial restrictions on wages and labor conditions, while giving a small number of workers a better deal, result in a loss of wealth-creating opportunity for the employers and a great number of potential workers who now will not be employed, to the point that society as a whole is made worse off.
And the few in charge of the many? That's what you have in socialist and communist countries--not capitalist ones. In a truly free, capitalist society, there's no government to lock entire classes of people into poverty and submission like we have today (even in the US). As an example, governments in so-called 'civilized' societies employ a vast array of professional license requirements for everything from doctors, nurses, and lawyers to plumbers, cab drivers, and hairdressers. The government actually uses physical violence (police power) to prevent someone who's only marketable skill may be ferrying people around by car or doing someone's hair from opening up their own business working out of their garage. And by the same token, it prevents lower-income people from patronizing those potential businesses and thus saving money and working their way out of poverty. This is not civilized--it's barbaric. Capitalism actually facilitates the rapid movement of people up (and down) the economic ladder according to how well they provide value to others. Power only really comes into play when a coercive entity (the government) is involved. Outside of the very uncapitalist concept of coercion, power has no meaning.
So those are my very brief thoughts on a subject I could go on about forever. Now let me hear yours.
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Independence Day–A Celebration of What?
It's mostly coincidence, really, that I'm getting back to my blog on Independence Day weekend--but somehow appropriate nonetheless. This blog is dedicated to furthering the cause of human freedom, the same cause that so many people associate with America and with the 4th of July. We tell ourselves we're celebrating our independence from the oppressive rule of the British crown. We say that we're celebrating freedom. How quaint. Some even make the odd, but increasingly common, mistake of claiming that July 4th is a celebration of democracy--as if it was somehow nobler to be a slave to a master of your choosing rather than to one imposed from outside.
But why do we feel such pride in the founding of our republic when it long ago ceased to be the free land that the Founding Fathers envisioned? My best guess is that most of us came up through the government school system, which was designed from the beginning to engender simple, conforming, unquestioning, nationalistic group-think among all members of the population. The thought of a mass of individuals demanding to know where their freedom went was too much to bear for those in control of things at the beginning of the 20th century. Behind the veneer of patriotic pride, what we've really been taught is that the way to solve our problems is to use the faceless leviathan of government to initiate force against our neighbor and call it "the public good."
Democrats blame Republicans for taking away our freedom. Republicans blame Democrats. As I ponder the current state of our country, I can't help but think that we've got only ourselves to blame.
If you use the government to confiscate your neighbors' money at gunpoint to give to those who did not earn it, then don't be surprised when that government, at your neighbors' behest, uses force to prevent you from marrying your significant other.
If you use the government to prevent your neighbor from possessing or using a particular plant or chemical substance, then don't be surprised when that government forces you to register or turn in your gun.
If you use the government to prevent your neighbor from hiring a willing worker from another country, don't be surprised when that government destroys your business through environmental, safety, labor, and wage regulations.
If you ask the government to send your neighbors' children to die on the beaches of Normandy, then don't be surprised when it sends your grandchildren to die in the sands of the Middle East.
If you've chosen to solve your problems through coercion rather than through the voluntary cooperation and mutually beneficial economic transactions that set us apart from lower life forms, then you need only look in the mirror when you ponder where your freedoms have gone.
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