“The definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.”
Funny enough, this article will drop after the time I got my taxes figured out by a very wonderful CPA, the best one I’ve found so far! She literally saved me thousands of dollars, which, of course, is money I didn’t choose to spend. It should be noted, based on how I’ve seen millionaires behave, I’m not exactly alone in how I get this onerous task completed. Why am I bringing taxes up? Please, keep reading!
This has been a point of contention I’ve run across quite a few times, most recently with a good friend of mine. The argument goes, if I have it right, is this: that we currently have a system that we all live in right now, and if we take down the current system and don’t have a perfect alternate system to place everyone in, chaos and the L.A. Riots will happen across the country; rape and murder will become the rule of law among the masses, and everything will eventually be consumed by the fires of capitalism. In reality, we interact under what anarchy really is, which is free trade and actual property rights, but the question still remains as far as the country goes, and the system that we have therein. So what my normal train of thought was to point out that the current system is akin to being on a plane that’s on fire, heading towards a mountain, with idiot pilots at the yoke. In other words, the current system is failing, and even bailing out of the plane with no parachute gives you better odds at survival than staying in it, for many reasons I won’t bother addressing at the moment.
But she does have a good point, in that most people only know life with an overarching system that is above all others and has some control over the masses they are a part of. I do, in fact, have sort of a system that would be the best for humanity in my opinion, which is Stefan Molyneux’s Universal Preferable Behavior, which pretty much just says 1. No Murder, 2. No Rape, 3. No Assault, and 4. No theft. It should be noted that I’ll add 5. No Brussels Sprouts since I have an extra finger on the hand to keep count for the things I’ll never do unless absolutely necessary, but that’s a good set of rules (which exist in anarchy/voluntarism) to live by. That said, it would take throwing pretty much every industry away that we (unfortunately) rely on today, whether the people in them are good people or not. That would, as she pointed out, would throw society into chaos: though I believe it would be very short lived and overall better for everyone, there is that risk of it not actually happening and many lives being lost that could otherwise have changed society for the better. This is the point that, though she is in fact a free thinker, she holds on to “the current system, until I come up with another one to put people in.”
And so, I have given this a lot of thought, and a lot of arguments with myself along with her. Understand that you cannot predict the effects of which laws you inflict upon people will have, even if you know your history and human nature. But after way too much time overthinking the issue, I came upon a epiphany that would solve most of the problems that overthrowing the current society in favor of a new one would have, and it’s actually fairly simple to do, in theory at least. Foreshadowing: there’s a much darker solution i came up with that would also solve the problem, which I will shell out after this one, But to put it simply: we keep everything we have here as is: we keep every current public system in force today, the police the firefighters, along with every other public servant situation we have today. It is not something I believe I’m the only one that thought of, nor do I think this will ever happen: Like I said about following Rome’s footsteps, we likely won’t pull out of this tailspin, but I’ll put it out there because I was asked for a Final Solution for saving us all from socialism, and here it is:
Separate Economics From Government, just like Religion.
Why this is being brought up: When Religion was intertwined with government, everyone with their own religion wrestled with control over the government o get the guns of the state to enforce their own religion. Once it was removed, everyone had to figure out for themselves how to cooperate with each other, even when the disagreed with each other. Given how as much, if not more decisions and self interests are driven by economics, separating the two should, in theory, provide more freedom.
Actions needed to take in order for this to happen: End govt relations with the Federal Reserve; they can keep buying dollars from their printing presses, but they cannot enforce it as the sole currency of the land. My early thoughts was to eliminate the IRS and the Fed Reserve, but the IRS can easily be repurposed to be a voluntary donation center, and the Fed Reserve wouldn’t have nearly the power it has today if it doesn’t have sole control of the currency of the land, therefore it will have to pay attention to the market in order to stay in business.
Benefits to society:
- Well, first of all, you’d have far more of your own income to dispose of since it isn’t being taken by your local govt.! So if there’s a cause you really want to donate to, you have far more money to put towards it, that you have more control over. Even more important, you have more resources to take care of your own families and friends, along with other loved ones. Keep in mind: If you still believe in keeping the current system going, you can simply donate the money that would’ve been taken from your paycheck otherwise, and it would still be taken care of; the roads, the police, etc. Second: that simplifies our current tax systems! I personally have to hire a CPA to do my taxes: if the govt is removed from the economics, everyone will have far simpler finance expenses; they will be able to do their own finance end of year write ups, saving a lot of money and time.
2. Inflation will end! Since inflation is only possible under centralized currency, it will disappear under private rules, since they will now have to comply with satisfying the free market, meaning it will comply with what productive people need to make your life great. Furthermore, it makes saving liquid cash much more lucrative since it won’t be eroded away, which makes investments far more attractive and makes opening a business far more likely to succeed; you can’t stay in business if no one can pay for your services. The most important part of this, of course, is that the govt, can no longer borrow upon either unfunded liabilities, nor on extra printed money; therefore it will have to also figure out how to meet the demands it makes, which will stifle so many of the socialist policies coming out today. Even further, it would cement our status as the world’s reserve currency, for the simple reason that should this happen and we finally limit our printing extra money, we would be a stronger currency than even bitcoin; it would show we are committed to keeping our money as relevant and as tied to actual value as possible. /
3. In taking money out of politics, the govt. will finally have to compete with the Free Market! Just take mail as an example: much as I like the people that work there, the USPS is horrendously under budget and in debt, yet they can send a letter to any part of the country with one fixed price. Private carriers have to charge more, not just because they have to deal with real world prices, but also have to pay taxes on running their business; they subsidize their own public competition, and are still a viable alternative! If economics is taken out of govt, the UPS will likely be that much more profitable, and the USPS will have to advance their services to compensate. In other words: everyone wins! And this applies to every field that is shared with public vs private institutions: parents want their kids in private schools when possible vs public schools, home owners want private contractors to handle their repairs rather than rely on Section 8, and even Blackwater, without equivalent firepower or protection, did a better job than the red tape tied up U.S. Military at keeping people safe in the Middle East War Zones. The ones that had to produce value in order to survive, in other words, are far more effective than those relying on tax dollars to fund them; parasites inevitably die once the host does.
Of course, it’s likely this will never happen, for the following reasons:
- Vested interests. Just taking the tax issue directly: there are several industries built directly on it, namely the CPA field, along with the IRS. They could both be retooled to actually work for a free society, far more efficiently I might imagine, but inertia is one hell of a drug: people really do fear change, which is one reason why govt still exists today, but that’s a topic that will be addressed later. The fact is that people tend to want to keep the systems they have that are working for them today, not take the risk of change even if it will make things better for everyone, not to mention the million of people that are outright dependent on getting public assistance or, even worse, take it while still able bodied.
2. Inertia of thought. It’s a weird thing to think about, but it is important. There’s a saying that science moves forward, one dead body at a time. The sentiment is true sevenfold for politics: things rarely progress unless they are war driven or face some other real world calamity. The reality is that people will rarely stir up the pot of the status quo unless they have to: it’s easier to stay the course with the herd rather than to stand out as your own personality. And on that note:
3. Fear & Genetics. Many people today are not only benefiting from the warfare/welfare state today, but are utterly dependent upon it, and with many families using it over generations, that means there are kids today that have grown up in households that have existed solely because of government handouts. Meaning that not only has the upcoming population been trained to be lazy and become parasitical to the productive, but it is now built into the genome of the up and coming population; the new crop of humans, so to speak, are inherently born to be against working and pro parasites. since they are literally averse to actual production. And before you think I’m just slamming losers on the public dole, understand that, genetically, and through public schools, we are all trained to believe in the state and that it is the best option to have in our lives, and any free market solution is evil and must be shot down! Such is the nature of the state as yet another religion, in that it is always self reinforcing, rather than being self critical like actual science.
So fine, I can shoot my own solution down. but that doesn’t mean i don’t have another one ready to go. I actually developed this one while thinking about why my practical solution wouldn’t work, and it is here:
There is another option that could be viable option that could be taken: although it is dark and will end with a lot of dead bodies, that’s where we’re headed anyway; even with many examples of failed systems from the past of the USSR to the modern apocalypses of North Korea and Venezuela. So if we’re going to crash anyway, might as well make it as quick and painless as possible. With that in mind, here’s the way to do it:
The Aikido Initiative
Ironically in this context, Aikido is a martial art that translates to “The Way Of Harmony”. The principle of the style is to pull rather than push; instead of opposing your opponents force, you take it and use it against them. Let’s accept that any and all movements of socialism will never going to stop and are more dedicated to their cause than their opposition. You can keep pushing back against the inevitable opposition, or enact The Aikido Initiative, and give them exactly what they want. Every tax they want to put up, every welfare program, every controlling policy, give it to them; vote for every tax imaginable. When they call for a Gas tax to fund a stupid train on California, vote for it. When they ban plastic straws along with racist lawns and force you to use weaker alternatives, go right along with it. When they tell you to let it mellow when it’s yellow and flush it down when it’s brown, do right ahead and do so.. When they vote for more feminism laws to keep making women effectively children, give it right to them. The only caveat to keep yourself safe: Take care of yourself and your close friends and family, and “Enjoy The Decline”; watch the U.S. grind to a halt and collapse upon itself.
This would show anyone that looks back at the crater that you cannot start a system with any kind of government, of a coercive force as a part of your new land: the United States would be the ultimate example of this. It started with the smallest government conceivable at the time and today, and had checks and balances on what government there was to keep it that way. In spite of the care of people that just fought off another tyrannical government put into the U.S. never going down that path, it instead grew into the biggest government the world has ever seen. Given it’s history, and it’s world domination today, it’s collapse, along with all of the death and destruction caused by it, would show, once and for all, that government doesn’t work. Sure, it might throw the world into a modern dark age, and it’s for sure not what I’d like to see: I’d rather us all learn from reason and evidence rather than painful experience. But if that’s what it takes to free those of us who are left, Who might survive the biggest empire crash in Earth’s history, that’s fine with me; at least that way, humanity will learn and adapt accordingly. But I do have to ask, as I do at the end of every article I write:
You have the red pill I provide, in that we separate economics from government, which might save us all with the system we have that will have to change for our benefit in order to survive. Or you have the Blue pill, the Aikido Initiative that gives the socialists what they want, in order to crash the system as fast as possible, to be the biggest example to everyone else that survives to watch the bodies pile up ,yet again.. The question is this: Which pill would you reach for?