Too many people now make their living from govt largesse. Every city depends on it. Every politician gets elected with it. I fear It’s only going to stop now when the gravy train crashes and burns
It couldn't be any clearer. For those with eyes who do see.
I'm old enough to remember when Japan embraced Quantitative Easing. And destroyed their economy. As anyone with a rudimentary understanding of economics knew it would. And many US leaders said so. Though many had actually encouraged it.
So what did US do a few years later, when Japan's economy was still a smoldering ruin of what it had been before QE? US leaders embraced Quantitative Easing. And QE1 not resulting in enough economic ruin they embraced QE2...QE3...QE4...
And even fewer US leaders today say QE is terrible economics than those who wagged their fingers at Japan. Economists today are as good at healing an economy as Doctors today are good at healing illness and disease. Or Judges are good at healing egregious injuries to our Constitution.
At some point it should dawn on us that these injuries are a feature, not a flaw of economists, doctors and judges in positions of power and influence today.
I don't think most people have any idea how many jobs are now directly or indirectly dependent on government spending. Apart from actual government jobs and direct contractors, there are entire nominally-private industries such as medical care, war / weaponry, and education / indoctrination that are funded with vast amounts of government money. All of those jobs and the downstream contractors are completely reliant on government spending. And then there are the millions of (unnecessary) jobs created by the need to comply with the vast body of government laws and regulations. These are all essentially welfare jobs. Government pays people to pretend to work but they are not actually producing anything of value that someone would pay for in a free market. If the government money spigot ever gets shut off, many of these people will not only lose their source of income, but because they possess no actual marketable skills, they will not be able to enter the private workforce in any productive capacity.
Since 2006 I have owned a small but profitable hyper-specialized technology company. We have always declined to do work for any government entity above the municipal / county level. The business reason for this is that the administrative overhead in dealing with government and compliance is too high relative to the payoff, and we do not want to become reliant on government for the success or survival of the company. It also aligns ideologically with me as well since I would prefer not to interact with government at all. This policy has worked out very well and also gave us a lot of freedom of action during the covid mass-hysteria since we were not a Federal contractor. However, in the last few years we have been turning-away more and more business. What's happening lately is that government contractors attempt to force downstream non-government contractors (like my company) into the same regulatory and compliance regime that they are legally obliged to follow. This shows up during contract negotiations in the boilerplate language they attempt to get us to agree to. I always refuse, and sometimes we'll get the deal anyway. But lately we have not been getting any of them, so it looks like the compliance regime is hardening. I'm retiring soon so I don't care anymore. But the point is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to escape the pervasive, malign reach of government money into nearly every industry. And once you start taking their money, they own you.
One day the end of cheap energy will cause the debt-based currency fraud to be exposed and collapse in a blizzard of worthless paper, and perhaps then we can finally drive a stake through the heart of this government monstrosity and restore the Republic.
I run what is now a 2-person business. I decided some years ago I didn't want to be responsible for employees. So now I have no employees. My clients span several industries (tech and entertainment) with clients large and small. in addition to the sort of thing you cite, I have an added challenge: the state (California) wants to make my business model (the sole proprietorship) illegal. The want to put an end to the "independent contractor" and along the way small businesses. I'm convinced now that it is the concept of independence that is under attack. My small business has contracts with some very large companies. I've lost one already as their lawyers are afraid of the state. I almost lost another but my lawyer and their lawyers had a talk. Both have been clients for over 5 years. I have a very good lawyer (and accountant) who read the laws and rules and make sure we're in compliance while doing what we do. That cuts into my personal income - another state tax! Like Gato said, there's tax on tax on tax.
It seems to boil down to those with power unable to tolerate anyone who's lifestyle is not the one they have decided is correct.
I get that a lot. Ever since I was 16 and dared speak out against the powers that be - then it was "old" folks (probably in their 40s? hah!) spouting BS like "if you don't love America, leave!". To which I responded "I love America more than you - I want to make it better!". More recently it's folks younger than me telling me if I'm not "with the program" I should leave. Same BS. My response is slightly different now, at 65. "I've been here longer than you've drawn breath. Why don't you leave?". I was born in the once great state of California, lived most of my life here (a few years in the southeast where my family's roots are). Lived all over for a while, but for the last 35 years perched on the side of this same mountain, looking down at the suburb dwellers. The last few winters, looking down on the darkness, as the failing power grid left the suburbs without.
I don't suppress or dictate anyone else's lifestyle, I live tolerance. Live and let live. Why should I be chased from my home? Why should I not expect a little sanity and respect? My family (what's left) is here. For how long I don't know (it's tough on the kids who are now in their 30s).
Don't take me wrong, I love the south, I love Texas, I know lots of wonderful people there. I may one day pack it up and run away. When I've got no more fight left in me, I suppose.
Spot on! Even the small guys who want to sell only true commercial items are forced to have subcontracting plans (auditable) for providing subcontracts to minorities. This alone interferes with their commercial product that already has well-proven suppliers and sources. Many other requirements come into play for a larger small business...
Perhaps when the fiat paper crashes and burns to ashes a Biblical level debt "jubilee" as the survivors turn to the lessons of history and rock solid facts such as the US Constitution's founding fathers knew so well.
The debt-based currency fraud won't be exposed before the new currency fraud known as government based digital currency is in place. This is going to be a reality and no one can stop it.
When the lockdowns and vax mandates happened, I was stunned that so many attorneys and organizations like the ABA were all on board. I couldn't get my head around it. I then read that many legal firms either work directly for the government or their clients work for the government. Then it all made sense.
That is shocking. That the ACLU fell wasn't surprising as it is indoctrinated with CRT but you would think Libertarians would hold their ground. Watching the judiciary committee on the Covid response. Dr. Ladapo voices why body sovereignty is essential while a Georgetown Law Professor voices the opposite.
They have always been the party of power, masquerading as human caring. Eventually they had enough control they could drop the mask. Nothing happened...it was always that way. They just finally got control.
Actually it's pretty much perfect! Doctors are licensed by state medical boards. Without board licenses, they can't practice. Stay "on board" (do what the medical boards dictate) or lose your license! This was made VERY clear to MDs in my circle of contact. It didn't start with COVID, but it escalated. Even before insanely stupid "diagnostic guidelines" were forced on physicians. The pattern of these "guidelines" is define something observable as a problem, identify the drug that "treats" it, and sell more drugs. When the drugs damage other parts of the body (like liver or pancreas) no problem - we have more drugs to sell!
I had surgery on my foot in 2021 (long story). The doc prescribed opiates for pain. I explained politely I don't take opiates (how doctors killed my mom). He explained he was obligated to prescribe them, I wasn't obligated to take them. When I asked why he said "I like my license - nuff said". I got it.
All the lawyers (4) I know got the $12,000 maximum, or whatever the maximum was, in less than one week of filing for it and did not have to repay it nor were they audited.
None of the entrepreneurs I know got even one penny, even after submitting their tax returns to the bank that was to facilitate the transaction.
Banks handed it out like candy to any business with a revolving line of credit and a payroll. Gambling by taking that cash hoping it would be deemed a "grant" and not a loan to be paid out stuck me as nuts. Worse, was no need show one's business suffered any cash losses by being locked down.
Yep- been to the DC area lately? When I was a kid, Fairfax was a sleepy little town and definitely not wealthy. Try buying a decent house there now. Gov’t IS the employer!
“That was precisely the reason the System was created at Jekyll Island: to manufacture whatever amount of money might be necessary to cover the losses of the cartel. The scam could never work unless the Fed was able to create money out of nothing and pump it into the banks along with ‘credit’ and ‘liquidity’ guarantees. Which means, if the loans go sour, the money is eventually extracted from the American people through the hidden tax called inflation.”
—G. Edward Griffin, “The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve”
Additional relevant excerpts:
“The damage done by the banking cartel is made possible by the fact that money can be created out of nothing. It also destroys our purchasing power through the hidden tax called inflation.”
“The savings and loan industry, is really a cartel within a cartel. It could not function without Congress standing by to push unlimited amounts of money into it. And Congress could not do that without the banking cartel called the Federal Reserve System standing by as the ‘lender of last resort’ to create money out of nothing for Congress to borrow. This comfortable arrangement between political scientists and monetary scientists permits Congress to vote for any scheme it wants, regardless of the cost. If politicians tried to raise that money through taxes, they would be thrown out of office. But being able to ‘borrow’ it from the Federal Reserve System upon demand, allows them to collect it through the hidden mechanism of inflation, and not one voter in a hundred will complain.”
“Warburg’s revolutionary plan to get American Society to go to work for Wall Street was astonishingly simple. Even today, academic theoreticians cover their blackboards with meaningless equations, and the general public struggles in bewildered confusion with inflation and the coming credit collapse, while the quite simple explanation of the problem goes undiscussed and almost entirely uncomprehended. The Federal Reserve System is a legal private monopoly of the money supply operated for the benefit of the few under the guise of protecting and promoting the public interest.”
—Anthony Sutton, former Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution, & Peace, quoted in “The Creature”
Excellent MAA. Have you read Carl Menger? Economics is a behavioral science, not a mathematical one. Many years ago I became enamored with the work of Paul Samuelson, the Physics Ph.D. who won the Nobel Prize in economics. After working in finance, I quickly discovered it was mostly useless. A few years back I wrote a paper on money: what it is, how it works, and how it is used by banking systems. I am now in the process of rewriting it as a simple 35-40 page short book, which I plan to self-publish and sell (a few bucks). Until recently no one seemed to have an interest in the subject, but as the financial reckoning approaches, interest increases. (Sorry for shamelessly plugging my book)
Are you familiar with Kahneman? In his "Thinking: fast and slow" he references an experiment done with economists, business analysts and the like.
Basically, they perform at the level of the statistical average or below, but cannot accept that, instead insisting that one need their "special knowledge and skills" to invest and profit.
It's akin to how some sports commentators are wrong way more than blind guessing would be.
From my own exepriences when studying nationa economics at uni, I think the major mistake economists make is to think that it is a natural science, not a social one (behavioural, as you said), which makes them look for rules in the same way and of the same kind, as in chemistry or physics.
Maybe getting back to the original meaning oc "economy" would be good.
I have not read Kahneman, but I will look into it. Thanks, Rikard. As a financial advisor for 15 years with hundreds of clients, I can tell you that economics is least 80% behavioral.
For those of you with children & grandchildren, teach them this stuff from an early age with Tuttle Twins books & series! (I’m not an affiliate) re-educating the youngsters is def part of the plan!
But back then "The World's Greatest Newspaper" could publish a cartoon making this point. Many folks then noticed what was going on. See "The Revolution Was" by Garet Garrett, written I think in 1938.
This is my first look at the entire cartoon. Years ago I saved what I now see is the lower left quarter because it was so illustrative, but nothing compared to the whole!
Instead of being on the "Road to Serfdom", I would describe it as being made to “Run the Gauntlet Toward Serfdom”.
We still ultimately arrive at serfdom, but in our case we are beaten, chastised, and humiliated along the way by those who would make themselves our feudal lords.
Is there anyone reading this who does not understand it at this point? But those who have chosen not to hear by now cannot be made to. I'm not ready to kiss prosperity goodbye, and yet, I know it doesn't really exist. This is borrowed time. We don't deserve our wealth; it's built on nearly nothing at this point.
The wealth is not all fake. It's based on our accumulated societal capital. Many generations worked hard to get us to this point, and now we are sqandering it. Borrowing from the future and stealing from the past.
I agree with that. But do you think our standard of living has outstripped that wealth base? It feels to me like even those of us within our material means are somehow over our skis, because there’s so much fiat bloat in it.
Yes, we've outstripped the wealth base, but it's hard to tell by how much. The worst part is not all the paper wealth that will disappear, but the productive capacity that we let them destroy. We will need to rebuild someday, but with decayed infrastructure, poorly educated entitled young people, and no more factories here to work in, it will be tough. Imagine Germany or Japan after WWII, but with a rapacious China stripping our resources to pay for their products.
At least Germany and Japan had an excuse…their infrastructure was bombed out and their youth was exterminated during the war years…our infrastructure and youth decayed due to the rot within our political class. It’s a damn shame.
Not just destroy, but consolidate the remnants of in the hands of the monetary usurpers. Because they are first to the trough, they can acquire the assets at inflated prices and strip them away from the rest of us. Blackrock provides a good example.
If not for the fact that most my wealth is currently tied up in a Corn Beer and Jolly Rancher Farm in the suburbs of Lima - quite the Investment Opportunity, you see - I'd be taking advantage of PR Act 20 in a heartbeat.
good quote I heard on a tv series I was watching -- "If your own country betrays you, to whom do you then owe loyalty?" (series is Poldark on Prime, which has nothing to do with anything, but sometimes good writing applies universally.)
Right now I am reading a book called "When We Walk By" by Kevin Adler and Donald Burnes about homelessness in America. It is a real eye-opener how various societal systems conspire and collide to create and perpetuate homelessness. Many of us here may be only one misstep, one medical crisis, one disaster, one accident, one job loss, even one rent or mortgage hike away from being homeless. I know I am, which is why I am vitally interested in housing issues. This is something that the well-off and housing secure cannot understand. I could go on and on about the stupid questions--and yes, Virginia, there ARE stupid questions--that I get on this and related topics. I am going to say that often the person that is going through a hard time is MUCH more aware of what is and is not available in terms of resources than the person who has never been through that particular battle yet presumes to know where this other person can go for help. The BEST thing you can do to help your friends and neighbors who are struggling is to become educated yourself, get FIRST-HAND knowledge of the resources available and what is needed to qualify for them (or conversely, disqualify). Don't just say "Go to legal aid" if a friend or a family member needs legal help and can't afford a lawyer. YOU make that call to legal aid and find out exactly how difficult, how time-consuming, and in the end, often inadequate that can be. It is SO VERY FRUSTRATING having to educate people; a simple yes/no question often turns into a nightmare interrogation that tells me the person I am speaking to hasn't a clue and often doesn't want to have a clue about how the system works or doesn't work for poorer people.
This book was an eye-opener even for me. If you've wanted to know why don't the homeless do this or that, this book will tell you. And there is a lot on how our current tax system contributes to the problem by giving tax breaks to people who really do not need them but taxes the people who can least afford it. And how the "poverty line" is set unrealistically low, so that many low-income working people can't qualify for help. So what happens is that a person who makes just enough to get by is penalized. They can't take oodles of deductions off on their taxes. They are forced to use the EZ form which doesn't allow for deductions. And because they are barely making enough to get by, all the tools available for those who are better off aren't available to them. No, they must pay their taxes and that's it. No loopholes, no getting around it.
I really believe that we are in a race to the bottom and that we are on the road to becoming what used to be called a "third world country". If you had told me 50-60 years ago that homeless encampments would be common, not only in the largest cities but even in the smaller ones, I would not have believed you. What I see around me reminds me of things I've heard about the Great Depression. There were people who were insulated from the worst of it back then, too. Both my parents lived through the Depression, but they were lucky, their parents had relatively good paying jobs. They never stood in a breadline, they never experienced unemployment, they never experienced homelessness or hunger. Things were tight, yes, but, they were well-off compared to many people. I do believe we are right now living in another Great Depression; but most people don't see it because it hasn't hit home to them.
An excellent post, and a good reason to own assets with a very long horizon to selling. Examples are index funds and gold. I own a stock that I bought in 1995, kept buying and never sold a share of, and have no immediate plans of selling.
* Regarding gold, it is not the greatest asset to hold, an almost-useless commodity that earns no earnings and pays no dividends. But it can easily be held long term and (as of now) selling one ounce can be done without IRS reporting
both are being mooted and the latter in particular is a core practice in collapsing empires. when you see that one kick off, it will be the sign that the end is very, very soon.
see also: making private gold ownership illegal. not that they did just that in the US in 1934. it was not legal to own gold again until 1974 once we went off the gold standard.
The illegality of gold ownership was the red flag. If we were really on a "gold standard", gold and paper would be interchangeable. The fact that they were not tells you that they were printing money not backed by gold. "Duuuhhh, How can we have stagflation?" asked the Economic Idiots. When the French asked for their balance of payments in gold, the jig was up. And suddenly, like magic, no more gold standard!
I remember the gold story. I believe that only one person was prosecuted for violating that Act. Gold can be held clandestinely and is fungible, meltable etc and can always be sold close to scrap value, plus/minus 2 percent.
The bad thing about gold is that a lot of it disappears when its owners die and it is dangerous to own due to crime potential.
The wealth tax is near-inevitable and might lead to instant evaporation of much "wealth" while at the same time making the government the biggest voting stockholder.
Bitcoin is digital gold, but better. You can move across the world with the seed phrases in your head if need be, no one even need know you have it, and it will be wherever you are when you need it. And there will be no more mining of Bitcoin after 21M coins, unlike Gold, which is also debased at 2% per year. And you will be able to send it where you like, to purchase what you like, for next to nothing. Try trying to send someone overseas or even cross country a million dollars in gold. Transport and security will eat you up. It will be pennies for the bitcoin transaction.
The government can make it illegal for you to own it, but even a swat team won't be able to take it in a raid.
so long as you cannot readily spend it and governments control the banks and the systems by which you can turn BTC to dollars, it's really not that useful especially when all transitions can be seen and flagged. you're aware that US gov't follows every BTC transition in real time, yes? and can bar coins from exchanges? just how does one feed a family, pay rent/mortgage/pay for healthcare etc in such a system? you can send BTC offshore, how to you bring value back under current KYC to say nothing of what's about to come down with NSA now having the right to compel pretty much any entity in the US that has access to an internet system or device to help them spy while being under gag order on revealing it?
i have been around BTC an awfully long time and heard lots of hype and lots of promise. it's been quite a bubble trade. but ask this: is it materially closer to being able to let 100 million people buy lunch tomorrow than it was 5 years ago? because i don't think it is. it's just a highly monitored speculative beachball batted around by traders. that's not the same as being a currency.
Your comments are all valid, Gato. I can’t get lunch with it, and George Gammon just travelled S America trying to use bitcoin and gold, and he didn’t fare well with either. Still, we have peer to peer transaction that is possible, and even though it represents almost zero transactions now, when everyone finds themselves under surveillance, those transaction may become more significant, as more people will be motivated to get off the Gov’t money rails.
There has to be a parallel political track, to stop this crazy control grid from closing down.
Holding gold (physical gold in your possession) is not an investment, it's an insurance policy against inflation, currency debasement, and financial asset confiscation. It has zero holding costs and is universally accepted. Stocks, however, are great - until they're not. As the government becomes more rapacious, they will start going after financial assets like equities. Your "ill-gotten" market gains will be taxed to feed and house the poor people of LA and Oakland, because, you know, white privilege.
Once you get past the "individual fight for survival" stage, you will need to trade with others in order to continue to survive and thrive. Do you plan on just using barter?
This doomsday scenario will not last long, looking at history, or it will be the apocalypse and not matter anyway. Owning more than a little bit of silver is not useful if you need to “trade to survive” (that is a barter system) and hoarding trade goods makes you a target for criminal gangs whereas having specialized skills (nurse, medical doctor, electrical engineer etc etc) makes you a valuable asset. I don’t need to plan because we own a ranch in a place where basic needs like food and water are already covered indefinitely. It is just a way of life for people for generations, not a doomsday plan
Remember, you can get a FREE Reader's Digest Copy of "The Road To Serfdom" here.
Send it to anyone you think might benefit from it. There's even a Road to Serfdom in cartoons as the back. Strangely, it was paid for by General Motors.
It's not state spending that makes fiat viable, it's three other things: It's the state's declaration of legal tender, the state's subjugation of banking, and state taxation. If the state declares it's currency as the only legal tender, then even if you want to barter or use another currency, you must still obtain the state currency to pay taxes. You are also forced to borrow money and repay it in the state currency, although in third world countries with weak currencies, this may not be strictly adhered to.
True, but it's not obvious when the government doesn't have the power of coercion. Venezuela is printing and spending like crazy, but people secretly use dollars, euros, and gold instead in an enormous black market. Citizens in wealth western countries never experience this because they are so used to a relatively stable fiat currency.. They don't know how weak the government's position really is.
Ever noticed an increase in shops who will buy your silver and gold? Notice how they always seem to pop up when times are bad? Know what you should be holding, that's out of their system? I'm not going to keep saying it.
To summarise: Tax is theft. Those who say it is necessary to pay for all the wonderful things Government do for us, are just following the Mafia explanation why you have to hand over your money to Luigi and the boys when they visit, or get your liver cut out. Government = Mafia = extortion and protection racket.
16th Amendment established the ability to tax incomes; 17th turned senators from representatives of each state as a political unit to long-term representatives of the voters...
it's telling that the two were ratified so close together. 16th was feb, 17th april both in 1913, just as wilson was getting ready to ride roughshod over us.
he really was the start of american fascism. and so much of his team wound up working for FDR.
This basically prevents us from having a Bicameral Congress.
It's supposed to We the Little People of The House vs. The Interests of the States but now it's all just We the Little People vs... We the Little People.
*reponders., shakes head* I don't really feel all that represented.
In truth, you can never have any government existing without the master-slave equation as its only foundation. Go ahead and try it. It is impossible. The nature of all governments is to promote serfdom to ensure it continues to exist. Ever know of a government that wanted to go out of business on purpose? Or admitting it is a failure and needs to be dissolved?
If there were no slaves, government would not be needed for much of anything and that is why government must constantly take care of us. We become dependent upon them and therefore we are now serfs and slaves.
After thousands of years of this nonsense, the slave class is more or less afraid of it's own shadow. It has no clue as to how to exist without a government controlling it. That does not mean it couldn't be done.
We need to modify the way we let our governments do the business of “promoting the general welfare”.
Ross Perot called it The Electronic Townhall.
Citizenship is not about writing letters to elected officials or voting some good person into office.
Citizenship is about the Ratification or Annulment of each line of every law, rule, regulation and supreme court decision on the books or that is on the docket waiting to be turned into law, policy and taxes.
We also need a mechanism to accommodate citizen proposals for infrastructure improvements and maintenance.
Nothing short of this is going to ameliorate the situation for the body politic.
During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Ross Perot observed that: "a general lack of accountability among elected officials and those in the bureaucracy is the one specific reason that the people of America suffered…. and our only means of correction is to inspect their work and hold them accountable.”
Mr. Perot went on to note that this can easily be done with computer programs. He called it: THE ELECTRONIC TOWNHALL.
“It is only logical that it will become our Fourth Branch of Government”, he said.
This is the first thing I’m reading this morning. It’s April, so the tax man has depleted the “I want to go to work so I can make some money “ feeling . Now this. I think I may just go back to bed.
Too many people now make their living from govt largesse. Every city depends on it. Every politician gets elected with it. I fear It’s only going to stop now when the gravy train crashes and burns
"how to buy friends and influence politics."
federal money taints and dominates everything it touches.
It couldn't be any clearer. For those with eyes who do see.
I'm old enough to remember when Japan embraced Quantitative Easing. And destroyed their economy. As anyone with a rudimentary understanding of economics knew it would. And many US leaders said so. Though many had actually encouraged it.
So what did US do a few years later, when Japan's economy was still a smoldering ruin of what it had been before QE? US leaders embraced Quantitative Easing. And QE1 not resulting in enough economic ruin they embraced QE2...QE3...QE4...
And even fewer US leaders today say QE is terrible economics than those who wagged their fingers at Japan. Economists today are as good at healing an economy as Doctors today are good at healing illness and disease. Or Judges are good at healing egregious injuries to our Constitution.
At some point it should dawn on us that these injuries are a feature, not a flaw of economists, doctors and judges in positions of power and influence today.
I think that dawn has come for many of us, it is what to do about it that is still over the horizon.
Really it is one’s mindset that does this…
I don't think most people have any idea how many jobs are now directly or indirectly dependent on government spending. Apart from actual government jobs and direct contractors, there are entire nominally-private industries such as medical care, war / weaponry, and education / indoctrination that are funded with vast amounts of government money. All of those jobs and the downstream contractors are completely reliant on government spending. And then there are the millions of (unnecessary) jobs created by the need to comply with the vast body of government laws and regulations. These are all essentially welfare jobs. Government pays people to pretend to work but they are not actually producing anything of value that someone would pay for in a free market. If the government money spigot ever gets shut off, many of these people will not only lose their source of income, but because they possess no actual marketable skills, they will not be able to enter the private workforce in any productive capacity.
Since 2006 I have owned a small but profitable hyper-specialized technology company. We have always declined to do work for any government entity above the municipal / county level. The business reason for this is that the administrative overhead in dealing with government and compliance is too high relative to the payoff, and we do not want to become reliant on government for the success or survival of the company. It also aligns ideologically with me as well since I would prefer not to interact with government at all. This policy has worked out very well and also gave us a lot of freedom of action during the covid mass-hysteria since we were not a Federal contractor. However, in the last few years we have been turning-away more and more business. What's happening lately is that government contractors attempt to force downstream non-government contractors (like my company) into the same regulatory and compliance regime that they are legally obliged to follow. This shows up during contract negotiations in the boilerplate language they attempt to get us to agree to. I always refuse, and sometimes we'll get the deal anyway. But lately we have not been getting any of them, so it looks like the compliance regime is hardening. I'm retiring soon so I don't care anymore. But the point is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to escape the pervasive, malign reach of government money into nearly every industry. And once you start taking their money, they own you.
One day the end of cheap energy will cause the debt-based currency fraud to be exposed and collapse in a blizzard of worthless paper, and perhaps then we can finally drive a stake through the heart of this government monstrosity and restore the Republic.
I run what is now a 2-person business. I decided some years ago I didn't want to be responsible for employees. So now I have no employees. My clients span several industries (tech and entertainment) with clients large and small. in addition to the sort of thing you cite, I have an added challenge: the state (California) wants to make my business model (the sole proprietorship) illegal. The want to put an end to the "independent contractor" and along the way small businesses. I'm convinced now that it is the concept of independence that is under attack. My small business has contracts with some very large companies. I've lost one already as their lawyers are afraid of the state. I almost lost another but my lawyer and their lawyers had a talk. Both have been clients for over 5 years. I have a very good lawyer (and accountant) who read the laws and rules and make sure we're in compliance while doing what we do. That cuts into my personal income - another state tax! Like Gato said, there's tax on tax on tax.
It seems to boil down to those with power unable to tolerate anyone who's lifestyle is not the one they have decided is correct.
They loathe and fear the independent self-sufficient yeoman farmer who owns his land and the trade craftsman who can take his skills anywhere.
Leave California and move to America.
I get that a lot. Ever since I was 16 and dared speak out against the powers that be - then it was "old" folks (probably in their 40s? hah!) spouting BS like "if you don't love America, leave!". To which I responded "I love America more than you - I want to make it better!". More recently it's folks younger than me telling me if I'm not "with the program" I should leave. Same BS. My response is slightly different now, at 65. "I've been here longer than you've drawn breath. Why don't you leave?". I was born in the once great state of California, lived most of my life here (a few years in the southeast where my family's roots are). Lived all over for a while, but for the last 35 years perched on the side of this same mountain, looking down at the suburb dwellers. The last few winters, looking down on the darkness, as the failing power grid left the suburbs without.
I don't suppress or dictate anyone else's lifestyle, I live tolerance. Live and let live. Why should I be chased from my home? Why should I not expect a little sanity and respect? My family (what's left) is here. For how long I don't know (it's tough on the kids who are now in their 30s).
Don't take me wrong, I love the south, I love Texas, I know lots of wonderful people there. I may one day pack it up and run away. When I've got no more fight left in me, I suppose.
I tell my you g daughter to create value in herself , and not to plan to build with employees. I too "quit" my employees.
Spot on! Even the small guys who want to sell only true commercial items are forced to have subcontracting plans (auditable) for providing subcontracts to minorities. This alone interferes with their commercial product that already has well-proven suppliers and sources. Many other requirements come into play for a larger small business...
Perhaps when the fiat paper crashes and burns to ashes a Biblical level debt "jubilee" as the survivors turn to the lessons of history and rock solid facts such as the US Constitution's founding fathers knew so well.
Good positive outlook. Interesting. Thank you
The debt-based currency fraud won't be exposed before the new currency fraud known as government based digital currency is in place. This is going to be a reality and no one can stop it.
When the lockdowns and vax mandates happened, I was stunned that so many attorneys and organizations like the ABA were all on board. I couldn't get my head around it. I then read that many legal firms either work directly for the government or their clients work for the government. Then it all made sense.
It was so depressing to see this.
You know it's a well executed PSYOP when Reason magazine (as well as other libertarian orgs)crew was clamoring for being governed harder.
I wrote them a 12 page letter trying to get them to see the light.
Their response was basically that history had no precedence for how libertarians should conduct themselves during times like c19.
So I called a gave them a history lesson....and they acted as if they'd never read about Stalin and Mao, etc.
That was the day I knew it was all over...
That is shocking. That the ACLU fell wasn't surprising as it is indoctrinated with CRT but you would think Libertarians would hold their ground. Watching the judiciary committee on the Covid response. Dr. Ladapo voices why body sovereignty is essential while a Georgetown Law Professor voices the opposite.
funny how "my body, my choice" got scuttled.
If you want to trigger your PTSD, you should watch the hearing. I have to mute the Dem congressional leaders after a few minutes. They are more than happy to wipe away our liberties. What happened to that party? https://judiciary.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/liberty-tyranny-and-accountability-covid-19-and-constitution?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
They have always been the party of power, masquerading as human caring. Eventually they had enough control they could drop the mask. Nothing happened...it was always that way. They just finally got control.
I was even more stunned at how many Doctors Offices were on board.
I'd even say 'on board' is a bit inadequate.
Actually it's pretty much perfect! Doctors are licensed by state medical boards. Without board licenses, they can't practice. Stay "on board" (do what the medical boards dictate) or lose your license! This was made VERY clear to MDs in my circle of contact. It didn't start with COVID, but it escalated. Even before insanely stupid "diagnostic guidelines" were forced on physicians. The pattern of these "guidelines" is define something observable as a problem, identify the drug that "treats" it, and sell more drugs. When the drugs damage other parts of the body (like liver or pancreas) no problem - we have more drugs to sell!
I had surgery on my foot in 2021 (long story). The doc prescribed opiates for pain. I explained politely I don't take opiates (how doctors killed my mom). He explained he was obligated to prescribe them, I wasn't obligated to take them. When I asked why he said "I like my license - nuff said". I got it.
And now they don't want to talk about it. Wonder why...
Nope
All the lawyers (4) I know got the $12,000 maximum, or whatever the maximum was, in less than one week of filing for it and did not have to repay it nor were they audited.
None of the entrepreneurs I know got even one penny, even after submitting their tax returns to the bank that was to facilitate the transaction.
Banks handed it out like candy to any business with a revolving line of credit and a payroll. Gambling by taking that cash hoping it would be deemed a "grant" and not a loan to be paid out stuck me as nuts. Worse, was no need show one's business suffered any cash losses by being locked down.
Yep- been to the DC area lately? When I was a kid, Fairfax was a sleepy little town and definitely not wealthy. Try buying a decent house there now. Gov’t IS the employer!
#TeamSnoutsInTrough
Right. I mean look at what it takes to get elected these days money wise.
“That was precisely the reason the System was created at Jekyll Island: to manufacture whatever amount of money might be necessary to cover the losses of the cartel. The scam could never work unless the Fed was able to create money out of nothing and pump it into the banks along with ‘credit’ and ‘liquidity’ guarantees. Which means, if the loans go sour, the money is eventually extracted from the American people through the hidden tax called inflation.”
—G. Edward Griffin, “The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve”
Additional relevant excerpts:
“The damage done by the banking cartel is made possible by the fact that money can be created out of nothing. It also destroys our purchasing power through the hidden tax called inflation.”
“The savings and loan industry, is really a cartel within a cartel. It could not function without Congress standing by to push unlimited amounts of money into it. And Congress could not do that without the banking cartel called the Federal Reserve System standing by as the ‘lender of last resort’ to create money out of nothing for Congress to borrow. This comfortable arrangement between political scientists and monetary scientists permits Congress to vote for any scheme it wants, regardless of the cost. If politicians tried to raise that money through taxes, they would be thrown out of office. But being able to ‘borrow’ it from the Federal Reserve System upon demand, allows them to collect it through the hidden mechanism of inflation, and not one voter in a hundred will complain.”
“Warburg’s revolutionary plan to get American Society to go to work for Wall Street was astonishingly simple. Even today, academic theoreticians cover their blackboards with meaningless equations, and the general public struggles in bewildered confusion with inflation and the coming credit collapse, while the quite simple explanation of the problem goes undiscussed and almost entirely uncomprehended. The Federal Reserve System is a legal private monopoly of the money supply operated for the benefit of the few under the guise of protecting and promoting the public interest.”
—Anthony Sutton, former Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution, & Peace, quoted in “The Creature”
Excellent MAA. Have you read Carl Menger? Economics is a behavioral science, not a mathematical one. Many years ago I became enamored with the work of Paul Samuelson, the Physics Ph.D. who won the Nobel Prize in economics. After working in finance, I quickly discovered it was mostly useless. A few years back I wrote a paper on money: what it is, how it works, and how it is used by banking systems. I am now in the process of rewriting it as a simple 35-40 page short book, which I plan to self-publish and sell (a few bucks). Until recently no one seemed to have an interest in the subject, but as the financial reckoning approaches, interest increases. (Sorry for shamelessly plugging my book)
Are you familiar with Kahneman? In his "Thinking: fast and slow" he references an experiment done with economists, business analysts and the like.
Basically, they perform at the level of the statistical average or below, but cannot accept that, instead insisting that one need their "special knowledge and skills" to invest and profit.
It's akin to how some sports commentators are wrong way more than blind guessing would be.
From my own exepriences when studying nationa economics at uni, I think the major mistake economists make is to think that it is a natural science, not a social one (behavioural, as you said), which makes them look for rules in the same way and of the same kind, as in chemistry or physics.
Maybe getting back to the original meaning oc "economy" would be good.
I have not read Kahneman, but I will look into it. Thanks, Rikard. As a financial advisor for 15 years with hundreds of clients, I can tell you that economics is least 80% behavioral.
For those of you with children & grandchildren, teach them this stuff from an early age with Tuttle Twins books & series! (I’m not an affiliate) re-educating the youngsters is def part of the plan!
That cartoon from 1934 is amazing.
That cartoon from 1934 was prescient.
Change a few names.
Look around.
Weep.
But back then "The World's Greatest Newspaper" could publish a cartoon making this point. Many folks then noticed what was going on. See "The Revolution Was" by Garet Garrett, written I think in 1938.
pretty much, because what else can we do?
This is my first look at the entire cartoon. Years ago I saved what I now see is the lower left quarter because it was so illustrative, but nothing compared to the whole!
Bad Cat...you just keep getting better.
Instead of being on the "Road to Serfdom", I would describe it as being made to “Run the Gauntlet Toward Serfdom”.
We still ultimately arrive at serfdom, but in our case we are beaten, chastised, and humiliated along the way by those who would make themselves our feudal lords.
Sociopathic feudal overlords.
Is there anyone reading this who does not understand it at this point? But those who have chosen not to hear by now cannot be made to. I'm not ready to kiss prosperity goodbye, and yet, I know it doesn't really exist. This is borrowed time. We don't deserve our wealth; it's built on nearly nothing at this point.
The wealth is not all fake. It's based on our accumulated societal capital. Many generations worked hard to get us to this point, and now we are sqandering it. Borrowing from the future and stealing from the past.
I agree with that. But do you think our standard of living has outstripped that wealth base? It feels to me like even those of us within our material means are somehow over our skis, because there’s so much fiat bloat in it.
Yes, we've outstripped the wealth base, but it's hard to tell by how much. The worst part is not all the paper wealth that will disappear, but the productive capacity that we let them destroy. We will need to rebuild someday, but with decayed infrastructure, poorly educated entitled young people, and no more factories here to work in, it will be tough. Imagine Germany or Japan after WWII, but with a rapacious China stripping our resources to pay for their products.
At least Germany and Japan had an excuse…their infrastructure was bombed out and their youth was exterminated during the war years…our infrastructure and youth decayed due to the rot within our political class. It’s a damn shame.
Not just destroy, but consolidate the remnants of in the hands of the monetary usurpers. Because they are first to the trough, they can acquire the assets at inflated prices and strip them away from the rest of us. Blackrock provides a good example.
Yeah, they will take what's left - if we let them.
The biggest challenge is deciding which hopeless battles are worth fighting anyway. As Gandalf said, "Hope? There was never much hope." And yet.
Ok, so when are we all agreeing to quit paying taxes??
google "puerto rico acts 60, 20, 22"...
If not for the fact that most my wealth is currently tied up in a Corn Beer and Jolly Rancher Farm in the suburbs of Lima - quite the Investment Opportunity, you see - I'd be taking advantage of PR Act 20 in a heartbeat.
You're so lucky! I wish I owned a Jolly Rancher farm.
#GreenApple
Blueberry!
But I don’t want to move to PR. I want my tax dollars used at home.
They are on to you. 20k new IRS workers in 2 years. You'll be in jail before you can say "it's not fair".
good quote I heard on a tv series I was watching -- "If your own country betrays you, to whom do you then owe loyalty?" (series is Poldark on Prime, which has nothing to do with anything, but sometimes good writing applies universally.)
Right now I am reading a book called "When We Walk By" by Kevin Adler and Donald Burnes about homelessness in America. It is a real eye-opener how various societal systems conspire and collide to create and perpetuate homelessness. Many of us here may be only one misstep, one medical crisis, one disaster, one accident, one job loss, even one rent or mortgage hike away from being homeless. I know I am, which is why I am vitally interested in housing issues. This is something that the well-off and housing secure cannot understand. I could go on and on about the stupid questions--and yes, Virginia, there ARE stupid questions--that I get on this and related topics. I am going to say that often the person that is going through a hard time is MUCH more aware of what is and is not available in terms of resources than the person who has never been through that particular battle yet presumes to know where this other person can go for help. The BEST thing you can do to help your friends and neighbors who are struggling is to become educated yourself, get FIRST-HAND knowledge of the resources available and what is needed to qualify for them (or conversely, disqualify). Don't just say "Go to legal aid" if a friend or a family member needs legal help and can't afford a lawyer. YOU make that call to legal aid and find out exactly how difficult, how time-consuming, and in the end, often inadequate that can be. It is SO VERY FRUSTRATING having to educate people; a simple yes/no question often turns into a nightmare interrogation that tells me the person I am speaking to hasn't a clue and often doesn't want to have a clue about how the system works or doesn't work for poorer people.
This book was an eye-opener even for me. If you've wanted to know why don't the homeless do this or that, this book will tell you. And there is a lot on how our current tax system contributes to the problem by giving tax breaks to people who really do not need them but taxes the people who can least afford it. And how the "poverty line" is set unrealistically low, so that many low-income working people can't qualify for help. So what happens is that a person who makes just enough to get by is penalized. They can't take oodles of deductions off on their taxes. They are forced to use the EZ form which doesn't allow for deductions. And because they are barely making enough to get by, all the tools available for those who are better off aren't available to them. No, they must pay their taxes and that's it. No loopholes, no getting around it.
I really believe that we are in a race to the bottom and that we are on the road to becoming what used to be called a "third world country". If you had told me 50-60 years ago that homeless encampments would be common, not only in the largest cities but even in the smaller ones, I would not have believed you. What I see around me reminds me of things I've heard about the Great Depression. There were people who were insulated from the worst of it back then, too. Both my parents lived through the Depression, but they were lucky, their parents had relatively good paying jobs. They never stood in a breadline, they never experienced unemployment, they never experienced homelessness or hunger. Things were tight, yes, but, they were well-off compared to many people. I do believe we are right now living in another Great Depression; but most people don't see it because it hasn't hit home to them.
An excellent post, and a good reason to own assets with a very long horizon to selling. Examples are index funds and gold. I own a stock that I bought in 1995, kept buying and never sold a share of, and have no immediate plans of selling.
* Regarding gold, it is not the greatest asset to hold, an almost-useless commodity that earns no earnings and pays no dividends. But it can easily be held long term and (as of now) selling one ounce can be done without IRS reporting
well, yes until they start trying to tax:
1. unrealized gains
2. wealth
both are being mooted and the latter in particular is a core practice in collapsing empires. when you see that one kick off, it will be the sign that the end is very, very soon.
see also: making private gold ownership illegal. not that they did just that in the US in 1934. it was not legal to own gold again until 1974 once we went off the gold standard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Reserve_Act
The illegality of gold ownership was the red flag. If we were really on a "gold standard", gold and paper would be interchangeable. The fact that they were not tells you that they were printing money not backed by gold. "Duuuhhh, How can we have stagflation?" asked the Economic Idiots. When the French asked for their balance of payments in gold, the jig was up. And suddenly, like magic, no more gold standard!
I remember the gold story. I believe that only one person was prosecuted for violating that Act. Gold can be held clandestinely and is fungible, meltable etc and can always be sold close to scrap value, plus/minus 2 percent.
The bad thing about gold is that a lot of it disappears when its owners die and it is dangerous to own due to crime potential.
The wealth tax is near-inevitable and might lead to instant evaporation of much "wealth" while at the same time making the government the biggest voting stockholder.
Bitcoin is digital gold, but better. You can move across the world with the seed phrases in your head if need be, no one even need know you have it, and it will be wherever you are when you need it. And there will be no more mining of Bitcoin after 21M coins, unlike Gold, which is also debased at 2% per year. And you will be able to send it where you like, to purchase what you like, for next to nothing. Try trying to send someone overseas or even cross country a million dollars in gold. Transport and security will eat you up. It will be pennies for the bitcoin transaction.
The government can make it illegal for you to own it, but even a swat team won't be able to take it in a raid.
so long as you cannot readily spend it and governments control the banks and the systems by which you can turn BTC to dollars, it's really not that useful especially when all transitions can be seen and flagged. you're aware that US gov't follows every BTC transition in real time, yes? and can bar coins from exchanges? just how does one feed a family, pay rent/mortgage/pay for healthcare etc in such a system? you can send BTC offshore, how to you bring value back under current KYC to say nothing of what's about to come down with NSA now having the right to compel pretty much any entity in the US that has access to an internet system or device to help them spy while being under gag order on revealing it?
i have been around BTC an awfully long time and heard lots of hype and lots of promise. it's been quite a bubble trade. but ask this: is it materially closer to being able to let 100 million people buy lunch tomorrow than it was 5 years ago? because i don't think it is. it's just a highly monitored speculative beachball batted around by traders. that's not the same as being a currency.
Your comments are all valid, Gato. I can’t get lunch with it, and George Gammon just travelled S America trying to use bitcoin and gold, and he didn’t fare well with either. Still, we have peer to peer transaction that is possible, and even though it represents almost zero transactions now, when everyone finds themselves under surveillance, those transaction may become more significant, as more people will be motivated to get off the Gov’t money rails.
There has to be a parallel political track, to stop this crazy control grid from closing down.
"well, yes until they start trying to tax:
1. unrealized gains"
And they'll surely issue credits for all Unrealized Losses as well.
Private safes in concrete with rebar welded to it. You end a backhoe or dynamite.
Holding gold (physical gold in your possession) is not an investment, it's an insurance policy against inflation, currency debasement, and financial asset confiscation. It has zero holding costs and is universally accepted. Stocks, however, are great - until they're not. As the government becomes more rapacious, they will start going after financial assets like equities. Your "ill-gotten" market gains will be taxed to feed and house the poor people of LA and Oakland, because, you know, white privilege.
All good points that I am not completely comfortable with, but very true
LOL, usually you are the one making people uncomfortable Igor.
You can’t eat gold, can’t drink it can’t breathe it. Who cares other than having a few pieces ... and then silver is probably a better bargain
Once you get past the "individual fight for survival" stage, you will need to trade with others in order to continue to survive and thrive. Do you plan on just using barter?
This doomsday scenario will not last long, looking at history, or it will be the apocalypse and not matter anyway. Owning more than a little bit of silver is not useful if you need to “trade to survive” (that is a barter system) and hoarding trade goods makes you a target for criminal gangs whereas having specialized skills (nurse, medical doctor, electrical engineer etc etc) makes you a valuable asset. I don’t need to plan because we own a ranch in a place where basic needs like food and water are already covered indefinitely. It is just a way of life for people for generations, not a doomsday plan
*jots down Canned Beans, .223, Caramel Cremes on The List*
Remember, you can get a FREE Reader's Digest Copy of "The Road To Serfdom" here.
Send it to anyone you think might benefit from it. There's even a Road to Serfdom in cartoons as the back. Strangely, it was paid for by General Motors.
https://ogre.substack.com/p/free-readers-digest-copy-of-the-road
Thank you! I subscribed.
Thank you!
Demand originates with the state. Without state spending, the value of fiat currency is unspecified and there is no aggregate demand.
In othere words the state has to spend for fiat to have any absolute value; it is only at this point the market can "spend".
This all happens simultaneously while they are the arbiter of currency "supply"....hmmm....
If it sounds like a scam...you're not mistaken.
The ultimate fix that's left us with no "fix".
Sadly ALL States are beholden to the Feds for money. I mean talk about being held in check by the balls!!
It's not state spending that makes fiat viable, it's three other things: It's the state's declaration of legal tender, the state's subjugation of banking, and state taxation. If the state declares it's currency as the only legal tender, then even if you want to barter or use another currency, you must still obtain the state currency to pay taxes. You are also forced to borrow money and repay it in the state currency, although in third world countries with weak currencies, this may not be strictly adhered to.
We are saying the same thing.
They have made themselves the "unmoved mover".
The exact opposite of Pareto optimality
True, but it's not obvious when the government doesn't have the power of coercion. Venezuela is printing and spending like crazy, but people secretly use dollars, euros, and gold instead in an enormous black market. Citizens in wealth western countries never experience this because they are so used to a relatively stable fiat currency.. They don't know how weak the government's position really is.
"Demand originates with the state."
Supplier =/= Demander
Problematic eh?...:)
Feels circular.
Or a mobius strip
Double-helix seems apt, given a certain virus and the "vaccine" for it. . .
Ever noticed an increase in shops who will buy your silver and gold? Notice how they always seem to pop up when times are bad? Know what you should be holding, that's out of their system? I'm not going to keep saying it.
To summarise: Tax is theft. Those who say it is necessary to pay for all the wonderful things Government do for us, are just following the Mafia explanation why you have to hand over your money to Luigi and the boys when they visit, or get your liver cut out. Government = Mafia = extortion and protection racket.
16th Amendment established the ability to tax incomes; 17th turned senators from representatives of each state as a political unit to long-term representatives of the voters...
good point.
it's telling that the two were ratified so close together. 16th was feb, 17th april both in 1913, just as wilson was getting ready to ride roughshod over us.
he really was the start of american fascism. and so much of his team wound up working for FDR.
It helps explain part of why FDR was so awful.
The 17th amendment effectively ended State's rights.
This basically prevents us from having a Bicameral Congress.
It's supposed to We the Little People of The House vs. The Interests of the States but now it's all just We the Little People vs... We the Little People.
*reponders., shakes head* I don't really feel all that represented.
In truth, you can never have any government existing without the master-slave equation as its only foundation. Go ahead and try it. It is impossible. The nature of all governments is to promote serfdom to ensure it continues to exist. Ever know of a government that wanted to go out of business on purpose? Or admitting it is a failure and needs to be dissolved?
If there were no slaves, government would not be needed for much of anything and that is why government must constantly take care of us. We become dependent upon them and therefore we are now serfs and slaves.
After thousands of years of this nonsense, the slave class is more or less afraid of it's own shadow. It has no clue as to how to exist without a government controlling it. That does not mean it couldn't be done.
It is obvious to everyone....
Representative democracy has failed.
We need to modify the way we let our governments do the business of “promoting the general welfare”.
Ross Perot called it The Electronic Townhall.
Citizenship is not about writing letters to elected officials or voting some good person into office.
Citizenship is about the Ratification or Annulment of each line of every law, rule, regulation and supreme court decision on the books or that is on the docket waiting to be turned into law, policy and taxes.
We also need a mechanism to accommodate citizen proposals for infrastructure improvements and maintenance.
Nothing short of this is going to ameliorate the situation for the body politic.
During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Ross Perot observed that: "a general lack of accountability among elected officials and those in the bureaucracy is the one specific reason that the people of America suffered…. and our only means of correction is to inspect their work and hold them accountable.”
Mr. Perot went on to note that this can easily be done with computer programs. He called it: THE ELECTRONIC TOWNHALL.
“It is only logical that it will become our Fourth Branch of Government”, he said.
This is the first thing I’m reading this morning. It’s April, so the tax man has depleted the “I want to go to work so I can make some money “ feeling . Now this. I think I may just go back to bed.