Thanks Sandy. I enjoy getting to know your story more. It sounds like we agree on many things but still come to different conclusions as to why things are the way they are.
In your response to “Stop fixing” you mentioned that we cannot go back to a specific set of practices to use as a template for what we need to do today to get us out of this mess. You said; we are in dire need of intelligent, innovative, freethinking visionaries who can’t be bought and sold. That sounds like a good idea, but is it that even possible? Even the most honest leaders with the best of intentions end up needing to use force and coercion in order to implement their ideas into society via the government. Isn’t that why taxes, Social Security, Public schooling etc., are mandatory rather than voluntary? Every totalitarian dictator in history obtained control of the population by starting out as an innovative intellectual with an intelligent anointed vision to improve the greater good of the collective. Stalin, Mao, Jong-ill, Hitler, Castro, and Pol Pot all had utopian visions to instill economic fairness and social justice in their countries. All the citizens had to do was sacrifice self-serving individualism in place of the security and fairness of the collective good.
These countries also had (have) very strict gun control laws against the citizens. The problem is when the government is more heavily armed than the citizens it never ends well for the citizens. So it is a good thing that the citizens are heavily armed in America, but since our government is the most heavily armed group of thugs in the world; they fear no one, not even its own citizens and that’s scary. It’s even scarier how much of a police state we have become with an insane amount of imprisonment for victimless crimes.
I’m also trying to figure out how you come to the conclusion that healthcare costs more here than anywhere else. I agree medical care costs more in America than it would in a free market. But my information shows that other countries that implement price controls and mandate healthcare services through taxation have higher costs (lower prices, but the lower the artificial price, the higher the actual cost), lower quality, higher demand, lower supply, and more black market activity. I need to find out more about this “affordable healthcare act” to see how many artificial incentives and constraints will be implemented that change human behavior which result in a big mess of “unintended” consequences. By the way, when congress passes any bill with key words in the title like, “affordable”, “patriot”, “freedom”, and “fairness”; run as far away from that as possible.
You attribute greed and religion to why things are so messed up. I agree with you that legislation based on religion and morality only leads to tyranny. Laws that are used to improve justice or morality, only decrease personal liberties. Laws should only be used to prevent injustice in society. People can practice religion all they want, just keep it away from the law books. I think we have different definitions of what greed is though. I see greed as being a natural human behavior that can be good or bad based on the context that greed is acted out in. If you are greedy and you profit by using government force as leverage, that is bad because one must take wealth from a productive person, and that is the same as theft. If you are greedy and make large profits by providing a product or service in the marketplace, then the equity of everyone in that mutual transaction is greater than it would be without the product or service being provided. In a totally free market you can make as much profit as you want and no one else will become poorer from that. You say people went bankrupt and overextended themselves because of greed. I say it’s because of artificial incentives and constraints implemented in the marketplace by the government in the name of helping the less fortunate. In a true free market one cannot use legislation and regulation to get ahead or get a bail out at the expense of someone else (taxpayers), therefore, in a free market one would have the incentive to be financially responsible and not overextend themselves or go into debt.
I think most people in this country would agree with you that we need the right leaders in government. I don’t seem to come across many people that agree with me when I say; “I don’t consent to being governed by anyone but myself.” It’s a very lonely feeling being a libertarian in America. Perhaps if we stopped spending so much time focusing on who will be the next elite intellectual control freak with an anointed vision for society to tell us how to live our lives, and spent more time focusing on governing our own lives, we would realize that we could achieve complete freedom. We seem so focused on using the government to tell others how to live their lives by using force, coercion and extortion. My core principles of self-governance consist of respecting the liberty and property of others, don’t use force or aggression against others unless it has been initiated against me, love myself, strengthen myself, love others, strengthen others.
I enjoy hearing your stories from the past Sandy. You have had a lot of different experiences in life (yet still so young) and I enjoy getting your perspective on anything and everything. It keeps me on my toes. I can understand how you attribute greed and religion as the sources for the mess we’re in. I would attribute collectivism and dependency upon government as the source of our mess. The more we become dependent upon government, the weaker we become as individuals.
