Another week has passed, and about two weeks before you gave all your hard earned money to the government of the USSA. And Canadians did the same a few days ago. How'd that working out for you? Want to join in the discourse? Send your questions, comments, queries, and concerns to tdv@dollarvigilante.com, comment on a post, or get on the forums.
This week was rife with your comments, questions and responses and this week's Feedback Friday will attempt to get to many of them.
UNIVERSITY OF TRUTH
Dear TDV,
I'm a student at UW-Milwaukee, set to graduate with my bachelors in Organizational Administration in May 2014. I've decided that I don't want to pursue an MBA as originally intended. Where can I learn truth instead?
Kim D.
Jeff's Response:
Nice call! A Masters of Business Administration! I really can't believe anyone thinks that has any value to begin with. Having started up and operated dozens of business I can give you a Masters of Business Administration in one sentence: Find something people want and find a way to offer it to them either more cheaply or in an improved form… or both.
I'm not sure what other people are spending six years learning. Oh yeah, 90% useless information and 10% about how to operate a business in fasco-communist police states like the US. How to fill out government forms. How to adhere to their accounting methods so you can pay them their tax. How to deduct the mandatory payroll taxes and Obamacare payments.
I'm amazed at how people think traditional school is good for anything. What percentage of your all time favorite rock bands went to four years of College in "Rockology"? Or what percentage of your favorite rappers went for their masters degree in "Rapology?" The answer is none. Had they gone to such a place it is almost for certain they would not be the artists they are today. Learning is doing. Traditional schools are meant to make you part of the amorphous blob. There is only one other instance where the word "school" is used in the English language. A school of fish, i.e a bunch of prey animals with tiny brains grouping together and mimicking each other in panicky fashion to reduce the chances of getting eaten. You don't want to be in the school of fish; you want to be the shark… or at least going in the other direction of the easy-target school of fish when the shark comes your way.
I've started a new semi-regular column in The Dollar Vigilante newsletter entitled "Business Idea of the Week for the New Economic Paradigm". I see business opportunities everywhere. MBA's mostly just file off resumes and hope to be one of the millions of suit and tie working salarymen.
Get out and start a business. Or travel. Or both. Either will give you a real education that is priceless… and all without being chained to student loans for the rest of your life.
BITCOINATM PROJECT
Jeff's revelation that he will not be continuing on with BitcoinATM this week evoked a lot of reaction. A few of the comments were to do with Jeff doing a "verbal handshake" for his involvement.
One anonymous commentator stated: "Next time, get it in writing. Especially when money or women are involved."
Jeff's Response:
Not many people know this… and to add on to my above comments about MBAs: I'm sure they don't have a class on it, but almost everything to do with business and, in fact, with life is not based on a written contract. It is based on your reputation and your word. In my 20 years in business I have never signed a contract for anything other than because the other party wanted one or I needed to do it in terms of regulation or to cover my butt whenever investor money is involved. You could also do a contract just so both parties can remember what they agreed upon.
Otherwise, however, contracts are not really necessary in business. If you gain a reputation for not living up to your word, you will quickly find yourself out of business.
Another anonymous poster put it best, "You can always tell a successfull business man or woman by the standard to wich they hold a hand shake. A hand shake legaly has no value but in life and in longterm holds more value than enything else."
CANADIAN PASSPORTS?
Mr. Berwick,
I read your blogs, listen to your interviews, follow Stephan Molyneux's work, and similar "alternative" news sources.
My wife is a Canadian (like you, she is from Edmonton) with lawful "permanent resident" status in the US and our two children have been officially recognized by the Canadian government as Canadian citizens by birth.
I know you have stated that a Canadian passport does not have any advantages (as compared to St. Kitts or Paraguay) but, in the event that much more terrible things happen in the US – and that Canada would somehow be an improvement – my wife and children have Canadian passports and could, in theory, leave the US and go to Canada.
Given what I've shared above what would you recommend I do, for myself and/or all four of us, so that we had an "escape hatch" of my own/our own?
I appreciate your time if you happen to get to this message.
Thank you,
Sean H.
Jeff's Response:
Hi Sean,
I don't believe I've ever said that for an American subject to have a Canadian passport has no advantages at all. In this prison planet in which we currently live the more passports you have the better. The reason is it gives you options. So, it is definitely worthwhile to have both. I definitely consider Canada as being a better safe haven for The End Of The Monetary System As We Know It (TEOTMSAWKI) over the US because Canada has no where near the amount of massive government, police and military as does the empire itself.
Canada to me is rather hilarious. It is third largest country or place on Earth, after Russia and Antarctica, with 9,984,670 square kilometers. It should be noted, however, that both China and the US have more actual land (not including water) than Canada including all their territories. That said, China's population is around 1.3 billion people while Canada's is 0.035 billion (35 million). There are suburbs of major cities in China with a larger population of Canada. Mexico City has a larger population than Canada. Doing the math, if all Canadian subjects spread out equally there would be a little more than four people per square kilometer. They wouldn't even be within yelling distance of each other unless it was a rare wind and snowless day.
More than being hilarious, I find it disgusting that the people in Canada heavily guard this gigantic land mass that could be home to countless more people. Although, I'm really not sure how many would really want to live there due to the weather. But the Canadian government heavily guards not only citizenship but even tourist visas. I've had numerous friends and relations turned down just to try to visit the not so Great White North.
But, that said, that's why Canada may offer some safe haven for TEOTMSAWKI. Somewhere between 70-90% of Canucks live within 100 miles of the US border. That means almost the entire land mass above that is virtually empty. I've driven across Canada and through the Yukon and believe me that is no exaggeration.
For this reason, hiding out somewhere in the frozen northern parts of Canada should have you fairly safe from any major fallout. The question is, do you really want to live there? I'd rather hide out in the warm outback of Australia or in any number of equally uninhabited warmer climes in South America, Asia or Africa than in northern Canada.
As well, as warning, Canada is almost leading the way in terms of oppression when it comes to bank accounts and bitcoin. As we reported in a non-joking article on April Fool's Day, "Canadian Deposits as Safe as Cypriot Deposits", the Canadian government has already stated that if Canadian banks have problems, they can take the Cypriot way out and just take it from depositors. And just in the last week Canadian banks have been closing the accounts of bitcoin-oriented businesses.
With 90% of Canada's economy being trading with the US and the Canadian government essentially a smaller, more polite version of the US government, betting it all on Canada is not a risk I am willing to take. In fact I left Canada in 2003 for that reason amongst others.
HOMEGROWN SHOULD ALWAYS BE THIS GOOD
Gary,
Thank you for this insightful article that has particular significance to my situation at the present time. The note at the bottom says this is a condensed version of a previous Homegrown newsletter, so I must have either missed or glossed over the previous article because this is the type of information that I think is very pertinent to those of us stuck in the USSA.
When I subscribed to TDV Homegrown I was hoping for informational and thoughtful articles like the current issue about the best ways to position oneself financially for those of us who are not independent millionaires and thus cannot afford to leave the country, as well as how to be as safe and immune from the police state as possible where we are (ie; stay out of big cities that are liable to be sealed off like Boston, and how to go about choosing a relatively safe location to minimize government harassment, etc), but unfortunately this type of information is all too rare in TDV Homegrown.
Anonymous
Gary's Response:
Dear reader, Homegrown has such an article by yours truly every time. I'm not sure how you could have missed them.
Homegrown is an outgrowth of me dragging my feet on the matter of permanently leaving the US. As Jeff put it, "You're eventually going to get blackbagged and disappeared by Homeland Security if you insist on staying there…but we as well make the best of it until then." So we started Homegrown as an ongoing saga of a US insider's attempt to stay free and keep his modest wealth and purchasing power intact in the economically collapsing police state.
In addition to that article whose excerpt you found so useful, I've written on a very simple, no-cost means of holding your money in a way that will benefit from both dollar strength and dollar collapse. In the upcoming issue I'll be revisiting that method because new information makes it more vital than ever. I'll also be looking at how to live free of both rent and mortgage payments while maintaining the rights to a living space. If you'd like to find out more, just click here.
But thanks for your feedback on Homegrown. We've only done a handful of issues and we are not yet in our final form. And trust me, we'll be visiting all those other topics you bring up…and more…in the coming months. We do need to hear from readers to figure out in which direction to head. I have to point out, however, that the article you liked so much is only a condensed excerpt edited down for the blog. We go into much greater detail in Homegrown itself. Give it a try. In keeping with the spirit of the newsletter we price Homegrown very affordably. You don't have much to lose, but odds are you will find something useful every month for only about a dime a day.
