TDV Week in Review October 14th, 2012

October 14, 2012 / Redmond W /

The bulk of the Dollar Vigilante crew is enjoying Libertopia here in lovely San Diego. I've spent most of the past few days rubbing shoulders with liberty-minded people, most of whom appear to be full blown anarchists and not just the usual Paulbots or libertarians obsessed with political action. There is a happiness and an ease here that comes from being around people of like mind. The mild Southern California weather helps, too.

At the risk of sounding cultish, I feel more at home here with these strangers than I do with my own family. These people here at Libertopia do not support my continual victimization by the state, after all. And they speak my language—voluntary society, the futility of voting, free cities, seasteading, Bitcoin, alternate currencies, and so on. A voluntaryist, anarcho-capitalist type easily falls into sync here. Part of me wishes it would last forever.

I arrived at Libertopia straight after visiting my genetic close relations, and the contrast between my biological family and fellow liberty-lovers is stark. Last week I reflected on my relationship with my nanny statist father. In the course of writing that essay I communicated with TDV senior analyst Ed Bugos about his own experience. Ed was the first true anarcho-capitalist I ever met and we'd since spoken about our experiences with our typically statist family members. Here's a bit of what he had to say on the subject of being the anarcho-capitalist black sheep in the family:

“My father is not totally a neo-con, but he is partially. He learns from the media. He has never read any real literature. He believes that capitalism is a necessary evil. But he also thinks that government provided healthcare, education, road system, and basic military are morally correct. He thinks all people should be entitled to these basic goods. He believes in level playing fields. And he has traditionally been a center liberal (his favorite politician was Pierre Trudeau).

I have argued with him lots about this. He also does not understand what fascism is, and he laughs when I talk about fascism in the US and of the police state. Yet he totally agrees with me about the global empire and military industrial complex. But he can't make the right connections on that. He constantly jabs at the market whenever he can, which leads to fights between us. Like once he said to my daughter when she asked about why there were so many commercials on TV: ‘that's capitalism.’ I got sooo mad. I said: why don't you ask grandpa what kind of TV they had to watch back home in Slovakia (then he would remember the propaganda and submit, but never totally).

My mother resents any kind of ‘deep thinking’ as unproductive. They are both inherently nationalistic. While they agree that we are heading towards socialism they don't agree that the state is a bad. My mom shakes her head at me when I try to demonstrate why it is a total bad, and unnecessary evil. She watches stupid TV programs full of political propaganda and when I criticize it or try to expose it her reaction is: ‘Argh, Ed, why can't you just enjoy…blah, blah, blah without analyzing things so much?’

So in a nutshell my father and mother cannot tolerate when I talk about the state because they don't ‘hate’ the state like I do. Remember Rothbard's article on the difference between libertarians who hate the state (like us) and those who just think it should be restricted (but don't hate it). That's basically the difference in me and my parent's views.

But the clearer my mind is to the evils of the state the harder it is to generally talk to them about anything. Until they realize that they are being defensive and lazy in their thinking I can no longer tolerate being around them. I don't hate them, I just don't want to talk to them. It's too painful—largely because they refuse to think critically about the views they hold dear.”

I can relate. I still love my family – it's a hard habit to break – but I have to try avoiding talking to them too often or too deeply.

Regards,

Editor, The Dollar Vigilante

What a week. We saw some potential VPs waste a few hours of network televisions spouting lies. The mainstream media (minus Fox) declared Biden the winner, but in reality we all lose. The uninformed sheeple heed and hawed over which criminal to “elect” king, content with the wool pulled way over their eyes. And, in the land of the true north weak and not so free, Canadians were saved from the evils of black market cheese and low grade pot.

Why haven’t you escaped the state yet?

In case you missed it, here’s our review…

MONDAY, OCTOBER 8

Inconvenient Observations on Residential Real Estate: US and Mexico

Jim Karger on the difficult-to-navigate housing markets on both sides of the border.

“It seems the banks' strategy is to manipulate prices higher by keeping inventory off the market, believing the gains on homes sold will exceed the losses incurred on their non-performing loans. Longer-term, the banks hope that their manipulation of prices will result in a change in buyer psychology, causing would-be buyers to believe a bottom is in, increase sales and then release the shadow inventory at higher prices while mortgage rates are at all time lows.”

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9

Freedom: A Truly Unknown Ideal

Ed Bugos on the science of economics and laissez faire capitalism, the enemy of the rich and powerful, and adversary of a freed economy.

“Mitt Romney does not represent my interests. If you are for free market capitalism and think that he represents your interests then you are really deluding yourself. The only ‘politician’ whose platform seriously aimed at free market capitalism in any sense that is consistent was Ron Paul’s, and the reason he lost is because most people don’t want free market capitalism. They want some bullshit between outright socialism and state controlled capitalism. They want economic fascism, except they would never call it that because most are ignorant about what the term means. It does not necessarily impute militarism, though if it did who could really argue that the US has not become almost completely fascist anyway, with a police state harassing hard working citizens at home and a military empire murdering and intimidating foreign peoples abroad all in the name of freedom!”

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10

Gas, Food, and No Lodging

Jeff Berwick on the inflated costs of our basic needs, and the manner in which their manipulated by the state.

“Notice in the charts on gasoline and food that for a very brief microsecond in 2009 the prices of all things fell dramatically. This, according to Ben Bernanke, is very bad. According to the stupidest smart man alive it is very important that nothing ever be cheap. When things drop in price, due to a deflation scare, he considers it to be one of his top priorities to ensure they do not remain cheap for long. Much of the western world also believes this, just look at housing. When house prices go down, most people think it is a terrible thing. That is, of course, because most people own houses. Everyone loves inflation when they own assets. As for people who don’t own homes? Too bad for them. And, the 636,017 estimated homeless in the US? Even tougher luck.”

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11

The Last Gang in Town: Income Tax vs. Caponse

Justin O’Connell considers the fate of Al Capone, a community focused businessman who had the audacity to provide the people a drink and not pay a cut to the state.

“Al Capone was a creature of the state. Without the black market created by the US government through Prohibition, the enterprise would not have had the immense “risk premium” that black markets create and which engender violence. His business merely met a demand in the country, just like all of the black market products and services available on the black market today.”

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12

Feedback Friday – October 12, 2012

What do the TSA, silver and gold, and Richard M. Nixon have in common? This week’s Feedback Friday, of course!