Happy Friday! Quite a week in the USSA: DOMA is dead, and everyone is now equal to pay the government off to get married… as Doug Stanhope said, "Baby, this love we got is so good, we got to get the government involved in this!"; the Wendy Davis filibuster showed what a joke elected officials are; and Edward Snowden is escaping government persecution by defecting to…Russia?
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.
On to the feedback…
THE RIPPLE EFFECT OF THE DOLLAR COLLAPSE
In the likely event that the dollar collapses, what will happen to the economies of Latin American countries such as Panama and Ecuador that use the dollar as their currency?
Thank you in advance,
Keith
Jeff’s Response:
Likely even that the dollar collapses? You are being far too kind with the word "likely". As Kyle Bass said:
"How do you solve a problem when you are running a 10% fiscal deficit. You are not going to get growth in the absence of private sector demand. So the government's idea now is we are going to export our way out of this. When I asked a senior member of the Obama administration last week, 'how are we going to grow exports if we do not allow nominal wage deflation?', and he just said we're going to kill the dollar. It's a dead answer but that's where we're headed".
This is an old communist tactic from Trotsky that even people in Chicago knew back when the USSA was freer.
The funny part, as you pointed out, is that a few countries around the world have actually adopted the Federal Reserve Note as their currency to "protect" themselves from past disastrous currency adventures.
As there is no historical reference on this there is no way too know what will happen as the dollar collapses. However, having been in almost every country in Latin America I do know that the people there will be much more prepared for currency collapse than those in the US who have no idea it is coming.
In Mexico, where I spend a fair amount of time, they've already gone through currency collapse in recent memory (1994). According to Wikipedia:
"…a pre-election disposition to stimulate the economy, temporarily and unsustainably, led to post-election economic instability. There were concerns about the level and quality of credit extended by banks during the preceding low-interest rate period, as well as the standards for extending credit."
Sound familiar? The biggest difference between what is going to happen in the US and the fallout of it throughout Latin America is that the Latin Americans have been there, done that, and in places like Argentina, it just happens every 10 years or so.
When it happens in the US, put on your favorite zombie movie and hope that is only as bad as it gets!
THE TRANSITION TO SMALL GOVERNMENT
Hi guys,
Really enjoy your emails and have taken some of your advice with my finances, including investing in crypto-currency and precious metals. I trade forex markets too, taking advantage of the volatility while fiat currencies still exist. I consider myself to possibly be a novice anarcho-capitalist, pending further research!
I have heard other anarchists and here in the UK common law activists speak wistfully of a society without rulers, and largely without rules except perhaps for the common-law principles of not causing loss or harm to anybody, to not breach the peace and to be honourable in one's dealings with others. Great principles, and a cause that I wholeheartedly support. However, how would we ever transition from a micro-legislated world to a world where people were expected to behave on their honour?
We would need to re-educate the zombie masses with ancient values that appear to have been lost in preference for meekly and unthinkingly obeying every statute that parliaments can conceive; and that would take generations. The sheeple seem to be addicted to blind obedience, toeing the line and demanding action from someone else when things happen that they don't like (and thus empowering those someone elses).
Perhaps it's through setting up micro-communities, such as Galt's Gulch, and disconnecting from established, flawed societies?
Your thoughts would be most welcome, and keep up the great work. I for one am looking forward to TEOTMSAWKI and a chance, perhaps, to build a society in which I would truly like to live.
Best regards,
David H.
Garys Response:
It's a fair question. How do you get people to obey rules and mores without the law? I suspect people also long wondered how do you get people to behave without the superstitions about punishment in the afterlife.
First I'd have to point out the sheer economic benefit of dealing fairly coupled with the power of reputation and potential shunning. Quite simply, those who steal, cheat or damage others or their property without compensating them will simply be excluded from the being part of the economy along with all its benefits.
If you never repay your debts, never abide by contracts and agreements, never show up for private arbitration if the need arises or abide by the judgment of those private arbiters…then who will deal with you? Good luck securing a living space from a landlord or from a seller. Good luck being allowed in grocery stores and restaurants. A cheat marginilizes himself in a free world. And in a free world where security and proctection are private, the consequences of trying to force your way with others or their property will be much more immediate. No waiting for public police to show up, take notes and never recover stolen property. In a free world, would-be thieves would meet with either immediate harm from their would-be victim or rapid response from protective services provided by insurance companies.
Quite simply, a voluntary world would work. Not only that, but it will work infinitely better than the statist world ever could. The trick is convincing people of that. I posit that only a small percentage of the Western population has the psychological makeup to receive that message over the brainwashing. The acceptance of anarchism will be as gradual as the acceptance of abolition. I don't think there is any quick fix or any amount of argument that can overcome a lifetime of emotional attachment to the centralization of violence.
TOO MUCH CREDIT TO THE GOVERNMENT
Hey TDV,
I love absolutely everything you guys to do at TDV, but I wish you would quit giving the government so much credit. Yes they have all the drones, and tanks, and soldiers, but that is fart in a wind tunnel compared to how well armed the population is.
If you talk to your average drone builder at Boeing, chances are they own numerous guns, and do not trust the government in any way shape or form. He's just there for the paycheck. Most people are getting pissed off at the government. And the government starting a war on its own land would make the guerrilla warfare in Vietnam look like a Sunday picnic.
The government tries to appear as if they have tons of super-secret technologies they can unleash on the minions. They don't, they just have unlimited budgets and LOTS of manpower (all though they will lose most of that manpower when the dollar goes kaput). Drones SEEM scary, but they are really just carbon fiber RC-airplanes with a small payload of weapons.
There are no factories mass producing them by the thousands because their bodies are made out of carbon-fiber, which requires several thousand man-hours of work for each drone (and NO, these processes cant automated. Not even the best engineering school could build a robot that can wetsand molds or properly layup carbon wetted with epoxy resin. It ALL requires extremely detailed hand work and a sharp set of eyes).
The only real power the government has is the illusion of wealth through the printing of fiat currency. Once the government can't write its paychecks (or the paychecks are worthless) they will lose most of the power. There will be no one to keep all of their systems running. This is why we could switch over to a fully anarchist society in a matter of weeks without firing a single bullet.
Randy W.
Gary’s Response:
I really enjoyed reading that, Randy, and even found myself getting hopeful as I read it. But I'm forced to curb my enthusiasm…
I certainly agree that if the goverment actually tried to tap into its unlimited ability to write checks by borrowing from its pet monopoly bank, then the wheels would come off the train…and fast. The USSA has become so great a monster by being so discreet parasite. It has masterfully kepts its bloodsucking at levels that don't completely hinder the productivity of the host. At least it used to.
But these armed thugs are really, really…armed. Their little jig is unsustainable, but there is an almost unimaginable capacity for violence on their part long before economic reality strangles them to death.
Those drones…they're not otherwordly or magical…but they do represent a whole new dimension in the ability to project deadly force. They are essentially "just" RC airplanes, sure. But those things are deadly. And they are downright creepy. They don't only exist as the bigger models that drop bombs on Middle Eastern innocents. They will also be coming in smaller varieties that can mimic the tiniest insects and infiltrate your home without you knowing and inject you with a tiny payload of poison. And the small drones are getting smarter and smarter, working in unison with an eerie collective intelligence.
Then there is that colossal data center they're building (already built?) in Utah that has so much data storage and data mining capacity that they seem to be inventing new words on the fly to describe it. The problem is that the technology is getting so cheap so rapidly that it's easier than ever for the state to get up to its evil surveillance and destruction. That's the problem with the minimal state: it allows so much wealth accumulation and technological progress that the state can then morph from annoying, immortal mosquito into nightmare 400-foot-tall insectoid monster by nourishing itself on the productivity it allowed to be built.
So now, even as this monster snaps the verterbrae of the nation's economic spine, it can continue to thrive, intimidate, surveil and kill. In fact, it can do these things more than ever.
I love your optimism, Randy, but I really don't think we could switch over to an anarchist society that quickly…though maybe the current incarnation of the state could indeed eventually collapse without shot fired. If the Soviet Union could slip so quietly into that good night, maybe the same sort of thing could happen here.
Violence or not, I certainly don't believe that the any Western nation-state is ready for a voluntary/anarchist society. Especially the USSA. Outside of a few dozen anarchists, everyone I know is absolutely and completely in love with their slavery and with the violence of their political masters. It's going to take another few decades (at best) before the anything resembling a majority among the white folks takes anarchy seriously (and stops asking about the damned roads). Until then, the world's best hope for freedom and progress are decidedly NOT in the West. TDV has spotted that hope thriving in Latin America, especially places like Chile with its free market enviornment. That's a large part of the reason Chile was chosen to host Galt's Gulch.
I truly hope you're right. But I just can't believe that you are. I think the USSA government will be able to afford its evil far into the future, well past the expiration date of anyone reading this. I also believe that the vast majority of Americans will happily submit to more taxationa and more control. They're just too far gone. They're like masochists, welcoming the violence done against them, revering their chains. "Regulate us! Tas us! Spy on us! More! More!" It's sick.
I have a few financial interests in the States, but I know I'm eventually going to have to leave. And sooner rather than later. In fact, my financial interests are just a way for me to gather some resources to make leaving a bit more comfortable. But there's no way I can stay here. Not within easy reach of such a monstrous government and not among a slave population that craves more abuse. If I were you, I'd look into Galt's Gulch, Chile, instead of waiting for the USSA to remember the early anarchism that made it so great.
