Hello from Acapulco Bay,
Valentine's Day… blegh. I don't like any widely accepted "holidays" just because of the collectivist nature of them. I look at the world as full of individuals, each with their own needs, wants and desires and don't like the feel of any holiday that everyone is almost forced to adhere to. Valentine's Day is definitely near the top of my list of the holidays I dislike.
First, it is clearly a contrived commercial holiday that, much like Christmas, forces you to go out and do some stuff you otherwise likely wouldn't do. If you want to have a romantic evening with a person you should just do it when you feel like it not because you have to. And much more comfortably, not squeezed into overfilled restaurants and pay twice the price for the pleasure so you can do it all on the same day and same time as the other sheeple.
Of course, my wife sees things differently. Most people from the Mexican culture love holidays… any holiday. And they have one almost literally every week and some run for weeks at a time. The Christmas holiday lasts from December 15th to January 7th. Don't even bother trying to get any business done during that three week period. Near the end of that period where no one works, on January 6th, is Dia de Los Reyos Magicos, celebrating the three wise men and… again, many gifts are purchased for the kids. Then, just a few months later is Children's Day where again the kids receive gifts and attention. Then, soon after that is Easter which is a week long holiday but most people take two weeks off for it.
Then there is all the statist holidays, Constitution Day, Benito Juarez's birthday (ex-president), Labor Day, Independence Day and Revolution Day.
And, of course, if anyone you are even mildly familiar with has a birthday a big fiesta is planned… often weeks or months in advance.
It is never ending… and, especially here in Mexico, it is a wonder anyone ever gets any work done. Some parts of the culture are very nice however. Many people here like to enjoy themselves a lot… and they do. They seem to put life, love and family far above work.
As an example, our maid, who we pay about $15/day recently had a job offer that would pay her nearly double that. She turned it down.
"Why?" I asked. Most people I know who are offered a similar job for twice the pay would jump at it.
"I like it here," she said. She told me about how she loves our kids and didn't want to be away from them.
Many people here are like this man who doesn't have a lot of assets who won't sell a beach he owns for $60 million… prefering just to live there, be happy and just charge people $5 to use it.
Many people here put things like that first and money second. Many taxi drivers could be making more money by driving around looking for fares but they'd prefer to just hang out in the shade of a tree and talk with their friends most of the day and just make enough to do it again tomorrow.
There is nothing morally right or wrong about being that way… it is just the way many people here are. And, the differences between the happiness levels of your average American (who usually will put money and work before lifestyle/happiness) and your average Mexican (who does the opposite) is profound. Most places I go in the US (which is almost always larger cities) the people look unhappy and stressed… down here, outside of Mexico City, most people look completely happy.
It really shows in the US. One in ten Americans now take antidepressant medication. It isn't just the culture that makes them feel so unhappy, however, it is also because they are constantly bombarded by negative media and the economy and social structure has been built in such a way as to make most people into slaves… losing half their earnings each year to extortion (taxes) and a significant amount taken by stealth through counterfeiting (inflation). And, constantly living in fear of being assaulted or extorted by heavily armed gangs that are nearly on every block (law enforcers) enforcing a myriad of arbitrary opinions (laws) that have nearly 50% of males arrested before they are 23 years old and sent off to the world's largest incarceration system/rape camp.
Add to that that antidepressant drugs are nearly lobotomozing and highly dangerous (almost every school shooting – the ones that were real at least – were done by someone on antidepressant drugs) and things will only continue to get worse in the US from every perspective.
And now, of course, comes a President who just announced during his State of the Union theater that he is now just going to do whatever he wants and go around Congress… effectively saying he is now an outright dictator… and no one seemed to notice or care. In fact, Congress gave it thunderous applause.
Funnily enough, although not at all surprising for a politician, that exact thing is what he said he would fight against in 2008 when running for election.
Why people still listen to and applaud these politicians is beyond me. They should be laughed at, shunned and ignored.
UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE USSA
After speaking at a bitcoin event in Mexico City on Wednesday I'll be taking my life into my own hands again by going back to the USSA… Las Vegas specifically for the Liberty Mastermind Symposium.
I also just accepted an invitation to speak in front of 10,000 libertarian college kids in Los Angeles at United We Stand in Los Angeles on May 10th. I'll mostly be telling them to drop out of school and that they are mostly fucked… but then give them some solutions to how they can effect change and find freedom and prosperity
United We Stand is raising money for their cause though. If you like their cause and would like to contribute, take a look here.
I don't know why so many of these freedom minded events are in the USSA. It'd make about as much sense as holding them in Pyongyang. There will be countless rules and restrictions, police everywhere, numerous stories of people being stopped, searched and kidnapped and of course plain-clothed CIA agents watching us closely… after all they consider those who believe in freedom or even the constitution to now be terrorists.
For that reason I will likely be holding a freedom minded conference later this year in Acapulco, by far the freest city in North America, called Anarchapulco. Those from the USSA can actually come down here and see what semi-freedom looks like. I am betting once many do they won't go back.
UNTIL NEXT WEEK FROM LAS VEGAS
Enjoy the Olympics. It is a time where you can watch bizarre sports, that you have never even heard of like the two man luge and cheer for a person from your tax farm competing for gold medals that contain nearly no actual gold and watch them cry afterwards and say how proud they are to have won for their tax farm. While I respect the dedication and skill and lifetime of hard work many of them put in they should cry at the end and thank all those who helped them made it happen like their coaches, friends and family… not their tax farmers.
The best story coming out of the Olympics this year, however, was that the Jamaican bobsled team went to the Olympics because of $30,000 in contributions in dogecoin (similiar to bitcoin).
Who did win the two man luge, by the way? Wait, I don't care.
