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Ahem… Chokeflation
Posted: 20 May 2012 08:39 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 16 ]
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“We can hope that the founding principles of our country maintain enough sway that violence against those of us who disagree will be rare, and that the option of leaving, even if it requires substantial financial loss, will still exist.”

If everybody came to Cambodia it would be too crowded and I’d have to leave and go to Burma! 

(Yo, I’m not part of the solution, I’m part of the problem.  I caused the credit crunch!!!!!)

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Posted: 20 May 2012 02:11 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 17 ]
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My choice would be, in your parlance (and mine by the way, as my blog is called The Radical Liberal), ultra-liberalism.  Your countryman, Frédéric Bastiat, was an early exponent, and I would find a society based on his ideas as expounded in The Law quite acceptable, even though I disagree with his natural rights foundation (von Mises and Hayek also found natural rights untenable).

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Posted: 20 May 2012 02:12 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 18 ]
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Isn’t Burma an up-and-coming country?

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Posted: 20 May 2012 02:25 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 19 ]
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That’s a tough juggling act in reality Brian, true ultra liberalism would likely acknowledge that life, liberty and property are natural rights, though I see your point. I thought Burma was a shaving cream!!!

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Posted: 20 May 2012 03:04 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 20 ]
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I will refuse to pick a side when both sides retain the fundamental flaw (market control through fear or authority), and hope, with Brian, “that the founding principles of our country maintain enough sway that violence against those of us who disagree will be rare, and that the option of leaving, even if it requires substantial financial loss, will still exist.”

I have a bit of a problem with this claim:  “Bah, governments or politicians don’t have power today, only “Finance” does.”  The power that concerns me is that used to forcibly prevent me from providing investment opportunities to people who might be willing to take a risk on a good idea, or preventing my friend Jeannette from baking stuff in my house and selling it to support herself, or preventing private citizens from protecting themselves from renegade federal agencies (like the IRS), or preventing people like Bernard von Nothaus from providing a stable form of money, or, more generally, preventing competition against privately owned privileged institutions (like the Federal Reserve, in the Nothaus case - he created the “Liberty Dollar”).

I think that if you subtract the government power out from the power of finance, finance once again returns to the useful industry that helps people buy thing with promises and helps to keep them honest - one with only as much power as any such useful industry ought to have.

RE Burma:  I bet Burma could use people like Julia just as much as Cambodia.  But since Julia has dibs in Cambodia, perhaps Burma would be the better choice.  Dibs, you know, “property rights”.  Respect for that would go a long way these days.

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Posted: 21 May 2012 02:33 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 21 ]
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I would rather our founding principles be returned to their original tenet.

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Posted: 21 May 2012 05:12 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 22 ]
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Yes, there is no doubt that returning to the ideas of the founders would be a big improvement, but it is clear that the ideas and documents were flawed - otherwise, we wouldn’t be in this situation.

Natural rights as a basis for a free society is clearly history.  It requires an anthropocentric/religious viewpoint that will not fly in our post-Darwin world and has been gradually undermined by statists.  Arguments/discussions about negative vs. positive rights abound in libertarian circles and get nowhere.

At this point it is my belief that the only way forward is through an agreement on a societal methodology - that the freer the society, the more likely it is that problems will be solved and that it will be done quickly.  True liberalism is a discovery process, and unburdened of the idea that the state is required in order to establish the structure for contracts, etc., can produce results that reflect human values.

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Posted: 22 May 2012 10:35 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 23 ]
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I am leaving Cambodia and moving to Burma as soon as the goddam government here starts imposing sales and sin taxes on everything. Already have to pay income tax.  Bah.

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Posted: 22 May 2012 12:55 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 24 ]
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And then, soon enough, Burma will do the same thing or worse. That, in a nutshell, is the problem.

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Posted: 23 May 2012 01:30 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 25 ]
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The non-sinners don’t seem to have a problem with sin taxes.  But just wait until there are laws against overeating in the USA.  HA!!!

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Posted: 24 May 2012 07:46 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 26 ]
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There already is a tax on junk food and candy, etc.

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Posted: 26 May 2012 11:29 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 27 ]
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Hmm well
Pint of beer in bar in Canada: $3.00-$6.00; pint of beer in bar in Cambodia: $.50-$2.50 unless you are in the highest highest highest-end hotel. 
Pack of smokes in Canada: $10-$15; pack of smokes in Cambodia: $.20-$1.00.
Interestingly though, a cup of coffee usually seems to cost about a dollar anywhere you go, even though coffee is not THAT expensive to buy and make yourself.  If I were going to start a business I would definitely start a coffee shop. 
Am I digressing?  Dum de dum…

 

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Posted: 26 May 2012 11:36 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 28 ]
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And what is the average income in Canada versus Cambodia. Inflated paper is how people get confused. The theft rate, however, is quite similar under any existing government.

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Posted: 26 May 2012 11:43 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 29 ]
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Well in my case I was working full-time as a tech-support agent on PEI before I came here and was making $10/hour before taxes (significantly higher than minimum wage); here I make $10/hour teaching before 10% income tax.  Khmer people do NOT earn comparable wages usually, mind you.

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