@ “economic growth”… particularly the part where he starts talking about virtual reality as having something to do with this mysterious “growth”.
Growth is not an essential ingredient of free market theory. In fact, growth is just an unwanted by-product of the fact that it takes time for solutions to problems to actually be applied to those problems. Once the steam-engine is invented, it takes quite a bit of time before steam engines actually begin solving people’s problems and having a significant impact on reducing the cost-of-living. Calling it “growth” is masking - almost reversing - the true nature of the phenomenon.
Growth is not even a proper end. People desire satisfaction of their wants but whose wants are satisfied by “growth”. Perhaps you can argue that a taxing authority that can cut a larger slice of the larger economic pie without rousing the suspicion of the unwitting plebes is satisfied by growth. But I can’t think of anybody else who is.
As for the virtual reality thing, this is a blatant misrepresentation of the concept of economic satisfaction - satisfaction is not “tingling the pleasure centers of the brain”, it is removing felt uneasiness of any kind. Virtual reality is only a factor in enhancing one’s leisure time… think of computer games as they are with present technology. Otherwise, the idea of people laying around in Matrix cocoons zapping themselves with pleasure jolts is … science fiction nonsense and doesn’t even merit discussion.
FDR Economics - This month in 1932 FDR signed an executive order to move Thanksgiving a week earlier in hopes that people will start their Christmas shopping and get the economy out of the depression.
Sometimes i wonder if Obama is even trying to get us out of this recession. Hello OBAMA!!! Move Christmas around and lets shake this economy up!
History lesson on why wages rise - “its a system called ‘welfare capitalism’ and companies basically bribed their employees not to join unions.” - there you go people. The only reason wages rise, other than unions, is to bribe the people too stupid to join unions from not joining unions. What a joke.
When you’re talking about how fiat currency/central banking causes booms and busts to someone, and later on when you bring up how Hong Kong is free-market capitalist and “look at how successful they are,” when they ask why Hong Kong is so successful when they are on a fiat currency system, what do you say?
Wheylous I trust you’ll be plugging LHQ on every nook and cranny of the politosphere?
Also, just browsed through your articles and noticed that you didn’t reference Kevin Carson? Why not? In my opinion, one of the best selling points of liberty is helping us understand how badly we’re getting screwed by the regulatory system. Carson is excellent at helping to understand how un-free our markets are and what free one’s would look like. He’s great on land politics, healthcare, labor unions, all some of the ostensible “weak spots” of a free market, all revealed to be manipulated by the state for skewed outcomes. Have you read Studies in a Mutualist Political Economy?
@Wheylous’s post of the article The Myth of the Lone Villain
Initially I thought this was going to be about the division of labor, but the author doesn’t really go there. He really misses the point:
As technology develops, it will become cheaper and easier to create your own hidden high-tech haven. It follows that inventing and maintaining an operational death ray will also be cheaper and easier than it is today.
What he misses is the fact that defense technology will develop, as well. We will have better ways of detecting and preventing crime before it happens. So even though the weapons themselves will be easier to make, it will be more expensive to make weapons that will be effective, weapons that can get around the defense mechanisms. Maybe someday the good guys can even create shields that defend against nuclear explosions, who knows. It is this that will make the lone villain’s plans less likely to be executed.
Jargon - I am far from done. Also, I am only one individual collecting the lists. If I had some help the lists would be a lot more thorough. I will implement a feature where users can suggest articles.
No. If you’re the mistress of the CIA, you don’t secure your communications with Google or Yahoo. The root problem is that the emails can be read by the FBI or Yahoo or Gmail or anyone at all. In other words, encrypt your shit. This is the head of the goddamn CIA we’re talking about, not some marketing exec having a fling. And while you may not be the head of the CIA, I think it’s bad advice to say “use Google, not Yahoo.”
How about some solid advice: encrypt anything you don’t want people other than the recipient to be able to read. If Google or Yahoo can read it, the FBI can read it. It is my opinion that the digital surveillance capabilities of USG are underestimated by several orders of magnitude in the mainstream press. There are tools out there that can help you with this.
Now, this won’t stop traffic analysis (checking what IP you’re using etc.) However, if your communications cannot be read, traffic analysis is of very little value because they won’t have “evidence” of anything to arrest and charge you, anyway (which is where traffic analysis matters). If you’re doing the kinds of things where even traffic analysis is a threat, you need to be thinking at a professional level of security. There are tools for evading traffic analysis but you really need to start to understand security holistically at that point. Unless you like jail.
