Police: Local volunteer police force I'll allow. No county, state, or FBI. Most property crimes would see reduction by allowing citizens the choice to arm themselves and letting homeowners hire security companies for their subdivisions. Today's cops are ticket writers and chalk line drawers.
firefighters: Insurance company provided or volunteer.
road construction: You're kidding me. Private roads funded by businesses on those roads or by homeowners who use the roads in their area. My subdivision's roads are privately funded and gorgeous.
public education: It's a horror. Private education only. Kids in America are dumber today than ever. Education is not a right. Today's public education is the epitome of nannydom.
Sewage/water treatment has provably been better by private companies. John Stossel did a 20/20 report ('Stossel Goes To Washington') about it.
Every important to me is my property: my body and my material possessions on my land. I have no need for civil rights within this sphere.
Let's go for a walk outside my property. If I come onto your property, I live by YOUR civil rules. You can tell me, in your sphere, to shut up, disarm, or leave. You can use force.
Let's both walk on public land. What civil rights are needed here? None. Before I go on public land or another's private land, I want guarantees that my property is safe. Our Constitution guarantees Government can't harm my property.
That's all that is needed. Ultimate, complete property rights.
Our Constitution uses the term people to mean every human, everywhere. Citizen means "of the State." Our Constitution protects the inherent rights of every person on thisbplanet from our government trampling on those rights.
The Geneva Convention has no standing outside of a Declaration of War by Congress. There was none. Any 'enemy' deaths caused by our troops since WWII (the last Declared war) is murder.
Bush, Clinton, they both committed treason by not upholding their oath to defend the Constitution.
The definition of Enemy Combatant is unimportant as the definition of Person forces us to judge the troops, leaders, and all politicians as traitors.
Guantanamo Bay is the fault of every citizen who voted. Our federal government ignores that the Constitution protects the inherent rights of every human on Earth from our State. Citizen, terrorist, alien legal or otherwise.
Read our Constitution. It rarely says [b]citizen[/b] except where it means it.
And those rights are granted you by the state -- and, as such, can be taken away, but only with good reason.
Wrong.
The rights are granted by God or by birth. The Constitution gives our government very restricted enumerated powers. Government grants us no rights.
Go read your pocket Constitution. 1st Amendment says nothing about "Congress grants you the freedom to speak." It says Congress shall make no law taking away your ability to do so. And so on.
people who constantly bitch about politicians but never vote
Voting is accepting the nanny state. Forcing 49% of people who disagree with you to accept your views as law is anti-civil liberty.
If we had more personal responsbility in this world governments wouldn't be able to get away with attitudes like this.
Right. This is why financial liberty is far more important than civil liberty. Cut off authorian access to your pocketbook and they'll be unable to affect your civil rights.
In the US (I'm unfamiliar with the UK), our rights are not granted by King nor State edict. They're inherent ("God-given") to every human born, US citizen or not. Our Constitution provides our government certain specific powers to appropriate certain specific rights of ours onto them.
Reducing inherent rights is an impossibility in the States. It is tyranny to trample on our right to be secure in our person and property when no warrant has been issued for a specific investigation into a specific crime.
Letting government infringe on our inherent freedom from witch hunts is scary. I know it is happening, but I'm not understanding how it protects us. Real criminals know the law and can get around all these government intrusions. That leaves only 'innocent' citizens as the target. With so many vague laws criminalizing behavior, you may be committing a crime without realizing it. Let your elected officials keep a log, just in case you forget to notify them of the crime you unknowingly commit.
It is unjust and unacceptable, and I am unwilling to be part of it. Should I mimic criminals now to keep myself safe from [i]government[/i]? Disposable phones, anonymous mailers, and all that?
Be sure terrorists already are safe from these injustices.
The UK business market continues to decline as burdens from Kyoto compliance make UK's unionized labor even less efficient on a global scale.
More lives will be lost and more suffering will be created than any CO2 emissions can create.
Exactly what Kyoto supporters want. Bring the middle class into the lower class through regulations and taxes rather than uplifting the lower class through opportunity and expansion of the industry base.
I disagree. One of my retail stores is next door to a VERY Mexican neighborhood. Some of my employees/customers are Mexican ("right off the boat"). They work very hard and send a lot of cash back to their families there. Sure, the families don't live like kings, but many of them have better standards of living than 20 years ago.
The US has not produced as much as we did in the past (due to government inflation causing higher labor rates causing us not to be able to compete), and production is what helps keep money flowing in.
Inflation is only caused by government modifcation of the currency. It is a fact of the free market that is often hidden in Keynesian economic theory that we tend to look at as "fact." Our currency is backed by nothing. Currency is like any asset -- supply and demand causes its value to increase and decrease.
For more Rothbarding/Hayekian views on inflation, I'd recommend going to lewrockwell.com and checking out their search feature for the word "inflation." There are numerous explanations for why property values go up (when property as a whole should generally depreciate just like a car or a TV) and why inflation is a government by-product.
Savings and hard metal currency keep prices going down, not up, except when supply is not meeting demand.
I honestly don't see quality differences. Most of my favorite movies are embarrassing. They're favorites because I associate them with friends, inside jokes, and a time in my life when money wasn't a concern. Ghostbusters, North Shore, NL'sacation are terrible productions but my associated memories make them great movies.
Today, I can't afford them. I buy $4 DVDs (new and used) and watch them on my $1000 TV I bought on credit and will likely pay $2500 for when its paid off. $1500 in interest that could've gone to seeing terrible movies today with friends -- who also can't afford to go.
'My' theory of time preference is a century old. Hayek, Mises, Rothbard and now Rockwell have warned about overspending + government inflation + no savings = recession. Time preference is killing many markets.
My retail stores are youth focused extreme sports. Today's youth is overweight, short attention spanned, and tech savvy. Myspace is the new mall, AIM the new phone. I fear for my future because I didn't forsee the decline, nor did I savr. I spent thinking things can only get better. The million bucks I spent in the last 15 years is gone -- helping other countries get better but not paying dividends to me.
I don't blame anyone but me. When everyone accepts the reality I profess, we can start making changes. Unfortunately I believe that the laws of the free market will surprise many people still living on future earnings.
Most movie theaters are located in very high rent areas. Of course tickets will also be pricy. I don't think there's a quality drop, it seems pretty status quo.
I truly believe that our beloved Internet is to blame. You're seeing the same death knell in brick and mortar retail, restaurants, and even car buying. In a capitalist view, time preference is making new markets. The idea behind time preference is that markets flow towards the faster and cheaper sources. Price is rarely the reason.
Car dealers are selling cars at cost -- with no change in the market slow down. Cars are bought with future earnings often (financing). A lot of people fear their future earnings. Movie theaters prosper when people have money and time right now. Job security has declined, debt has gone way up, savings are nil.
My retail stores are down 50% since 2004. I have less cash to pay my employees. They have less cash to go to the movies. The movie theater employees have less cash to buy my goods, so they buy online -- money that is 'outsourced' to another state, unlikely to return to my local economy. Rinse, repeat.
Our dollar loses more value every day as the Fed inflates our currency. That is a fact. My local economy suffers, and in my experience the money that is made online by big warehouses tends to end up in Mexico and Asia. Not enough is recycled back to theaters, car dealers and local retailers.
Eventually time preference always wins. As our standard
of living declines, the standard of living in Mexico and Asia increases. The Internet is allowing the free market to balance itself out. Wage
internationally want to equalize no matter what government or big business wants to do. Its the law of a supply/demand reality.
Who here went to movies & restaurants often in the 90s? How many new cars at 8% interest did you buy then? How many new cars at 0% and employee price will you buy this decade? How much has your debt gone up in that time?
I can personally see the advantage. The faster the PC the more I get done. Energy is cheap -- until the price gets unmanageable, I'll use it to my work advantage. Solar, wind, whatever -- the costs prove we don't need them yet. I suffer with slower machines. 8 years ago I had 6 PCs churning out my work. Now I have my beast server and my Pocket PC Phone as my sole client. 1000W sounds like a dream -- more drives, faster response, and more productivity. Less frustration waiting, too.
For years we filmed terrible fan films knocking off Star Trek with our inside jokes. Bad editing, horrible lighting and desperate acting, but more than 15 years later we'll still quote the movies and laugh.
I'm buying this for sure, only because someone else put on DVD what we only dreamed of. I haven't gone to a movie theater in years but I'll happily support those who can do so much for so long.
Also thanks to the article poster or editor who used Coral for the link. Is the/. effect soon to be history?
Libraries originally came into existence by the altruism of wealthy individuals. They were endowed with trust funds administered to keep the libraries funded for the future. Private administrators ran these libraries under guidance by the rules established by the trust. If a librarian broke these rules, they were fired.
Today, most libraries are called 'public' and are paid woth tax dollars in addition to donations given to the public body administering the library. They're now restricted so much by general government laws and regulations that libraries are pretty much all the same.
The fallout of government censorship comes from this private to public change.
If you're against government censorship, support the return of privately run libraries. Wealthy folk have little incentive to endow new libraries as the public 'good' has created tax funded monopolies.
Actually, nowhere in our Constitution does it give Bush or any federally elected official the power to do anything with energy.
The DoE is unconstitutional. The fact that a private organization in California is taking on this role shows that California is wise to leave it to the individual people to decide on.
I honestly don't see what good it is going to do. I really have to see hard numbers to guesstimate if this is honestly a profitable venture or if there is some taxpayer leakage coming through this. How often have corporations said "and the taxpayers will not pay for it" even though we eventually do in the end?
By the way, if Bush or anyone else has to subsidize energy production, doesn't it make sense that it isn't even close to being "clean" if no one has taken a profit-initiative to investing in it?
Slashdot Mirror
Police: Local volunteer police force I'll allow. No county, state, or FBI. Most property crimes would see reduction by allowing citizens the choice to arm themselves and letting homeowners hire security companies for their subdivisions. Today's cops are ticket writers and chalk line drawers.
firefighters: Insurance company provided or volunteer.
road construction: You're kidding me. Private roads funded by businesses on those roads or by homeowners who use the roads in their area. My subdivision's roads are privately funded and gorgeous.
public education: It's a horror. Private education only. Kids in America are dumber today than ever. Education is not a right. Today's public education is the epitome of nannydom.
Sewage/water treatment has provably been better by private companies. John Stossel did a 20/20 report ('Stossel Goes To Washington') about it.
My waste management is already 100% private.
None of these items are government-only.
I'll agree with you, with reservations.
What the heck is a civil right?
Every important to me is my property: my body and my material possessions on my land. I have no need for civil rights within this sphere.
Let's go for a walk outside my property. If I come onto your property, I live by YOUR civil rules. You can tell me, in your sphere, to shut up, disarm, or leave. You can use force.
Let's both walk on public land. What civil rights are needed here? None. Before I go on public land or another's private land, I want guarantees that my property is safe. Our Constitution guarantees Government can't harm my property.
That's all that is needed. Ultimate, complete property rights.
When do civil rights come into play?
i agree with you, mostly.
I'm not pro-Constitution, I'm anti-State. But I'd like under a truly Constitutional government if I had the option.
Few elected leaders have been pro-liberty. Maybe 1 in 10,000. Ron Paul comes to mind.
Maybe more sophistry here, but 1 in 10,000 makes me believe that federal office is very corrupting. There is no solution.
I believe disunion is an option. 50 states > 1 State.
Mod parent up +1 Socialist Troll.
. Our nation's wealthy have no reason to do anything but hoard their cash right now
Where? Under the bed?
Money 'hoarded' in the bank = Money available to be loaned out = economic benefit
Money 'hoarded' in stock = Money transferred to others to invest in the economy
My money 'hoarded' under the bed = Reduction in the supply of money = Your money is worth more
Putz
I don't want nor need government. I'm giving up 50% of my income for what?
I have faith in those who agree with me. "There should be a law" is the worst thing someone can say.
I'd happily give up 100% of what government offers in a minute.
Dubai has grown like a forest fire with almost no government intrusion. Hong kong did very well with less government.
I'd like to rename 'government' to 'force' as I can't see any reason for it.
Financial freedom = property rights.
Property rights protect civil rights.
No legislation can grant civil rights. Only financial freedom protects us.
Take away governments' funding and they can't afford to breach our civil rights.
Freedom = Security
Freedom to bear arms secures my property.
Freedom from unwarranted incursion into my property secures it.
Freedom from entangling ourselves into the business of other countries secures us from the threat of terrorism.
Freedom from taxation secures my financial future.
Untrue and provably so.
Our Constitution uses the term people to mean every human, everywhere. Citizen means "of the State." Our Constitution protects the inherent rights of every person on thisbplanet from our government trampling on those rights.
The Geneva Convention has no standing outside of a Declaration of War by Congress. There was none. Any 'enemy' deaths caused by our troops since WWII (the last Declared war) is murder.
Bush, Clinton, they both committed treason by not upholding their oath to defend the Constitution.
The definition of Enemy Combatant is unimportant as the definition of Person forces us to judge the troops, leaders, and all politicians as traitors.
Guantanamo Bay is the fault of every citizen who voted. Our federal government ignores that the Constitution protects the inherent rights of every human on Earth from our State. Citizen, terrorist, alien legal or otherwise.
Read our Constitution. It rarely says [b]citizen[/b] except where it means it.
You vote, you accept. Stop voting.
And those rights are granted you by the state -- and, as such, can be taken away, but only with good reason.
Wrong.
The rights are granted by God or by birth. The Constitution gives our government very restricted enumerated powers. Government grants us no rights.
Go read your pocket Constitution. 1st Amendment says nothing about "Congress grants you the freedom to speak." It says Congress shall make no law taking away your ability to do so. And so on.
people who constantly bitch about politicians but never vote
Voting is accepting the nanny state. Forcing 49% of people who disagree with you to accept your views as law is anti-civil liberty.
If we had more personal responsbility in this world governments wouldn't be able to get away with attitudes like this.
Right. This is why financial liberty is far more important than civil liberty. Cut off authorian access to your pocketbook and they'll be unable to affect your civil rights.
In the US (I'm unfamiliar with the UK), our rights are not granted by King nor State edict. They're inherent ("God-given") to every human born, US citizen or not. Our Constitution provides our government certain specific powers to appropriate certain specific rights of ours onto them.
Reducing inherent rights is an impossibility in the States. It is tyranny to trample on our right to be secure in our person and property when no warrant has been issued for a specific investigation into a specific crime.
Letting government infringe on our inherent freedom from witch hunts is scary. I know it is happening, but I'm not understanding how it protects us. Real criminals know the law and can get around all these government intrusions. That leaves only 'innocent' citizens as the target. With so many vague laws criminalizing behavior, you may be committing a crime without realizing it. Let your elected officials keep a log, just in case you forget to notify them of the crime you unknowingly commit.
It is unjust and unacceptable, and I am unwilling to be part of it. Should I mimic criminals now to keep myself safe from [i]government[/i]? Disposable phones, anonymous mailers, and all that?
Be sure terrorists already are safe from these injustices.
The UK business market continues to decline as burdens from Kyoto compliance make UK's unionized labor even less efficient on a global scale.
More lives will be lost and more suffering will be created than any CO2 emissions can create.
Exactly what Kyoto supporters want. Bring the middle class into the lower class through regulations and taxes rather than uplifting the lower class through opportunity and expansion of the industry base.
$16 billion in pork. Ridiculous.
My household could use my $400 per year share for more worthwhile causes.
I wish they'd break down every government budget line item in "dollars per constituent" instead of incomprehendible totals.
I disagree. One of my retail stores is next door to a VERY Mexican neighborhood. Some of my employees/customers are Mexican ("right off the boat"). They work very hard and send a lot of cash back to their families there. Sure, the families don't live like kings, but many of them have better standards of living than 20 years ago.
The US has not produced as much as we did in the past (due to government inflation causing higher labor rates causing us not to be able to compete), and production is what helps keep money flowing in.
Inflation is only caused by government modifcation of the currency. It is a fact of the free market that is often hidden in Keynesian economic theory that we tend to look at as "fact." Our currency is backed by nothing. Currency is like any asset -- supply and demand causes its value to increase and decrease.
For more Rothbarding/Hayekian views on inflation, I'd recommend going to lewrockwell.com and checking out their search feature for the word "inflation." There are numerous explanations for why property values go up (when property as a whole should generally depreciate just like a car or a TV) and why inflation is a government by-product.
Savings and hard metal currency keep prices going down, not up, except when supply is not meeting demand.
That was me!
;)
The rants never die
I honestly don't see quality differences. Most of my favorite movies are embarrassing. They're favorites because I associate them with friends, inside jokes, and a time in my life when money wasn't a concern. Ghostbusters, North Shore, NL'sacation are terrible productions but my associated memories make them great movies.
Today, I can't afford them. I buy $4 DVDs (new and used) and watch them on my $1000 TV I bought on credit and will likely pay $2500 for when its paid off. $1500 in interest that could've gone to seeing terrible movies today with friends -- who also can't afford to go.
'My' theory of time preference is a century old. Hayek, Mises, Rothbard and now Rockwell have warned about overspending + government inflation + no savings = recession. Time preference is killing many markets.
My retail stores are youth focused extreme sports. Today's youth is overweight, short attention spanned, and tech savvy. Myspace is the new mall, AIM the new phone. I fear for my future because I didn't forsee the decline, nor did I savr. I spent thinking things can only get better. The million bucks I spent in the last 15 years is gone -- helping other countries get better but not paying dividends to me.
I don't blame anyone but me. When everyone accepts the reality I profess, we can start making changes. Unfortunately I believe that the laws of the free market will surprise many people still living on future earnings.
I disagree with most of the FP lot.
Most movie theaters are located in very high rent areas. Of course tickets will also be pricy. I don't think there's a quality drop, it seems pretty status quo.
I truly believe that our beloved Internet is to blame. You're seeing the same death knell in brick and mortar retail, restaurants, and even car buying. In a capitalist view, time preference is making new markets. The idea behind time preference is that markets flow towards the faster and cheaper sources. Price is rarely the reason.
Car dealers are selling cars at cost -- with no change in the market slow down. Cars are bought with future earnings often (financing). A lot of people fear their future earnings. Movie theaters prosper when people have money and time right now. Job security has declined, debt has gone way up, savings are nil.
My retail stores are down 50% since 2004. I have less cash to pay my employees. They have less cash to go to the movies. The movie theater employees have less cash to buy my goods, so they buy online -- money that is 'outsourced' to another state, unlikely to return to my local economy. Rinse, repeat.
Our dollar loses more value every day as the Fed inflates our currency. That is a fact. My local economy suffers, and in my experience the money that is made online by big warehouses tends to end up in Mexico and Asia. Not enough is recycled back to theaters, car dealers and local retailers.
Eventually time preference always wins. As our standard
of living declines, the standard of living in Mexico and Asia increases. The Internet is allowing the free market to balance itself out. Wage
internationally want to equalize no matter what government or big business wants to do. Its the law of a supply/demand reality.
Who here went to movies & restaurants often in the 90s? How many new cars at 8% interest did you buy then? How many new cars at 0% and employee price will you buy this decade? How much has your debt gone up in that time?
I can personally see the advantage. The faster the PC the more I get done. Energy is cheap -- until the price gets unmanageable, I'll use it to my work advantage. Solar, wind, whatever -- the costs prove we don't need them yet. I suffer with slower machines. 8 years ago I had 6 PCs churning out my work. Now I have my beast server and my Pocket PC Phone as my sole client. 1000W sounds like a dream -- more drives, faster response, and more productivity. Less frustration waiting, too.
For years we filmed terrible fan films knocking off Star Trek with our inside jokes. Bad editing, horrible lighting and desperate acting, but more than 15 years later we'll still quote the movies and laugh.
/. effect soon to be history?
I'm buying this for sure, only because someone else put on DVD what we only dreamed of. I haven't gone to a movie theater in years but I'll happily support those who can do so much for so long.
Also thanks to the article poster or editor who used Coral for the link. Is the
I'm offtopic but the reply was needed:
You don't need mod points here. They're not to be used to agree or disagree but to rate the quality of the post, or lack thereof.
If you like someone's opinions, add them as a fan.
I'll be happy to lead the way in /.'ing their phone system with my phoned-in question of "Why, public citizens?" until they answer.
Sorry, this is publicly federally-funded property. The 1st Amendment protects their freedom of expressing themselves on any federally-funded property.
Let's get that phone number, I've got time to remind them that they're responsible to me, the taxpayer.
Libraries originally came into existence by the altruism of wealthy individuals. They were endowed with trust funds administered to keep the libraries funded for the future. Private administrators ran these libraries under guidance by the rules established by the trust. If a librarian broke these rules, they were fired.
Today, most libraries are called 'public' and are paid woth tax dollars in addition to donations given to the public body administering the library. They're now restricted so much by general government laws and regulations that libraries are pretty much all the same.
The fallout of government censorship comes from this private to public change.
If you're against government censorship, support the return of privately run libraries. Wealthy folk have little incentive to endow new libraries as the public 'good' has created tax funded monopolies.
Actually, nowhere in our Constitution does it give Bush or any federally elected official the power to do anything with energy.
The DoE is unconstitutional. The fact that a private organization in California is taking on this role shows that California is wise to leave it to the individual people to decide on.
I honestly don't see what good it is going to do. I really have to see hard numbers to guesstimate if this is honestly a profitable venture or if there is some taxpayer leakage coming through this. How often have corporations said "and the taxpayers will not pay for it" even though we eventually do in the end?
By the way, if Bush or anyone else has to subsidize energy production, doesn't it make sense that it isn't even close to being "clean" if no one has taken a profit-initiative to investing in it?