Whereas in reality, that's exactly what the other side does. Government-funded science, government-run schools, &c., all make sure that the proper, useful theories are taught to the people, while the ones counterproductive to the goals of government expansion are not.
Corporations are nothing more than individuals voluntarily acting together. Banning a corporation from doing something is banning its owners, stockholders, executives, employees, &al., from doing something. How does people acting in concert with one another deprive them of rights they may have as individuals?
This proposal may not wholly force people to live a healthy lifestyle, but that is its intent. It forces people to stop engaging on one unhealthy activity. What's next?
Precious metals are very different than paper money. The only thing that gives paper money its value is the "faith and credit" of the printer. If that backing becomes non-credible, the money isn't worth the paper it's printed on. This has happened countless times throughout history.
The value of precious metals is intrinsic---a combination of their rarity and the labor/production costs. Gold has always been nearly universally accepted as a medium of exchange, along with silver.
I guess you don't know what the word intrinsic means.
A U.S. Federal Reserve note has about $0.04 of intrinsic value, whether its face value be $1 or $100. Here are the intrinsic values for U.S. coinage---again, nowhere close to their face value.
if i was that close to sea level i would design and build stuff to account for it getting wet (and maybe even staying wet for extended periods of time).
How un-American of you, taking personal responsibility and making choices of your own free will like that! Don't you know that around here we're supposed to let the government "planners" do all our thinking for us and then tell us what we can and cannot do?
I know you were being sarcastic, but you actually did hit on the key difference: The government passing a law forbidding itself or its political subdivisions from doing something is an entire world of difference from them forbidding private entities (businesses or individuals) from doing something. The latter is infringing on people's freedom. The former is, in this case, protecting it.
Or the next step up from barter, using precious metals or something else that has intrinsic value, as a medium of exchange. That avoids the classic problem with barter, that you have X and need Y but can't find someone who has Y and needs X, but has most of the advantages: It's still outside their system of surveillance and taxation, and it holds value against inflation unlike cash.
The definition of counterfeit is simply false or inauthentic. Here, look it up.
But I guess some people are such loyal slaves to their government that they actually believe the government can redefine reality. 2+2 = 5 if the law were to define it as such, right?
Not just the credit card cartels. The more the government wants to spy on people's bank records, electronic transactions, and so on, the more people will move back to physical cash.
By the "banks" he probably meant the government-controlled central banks that nearly every nation-state has, or the fact that the "private" banks are really just satellites of these central banks nowadays.
The U.S. Government prints no money. The Federal Reserve, the U.S.'s central bank, does. I believe this works the same in many other countries with central banks, too.
Funny how that works, isn't it? The government creates a system that then justifies further regulation of people's lives. First they eliminate choice in health care, then they can use that as an excuse to eliminate all sorts of other choices in your life.
Yet another reason government-run health care is a terrible idea.
Yup. The government wanted to "help" American corn farmers so they subsidized HFCS until it supplanted imported cane sugar. Now everyone's fat. And since they "helped" us a couple years ago by mandating health insurance and creating a taxpayer-funded system for the poor, now everyone's health is everyone else's business. So they want to "help" us all again by banning large-quantity HFCS-laden soft drinks, "helping" people become healthier and "helping" lower the burden on the health care system.
Move to New Hampshire if you don't like this crap. We actually had a state rep (Catherine Mulholland, D-Grafton dist. 10) propose a soda tax here in 2010. The bill was defeated, with the help of the most effective liberty lobbying group in the country, and the rep lost her re-election in 2010, also due in no small part to the liberty activists opposing her.
This is another point against anyone who claims NASA, and going to space in general, is a complete waste of money.
Completely illogical. That NASA may occasionally produce useful results doesn't justify what it costs to keep NASA running. Someone else may have been able to produce these same results for much lower cost.
A broken clock is right twice a day. The rest of the day, it sits around wasting space. That it's right twice a day doesn't imply that it's worth keeping.
A representative should be elected who would work strictly as an advisor and make all policy and voting decisions based on the will of his or her constituents, regardless of personal opinion.
Where does the Vermont Constitution and the U.S. Constitution enter into this? Are you saying you'll support blatantly unconstitutional laws if that be the will of your constituents?
True. But the other major problem with government-backed currencies nowadays is inflation, which slowly, steadily suck the value out of the money. The government intentionally prints more money than is needed for the wealth that it represents; they to use the new money at face value, but then when it enters the market, it causes inflation for the rest of us.
Bitcoin has had its share of volatility, but it's not directed, intentional inflation, and in the long-term Bitcoins are supposed to deflate---increase in value as a fixed amount of Bitcoins come to increase a steadily increasing amount of actual wealth.
Meanwhile, the EUR is imploding due to abject irresponsibility on the part of its government backers, banks, and investors, and the USD is probably not far behind. I wonder how long off until we see wheelbarrows full of euros and dollars being used to feed woodstoves rather than as currency. The growing sovereign debt crises and $700T (yes, that's a "T") derivatives market going tits-up are going to make BTC's problems look like a joke.
Yet I see comment after comment of how irresponsible and amateurish BTC is, and how we should only trust regulated, state-backed currencies. Yeah.
Until the government decides to steal that money from you: "Freezing your assets" because they suspect you of some crime, "garnishing" or "levying" your bank account because you didn't "voluntarily" pay their taxes, and so on. And then of course, the government can just decide to print more money at will, stealing wealth from everyone, through inflation.
The risk of theft or loss with government-backed banks is the same; the thieves are just more organized. And if you consider inflation, the slow, persistent, and inexorable theft of your banked USDs is all but certain.
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Whereas in reality, that's exactly what the other side does. Government-funded science, government-run schools, &c., all make sure that the proper, useful theories are taught to the people, while the ones counterproductive to the goals of government expansion are not.
Corporations are nothing more than individuals voluntarily acting together. Banning a corporation from doing something is banning its owners, stockholders, executives, employees, &al., from doing something. How does people acting in concert with one another deprive them of rights they may have as individuals?
This proposal may not wholly force people to live a healthy lifestyle, but that is its intent. It forces people to stop engaging on one unhealthy activity. What's next?
Precious metals are very different than paper money. The only thing that gives paper money its value is the "faith and credit" of the printer. If that backing becomes non-credible, the money isn't worth the paper it's printed on. This has happened countless times throughout history.
The value of precious metals is intrinsic---a combination of their rarity and the labor/production costs. Gold has always been nearly universally accepted as a medium of exchange, along with silver.
I guess you don't know what the word intrinsic means.
A U.S. Federal Reserve note has about $0.04 of intrinsic value, whether its face value be $1 or $100. Here are the intrinsic values for U.S. coinage---again, nowhere close to their face value.
How un-American of you, taking personal responsibility and making choices of your own free will like that! Don't you know that around here we're supposed to let the government "planners" do all our thinking for us and then tell us what we can and cannot do?
How is a prediction a "fact"? A fact is something that is. A prediction by its very nature is in the future, and nothing about the future is certain.
I know you were being sarcastic, but you actually did hit on the key difference: The government passing a law forbidding itself or its political subdivisions from doing something is an entire world of difference from them forbidding private entities (businesses or individuals) from doing something. The latter is infringing on people's freedom. The former is, in this case, protecting it.
I am not a Republican.
Government "planners" should be barred from existence.
Or the next step up from barter, using precious metals or something else that has intrinsic value, as a medium of exchange. That avoids the classic problem with barter, that you have X and need Y but can't find someone who has Y and needs X, but has most of the advantages: It's still outside their system of surveillance and taxation, and it holds value against inflation unlike cash.
The definition of counterfeit is simply false or inauthentic. Here, look it up.
But I guess some people are such loyal slaves to their government that they actually believe the government can redefine reality. 2+2 = 5 if the law were to define it as such, right?
Not just the credit card cartels. The more the government wants to spy on people's bank records, electronic transactions, and so on, the more people will move back to physical cash.
By the "banks" he probably meant the government-controlled central banks that nearly every nation-state has, or the fact that the "private" banks are really just satellites of these central banks nowadays.
The U.S. Government prints no money. The Federal Reserve, the U.S.'s central bank, does. I believe this works the same in many other countries with central banks, too.
"... and how it's helping us achieve, at least in theory, an ancient ideal---money that cannot be counterfeited."
And money, and an economy, that is absolutely, 100% controlled by the government.
I always capitalize "State" when referring to the thugs-in-general rather than the geopolitical subdivisions. That sometimes makes it less ambiguous.
Funny how that works, isn't it? The government creates a system that then justifies further regulation of people's lives. First they eliminate choice in health care, then they can use that as an excuse to eliminate all sorts of other choices in your life.
Yet another reason government-run health care is a terrible idea.
In other words, if we can't convince people to live healthfully, now we'll just force them.
Yup. The government wanted to "help" American corn farmers so they subsidized HFCS until it supplanted imported cane sugar. Now everyone's fat. And since they "helped" us a couple years ago by mandating health insurance and creating a taxpayer-funded system for the poor, now everyone's health is everyone else's business. So they want to "help" us all again by banning large-quantity HFCS-laden soft drinks, "helping" people become healthier and "helping" lower the burden on the health care system.
Isn't the government so helpful?
Move to New Hampshire if you don't like this crap. We actually had a state rep (Catherine Mulholland, D-Grafton dist. 10) propose a soda tax here in 2010. The bill was defeated, with the help of the most effective liberty lobbying group in the country, and the rep lost her re-election in 2010, also due in no small part to the liberty activists opposing her.
Completely illogical. That NASA may occasionally produce useful results doesn't justify what it costs to keep NASA running. Someone else may have been able to produce these same results for much lower cost.
A broken clock is right twice a day. The rest of the day, it sits around wasting space. That it's right twice a day doesn't imply that it's worth keeping.
Where does the Vermont Constitution and the U.S. Constitution enter into this? Are you saying you'll support blatantly unconstitutional laws if that be the will of your constituents?
True. But the other major problem with government-backed currencies nowadays is inflation, which slowly, steadily suck the value out of the money. The government intentionally prints more money than is needed for the wealth that it represents; they to use the new money at face value, but then when it enters the market, it causes inflation for the rest of us.
Bitcoin has had its share of volatility, but it's not directed, intentional inflation, and in the long-term Bitcoins are supposed to deflate---increase in value as a fixed amount of Bitcoins come to increase a steadily increasing amount of actual wealth.
No, you just bought into the lie that eliminating a narrow, tiny, little bit of government regulation should be called "deregulation."
Meanwhile, the EUR is imploding due to abject irresponsibility on the part of its government backers, banks, and investors, and the USD is probably not far behind. I wonder how long off until we see wheelbarrows full of euros and dollars being used to feed woodstoves rather than as currency. The growing sovereign debt crises and $700T (yes, that's a "T") derivatives market going tits-up are going to make BTC's problems look like a joke.
Yet I see comment after comment of how irresponsible and amateurish BTC is, and how we should only trust regulated, state-backed currencies. Yeah.
Until the government decides to steal that money from you: "Freezing your assets" because they suspect you of some crime, "garnishing" or "levying" your bank account because you didn't "voluntarily" pay their taxes, and so on. And then of course, the government can just decide to print more money at will, stealing wealth from everyone, through inflation.
The risk of theft or loss with government-backed banks is the same; the thieves are just more organized. And if you consider inflation, the slow, persistent, and inexorable theft of your banked USDs is all but certain.
Don't forget partially hydrogenated vegetable oil: You can make your pink slime taste just like chocolate!