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To achieve liberty and peace, two powerful human emotions have to be overcome.
Number one is "envy" which leads to hate and class warfare. Number two is "intolerance" which leads to bigoted and judgmental policies. These emotions must be replaced with a much better understanding of love, compassion, tolerance and free market economics. Freedom, when understood, brings people together. When tried, freedom is popular.
We have been forced to choose between the "lesser of two evils" usually involving economic interventionists swayed by envy, or social interventionists swayed by intolerance of habits and lifestyles. The misunderstanding that tolerance is an endorsement of certain activities, motivates many to legislate moral standards which should only be set by individuals making their own choices. Both sides use force to deal with these misplaced emotions. Both are authoritarians. Neither endorses voluntarism. Both views ought to be rejected.
I have come to one firm conviction after these many years of trying to figure out "the plain truth of things." The best chance for achieving peace and prosperity, for the maximum number of people world-wide, is to pursue the cause of LIBERTY.
If you find this to be a worthwhile message, spread it throughout the land...
Freedom, private property, and enforceable voluntary contracts, generate wealth. In our early history we were very much aware of this. But in the early part of the 20th century our politicians promoted the notion that the tax and monetary systems had to change if we were to involve ourselves in excessive domestic and military spending. That is why Congress gave us the Federal Reserve and the income tax.
Excessive government has created such a mess it prompts many questions:
Why are sick people who use medical marijuana put in prison?
Why does the federal government restrict the drinking of raw milk?
Why can’t Americans manufacturer rope and other products from hemp?
Why are Americans not allowed to use gold and silver as legal tender as mandated by the Constitution?
Why is Germany concerned enough to consider repatriating their gold held by the FED for her in New York? Is it that the trust in the U.S. and dollar supremacy beginning to wane?
Why do our political leaders believe it’s unnecessary to thoroughly audit our own gold?
Why can’t Americans decide which type of light bulbs they can buy?
Why is the TSA permitted to abuse the rights of any American traveling by air?
Why should there be mandatory sentences—even up to life for crimes without victims—as our drug laws require?
Why have we allowed the federal government to regulate commodes in our homes?
Why is it political suicide for anyone to criticize AIPAC ?
Originally posted by otherpotato
reply to post by hawkiye
I agree intolerance is one of the keys, but he has the first one dead wrong. It is not envy, but greed that inhibits our ability to achieve liberty and peace. Without greed there cannot be envy. Sadly greed has become the foundation of the United States.
To focus on envy is to suggest one should turn a blind eye to the pursuit of excess, and not begrudge anyone's achievement of excess, even though you may be destitute yourself. Can't really say I stand for that.
So while he makes some other valid points I see no blueprint here, only further support for the uninhibited pursuit of greed, and that we should all be happy about it.
Originally posted by mr10k
We can get our liberty fairly easily.
We just don't know that we want it.
The business cycle is the periodic but irregular up-and-down movements in economic activity, measured by fluctuations in real GDP and other macroeconomic variables. Parkin and Bade, "Economics"
The more contemporary definition of capitalism ignores the essential issue of concentration. An economic system in which private ownership is broadly distributed such that almost every person has an ownership stake in in his or her home and the business on which his or her livelihood depends is one thing. An economic system in which ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few thousand people is quite another. The first provides a solid foundation for true "one person-one vote" democracy. The latter is the foundation of a form of privatized authoritarian rule lacking any semblance of public accountability. It is also anti-market because it favors monopoly pricing and the externalization of costs, both of which are antithetical to efficient market allocation.
Murray Bookchin (January 14, 1921 – July 30, 2006)[5] was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement,[6] Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books on politics, philosophy, history, and urban affairs as well as ecology. In the late 1990s he became disenchanted with the strategy of political Anarchism and founded his own libertarian socialist ideology called Communalism.[7]
Originally posted by hawkiye
Envy is the cause of greed not the other way around IMO. There is no greed without envy first. How can you be greedy if you do not envy what others have first?. If you do not envy what others have first then you will not covet their stuff and fuel the growth of greed.