❝❝Once the law starts recognizing and enforcing differences, of course the rich and powerful will find ways to exploit and control the law. Of course politicos and technocrats will sell out and protect "their" companies from competition and "threats."

When the law complicates commerce, the law will be abused. This is not the fault of commerce or capitalism. This is the fault of influence peddling and politics. The only solutions are to have law control more and more, or to get law out of the way. The first way benefits established companies and government.

The second way is the only practical way to restore freedom and loosen cash flow.❞❞

— NeoWayland, comments from The 1619 Project: Scholarship Or Race Hustling?

Tags: commerce ∙ capitalism

““The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.””

— Winston Churchill

Tags: Winston Churchill ∙ vice ∙ capitalism ∙ virtue ∙ socialism

❝❝It's not that capitalism produces no losers, it's that the free market produces fewer losers by a couple of orders of magnitude.

Notice that I am distinguishing between capitalism and the free market.

Again, I'm talking about a "bottom-up" self-organizing exchange versus a "top-down" system imposed by force. In a free market, the way to get ahead is providing what others want. In any other system, it's about controlling the system.

ANY artificial controls will be exploited by the most powerful at the expense of the weaker. Resources are diverted into controlling the rules rather than producing value.

"Moral obligations" will be used to shut competition out of the marketplace in the name of compassion, and it will be backed by government force, diverting still more resources away from the market and into government and control.

The free market has only one real justification, it has produced more wealth and more freedom for more people than anything else we have tried. The key is individual choice, not controlling the system.

In a free market, competition keeps us honest and choice is the only control that works.

---

The two most important phrases in human history:

“Let me help.”

“I can do better than that!”

---

It's not the tools, it's the results.

The free market is an example of people choosing for themselves. Government is controlling people by force.

And yes, the world is changing. It's embracing choice. That doesn't mean that the politicos and technocrats will give up power willingly. But they can't control everything that happens. Who could have foreseen the world wide web, Snicker's bars, or topless maid services? What government agency would have tolerated those things? What Congress critter would have sponsored legislation creating flash mobs, radar detectors, or fantasy football?

I want more freedom for more people today. I want more of the same tomorrow. Choice is the best way to get freedom. That's it, plain and simple. That's my objective.

---

See, you're still talking politics. "Arrange." "Cap." That's about controlling others, implying that government force will be involved sooner or later.

Why should their choice control my action? Why should my choice control your action? Why should your choice control their action?

It's not about creating the framework or tweaking the system. They've got something I want, so I have to find something they want. Voluntary exchanges between consenting adults, and no third party taking a cut or dictating rules.

---

Freedom and wealth. The Apaches could not produce steel knives, antiseptics, or a horseshoe. In one sense they were free, but they didn't have wealth. What freedom and wealth they had was taken at the expense of others.

Freedom taken at the expense of someone else is privilege and is generally recognized as a Bad Thing. Perhaps the keystone to Western Civilization is the Ethic of Reciprocity. This is what makes freedom more than a privilege grab. It also can't be imposed by another.

I'm proposing that the free market makes freedom and wealth possible while making things mostly better today than they were yesterday. So we have steel tools, paracord, duck tape, battery drills, and lights at the flick of a switch. These and seven million and thirteen other things weren't even a possibility with a hunter/gatherer culture.

Freedom is only one part of the payoff.

---

Nice things result in greater freedom.

I grow stuff in my garden, but that is not my source of food. I can go to the grocery store and find a wider variety of fruits and vegetables than I could ever hope to grow myself. My choices are increased by the store, and it couldn't happen without the free market.

A few years back I was looking at an aquaponics set-up. Beyond the design and construction, it would have taken about twenty hours a week and between two and three hundred dollars more per month. And that is if everything went right and I never left town.

Is it necessary that I use the supermarket? No, but it's a better use of my time and resources than if I tried to do it on my own. It lets me use the labor and skills of others at a minimal cost to myself.❞❞

Tags: losers ∙ capitalism ∙ bottom up ∙ self-organizing ∙ exchange ∙ top down ∙ force ∙ system ∙ resources ∙ moral obligations ∙ competition ∙ compassion ∙ wealth ∙ let me help ∙ I can do better than that

““Capitalism is relatively new in human history. Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering, and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.””

— Walter E. Williams

Tags: Walter E. Williams ∙ capitalism ∙ serving ∙ wealth ∙ looting ∙ plundering ∙ enslaving

Tags: Hong Kong ∙ China ∙ protest ∙ capitalism ∙ human rights ∙ City That Ate A Country

““Capitalism works better than it sounds. Socialism sounds better than it works.””

— Creative Deduction

Tags: Creative Deduction ∙ capitalism ∙ socialism ∙ Brian Micklethwait

““Capitalism is the only reason socialism has any money to redistribute.””

— Aprille Park

Tags: Aprille Park ∙ capitalism ∙ sociaism ∙ Brian Micklethwait

Tags: guest content ∙ Clay Routledge ∙ woke ∙ capitalism ∙ companies ∙ social justice ∙ virtue signaling

❝❝You see, I've done this before. When True Believer Christians told me I was damned and a mortal threat to their children. When conservatives told me that only one way could save the country and anything else threatened their children. When progressives told me that capitalism and individualism were dead and should stay that way for the sake of the children. When well-fed third wave feminists in designer clothes told me about how they were oppressed by the patriarchy and wouldn't have children. When pagans lectured me on the evils of monotheism and how love would save the world. Always, always, ALWAYS the pattern is exactly the same. In the absence of understanding, triviality dominates. The enlightened demand sacrifice from everyone else. "For the children" is for those living and in charge. Anyone who offers an absolute won't brook dissent. Experts are uniquely qualified to fuck the situation up beyond any hope of repair. Government is not your friend.

So you have a chance here to change your behavior, change your pattern and accept responsibility. Your choice.❞❞

— NeoWayland, from the comments of The Climate Change Watermelon Juggernaut & The Prescience Of Michael Crichton

Tags: maxims ∙ true believers ∙ Christians ∙ mortal threat ∙ children ∙ conservatives ∙ one way ∙ progressives ∙ capitalism ∙ individualism ∙ third wave feminism ∙ well-fed ∙ designer clothes ∙ evil ∙ patriarchy ∙ monotheism ∙ pagan ∙ love ∙ save the world ∙ understanding ∙ triviality ∙ enlightenment ∙ sacrifice ∙ for the children ∙ absolute ∙ dissent ∙ experts

❝❝Critics have also noted that much of the science doesn't hold up and that the ten year deadlines keep getting moved.

---

Pardon, but that is not true. It's a very small minority of critics have publicly claimed the science doesn't hold up. As for the "vast majority of the world's scientists," that's not true either.

This is one area where what little science there is has been buried under layers and layers of politics. It has become heresy to criticize the "conclusions." And the reactions to those who do ask questions are exactly like those historical reactions to those who questioned Islam or Christianity in a less enlightened age. We should be asking why it is necessary to crush dissent. We should also be asking if (notoriously unreliable) politicos are really on the side of Earth and Nature, or if they have their own agenda.

Then we get to the science which really isn't science. It's computer models built on a unproven assumptions, including a carbon dioxide cascade effect that has never been observed either in the laboratory or in the field. The models also minimize other known strong climate influences such as solar variations and atmospheric water, probably because those can't be blamed on human activity. But no, the science is settled and Must Not Be Questioned.

Those of us who follow Earth-centered paths want to believe that we are uniquely qualified to help. Part and parcel of that is the belief that we are uniquely qualified to hurt as well. While there are ecological problems that are human caused like pollution and water table damage and overharvesting the seas and rainforests, Nature adapts. If all humans disappeared tomorrow morning at 7:13 AM Eastern Standard Time, life would go on.

We need to find actual changes that make the World a little better. That doesn't include handing over massive funding and political power to politicos and technocrats who have no understanding of Nature and haven't the slightest idea how to solve the "problem."

---

As a rule, I don't think either/or solutions apply. It's not save the planet OR consume everything.

Are there solutions? Yes, and a lot of them are beyond our reach for now. When we get nanotech going (and we will), I expect one of the first large scale applications will be vat-grown exotic hardwoods that are virtually indistinguishable from the "real thing" other than cost and availability. Vat-grown stone will follow. Already vat-grown meat shows promise.
And that is just short to medium term.

We can make it better without the need for noble sacrifice.

We also need to address capitalistic solutions that may work. The American bison population is growing because some herds are privately owned and managed. There's evidence that works with African elephants as well. People take care of what they own.

---

"Eppur si muove."

This is public science we are talking about. Public science means telling the politicos what they want to hear. In living memory, public science has flip flopped on things like forest management, eugenics, recommended diet, humans have only five senses, and the role of sodium in human biology. When discussing public science, we should always ask "who profits?"

I focus on the political of climate science because unlike almost any other field of science, dissent is not allowed. It's not merely a matter of dismissing results, it's discrediting the researchers who don't toe the line.

For most of the 20th Century, we humans have treated Science as the new god. We forget we know much less than we think we know. We forget that science is a process and not an absolute. I just keep remembering a commercial I heard on an old-time radio recording. "Eight out of ten doctors recommend Lucky Strikes for their patients who smoke."

I'd probably ignore the whole mess except governments are demanding tremendous power to Act Now despite having no real solutions. And of course, it's too urgent for debate or to submit to public vote.

---

I am not anti-science.

I really don't want to turn this into a long debate on climate science or government power.

What I'd like is for people to ask more questions. Why the goalposts for action keep moving. Just what is supposed to be done and how much of an effect it should have. What will be done if the predictions fail to predict.

While Why neopagans of all people are treating this as an Absolute Revelation when we know that the World does things we don't expect.

Why we can't start with simple things like planting more trees.

I think asking these questions is important.

---

It's the political aspect that worries me. I won't kid you, the extreme climate change crowd are a major inspiration for what I call the True Believer™.

I think the science could work itself out, but partial conclusions and unproven techniques have been placed front and center of an agenda that has very little to do with saving the planet.

---

““The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.””

— H. L. Mencken

---

*shrugs*

Like I said, if it wasn't for the politician's rush to do something now, and incidentally completely remake every social structure and institution, I'd be content to sit this one out.

I've done more than a little research on this subject over the years. I've written about it quite a bit. I'm notorious in some circles for being the pagan that doesn't embrace the climate change panic.

But more and more I see this as political. It's not the scientists who are making the noise. It's not the scientists who are calling for massive financial and social changes. And it's not the scientists who want to punish "climate deniers."

---

I've no problem with bottom up changes providing better alternatives.

I've every problem with unquestioned top down solutions imposed by force.

I firmly believe that there are two phrases which have done more to shape humanity and human history than anything else.

The first is Let me help.

The second is I can do better than that!

---

Can you name another topic where "science" is defined by consensus rather than it's ability to predict?

---

Science isn't neutral. Science is a process. As a process, it shouldn't be treated as a conclusion.

The Brontosaurus was, wasn't, and then was again. Our perspective changed, our acceptance changed, but those old bones didn't.

No one is measuring the value of plate tectonics by how many people agree with it. Validity is measured by how well the theory explains observed phenomena and predicts what will happen.

Yet when it comes to climate change, there is always an overwhelming percentage of consent consensus cited, as if this measures validity.❞❞

Tags: climate change ∙ critics ∙ science ∙ islam ∙ Christianity ∙ heresy ∙ dissent ∙ politicos ∙ Earth ∙ Nature ∙ agenda ∙ computer models ∙ cascade effect ∙ science is settled ∙ Earth-centered religion ∙ adaptation ∙ either/or ∙ nanotech ∙ noble sacrifice ∙ capitalism ∙ government power ∙ true believers ∙ H.L. Mencken ∙ consensus ∙ process ∙ Brontosaurus

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Pittsburgh ∙ activists ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Muslim groups ∙ synagogue ∙ victims ∙ psilocybin ∙ FDA ∙ psychedelic ∙ medicine ∙ Human trafficking ∙ gangbangers ∙ Guatemala ∙ caravan ∙ tariffs ∙ protectionism ∙ Gab ∙ shooting ∙ excuse ∙ reason ∙ Brett Kavanaugh ∙ cannabis ∙ property values ∙ capitalism ∙ birthright citizenship

Tags: video ∙ guest content ∙ PragerU ∙ liberal ∙ Left ∙ Dennis Prager ∙ capitalism ∙ conservatism ∙ racist

I'm not something less, I'm something else.

Tags: bureaucrats ∙ power ∙ government ∙ voters ∙ exploit ∙ government is not your friend ∙ advances ∙ culture ∙ technology ∙ plastic surgery ∙ kidney machine ∙ capitalism ∙ poverty ∙ competition

Tags: memes ∙ guest content ∙ capitalism ∙ corporatism ∙ competition ∙ company ∙ goverment

Tags: religion ∙ sociaism ∙ capitalism ∙ traditionalism ∙ bread ∙ breadline

I remind you that no American political fact for the last two years has been easily ascertained. Or static.

Tags: facts ∙ Donald Trump ∙ HRC campaign ∙ DNC ∙ verify ∙ USAPATRIOT ∙ NSA ∙ military spending ∙ audit ∙ reporters ∙ news outlets ∙ War on Drugs ∙ as a rule absolutes don't ∙ Islam ∙ Other ∙ Higher Truth™ ∙ American politics ∙ subjective ∙ Great Depression ∙ government experts ∙ capitalism ∙ myth ∙ goverment ∙ rules ∙ Republicans ∙ guilt by association ∙ Barack Obama ∙ White House ∙ 2008 ∙ 2016 election ∙ email probe ∙ Pied Piper candidates ∙ Bernie Sanders ∙ BLM movement ∙ grassroots ∙ experience

Odd tactic from the Grand and Glorious Imperious Leader

Tags: Diné ∙ oppress ∙ Native American ∙ capitalism ∙ borrow ∙ Voting Rights Act of 1965 ∙ Western Civilization ∙ pluralism ∙ choice ∙ responsibility ∙ clear title ∙ Hernando De Soto ∙ American Dream ∙ government ∙ Amerindians ∙ the Rez ∙ victimhood

Which means under the 10th Amendment, Obamacare is illegal.

Tags: ballpoint pens ∙ Lasik eye surgery ∙ heirloom tomatoes ∙ government ∙ capitalism ∙ free market ∙ ballpoint pens ∙ iPad ∙ NASA ∙ moon shot ∙ groceries ∙ Milton Friedman

Animated classic from 1948 shows the politics of disunity

Tags: 1948 ∙ video ∙ animation ∙ Harding College ∙ choice ∙ freedom ∙ isms ∙ utopia ∙ John Q. Public ∙ free enterprise ∙ history ∙ capitalism ∙ managment ∙ auto industry ∙ Great Depression ∙ statist ∙ union ∙ private sector ∙ private property ∙ disunity ∙ class warfare ∙ race hatred ∙ intolerance ∙ working together ∙ guest content

And it was all based on a lie.

Tags: connections ∙ trade-offs ∙ dropping water tables ∙ Philip Lloyd ∙ waste disposal ∙ technocrats ∙ politicos ∙ pollution ∙ alternate energy ∙ environmental crusade ∙ wildfires ∙ capitalism ∙ anthropogenic climate change ∙ free market ∙ wildlife management