Economics Everywhere, Politics Nowhere
Thought everyone would enjoy some background history on Switzerland. It was once the ultimate in Capitalism and even today it is still a far cry from what the USA and the rest of the western world has turned into.
Ayn Rand would have done very well there but I am glad she came here instead.
Ayn Rand would have done very well there but I am glad she came here instead.
Yet they have very little firearm violence.
Curious isn't it?
The guns don't cause crime. People do.
Remember the oath?
That said, I do think that we CANNOT just keep printing money and sending it to China so we can buy stuff cheaply. What Trump might be doing is artificially increasing the prices from China to overcome their government controlled cheap yuan, and encourage americans to NOT buy so much from them. THAT part just might work, but its going to take maybe 100% tariffs to make that happen.
If they do not...oh well, too bad for them. We will make those products or buy somewhere else.
I'm tired of cheap garbage Chinese stuff anyway. They are only copycats anyway for the most part.
We will need to have a 10% price increase once the 25% tariffs go into effect on Jan1. I expect a lot of companies are going to do the same.
Whatever Trump expects the chinese to give in on will do nothing for our company however. We do not sell anything to china (our stuff is WAY too expensive for the chinese to buy), and therefore have no intellectual property issues with them.
Democracy is the tyranny of the majority and is not a good system of governing. It always decays into absolute control of the populace through voting which emboldens the collective to demand the right to control others and their resources.
The only way to remain free in a world that can identify and quantify every transaction will be to find a way to prevent intelligence gathering by any state and being a permanent traveler to prevent being the subject of investigation.
A few notes:
1) Switzerland has been able to maintain a decentralized government structure and kudos to them. But they also tightly control immigration, so their culture remains monolithic. That's a HUGE key to maintaining things. The US Constitution only began to fail once diversity of culture started becoming the norm - not the exception. If Switzerland joins the EU, they will rapidly disintegrate as their cultural norms are sacrificed to the god of diversity.
2) Subsidiarity is a fantastic principle and was the original principle of the federal government. As States' rights were undermined (and then completely suborned by the 17th Amendment), this principle faded into obscurity. We can look at any number of federal programs in the United States (Common Core, nationalized healthcare, etc.) to see that subsidiarity (local control) is by far the better policy.
3) This is very similar to the referendum process used by many States or to the Amendment process of the Constitution, but unless the people are voting on every single issue, I don't think this is pure democracy. I still applaud the Swiss for their perseverance!
4) Free Trade is great! I think one of the things that has really benefited the Swiss are their (in)famous Swiss bank accounts! Because of their intentional apartisan nature, they can stay out of the "entangling alliances" George Washington warned us of. This is one area I really wish the US would more fully adopt!
5) Again, see Washington's Farewell Address for his warnings to our nation regarding long-term alliances.
6) Yes! And much of this is due to lower tax rates and lower government burden. If only our Federal government was as hands-off!
"Not perfect, but better."
Well said.
Do we not like the different cultures expressed to their fullest degree within the context of a nation...I submit, we do indeed; otherwise there would be no reason to visit, to experience and to appreciate these small countries. Not to mention, if all were homogeneously alike, it would be boring as hell....and while on the subject, Nationalism is a good thing, not bad...so long as socialism doesn't rear it's ugly head. That is what happened in Germany.
Simply...regardless of what the leftest say...We Like it That Way!
America was meant to be different, diverse by it's welcoming freedom loving nature but you have to have a common culture, a common language and reliable laws to pull it off.
And...Yes!, the world would benefit tremendously if we all had a common language to speak, to communicate without confusion or miss-translations.
Nothing says they can't retain their traditional languages but it is my learned opinion that the English language is the best language to be considered universal by it's very nature.
Just like the American Culture, (was, anyway), being made up of many cultures...so too is our language and the easiest language that can assimilate any word, concept or metaphor from any other language and we have the largest vocabulary of any other language as well.
Metaphors are our key strength, as I am fond of stating: Conscious soars on the Wings of those Metaphors.
Another factoid to go into the new book!
English doesn't require any special sounds to speak it either...for instance, many languages use a lot of tong/tonsil flapping or like Spanish, they don't use the tong as much, just a throat sound mostly. Other languages use the same sounds but mean different things depending upon the inflections added.
However...there are problems with english, to many words are used differently but spelled the same, like Read,- spelled the same for present and past tense. I read those discussions as well.
It was conclusive across the spectrum and linguist in general though...English won by a landslide.
I've always thought we should spell words the way we speak them or speak them the way their spelled...(phonetics), get ride of all the "silent" letters.
Don't learn French, then, they only pronounce about 1/2 their consonants.. It will drive you bonkers! :)
On a more serious note, I totally agree!
Laughing
It would be nice, if we could starve the beast, but not without starving ourselves in the process because we still have to work, to eat and to live. And even if we could, it would take years of cooperation and preparation.
That's the reality of it. Stuck between a Rock and a left place.
Take your funds and secure them away from the hands of the government, maybe in gold and silver.
Small groups of no more than about 50 of like minded gulchers could band together and trade amongst themselves or with other bands of gulchers. Too small to attract much interest, but there could be many of those groups.
As far as interacting with collectivists, best to just hide in plain sight. Keep to yourself and dont present a big enough target for them to come after you.
The longer it takes to pull that off, the riskier it gets...we have a nation of busy bodies now.
Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to trying, I just don't see a clear reasonable, doable and successful path to achieve the end goal.
That said, you have some good ideas.
Read the 1st and 3rd article...the third is crazy the money the government is earning...they Own the corporations then they tell you, the corps are the problem when all along, it is government greed holding cards.
Specifically, could she have been inspired by more than the similarity of terrain and her happiest childhood recollections of mountain-climbing with her family before the Bolshevik Revolution wiped all reason from the face of Russia.
Could she have been thinking too of the political autonomy of the cantons as a model? I'll have to research this further (one of my college degrees was in cultural geography).