One day I talk to some guy in law of attraction website.
I complained about how evil government is how almost every regulation is bad, bla bla bla.
This is what they told me.
Why don't you concentrate on what's good with the world?
I thought.
Okay.
Let's see.
What is right about this world?
Yea. We're pretty libertarian already.
1000 years ago, your success is decided mainly by whether your society win wars or lose wars.
If your "society" lose war, then you will be killed, and all your female relatives will be sex slaves.
If your "society" win war, then you will get tons of sex slaves and you got to kill vermin that try to kill you.
What does that motivate people to do?
You bet it. Very few would want to make uber on those societies. Most people would be interested in becoming warriors.
And that's what happen for thousands and thousands of years.
Is it what's happening now?
Not by much.
Surely we are more libertarian now than our ancestors.
Why?
1. Globalization. Before, when someone innovates, government would "protect" existing industry by prohibiting the very innovation. Now, if someone innovates, and government prohibit innovation, people would just import. Ah yea, but government can invoke tariff? Nope. Not without globalization.
2. Many countries. You don't like to live one place you can go to another. It sucks that there is no libertarian countries in the world yet. But hei. Most countries are at least 60% libertarians now. So who care. You don't like tax, go to arab. You love freedom of speech? Go to US. Not very free yet.
3. Bitcoin (and his pals). Really. Can't stress this enough. People simply don't report their tax anymore if they make money using bitcoins You see your tax rate is dropping? If too many people don't report, government will be forced to lower tax. Wait a minute. It does already right?
3a. Gambling is for all practical purpose legal. Gee. Online gambling? Yap. As legal as anything. If government makes gambling illegal it will just make a fool of itself for trying to prohibit something it can't prohibit. Anyone can anonymously make a smart contract that allows gambling and there is nothing any government can do.
3b. Makes me feel that central bank and fiat currency are not necessarily bad. We need bitcoin. Don't we need some stable alternatives too? Hell yea. Why not have both.
4. Legalization of drug and silk road. I know. Silk road shows that one programmer, without approval from corrupt politicians or dumb population can make a difference. Yes he's in jail now. I am sad for that. But look. It shows how powerless government is to stop HARMLESS drug trades. Then what? Then knowing that you can't prohibit anyway, ganja is legal in many states, and soon more drugs will be legal in US. When drugs are legal in US, the other countries will follow. Those that don't agree with western lifestyle may curse american all they want, but the thing is, the rest of the world pretty much copy US. What about HARMFUL drug? Customers are not stupid. Harmful drugs do not sell. No body buy flakka at silk road. Heroin and cocaine don't sell either. And now we got proof. Free market solution works way better than government infested one.
5. China and US have many states with different rules. Localized trade. Don't like the way politic go in your state, you can go to another state. Now. This may not seem like much. After all, it's used to justify majority rules and stuff. But here's the thing. If productive people keep moving to friendlier and friendlier states, eventually all states will be "nice". To means libertarian. But others may disagree. This sort of thing isn't too bad.
6. Digital nomad. The world is not libertarian enough? You can be libertarian like right here right now. Make programs to automate trading hash at nicehash or trading crypto or trading whatever using bitcoin. Use internet marketing. That means, you can work in any country in the world and make roughly the same amount of money. Hei, most countries do not even tax tourists. It's easy to get green card anywhere.
7. Democracy. Hmmm... I have serious doubt about it. Recently Ahok is jailed in Jakarta over religious issue. Why should those dumb people run the country anyway based on nonsense. But democracy have many positive quality too. It's better ballot than bullets. Also having government that favor majorities may have economic advantage. Imagine someone burning quran in arab or someone insisting that pork is prohibited in china. Not working right? People should just hang out more closely with people that like similar things to them. So yea, letting people vote, and let the majority rules do have it's benefit. After all, median vote theorem shows that government will tend to be moderate and stable anyway. Want even better life? Make more money.
8. Competition among countries. Good good. It's as if there is a power higher than the government. The market itself govern countries. Tax too high in one country, corporation will move. Minimum wage too high, China manufactures everything. Really.
9. Uber. This is another story where free market regain or capture territory that used to be the realm of government. Before, government decides which taxy can operate. Now we got uber doing it. Actually uber is pretty interesting. With uber, I do not need to bargain. A centralized authority, namely, uber, decides the price for me. If I don't like it, I use grab. Think about it. Centralized authority isn't too bad. Kind of sucks when government decides minimum wage. But if you don't like it, you can always go to poorer countries where salary is lower. Easier if you're a digital nomad.
10. Smart contract. Again, settling dispute have become free market teritory again.
And what does paying attention to what's working help?
Well, if we want to live in a more libertarian world, we only need to see why we are already more libertarian than before and ask why.
And then we promote those things that make the world more libertarian, for everyone, but ultimately, for ourselves.
It gives us some direction. With free market gaining more and more teritory, like in uber, in finance with bitcoin, in legal system with smart contract, do we need to abolish government? Not so fast. Let government compete. Think of government like "shops".
We don't need to have every shop sell cheap.
Let the shop decides price to sell.
All we need is the shops competing with one another. Also we could use 1 or 2 very good shops, like Wallmart. Those efficient shops will then dominate "the market".
The same way, we do not need war, revolution, or even condemnation on every non libertarian policy government make.
We need only to let countries compete. And we need possibly 1-2 libertarian country or mostly libertarian country. Show the world libertarianism work in practice once, and the whole world will be libertarian by itself.
Another thing to see is libertarianism is like water.
If you have only 1 freedom, government will block that freedom. If you have 1000 freedom, government cannot block all 1000. Government will block nothing.
So what?
So that means POSITIVE FREEDOM is as good, if not better than negative freedom.
Take a look at gambling.
Before government prohibit gambling and casino.
Then there is online gambling. Tada. Government then prohibit sending money to casino.
Then?
There is crypto....
Soon, there will be casino places besides every school to teach kids how to be good at math. Is this a good idea? I don't know. I am not even sure I'll have libertarian position here. But that's why I mention that democracy isn't too bad. Why not let society decides on this one.
Of course, if casino is besides schools then prostitution dent will be there either. Again, I don't know what to say. The world is going so far into libertarian I don't even know whether it should be even more libertarian. I am just happy the world is getting more and more libertarian.
It seems that we're getting something even better than libertarianism. We got meritocracy, and friendlier government and society. Makes me happy enough.
Here is a pattern that most libertarian don't see.
Government prohibit A
Most libertarian are just sad, that A is prohibited. They curse government. They blame government.
This is a better way.
Government prohibit A
We do B, as alternative to A
For example, if government raise minimum wage, just move job to China. Problem solved.
If government prohibits casino, just make casino online, problem solved.
Then government will prohibit B, being evil and all.
Then what?
The market god by it self, if we exhaust all of our option, will come to the rescue.
With bitcoin government cannot ban gambling anymore.
Because government cannot ban gambling anymore, prohibiting CASINO will be totally pointless.
Then what?
casino will be legal.
So our stand, that A should be legal, will happen by it self, due to market mechanism. All we need to do is to find some ways that give options for rivers to the oceans. Eventually, government wouldn't bother building dam.
Knowing what's work will help us see what's not working.
Arguing with statis that minimum wage is bad and free market is good? Forget it. All we need to do, is tell them, that libertarian rules will be the way anyway no matter what they believe.
I complained about how evil government is how almost every regulation is bad, bla bla bla.
This is what they told me.
Why don't you concentrate on what's good with the world?
I thought.
Okay.
Let's see.
What is right about this world?
Yea. We're pretty libertarian already.
1000 years ago, your success is decided mainly by whether your society win wars or lose wars.
If your "society" lose war, then you will be killed, and all your female relatives will be sex slaves.
If your "society" win war, then you will get tons of sex slaves and you got to kill vermin that try to kill you.
What does that motivate people to do?
You bet it. Very few would want to make uber on those societies. Most people would be interested in becoming warriors.
And that's what happen for thousands and thousands of years.
Is it what's happening now?
Not by much.
Surely we are more libertarian now than our ancestors.
Why?
1. Globalization. Before, when someone innovates, government would "protect" existing industry by prohibiting the very innovation. Now, if someone innovates, and government prohibit innovation, people would just import. Ah yea, but government can invoke tariff? Nope. Not without globalization.
2. Many countries. You don't like to live one place you can go to another. It sucks that there is no libertarian countries in the world yet. But hei. Most countries are at least 60% libertarians now. So who care. You don't like tax, go to arab. You love freedom of speech? Go to US. Not very free yet.
3. Bitcoin (and his pals). Really. Can't stress this enough. People simply don't report their tax anymore if they make money using bitcoins You see your tax rate is dropping? If too many people don't report, government will be forced to lower tax. Wait a minute. It does already right?
3a. Gambling is for all practical purpose legal. Gee. Online gambling? Yap. As legal as anything. If government makes gambling illegal it will just make a fool of itself for trying to prohibit something it can't prohibit. Anyone can anonymously make a smart contract that allows gambling and there is nothing any government can do.
3b. Makes me feel that central bank and fiat currency are not necessarily bad. We need bitcoin. Don't we need some stable alternatives too? Hell yea. Why not have both.
4. Legalization of drug and silk road. I know. Silk road shows that one programmer, without approval from corrupt politicians or dumb population can make a difference. Yes he's in jail now. I am sad for that. But look. It shows how powerless government is to stop HARMLESS drug trades. Then what? Then knowing that you can't prohibit anyway, ganja is legal in many states, and soon more drugs will be legal in US. When drugs are legal in US, the other countries will follow. Those that don't agree with western lifestyle may curse american all they want, but the thing is, the rest of the world pretty much copy US. What about HARMFUL drug? Customers are not stupid. Harmful drugs do not sell. No body buy flakka at silk road. Heroin and cocaine don't sell either. And now we got proof. Free market solution works way better than government infested one.
5. China and US have many states with different rules. Localized trade. Don't like the way politic go in your state, you can go to another state. Now. This may not seem like much. After all, it's used to justify majority rules and stuff. But here's the thing. If productive people keep moving to friendlier and friendlier states, eventually all states will be "nice". To means libertarian. But others may disagree. This sort of thing isn't too bad.
6. Digital nomad. The world is not libertarian enough? You can be libertarian like right here right now. Make programs to automate trading hash at nicehash or trading crypto or trading whatever using bitcoin. Use internet marketing. That means, you can work in any country in the world and make roughly the same amount of money. Hei, most countries do not even tax tourists. It's easy to get green card anywhere.
7. Democracy. Hmmm... I have serious doubt about it. Recently Ahok is jailed in Jakarta over religious issue. Why should those dumb people run the country anyway based on nonsense. But democracy have many positive quality too. It's better ballot than bullets. Also having government that favor majorities may have economic advantage. Imagine someone burning quran in arab or someone insisting that pork is prohibited in china. Not working right? People should just hang out more closely with people that like similar things to them. So yea, letting people vote, and let the majority rules do have it's benefit. After all, median vote theorem shows that government will tend to be moderate and stable anyway. Want even better life? Make more money.
8. Competition among countries. Good good. It's as if there is a power higher than the government. The market itself govern countries. Tax too high in one country, corporation will move. Minimum wage too high, China manufactures everything. Really.
9. Uber. This is another story where free market regain or capture territory that used to be the realm of government. Before, government decides which taxy can operate. Now we got uber doing it. Actually uber is pretty interesting. With uber, I do not need to bargain. A centralized authority, namely, uber, decides the price for me. If I don't like it, I use grab. Think about it. Centralized authority isn't too bad. Kind of sucks when government decides minimum wage. But if you don't like it, you can always go to poorer countries where salary is lower. Easier if you're a digital nomad.
10. Smart contract. Again, settling dispute have become free market teritory again.
And what does paying attention to what's working help?
Well, if we want to live in a more libertarian world, we only need to see why we are already more libertarian than before and ask why.
And then we promote those things that make the world more libertarian, for everyone, but ultimately, for ourselves.
It gives us some direction. With free market gaining more and more teritory, like in uber, in finance with bitcoin, in legal system with smart contract, do we need to abolish government? Not so fast. Let government compete. Think of government like "shops".
We don't need to have every shop sell cheap.
Let the shop decides price to sell.
All we need is the shops competing with one another. Also we could use 1 or 2 very good shops, like Wallmart. Those efficient shops will then dominate "the market".
The same way, we do not need war, revolution, or even condemnation on every non libertarian policy government make.
We need only to let countries compete. And we need possibly 1-2 libertarian country or mostly libertarian country. Show the world libertarianism work in practice once, and the whole world will be libertarian by itself.
Another thing to see is libertarianism is like water.
If you have only 1 freedom, government will block that freedom. If you have 1000 freedom, government cannot block all 1000. Government will block nothing.
So what?
So that means POSITIVE FREEDOM is as good, if not better than negative freedom.
Take a look at gambling.
Before government prohibit gambling and casino.
Then there is online gambling. Tada. Government then prohibit sending money to casino.
Then?
There is crypto....
Soon, there will be casino places besides every school to teach kids how to be good at math. Is this a good idea? I don't know. I am not even sure I'll have libertarian position here. But that's why I mention that democracy isn't too bad. Why not let society decides on this one.
Of course, if casino is besides schools then prostitution dent will be there either. Again, I don't know what to say. The world is going so far into libertarian I don't even know whether it should be even more libertarian. I am just happy the world is getting more and more libertarian.
It seems that we're getting something even better than libertarianism. We got meritocracy, and friendlier government and society. Makes me happy enough.
Here is a pattern that most libertarian don't see.
Government prohibit A
Most libertarian are just sad, that A is prohibited. They curse government. They blame government.
This is a better way.
Government prohibit A
We do B, as alternative to A
For example, if government raise minimum wage, just move job to China. Problem solved.
If government prohibits casino, just make casino online, problem solved.
Then government will prohibit B, being evil and all.
Then what?
The market god by it self, if we exhaust all of our option, will come to the rescue.
With bitcoin government cannot ban gambling anymore.
Because government cannot ban gambling anymore, prohibiting CASINO will be totally pointless.
Then what?
casino will be legal.
So our stand, that A should be legal, will happen by it self, due to market mechanism. All we need to do is to find some ways that give options for rivers to the oceans. Eventually, government wouldn't bother building dam.
Knowing what's work will help us see what's not working.
Arguing with statis that minimum wage is bad and free market is good? Forget it. All we need to do, is tell them, that libertarian rules will be the way anyway no matter what they believe.
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