Hi Robert,
Long-time Reader\Supporter, but First Timer in putting my Deep Thoughts on Display
I've been a huge fan for a long time...I'm pretty sure you introduced me to Ron Paul back in 2006-7. I actually learned about Liberty kind of backwards, a combination of Peter Schiff on CNBC, Which brought me to Lew Rockwell ...which brought me to you and Murray Rothbard...or some kind of that sequence.
However it panned out, I've been obsessed with the Austrian School and 'Libertarianism' since...because it is the only Political Philosophy that is built on a Foundation of Massive Granite Blocks. All of that obsession, led me to Murray Rothbard, who IMHO is a legend...because he logically and coherently ties EVERYTHING together. The most influential books I've read, and then loaned to people in-order to 'Red Pill' them, has been 'What has the Government Done with our Money?:The case for the 100% Gold Dollar"...The Majority of Americans, have NO Idea, that the Dollar used to be Convertible to Gold and that is why we had stable prices and economic growth until Nixon closed the gold window, 10 years before I was ever born! Most people have Socialist Tendencies, because we all live in a Inflationary Environment. It's only kept in check by the exponential growth of tech...They just blame their deteriorating standard of living on everything else other than the source...which is the FED.
But That's NOT why I sent you this email.
The reason I sent you this email, is because I took to heart you're analysis on thinkers in the battle against Communism (Let's not sugar Coat it). I need your help expanding on this...
I Think, that one of the main impedances to explaining Free-Markets, and Capitalism...compared to what they know now, is the lack of a 'Free Market' pricing structure. A Quantitative way, of comparing apple-apples when it comes to government Boondoggles...and this ALSO applies to TAXES. We need a way to show people where their money ACTUALLY went. It's way to easy for statists to claim everything is for the 'THA ROADS OR THA POORS'...We need to Quantify a Project, and SHOW the Bureaucracy is actual Numbers.
Like, a group that looks towards Government Projects...then thinktanks that project with actual builders in the free market...and come up with a legitimate bid\cost analysis on past projects that can show the 'cost' of the Bureaucracy that Mises talks about. It's so easy for 'Government' Agencies to throw a lowball quote on there on a project, but no one fact checks them before or after.
We need to find a way to Quantify the waste of Bureaucracy. The Peasants aren't as stupid as 'They' think they are...they are just busy worried about themselves. We need to find a way to quantify the waste and show an alternative better.
We need to quantify the 'Bureaucracy' and do a better job showing the Alternatives.
Thanks for Everything you've done...we are all in this together, we have no choice but to win this war.
-Dave R.
RW response:
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the kind words.
First, please keep in mind that you have to love the battle---more so than a near term win. The world is too complicated to know how things will play out but it sure doesn't look promising for liberty in the short-term.
So you really have to, in and of itself, love smashing statist thinking. If we expect a win any time in the near term, we are going to be very disappointed.
Fortunately, I love to smash statist thinking!
As for showing the masses with hard numbers that the bureaucracy is inefficient, I think most understand this now but they think that if only their man was in charge things would be different. That's why all politicians run on cutting fat from the system and making things efficient and cutting out the cronies.
Of course, they don't succeed because the structure of the system is the problem and they are generally bad actors, on top of it, who are seeking power and pelf for themselves.
We have to get across that freedom and not government control is the only real solution. This is, of course, very difficult to do because the masses always want to believe that the next guy is the "can do" guy that will fix everything.
Hayek talks about this in Chapter 10, "Why the Worst Get on Top," of The Road to Serfdom.
That said, different people will get red pilled in different ways, for some providing books like What has the Government Done with our Money is a great idea, but to get a mass change toward liberty will require some trigger point that will click with the masses. What will get them to adopt a "live and let live" philosophy with respect for private property is not clear to me right now. I don't see an obvious trigger point. The plates of mass experience will have to shift in some way for us to eventually make our move.
The best we can do at present is to lay the hard rock foundation (those granite blocks you talk about) wherever we can and use all possible methods of communication to spread the word on a one-on-one basis and a one-on-many basis so that when the pieces fall in line to trigger the masses we have created a very strong and sizable army to really launch the liberty attack.
For now, we must spread the beauty of liberty where we can.
Right now, we need you and everyone like you to keep up the battle. It can be fun and fulfilling and it is for a very noble cause: peace and freedom on earth.
Thanks for being part of the fight, Dave!
It is always interesting to hear how different people came over into our camp and what 'red-pilled' them. For me, it was actually food... I became involved with Crossfit about 10 years ago and through that I found the paleo diet. At that point I was actually a vegetarian as I thought it was the healthiest diet, but I learned through the paleo food world how much the government lies and manipulates the Food Pyramid and the food guidelines for Americans and how it is very political and not based in science.
ReplyDeleteKnowing that information it is not a big leap to start questioning what else the govt is lying about... I think I found Lew Rockwell next and then Ron Paul and Tom Woods and everyone else... it's hard to wrap my mind around how I used to think like a progressive lefty.
Thanks for the Post Robert, but I probably would have proofread it If I knew you were gonna post it! Oh Well...the points got made I think.
ReplyDeleteIt was a great letter with some insightful points. I'm glad I got to read it.
DeleteMy experience is in line with Robert's, that even if a policy or project is known to be bad (anti-liberty) or wasteful, most people default to a red vs blue political analysis to fix it. The notion that no central figure or body should be "in charge" is completely foreign and unfathomable. The masses just can't make the leap that liberty for everyone, not just themselves individually, is good and necessary.
Thank You, I think people understand Liberty and Free Markets, etc. in a Micro from their personal POV As-In, "Look how much they took out of my check!"...now they are Anti-Tax, because it actually hit their pockets. Look at that Video of the Ex-Stripper turned 'Rapper' Cardi-B, who lost her shit about Taxes the first Year she was 'Rich'. Before that I'm pretty sure she operated ona mostly cash-basis...Point being, that most people don't even think about things until they are personally affected. The Majority would rather be Voluntarily Naive about most things that actually matter, because to acknowledge something's wrong, forces you to either Act or acknowledge your own Impotence.
DeleteI was also red-pilled by the paleo diet Alec. But it was just a general red-pill that made me realize I had to question everything. I didn't connect it to the government necessarily. I was 18 at the time. I was red-pilled to liberty by Peter Schiff when I was 23, which took me quickly down the rabbit hole to Lew Rockwell, Rothbard, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the people that get red-pilled are the people who are looking for the red-pill. In other words you can't necessarily red-pill someone else, you can only red-pill yourself.
Well said. Your last two lines show an insightful observation.
DeleteThank you
Delete"We need to find a way to Quantify the waste of Bureaucracy"
ReplyDeleteIt won't do any good. People like things the way they are. They aren't stupid. They know there is waste. They like things this way.
For years when someone complains that the schools are failing or whatever I respond that it is working as it is designed to work. It's not like I have some great insight. They know deep down this is the design. They simply feel they benefit from the design.
What do we offer the masses? Hard work. They would have to take care of themselves. What they want are nice cages and pushing the work of managing their lives on to others. Less load on them. They can enjoy life more.
Sure there's waste, it's inherent to what they want. But they don't care. So long as they have their television and radial tires what are they going to do? Shout they aren't going to take it anymore? Nope.
The fault isn't thinking the peasants are stupid, they aren't. They are simply motivated to reduce the effort they have to make in the here and now. That's what is important to them. They'll trade away liberty, privacy, etc for less effort on their part time and time again. And we want them to work. Why should they? The present system promises to take care of them.
Show that system is crappy and will do bad by them and we circle right back around to their complaints and start over. They'll look for someone to 'fix' it. Do it 'better'. But there won't be anyone to do that because it functions as designed.
There's simpler way of saying that: by and large people are assholes.
DeleteThey see nothing wrong in robbing others as long as robbing is done by somebody else (people in uniforms, isn't that what they are for?) and dressed up as "social justice" or some other claptrap.