US Govt. Shutdown. Does anyone care?

Didn't this happen about a year ago? Doesn't it happen almost every year?

It wasn't too long ago the media were throwing out reports about how Congress must act decisively to avert a govt shutdown, which threatens the very foundations of freedom and democracy! Then with only a couple hours remaining before the deadline, Congress emerged from their chamber, victorious and saved the planet!

Really though, it wasn't that long ago this happened, was it?
 


The idea that life without rulers might be fine never occurs to them.

You fail to take into account the current state of mankind and how societies of millions of people interact. You do realize these people elect rulers and choose to live by their rules? Morally flawed or not, this demonstrates the desire for people in massive societies to be ruled. Nobody is forced and as I've said a thousand times, you're free to flee to the wilderness free of government as many have.

Government and rulership is a philosophy of living in a common society. You're sitting behind a shadow trying to covertly convince (nobody really) that their own opinion of how they want to interact with others is wrong. It's ironic.
 
You fail to take into account the current state of mankind and how societies of millions of people interact. You do realize these people elect rulers and choose to live by their rules? Morally flawed or not, this demonstrates the desire for people in massive societies to be ruled. Nobody is forced and as I've said a thousand times, you're free to flee to the wilderness free of government as many have.

Government and rulership is a philosophy of living in a common society. You're sitting behind a shadow trying to covertly convince (nobody really) that their own opinion of how they want to interact with others is wrong. It's ironic.

Oh, hey Paul. :)
 
^^ Where exactly is this wilderness free of gov't? Antarctica?

Somalia. They haven't had a government since 1991. They're a poster-child for laissez-faire - no taxes, no government, no laws and no law enforcement. They're really showing everyone how it's done. All their neighbours are really chuffed about how it's working out.

Re American govt shutdown - happened in 1995, and contributed to Clinton winning the '96 election handily... I guess most people don't have the stomach for Somalia-style anything-goes.
 
You fail to take into account the current state of mankind and how societies of millions of people interact. You do realize these people elect rulers and choose to live by their rules? Morally flawed or not, this demonstrates the desire for people in massive societies to be ruled. Nobody is forced and as I've said a thousand times, you're free to flee to the wilderness free of government as many have.

Government and rulership is a philosophy of living in a common society. You're sitting behind a shadow trying to covertly convince (nobody really) that their own opinion of how they want to interact with others is wrong. It's ironic.

Candidates are bought and paid for by companies/individuals that have an interest in them. Those are the people you hear about. They then lie to everyone to get elected by either bribing them with other peoples shit or with false promises (or both...usually both). But you don't let it get you down because they have been conditioning you since about age 5 to view them as your benevolent and indispensable leaders, with whom your relationship with is of course entirely "voluntary."

Granted, it has been a very long time since I've been in a voting booth. Have they added a "no one" option to the ballots?
 
Somalia. They haven't had a government since 1991. They're a poster-child for laissez-faire - no taxes, no government, no laws and no law enforcement. They're really showing everyone how it's done. All their neighbours are really chuffed about how it's working out.

Re American govt shutdown - happened in 1995, and contributed to Clinton winning the '96 election handily... I guess most people don't have the stomach for Somalia-style anything-goes.

That's not exactly the wilderness that Supernova was referring to. BTW, there is actually a government in Somalia.

allAfrica.com: Somalia: Somali Government Donates U.S.$50,000 for the Floods Affected Areas in Middle Shabelle Region

In any case, the idea of liberty is Western. It is doubtful that anarcho-capitalism would work with low IQ peoples. Sub-Saharan Africans never invented the wheel and Somalians have an average IQ of 68. I believe anything below 70 is considered mental retardation.
 
That's not exactly the wilderness that Supernova was referring to. BTW, there is actually a government in Somalia.

allAfrica.com: Somalia: Somali Government Donates U.S.$50,000 for the Floods Affected Areas in Middle Shabelle Region

In any case, the idea of liberty is Western. It is doubtful that anarcho-capitalism would work with low IQ peoples. Sub-Saharan Africans never invented the wheel and Somalians have an average IQ of 68. I believe anything below 70 is considered mental retardation.


It's nothing to do with IQ, or even "liberty"- consider that the Sicilians, direct descendants of Greeks who settled that island in the 7th century BC, and who enjoyed Hellenic govt for a good 500 years and produced Greek-Sicilians like Archimedes, resorted to a mafia system when government broke down in the 18th century, which continues in a form even today. Think it can't happen to you? Think again!

The first casualty of not having any govt, laws and law enforcement, is commerce. All business relies on contracts and having those contracts enforced. Even with a govt in place, you get sharp practice and cheating. In the absence of govt, commerce breaks down completely because there is no implicit or explicit threat to enforce contracts. Why should anyone pay you for leads delivered or give you thirty days credit between delivery and payment, if there wasn't a government to enforce the contracts?

All that hippy dippy stuff about people not needing govt because "peer pressure" will enforce good behaviour is a load of rubbish. In the absence of law, and more importantly, vigorous law enforcement, the other party just needs a more guns and greater willingness to steal from you, to screw you over.

Consider that Homo Sapiens have been around for 170,000 years, and in all that time there hasn't been a single successful society on earth that hasn't evolved a rudimentary form of government, no matter how isolated - there's a reason for that.

It might seem like utopia to have no govt and let everyone do their own thing, and rely on stuff like honour - but can you really trust everyone else to be honourable? Government evolved because thousands of years of experience shows you can't. Only someone naive - or low IQ in your parlance - would think otherwise.

In all cases where govt fails, mafia and militias emerge to try to enforce contracts - and they usually cost a great deal more than govts do, in both blood and treasure. It's what we see in Somalia, it's what happened in Sicily, it's what happened when the Roman empire broke down. The absence of govt, law and law enforcement merely allows the most disruptive, evil members of society to run amok, to the detriment of the majority.

You might have the highest IQ in the world - but you just need a few bad actors plus the majority to sit on their hands saying "no organisation, no govt, every man for himself", for it all to go to pot.
 
Under anarcho-capitalism, you'd still have courts and police. They would be cheaper and more effective and if they weren't you could chose a competing provider. You can't do that today.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBER0noHGC8]Hoppe in Sydney 2011: "Society Without State - Private Law Society" - YouTube[/ame]
 
The absence of govt, law and law enforcement merely allows the most disruptive, evil members of society to run amok, to the detriment of the majority.

Governments around the world in the 20th century killed about a quarter of a billion of their own citizens. This is not counting war.
 
Reddit is going ballistic over this dumb shit. Throwing around the words "economic terrorists." lol.
 
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