President Trump decided to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran Nuclear Agreement, and his critics are enjoying their opportunity to show concern. You can debate whether the deal had any legitimacy, whether it was a good idea, and what breaking the deal means, but you’d be missing the point. Agreements are meaningless to governments.
Tag: government
Yes, Virginia, There is a Deep State
Since the “Russiagate” probe began, US president Donald Trump and his supporters have used lots of bandwidth raging against what they refer to as the “Deep State.” Does the Deep State exist? If so, what is it, and are its forces arrayed specifically against Donald Trump and his administration?
The Balance of International Payments Is Economic Nonsense
Nations as such don’t gain or lose from trade; only individual traders do. If the trades into which these people voluntarily enter entice them by the prospect of mutual gain, it simply cannot be the case that the sum total of their transactions amounts to a bad deal.
White Guilt, Technology and the State, & School Shootings (23m) – Editor’s Break 086
Editor’s Break 086 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: why he shouldn’t have to apologize for the misbehavior of other white people today or in the past; how technology is necessary to make the state obsolete and bring about a free society; “gun free zones” are really “self-defense prohibited zones” and why the school shooting narratives are all wrong; and more.
The Difference between You and Them
From one point of view, the government is almost indescribably complex. Its functionaries and contractors are occupied in a gigantic set of diverse activities. The objectives it claims to be carrying out are nearly as numerous as the stars in the heavens. Yet, at day’s end, all of this complexity can be reduced to a very simple relationship between you and those who compose the state: you have money, and they intend to take as much of it as possible and dispose of it as they see fit.
Government Explained
Is it OK for me to go into your house and take your stuff? What if I first write on a piece of paper that it’s OK for me to go into your house and take your stuff? Does that make it OK? What if I get a lot of people to agree with me that the permission slip I wrote for myself makes it OK?
The Human Capital Purist Case Against Tax-Funded College
In the Soho Forum debate on “All government support of higher education should be abolished”, I heavily based my argument on the signaling model of education. But if I were a human capital purist, I still would have defended the abolitionist position – albeit less triumphantly. Here’s how.
Technology Kills the State, Over and Over
If we identify a state as not only the particular time and place in which they operate, but also by the tools they use, then what is revealed over and over again are the many ways in which technology has killed the state.
The Risk/Reward Tradeoff of Technology
The paradox of technology presenting a more rewarding life but also a life of more risk is a reminder to us all to stay vigilant with regard to those who can wield the power of these tools against us. It is more important now than it ever has been that we remove the state from the mechanisms of control. Should we be successful, the life we all can have will be immensely rewarding.
Government Not Designed to Help
No government has ever protected life, liberty, or property when it meant scaling back its own power. Expecting government to do so is like hopping in your family SUV expecting to drive it to Alpha Centauri. That’s not what it was designed to do, and not in the realm of possibility, no matter how much you wish it were.