Be Thankful If You Were Not Born in the US
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 6:14PM Being born in America at anytime between 1623 and 1970 would have been quite a stroke of luck. You would have lived in one of the freest, most productive, and because of that, most prosperous regions on Earth. Luckily, America got its heavy socialism out of the way right from the get-go.
In 1621, the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock, had initially imposed a form of managerial socialism. The concept, like it is today, was for no one to have private property rights and to donate the fruits of your labors into a pool with everyone else and to then distribute those labors by need. The experiment, like every other experiment in socialism, ended in nearly everyone starving to death.
Faced with starvation or changing, they saw the error of their ways and let everyone take possession of their own plots of land and enjoy the proceeds for themselves. According to Jeffrey Tucker, of Whiskey & Gunpowder, "This led to trade, honesty, hard work, and eventually bounty. This is why the crop yields of 1621 were catastrophic and the yields of 1623 were bountiful. The celebration of Thanksgiving really dates from a market produced bounty. (The entire story is related by Bradford himself.)"
What followed was truly something spectacular. This region, who had as its most cherished philosophy, freedom and liberty, went on to be the most amazing area on Earth. It attracted all the best from most other countries - mostly because those countries did not have the freedom, liberty and the subsequent prosperity of the US.
THE FALL OF AMERICA
Unfortunately, by 1913, America had fallen into a trap that has occurred so often throughout history. First, it forgot what made it so prosperous in the first place and, secondly, it forgot the warnings of its early founders about, ""Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations-entangling alliances with none."
And so, in 1913, with the advent of the Federal Reserve bank, the future for the US was set. It only took twenty years for this new system to bankrupt the US Government in 1933, resulting in the US Government confiscating gold from US citizens. Then, less than forty years later, the US Government was bankrupted again, this time resulting in any link to gold being removed from the US dollar in 1971.
The years of 1970 and 1971 should especially be remembered as terrible years... interestingly, all under the Nixon years, although not all of it was completely his fault. On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was founded... a despicable, anti-human idea that still haunts us to this day with the "global warming" scam. To see literally hundreds of shocking, genocidal quotes emanating from the environmental moment, check out this website: green-agenda.com. Here is just one, "Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsiblity to bring that about?" - Maurice Strong, founder of the UN Environment Programme.
Then, on June 17, 1971, Richard Nixon launched the heinous "war on drugs" which, to date, has killed and incarcerated millions and spent over a trillion dollars in the process while making the world a much less free place. The triumvirate was fulfilled with gold backing being completely removed from the US dollar on August 15, 1971. Since then, the fate of the US has been written in stone. After 1970, we never refer to the US as "America" anymore... because it isn't.
It took nearly another forty years for the effects of all these events to destroy the viability of the US. And now, Americans, in many ways, are more indebted and enslaved than any other people in the history of the world.
THE MOST INDEBTED AND ENSLAVED PEOPLE IN HISTORY
The US Government, which under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), has $75 trillion in debts and liabilities, meaning that for each American, there is over $245,000 in federal government debt and liabilities. Or, nearly $1 million per family of four. And this does not take into account state, municipal and personal debt. By this measure, no other people in history has ever been more indebted.
Dorli Rainey, 84, Pepper Sprayed in SeattleAnd, with the Patriot Act and literally thousands of other acts, rules, regulations and laws, Americans also can make a case for being the most enslaved in human history. You could say North Koreans are more enslaved in that they are not allowed to leave their own country. But, at least once they escape their own country they will have the option and ability to open a financial account anywhere else in the world... unlike Americans, whose IRS and Government have made it so onerous for international brokerages and financial institutions to open an account for an American that most US citizens are persona-non-grata outside of their own borders.
Inside their borders, as Americans get tazed, pepper sprayed, beaten and caged on a regular basis, they are beginning to realize that the land of the free and home of the brave was a catchy jingle from centuries ago. It is now the land of the fee, home of the slave.
TRAPPED
Today, as the American government works to erect a wall and conducts unmanned drone flights on the border with Canada, many in the US are awakening to the fact that they are becoming trapped.
The US Government has even made it so all student debt is now completely inextinguishable in bankruptcy... meaning that for students who wasted 4-8 years of their life getting what is often a worthless piece of paper and six figures of debt, they will be enslaved for life and, as we are predicting at TDV, will be forced into the military to pay off their obligations.
GIVE THANKS IF YOU WERE NOT BORN IN THE US
In an erstwhile change of fortune, what was once the best place to be born, between 1623-1970 has now become one of the worst. Only those born in North Korea and Cuba, and a handful of other despotic regimes, can be said to be much worse off.
Take this Thanksgiving holiday to re-assess how and where you want to live. The US still allows international travel and does not have complete capital controls in place - although the ever-present "customs officials" hiding down every walkway to most international flights and cash sniffing dogs in many US airports now hints to the fact that the infrastructure is now in place to restrict capital.
Give thanks, this year, to free-market technologies such as the internet which allow many of us to live wherever we are best treated and to establish our finances and affairs in such a way so as to not be under direct assault by government at every twist and turn.
Take this opportunity to internationalize your IRA, move your financial assets into hard assets like gold and silver, and get a foreign passport. And, if possible, investigate expatriating to almost any other country in the world. Almost any other country, with a few exceptions, is sure to be freer and less indebted than the US at this point.
By looking to leave the US at this point you will be following in the footsteps of America's founders who fled countries in which they were heavily oppressed or enslaved or where there were no opportunities of creating a successful life. Take time this year to remember this spirit and remember what John Milton stated in 1666, "Our country is wherever we are well off".
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Reader Comments (17)
(taken from Molyneux)
America, 300 years of government mean income 55k$
north west europe: 100 years of government mean income 45k$
Greece, 3000 years of government, mean income 30k$
Egypt, 6000 years of government, 2$ a day
You can see the future right there, unless you live in Egypt
Same language, similar culture, an island nation (no common borders), huge land mass and resources, low population, low unemployment, financially strong, NO TSA or DHS, rule of law (still exists for the moment), no nuclear reactors, no volcanoes, no geological fault lines, net food exporter, AND we actually like your accents :)...Get your passports ready in advance for when you need to get out of "Dodge" and bring the original US Constitution with you so we can re-instate it back into a reality over here - see you soon!
(ps we do have a few negatives...8 of the 10 most poisonous spiders, snakes and sea creatures in the world, shark attacks, and a lunatic red head for Prime Minister :))))
I agree that things have gone from somewhat good to somewhat bad. The somewhat bad has been built-up over the years because those who got in positions of power in the 20th century often took advantage of their offices. However, it does take time for bad policies to cause problems, so the time-lag provided us with some good times beyond your 1970 date.
I see better times ahead. Such will probably be initiated by a decentralization of the USA into individual states and sectional confederations. But again, there will probably be a time lag and people my age will not witness such a rebirth. But maybe you will!
zab: haha, you still believe democracy is freedom hey. It's okay, you've been brainwashed... but try to snap out of it
Others are starting to see what you do...the movement on Wall Street is an example of the common man seeing that something is not right. It goes beyond the inequality of disproportionate wealth which has always been with us from the beginning from Kings and Dynasties...it is the corruption of major financial institutions, banks, the failure of oversight by the SEC, corrupt and ineffective politicians, the dream of home ownership only to have it taken away after one loses their job and cannott afford a house payment.
Well, I have already wrote more than I intended as your article was inspirational and courageous.
Be well friend,
Evan
The period 1620-1970?
Exterminate the native population and bring in slaves....
That's freedom alright: free LAND and free LABOR. Forgot about those guys, did you?
Sounds to me like the largest government intervention in the history of the world no?
Please tell anyone and everyone you know about this series on the ESF. It is whirlwind trip through the story of why we here in the US haven't experience hyperinflation yet, and why we're about to. Just finished watching it again and thought of you. I remember Stephan Molyneux's comment while interviewing you that it is hard to conceive of hyperinflation occurring given the level of awareness about its causes. That makes sense at some level.
After watching this series, you know why it makes no difference what anyone knows about what causes hyperinflation. We are within the event horizon of a mathematical certainty.
http://www.marketskeptics.com/2011/06/the-esf-and-its-history.html#comment-8428
Cheers, mate.
In 2001, Serj Tankian screamed out, "THEY'RE TRYING TO BUILD A PRISON!" Now, that prison is nearly built, and the doors are about to close. Most people don't see the military build-up in their own backyards. I've been observing it now for several years, and it has only intensified as they slowly acclimate the populous to the police state prison.
Flee now or prepare to fight. Me, I reserve my right to flee later if (when?) it becomes untenable, but for now I'll stay and fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yndfqN1VKhY
On the surface, this assertion seems reasonable, but when opened up to further scrutiny, it makes less sense. It does not take into account certain (what I would call) primary, or over-arching realities. Simply stated, it fails to appreciate that the so-called "golden years" weren't really that golden, and the fact that our current era is not all that different from the past. The truth is that there is nothing new about folks getting cheated and marginalized by US Government policies (this is the primary reality); it's just that said policies are now affecting a broader, more middle class and whiter section of society today (this is a subsidiary or secondary reality). The wholesale dispossession and disempowerment of peoples by the US Government is a consistent theme throughout US history, and the "stroke of good luck" associated with having been born American has always been (not just now, but has always been) linked to one's proximity to the privileged classes. In the last 100 years, the core of these privileged classes has almost exclusively consisted of white, Anglo-Saxons who thought of themselves as morally superior and favored by God for their adherence to the protestant work ethic (similar to how Jews think of themselves as the "Chosen People"). Many of them are now getting shafted and acting incensed as if they were the first, or most undeserved, victims of hostile government actions. These kinds of thoughts ignore the primary reality I have alluded to. Let's review some history to properly contextualize our current situation and to fully understand what we are witnessing today.
In the past, those who were born American Indian, African-American, Asian, etc. were not a part of the privileged classes, but a part of the underclass that was institutionally denied social and economic justice. The narrative of how wonderful it was to have been born American simply does not hold water with those born into slavery, those dispossessed by cultural genocide, nor those targeted for ethnic cleansing. Their "pursuit of happiness" was confined to groveling for crumbs on the periphery of "mainstream" America. Make no mistake about it, the so-called "American Dream" was built on subjugating and oppressing the marginalized: a dark, shameful story conveniently ignored by those beating the drums of American "exceptionalism." Their is nothing superior or exceptional about MF Global being allowed to screw people out of their money (which is synonymous with liberty in this country), nor the US government having a historical penchant for doing so with regard to those it decides to marginalize, dispossess and kill in order to advance it purposes (regardless of whether or not they be Americans, indigenous or foreign populations standing in the way of our "national interests"). So, to unqualifiedly claim that the past was so wonderful--as if that were true everybody--is grossly inaccurate. In fact, the opposite is true for the historically disadvantaged: they have gained more economic and social freedoms since 1970. It is also mistaken to suggest that the present is essentially different from the past, because the underlying reality between both far outweighs the secondary differences between them. Let's advance the story to elucidate this point.
The visions and "new worlds" for which people were sacrificed in the past include the colonization of the Americas, Manifest Destiny, The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, The Third Reich, A Communist Utopia, etc. Although the rallying cry today is around a different, more "progressive" vision, namely the wet dream of a "New World Order," the same cabal is still in charge: financiers, bankers and the "statesmen" bought by them. As has always been the case, nobody gets to vote on what they are dragging us into, or whether or not it is appropriate, wise, necessary or timely to go there. And as always, anybody close to the levers of power is profiting handsomely, while the rest are groaning under the burden imposed on them. Moreover, anybody who descents is mowed down. This is the single most important reality that underlies and connects the past and the present. What Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Jackson and Lincoln wrote in bygone years about the wily and deceptive nature of financiers and bankers (and those in cahoots with them), still rings oh-so frighteningly true today. The top 1% is still up to the same tricks: creating economic chaos and wars among the common man in order to gain profit, or as necessary, to cover-up egregious financial, ethical and moral crimes. It's just that the greed factor these days has become so intense that the upper economic echelons are now feeding even on those immediately below them. In our day and age, the truth of this situation becomes obscured as European and American economic elites "labor" under the guise of constructing a new utopia, whether it be the EU or the New World Order. Along the way, the profit motives that drive their schemes are completely lost on the public-at-large, in part because all sacrifices forced on them are portrayed as necessary to create a more "perfect union" among peoples of the world. Similar campaigns and slogans have been used to justify various schemes, excesses and fraud for millenia. So, what exactly has changed here?
Now that we have clarified the primary reality underlying life in the matrix we live in, let's turn our attention to secondary realities defining our gulag. The differences that do exist between the past and present, can be described as being two-fold. First, instead of certain limited segments of society being disenfranchised and eviscerated in the United States, the entire middle class is now being looted, regardless of color or origin. European governments have a longer history of doing this. Because they have more experience committing these kinds of transgressions (i.e. taxation to pay for wars, (colonization) campaigns to create "New Worlds," ingenuous feudal ways to wring money out of one's vassals, "Let them eat cake," and the illegitimate, Machiavellian ascension of government leaders), they have taken more brazen and shocking steps as of late. For example, last week Goldman Sachs bankers managed to get themselves installed as the unelected leaders of Greece and Italy. These euphemistically called "technocrats" are poised to inflict draconian austerity measures on both country's populations. They do so under the guise of preserving the EU, but actually their plans add up to little more than financial schemes designed to enrich banks. In terms of unconstitutional practices and banker corruption infiltrating the halls of government, the United States is not far behind: it has the "Super Committee," which turned out to be an utter failure, and corrupt bankers littering Obama-administration-appointed government positions. Finally, compared to the past, another change that has taken place is that we now have less chances for upward mobility as college degrees get harder to come by, jobs more difficult to obtain and debt slavery more prevalent. Again, this is true not just for America, but also for Europe, where citizen indignation has been far more prevalent and rancorous.
In summary, the past was highly problematic, and so is the present. Moreover, with regard to the primary, over-arching reality that defines the matrix we live in, nothing has changed over the centuries. What differentiates the past from the present is not so much a state of freedom in the past compared to a state of oppression today, but alterations in who is being oppressed, who is being subjected to poverty, and who is being affected by the increased convergence between conditions in third world countries and the "developed" world. The theme of sliding from democracy to tyranny and fascism is also not new, although it now features the birth of what I call "super banana republics" exemplified by: (1) America, where we have bought politicians, unconstitutional super committees, abuse of executive decrees, extra-judicial killings, recess appointments as an end-run around Congress, crony capitalism, the TSA, and the "Patriot" Act, and; (2) Europe, where national sovereignty is being sacrificed to forced international marriages, and where the cradle of democracy (Greece and Europe) have been over-run by barbarian, bankster Visigoths looting and pillaging as they plow ahead with their vision of dominating the world. Although the landscape out there looks different, let's not overstate the differences between past and present, and let's realize there are many standing ahead of us in the line of those who have been marginalized, dispossessed and shafted.
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P.S. To be sure, the US has already lapsed into banana republic status, and wanting to leave the Titanic is a natural impulse. The only problem is that emigrating is no easy matter, unless you have millions (i.e. unless you are a part of the privileged class), or have a skill that another country really needs. Given these constraints, the average American will remain stuck in an ever growing and increasingly ominous, Orwellian gulag.