Monopoly: Free and Compulsory

Monopoly is no new word, but the definition shifts in the newspeak of the intelligentsia. A book length's diatribe can be exhausted on the euphemisms used to hoodwink the masses into trusting governmental authority. College students are bamboozled into thinking they are reading American. Someone with the gall, should offer a foreign language course in journalese. The 4th branch would cringe in revulsion. They like secrets.

Monopoly is my favorite board game. It was crafted by enemies of free enterprise to persuade people that private ownership over the means of production is a nightmare. Instead, people bought it as if it were the last Takis bag in the 7-Eleven aisle. The idea was doomed from conception. Monopoly was sold, not given out for free. It was traded voluntarily. Socialists using Capitalism will fail to convince others that capitalism is bad. Slavoj Zizek goes on tour selling books about the evils of book selling.  Makes it child's play to be

an angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our time (Network, 1976).

 The loose lips in news clips shiv monopoly repeatedly with every misuse. Either the term refers to State invasion of free enterprise or not. The 4th branch tells readers and listeners to fear monopolist mergers. Sowing the seeds of jealousy is a heinous act. Monopolies do not come about by merging business with business. When businesses sleep with the State, she bears monopolies. Allowing companies to consolidate voluntarily gives them an opportunity to better serve consumers (us) with lower prices or higher quality. If newcomers are barred entry to an industry, by the State, then it is time to fear the corporations in that industry. Uneven theft exemptions, forced licensing, and bans on voluntary mergers have a common root. The State. She is nothing more than the forced monopoly on security production. Telling the pluses from the minuses of monopolies is hard when the word is purposefully employed to confound.

I work strenuously to ease understanding of politics. Monopoly is no different than other concepts in politics. The same question should be asked of every political issue. Is it free, or is it compulsory?

I Speak American

The American language is a slut, and a skank. She entertains foreign tongues with the regularity of the rising Sun. This a compliment. The new words complement the lexicon when they label an unnamed concept. If there is nothing new to be gleaned from the word, it deserves the proverbial boot. The great wind of typhoon, comes from China. Flat mountainous regions, known as mesas, come from Latins. American numerals are Arabic. Active participation in the editing process is the duty of every American. Don't sleep.

Charity in Praxis

Los Angeles, California is a stretch of earth that should be dissected by lovers of life. Foodies can bathe in the myriad tastes found while splashing in the melting pot. Seekers of the sublime can stare at the rolling hills and peaceful ocean. Architects can marvel at the downtown skyscrapers, Hollywood sign, Valley mansions, and rustic South Central neighborhoods. Welcome to Watts.

Riots, gang violence, and eye-watering poverty brought about by invasions of the State have defined Watts to outsiders. Never forget, humans live in Watts. Humans work in Watts everyday. Little ones play on their jungle gyms, now ignorantly called apparati. Separate the stereotypes from the facts. There is danger, but caution should be the modus operandus in any trek through unknown lands. Otherwise, stay in your own castle.

I do my part to serve my fellow man. The love of humans is the second great commandment, and I obey the lord God. Father Gregory Boyle, of Homeboy Industries, says

Nothing stops a bullet like a job.

The way to take that to heart is to vote in the 100% democracy of the market economy. Casting your ballot for any old businessman is not going to count. Peacefully exchanging goods and services with locally run industries has a positive affect on community growth. You vote for a family man by paying for his product. He is given more leeway to running his finances, and can better provide for his family. His kids receive more attention, and are able to do better in school. They grow up to be more successful, and give back to the community. Ripples are real.

 An elderly gentleman of latin descent runs a fruit stand within blocks of the school that I work at. He is surrounded by competition in substitute goods. Inexpensive pizza, assortments of meat and Takis the peoples' champion. A veritable who's who of villains, in the eyes of nutrition commissar Michelle Obama. In spite of the penetrating rays of the Sun, he patiently stands and waits for his next trade. He has an orthodox faith in his product. The sign of an entrepreneur.

"I'll have the pineapple slices without chile or lime."

"La pina?"

"Claro que si, sin chile y sin limon."

Peel peel peel, chop chop chop, slice slice slice. He packages the pineapple segments.

"Quiero la, para llevar."

"Si, no problema."

"Gracias patron, tenga buen dia!"

Post Scriptum:

I get cuts at barbershops in South L.A. Cash run industries are muckier for the State than card based industries. I will render unto Caesar what is his, but I will rub it in dirt first.

Honesty

Truth is reality. That which is. Honesty is the act of telling others truths about yourself.

I am reading On Writing Well by William Zinsser. His accolades are numerous. Rarely am I so affected by an author that I will implement their way of thinking before finishing the text. Bravo! I am masticating on each noun with the pace of the renown tortoise, slow and steady. The verbs are being swooshed back and forth in my mouth and spit out. He covers libertarian journalist H.L. Mencken's The Scopes Trial, while I use scope metaphors. Needless to say I have taken it to heart that I need to take words out that I do not need to say over and over.

My work at internofchrist.blogspot.com already contains elements of this style. I re-edited my political piece on charity. Zinsser claims to be indebted to E.B. White, who scribed three classics I read and enjoyed as a child. Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and the Trumpet of the Swan tickled my mental ears into perking. I understand why. Writing is subject to the same natural laws that bind the finite. People are born with different strengths and weaknesses, but these predispositions do not preclude greatness in a skill one was born weak in. A legal midget can train hard enough to dunk on a standard National Basketball Association rim. A blind, deaf, and dumb girl can become an illustrious writer. E.B. White took his katana and practiced the same swinging motion thousands of times a day. Devotion can overcome the inequities of man.

I apologize to those whom have been lured into the muck of my cascading rhetorical flourish. Perhaps my perpetual peering into the powder puff powerpoint presentations of politicians, perturbed my proclivity to prettily pursue poetic prose. Now the word slinger will jet out of the holster straight from the hip. POW! Right in the kisser, and straight to the dome.

Economics in One Post

Praxeology is the logical study of human action. The prefix praxis means practice, and refers to how human beings act. Economics is a subdivision of human action, focusing on the interactions of humans during production and consumption. It describes the market. The illustrious praxeologist Ludwig von Mises avowed the valueless nature of economics. There are economists who hold economic views that are normative. A call to how things should be. Mises sets them straight. Economics is descriptive. It describes the way things are. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Austrian analysis of economics is host to a difference in kind, as opposed to just a difference in degree, from all other analyses of economics. I will refer to the amalgamation of all other economic analyses as the antiaustrian method. The Austrian method uses deductive logic to ascertain the nature of human action. All other methods rely upon empirical studies or tests to back hypotheses they have about human action. They use graphs, statistics, econometrics et cetera. Mises scoffed at this.*

Frequent readers will notice the usage of the term apodeictic, or apodictic, in reference to a statement that I have made. Apodeictic means logically true. The statements that I call apodeictic are axioms and maxims. It is not my believing them to be true that makes them true. I am impotent in this regard. Regardless of how disconcerting or jovial the understanding of axioms can make one, they are true. Independent of human existence is the truth about human action.

The primordial maxim of praxeology is that humans act. Wow! So controversial. From this maxim all other apodeictic axioms are drawn out, and elaborated upon. Carl Menger, founder of the Austrian School of Economics, provided the subjective market theory of prices. This is a basic tenet of economics, that is indubitable.** Humans, when acting, put value judgements on how much they are willing to pay for specific goods and services. This weighing mechanism is the price system. Barring invasion upon voluntary exchange, prices will approximate the subjective vagaries of the humans valuing them. Apodeictic. There is no room for doctrines of "fair trade" or the "labor theory of value".*** Individuals with fluctuating moods and sentiments place their own values on products. Outside observers are incapable of quantifying the degree of satisfaction potentially or actually obtained between two parties.

People tend to appreciate evidence. I will rack up some more for purposes of clarity. From the maxim that humans act, can be drawn out the maxim of scarcity. Scarcity exists. We do not have access to an indefinite supply of whatever caprices we have. From thence springs the axiom of satisfaction. The realization of scarcity guides humans to act in a way to satisfy their whims. Whether or not they achieve their ends is irrelevant to the fact that they attempt to do so. Try. 

Speaking of try, triangles have apodeictic truths that will be beneficial to get a quick reminder course in. Triangles, of necessity, have no more and no less than 180 degrees. The length of one side must be less than the sum of the lengths of the other two sides. The foundational mathematician Euclid espoused apodeictic maxims as well. The part can never be greater than the whole. If A=B, and B=C, then A is indisputably equal to C. 

I highlight these examples to remind folks that they are in fact dogmatic in their belief of mathematics. The same fervor should be applied to belief in praxeology. 

I believe in absolute truth, but you are no different. I need only to dig deep in the crevices of your mind to extract your belief in the absolute. If you say absolutes truth does not exist, you are affirming that which your vocal chords are decrying. If you think someone who adheres to strict verbal economics is too rigid in their thinking and methodology, turn to yourself. Ask yourself how loose your attachment is to the whole being greater than the part. Or A being equal to C, if A=B and B=C. Do you waver in that belief? If so, you have a skeptical lens that would drive you to insanity if consistently applied. If not, welcome. You are an absolutist. 

There are way more maxims of praxeology, but I hope this rejoinder to statistical economics has wet your appetite. Stay moist, my friends.

Post Scriptum:

*imagine a mathematician defaulting to statistics to try to prove that A=A

** Austria does not adhere to this, just google it

*** marxism 

Charity and Money

Like the plethora of sheeple out there, I used to think charity was summed up in writing a check to some hoodwinker with images of starving children. Ethiopia, the land of my heritage, has been inseparably linked with destitute poverty in the minds of many. Due, of course, to the efforts of the UNICEF box waving do-gooders. Do not take my criticism the wrong way. I do not oppose feeding the children. However, how do we go about feeding the children?

The ends that are sought by sane men are often the same. A parcel of land, a tid bit of food, an iota of insurance, and a smidgeon of leisure time. The means we select set us apart. There are humans, and there are beasts. There is no middle ground. Where you lie on the spectrum depends upon your interactions. There is the "economic means", and the "political means".

"These are work and robbery, one's own labor and the forcible appropriation of the labor of others... I propose in the following discussion to call one's own labor and the equivalent exchange of one's own labor for the labor of others, the economic means for the satisfaction of needs, while the unrequited appropriation of the labor of others will be called the political means." (Oppenheimer, The State)

Dictionary.com defines charity as

 generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or homeless

When the State claims it engages in acts of "charity", we should all let out a barbaric yawp, and a Scroogian humbug. When an advocate of foreign "aid" preaches the merits of invasionism you should hold one thought in your mind. Nonsense on a high-rise. The truth behind their docile facade is theft. Forcibly removing funds of certain people for others.

The State produces nothing. Every action of the State is an act of consumption. Follow the money. How is the State funded? The State is funded by; force, coercion, incursions, expropriation, racketeering, stealing, threatening, bruising, kidnapping, hoodwinking, swindling, hornswoggling, and murdering. These occur in two formats, creating currency and taking currency. The former can only be accounted for by the latter. The bureaucrats "print" money (it's digital now), and demand tribute from the populace. Without monopolizing the usage of weapons against innocent bystanders, this could not be achieved. There is nothing generous about force. There is nothing generous about the State's attempt to aid the poor. The State does not engage in charity.

If you believe in being kind, and loving one another, you should never advocate State action. In order to "help" those people whom you seek to aid, a toll must be paid by human lives.

For those who care about giving, give to voluntary associations. Groups of individuals who are so passionate about aid, that they interact with humans without resorting to guns or the threat of guns. I am that type of a person. Let me aid you in your ventures with voluntary regulating agencies (unlike State regulators) that check the merits of charities for you.

GiveWell.org, and CharityNavigator.org

Dialectic Buchananism Reveals Tribalism

Patrick Buchanan is a person worth researching. Polemical prose in print, and presidential primary proclivities tell me so. An expose on what makes him tic would be a tremendous addition to the political landscape. This is not that. Though he calls himself conservative, and runs The American Conservative, his military views are far from it. If one heard him rail against Republican Senator John McCain and the Iraq invasion, steered at the helm by a Republican president, Pat Buchanan would seem liberal. In his repudiation of overseas adventurism, he is a champion of liberty. Sadly, his affinity towards liberty stops there for foreign policy. Buchanan's views on peaceful exchange between nations is radically illiberal. It is isolationist to the core. It is divisive from the root up. The radical liberal that I am, I will venture to uproot his arguments and expose them for the vestiges of Jim Crow bigotry that they are (I will assume here that bigotry qua bigotry is objectively wrong).

Pat Buchanan, in the December issue of The American Conservative, writes a piece that promotes protectionism. How dare we allow the

opening of America's borders to all goods made by our new friends in the People's Republic of China.

Mercantilism lives. It is beyond me how Buchanan could have worked with Murray Rothbard, when Rothbard held a burning hatred for protectionism (read Rothbard in the mercantilism link). Rothbard calls it a "wall of privilege around inefficient manufacturers". 19th century French economist Frederic Bastiat used satire to swallow whole the pathetic reasoning of local businessmen to enlist Leviathan's blade in suppressing voluntary exchange between individuals across nations. It is fitting that Bastiat chose to enlist the Sun to melt the self-aggrandizing arguments of French mercantilists. He points out how "unfair" the Sun is to the candle industry, because it provides light to everyone on Earth for the mercilessly ruinous price of free. Bastiat's classic can be found in its entirety here.

I made the falsehood of mercantilism clear in my post about the illusory nature of beasts' rights

 Humans do not have to exchange with one another, but they do. Ricardo's Law is apodeictic. The division of labor benefits even those producers who are more effective than others. Even the most talented of humans gains from voluntarily exchanging goods and services. 

 In modern discourse the term "isolationist" has become a pejorative used to deride the greatest statesman for liberty, Doctor Ronald Paul. Time after time, newscasters from all over the accepted political spectrum that Tom Woods affectionately refers to as the 3.5 inches between Secretary Hilary Clinton and Governor Willard Romney. The 4th branch does not disappoint its namesake. These tele-prompt readers claim that reducing the U.S. military presence in Germany and Japan is isolationist. They claim pulling troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan is isolationist. The surface level displays a reduction in aggressive interaction with other countries. Admittedly, this reduction of interaction can appear to be the actions of a hermit unless the unseen consequences are noted. The peaceful interactions, or trade, of producers and consumers across nations is diametrically opposed to isolation. This is in fact the essence of being human. Peacefully interacting with one another. The only way the State can allow this to flourish is to get its mangey hands off of products. To scram or 23 skidoo. Cease and desist its tariffs, taxes and any other form of theft it can conjure up. Buchanan supports Ron Paul's views of the military, thus is no isolationist in this regard. Buchanan is an isolationist in regards to his promotion of domestic producers over foreign producers. If his advocacy did not involve requesting the State to bloody its mitts, then he would be no isolationist. He could choose to only pay for American made goods, and tell his friends to do the same. Instead, he tells the State to steal portions of the gains made by foreign producers, that benefit local consumers.

Statists thrive as all dictators do. Their survival hinges upon the maxim of divide and conquer. Fragmenting society into factions that compete for the treasure chest of stolen goods, State coffers, is the way to purchase votes and keep helming "the calm sea of despotism". Chris Sciabarra, while writing for The Freeman, elucidates Ayn Rand's linking together of statism and tribalism.

Racism, in Rand's view, was the most vicious form of social fragmentation perpetrated by modern statism... Rand argued that racism was an immoral and primitive form of collectivism that negated individual uniqueness, choice, and values. Psychologically the racist substitutes ancestral lineage for self-value and thereby undermines the earned achievement of any genuine self-esteem. Holding people responsible for the real or imagined sins of their ancestors, wielding the weapon of collective guilt, the racist adopts, the associational, concrete-bound method of awareness common to all tribalists. This anti-conceptual tribalism is manifested in the irrational fear of foreigners (xenophobia), the group loyalty of the guild, the worship of the family, the blood ties of the criminal gang, and the chauvinism of the nationalist.

Buchanan is affiliated. He belongs to the pleasantly plump, rosy cheeked, red-blooded American tribe. Their tribe views recent immigrants,  and any folk living outside the U.S., as inferior to the WASPy South and Midwest. Buchanan values the jobs of Protestants of European descent over the jobs of browner people. His bigotry is not even consistent. A consistent bigot would promote U.S. consumers, everyone in the U.S., reaping more benefits than brown consumers elsewhere. He could put that into effect by advocacy of free trade with all nations irrespective of reciprocity. But then again, that would be liberal.

Even more liberal, and radical would be a call to end all State barriers to voluntary trade between humans. Not just those invasions, barriers, initiated by the U.S., but the invasions that any State currently has in place. This would be a victory against bigotry. Without States, voluntary human interactions would increase. Globalization in this inexorably shrinking world of digital and communicational wonders would bring humans together. It would make us one.

The illiberal policies of protectionists wrought "Tribes at War" and their regurgitation today serves the causes of aggression and chaos. To achieve peace we need liberal policies. To bring about spontaneous order, we need anarchy.