I’ve been to 175 countries and lived in 12. My feeling is that the best thing that you can do is set your life up so that you’re not to be considered the property of any one government. You might have a passport or several passports and, therefore, that government thinks they own you. But if you don’t spend time in a country, practically speaking, there’s nothing they can do about it.Crisis and opportunity - two eternal variables that separate survivors from those who fail.
So, no, there is no real haven for freedom in the world today. The best you can do is go where the governments are so unorganized that they can’t control you effectively. That’s one reason I like to spend time in Argentina. They have an incredibly stupid government, but they’re also very inefficient and ineffective. So it’s wonderful as a place to live. I also spend time in Uruguay, because it’s a tiny little country with no ambitions to conquer the world. The nice thing about New Zealand, where I am now, is that it’s a small country, only 4 million people, lots of open land. It’s got some severe problems, but it’s pleasant. I think the U.S. is going to be the epicenter of a lot of problems in the years to come.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Opportunities Amidst Crisis
Over at The Energy Report, there's some great talk about the silver lining in the current economic crisis.
Labels:
government bureaucracy,
libertarianism,
taxation
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3 comments:
The government thinks they own you? Sorry, but that's just downright paranoid. Been nice reading you - in a specimen-study sort of way.
Maybe you think you own yourself Ian? How does that ownership work out for you when...
Your Hamburgian government decides it's time for you to go to war for them and drafts you?
Your Hamburgian government passes a law that uses force to determine what you can and can not eat, drink, inhale, inject, say, sell, buy or pay for?
Your Hamburgian government prohibits you from buying, selling, trading, starting a business, running a business without first paying financial fealty to them based on a formula they decide, alter and inflate at will?
Your Hamburgian government takes your home and evicts you if you don't pay property taxes for services that you never use, or perhaps are morally opposed to?
And if you say "um, NO!" to ANY of that, it's only a matter of time before men with guns show up at the door to make you comply - or put you in a steel cage.
Unless, perhaps, the Hamburg you live in isn't the one I'm thinking of.
ouch, good comeback Rod..and of course true...no one likes to admit that they are not free, or maybe we have forgotten what freedom is. It certainly isn't to be found in Europe...
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