[quote]Varqanir wrote:
[quote]angry chicken wrote:
[quote]magick wrote:
What does LIBERTY actually feel like?
I’ve never felt the government intrude in my life. While the NSA spying is unacceptable and clearly a violation of everything the U.S. should hold dear, it had no genuine impact on my life. I’m sure the same cannot be said for many other people, but the fact is I’ve never felt restricted by the government in deciding what I want to do.
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I don’t have time today to address everything, but I will address this.
How much have you actually done? As in, how many businesses have you started and run? How many homes have you built? Or bought? How long have you been banking? How long have you been paying taxes? Have any international assets? Tried to import or export anything? Ever tried to transfer money or take money out of the country?
Do you have kids? Ever spanked them? Ever told them to go outside and come home when the street lights come on? Ever done anything “mischievous”? Or just wanted to walk alone at night without being bothered? How many things have your bought and sold?
Ever flown without taking your shoes off? Ever driven to Canada with just a driver’s license? They can prosecute a librarian now for TELLING you that the US government is investigating you. Same for bankers.
If you don’t have any experience doing any of those things, then you wont know the difference. When I was younger and starting in business, I could do ANY of that unimpeded. Now, they want your social security number to open up a fucking BANK ACCOUNT! If you deposit or withdraw more than ten thousand dollars, you bank HAS to notify the government. If you want to bring IN more than 10,000 you have to declare it. Why? What does that information have to do with GOVERNMENT?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, many international banks simply won’t accept any new American clients.
It didn’t used to be that way. You could do what your wanted, as long as you weren’t hurting anyone else.
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I left the United States in 1994, and returned in 2008.
It is no exaggeration to say that I found myself in a vastly different country than the one I had left.
I’m back in Japan now, which seems about the same as it was back in '94, with the obvious improvements in architecture and technology.
I’m just reading through this thread, AC, and this quote caught my eye:
I’ve recommended it to a number of my friends here, including Cortes and Mikeyali, but I can’t recall whether I have ever recommended my favourite book, Fates of Nations, a Biological Theory of History to you.
I think it would be right up your alley. [/quote]
Thanks. It’ll be here in a few days. I look forward to reading it.
Most of the active threads right now are about religion or morality and I don’t have anything nice to say about either one of those topics, so I’m putting myself on “time out”. LOL