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RKR: Michael, I get a strong vibe of condescension and snideness in your post. As I have become accustomed to that sort of thing when conversing with the intelligent, I would like to ask. Is it an intentional jibe at me or is it innocent syntax?
Well, I am sorry. The fingers fly sometimes when the brain is not engaged. All I meant was that you, like many others before you, asked the question that has no easy answer. Welcome to the movement. Read about the Free State Project, for sure, but also read about Werner K. Stevens and Atlantis and the Minerva Project. I was not being mean toward you, only throwing up my hands and rolling my eyes and sighing, "Here we go again..." Basically, it doesn't work, because if it does, you never hear about it.
All people matter in life Michael. Galt's strike is a work of fiction, so it has to be larger than life to be entertaining. I believe every strike in history involved the little guys for the most part.
Well, to some extent -- perhaps a larger extent -- the current collapse is, in part, due to the shrugging and all. Enron, BearStearns, GM and Citicorp were not the work of objectivists, but of middle of the roaders, safe people, dependable, unexciting people who worked hard, perhaps, but who had no work ethic. I believe, further, that the dot.com meltdown was caused by business casual dresswear that reflected a casual business attitude. On the other hand, Cypress Semiconductor is successful because T. J. Rodgers has a no-nonsense attitude that he expects, instills, or extracts from others -- just to name one. The success of Microsoft enshrines the failure of mediocrity. The Macintosh was the better machine, but "you can't get fired for recommending IBM" and the world went with the safe, the known, the expected, the predictable. So, people who would otherwise actually engage in "intrapreneuring" were actually (a) never hired in the first place or (b) shunted off into quality circles or (c) got tired of it all and went into business for themselves, effectively shrugging. In other words, we have 100,000 or a million people doing odd jobs for each other and the engines of creation were never engaged.
I agree with you, its damn hard to support objectivist businesses. They're really not out there much.
Because objectivists are not really entrepreneurs. We're philosophers. Why spend your time making and selling something when you can come here and argue? Do we get paid for this? Do the owners of RoR? No. So, there is that. What I meant, though, was the reverse. You can exchange values with people who are diametrically opposed to reason and freedom. All you care about is that you get your money's worth.
As to the insinuation that I provide nothing of value. Groceries can be grown, the goods you've mentioned can be produced, I personally have the skills to provide security and medical care.
I certainly did not imply that you have nothing of value to market. I am truly taken aback there. No problems with my fingers on the keyboard. You misunderstand me. My point was that the things that (objectivist) people want are already being provided by other people (who are not objectivists).
As for security and medical care, OK, we both sell that. Why would you work for anyone you met here? They expect you to carry a gun and kill the enemy. By that formula, someone is going to need medical care -- and you cannot control who. I believe that violence is the last resort of the incompetent, so I avoid problems. We can talk about all of that. I like working with soldiers because they are trained to work in teams. I like cops as people, but they are such individualists that they are hard to coordinate with -- like herding cats. More later on that.
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My question remains, is it illegal to seek alternate means of exchange? What law would apply? Would tax evasion be the method used to discourage this sort of thing?
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Ryan, for the past five years, I ran the educational forums for our state numismatic society and twice we had presentations from H&R Block on "What the IRS Expects You to Know: Buying and Selling for the Non-Professional." Basically, "alternative means of exchange" are not illegal, but tax evasion is. If I trade you a rare coin for your used car, I just sold a coin and you just sold a car and we both owe income tax. Anything else is a different discussion entirely.
Peace,
Mike M.
Michael E. Marotta
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