Tag: rugged individualism

A Frank Letter to the Homeless Man Under the Bridge

By: Paul Rosenberg,

letter-to-homeless

I see you standing here, asking for help, about once a week. You are always polite, and I respect that. I’d like to do something for you… something that would matter long-term. Giving you a few notes or coins now and then may be fine, but I’d really like to improve your situation more permanently.

In other words, I’d like to give you a job.

I used to hire people, and I especially liked hiring people who had been denied breaks. I did that whenever I could. If you and I could be transported back in time, I’d hire you. And I’d feel good about it, because I think having a job would do you a lot of good.

That fact is, however, that I can’t hire you, and I’d like you to know why.

I used to run my own contracting firm. I enjoyed the work and I liked being able to drive past a building and say, “I made that.” Having employees, however, was torture. I liked having them in some ways, of course – I liked the guys and it made me happy to see them take care of their families with paychecks that I signed. That was very gratifying. But it wasn’t enough, and there are three reasons why:

#1: Making Payroll

My first problem was simply cash flow. I was solely responsible for having enough money in the bank every week, and that could be nerve-wracking, especially when customers weren’t paying their bills on time. It’s not fun to think that a family won’t be able to buy groceries if you can’t collect your invoices.

Still, that part didn’t cause me to give up on employees. It was hard, but so long as my employees were working, we were making money, so there was always something coming in at some point. Somehow, I was able to pull it off.

#2: Being Hated

Over time, some of my employees became jerks. This seemed to grow from envy and from stupid ideas about labor versus management. These guys decided that I was getting rich off of them, and demanded I pay them more – more than they deserved and more than the company could afford.

And the really nasty part was this: It was always the guys I had done the most for who hated me most. And as soon as I sat down with them and explained why I couldn’t pay them more, they started stealing from me.

I fired the thieves, of course, but these experiences really soured me on employees. I had not only given these guys a job, but I had legitimately felt good about helping to feed their families. In return, they hated me, called me names, and stole from me.

By itself, that was almost enough to make me swear off employing people, but not quite.

#3: The IRS

What really drove me over the edge was dealing with the government and the IRS in particular. They were abominable.

I had to file forms with every payroll, and if anything on them was wrong, they penalized me – heavily. And if I paid them a single day late, they penalized me – heavily. And if they said I did something wrong – even if I didn’t – there was no way to change their verdict. Reason and evidence simply didn’t matter.

I eventually talked to a tax lawyer who explained the situation to me. He said:

Forget about fighting, Paul. There is no ‘innocent until proven guilty’ in tax court. You’re automatically guilty, and you have to try to prove yourself innocent… which is very hard and very expensive. Just pay them. I know you hate that, but you have no other choice. Fighting them would ruin you.

It wasn’t just the money that got me about this – it was that they were nasty, arrogant, heartless tyrants. Having the facts on my side didn’t matter. Intelligent arguments didn’t matter. Either I paid what they demanded or they would hurt me worse.

In many ways, it wasn’t much different than the local gang of street thugs demanding protection money.

So, that’s why I can’t hire you: Having employees locked me into a single role in life, that of a despised slave. When I finally realized that, I walked away.

I was lucky that I had the ability to move into specialties and to thrive in difficult niches; other guys probably couldn’t have.

So…

What I really want you to know is this:

I’d like to help you. You deserve a chance at a decent job. I’d like to be the guy who gave it to you, but the system demands that I must live as a slave in order to do so. And I won’t do that.

I very much wish that things were different, and I feel sorry every time I drive by that I can’t hire you. But I would never ask anyone to live as a slave, and I won’t live that way myself.

I wish you well, and if life in these parts should ever pull back from the present reign of oppression, I hope to run into you. And on that day, I hope to either hire you or do business with you.

We would both have much to gain from it.

Paul Rosenberg

[Editor’s Note: Paul Rosenberg is the outside-the-Matrix author of FreemansPerspective.com, a site dedicated to economic freedom, personal independence and privacy. He is also the author of The Great Calendar, a report that breaks down our complex world into an easy-to-understand model. Click here to get your free copy.]

The Only Label That Matters

submitted by jwithrow.Label Sticker

Labels are divisive.

We have been conditioned by government education and mass-media to put labels on others and then treat them according to what that label means to us. This is group-think and it is antithetical to the philosophy of individual liberty.

Here is how group-think works:

We place someone in a particular category, label them, and then we attribute specific qualities to that person based on that label. This person may or may not actually share all of these qualities.

So we label that person based on their ethnic background or their political philosophy or their profession or their collegiate affiliation or whatever else. And we then assume that they hold all of the values that we associate with that particular group.

Here’s the problem: group-think fosters judgment and division and it reinforces the collectivist mentality that individuals are subservient to groups (governments, corporations, institutions, etc.).

We think that this judgment and division is misplaced.

We are not groups; we are people. Individuals. We may differ in certain philosophies or preferences but we are all far more similar than we are different.

Personhood is the only label that matters.

The fact is that we will never agree on everything. Try getting five friends to agree on where to go for dinner and see if this is not true. But we are all people and as individuals we inherently hold tremendous value that does not dissipate simply because we may hold different beliefs. And because we hold this inherent value as individuals, we should not allow groups to tell us what to think or how to feel. It’s up to us to decide for ourselves.

We would also suggest that our differences in opinion should not deter us from honest friendship. It is foolish to squabble with family members and friends over particulars and allow these particulars to destroy relationships. And we would suggest that it is destructive to see ourselves as a member of a certain group and then think that we are therefore diametrically opposed to another group. We do not want others to impose their labels upon us so we should not impose our labels on others. It can be appropriate to offer advice or present alternative ideas to someone with differing values but this is much different than trying to impose our values upon someone else. Remember, true change can only come from within, never from without.

A wise man once said “Do unto others and you would have them do unto you.”

Sounder advice has never been given.

Investing in Gold and Silver Bullion

submitted by jwithrow.Sound Money

Investing in gold and silver bullion is, believe it or not, much easier than investing in stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or bonds.

If the concept of investing in gold and silver seems strange to you, it is only because the financial media has marginalized the precious metals in order to sell more paper equities and the mainstream media has associated the precious metals with paranoid dooms-dayers. And apparently you haven’t been reading our little blog here.

You see, gold is money. It has been for all of recorded history.

You can’t pay your taxes with gold because your government knows that no one would want government currency if you could. And then your government would be in big trouble.

We talk about the ‘why’ in more detail here and here so now let’s look at the ‘how’.

Gold and silver bullion is available in the form of coins and bars of varying weights and measures and purchases can be made either in person at a reputable coin dealer or online through an internet dealer.

The advantage of buying from a local coin dealer is that you can pay in cash anonymously and you can potentially develop a working relationship with the dealer. The downside is that you will have to pay your state sales tax on all bullion purchases made at a local dealer.

The advantage of buying online is that you don’t have to leave your home and you can avoid the state sales tax (for the time being, anyway). The downside is that you cannot purchase anonymously and there is a delay between purchase and delivery.

Gold and silver bullion can also be sold back to the same dealers – be sure to research their individual policy.

The IRS currently classifies precious metal bullion as a collectible and thus taxes the gain on sale at the collectible rate which is 28%. Keep this in mind if you choose to invest in gold and silver bullion, especially if you sacrifice anonymity and purchase online. Also, be sure to stay updated on the current tax laws regarding gold and silver bullion as they could change at any given time.

There are many strategies when it comes to investing in gold and silver but a general rule of thumb is to stay away from unique collectibles (numismatics) unless you are very knowledgeable in the field. The reason being is that numismatics carry a much higher premium than standard bullion from well-known mints but there is a much smaller market for these rare coins and thus they are much less liquid.

Our favorite strategy is to dollar-cost-average into both gold and silver periodically at the ratio of one American Gold Eagle to twenty American Silver Eagles.

Buy Gold Online

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out – A Modern Interpretation by Paul Rosenberg

 By Paul Rosenberg, FreemansPerspective.com

This was a big phrase in the 1960s, as young people turned away from
the corporate conformity of the 1950s and decided that they wanted more
out of life than being an adequately-fed cog in a big machine.

Let’s be honest and admit that the modern corporate script involves
selling your own wishes and dreams for paychecks. I know that a lot of us have played along with it because of necessity, but this is not a way of life to cling to, it’s a way of life to escape.

You are meant to live your life. Yes, I know it can seem hard, but
it’s the only life that’s really worth living. You have to give meaning
to your life, and you’ll never get it by following the televised script and hoping for pats on the back from the people who are playing along with you.

This life you have is precious. Human beings are engines of creation;
we are able to imagine and to turn our imaginations into reality. And we
are capable of supercharging our creative abilities by sharing our lives
and loves with other people. We are astonishingly capable creatures.

Don’t waste all your life’s abilities in a corporate cubicle. You’ve
already seen how that goes: Work excessive hours, go home tired, watch
TV, sleep, and start over. Your kids end up in mini corporate worlds
called “schools,” where they are taught to sit, be quiet, obey, and turn
off their internal desires and loves. If you play that game you’ll miss
most of your life in the process, as well as most of your children’s
lives.

Once you get some corporate inertia going, it is all too easy to get
sucked into it permanently. Don’t let that happen to you.

So, here’s my modern (and slightly adjusted) interpretation –
Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out:

Tune In

Wake up and see the world as it is. Turn off the
talking heads on TV and get to know the real world. Stop spending all
your brain cycles on celebrities, sports heroes and gossip hounds – get
to know your neighbor and the old woman who lives around the corner,
strike up a friendship with someone on the other side of the world. Travel. Spend your time with real people; get to know them, and reveal yourself to them. It only seems weird because the people who programmed you didn’t want you to think freely.

Do you think I am being dramatic by referring to “the people who
programmed you”? If so, read this:

Education should aim at destroying free will so that
after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished.

That was from the highly esteemed Bertrand Russel, by the way, and
I’ve got plenty more of them. Take this seriously, because your
programmers have been.

Tune in to yourself rather than your programming: What do you really
want? Most people can list a dozen things that bother them, but not a
single thing that they really want. This is a problem. Find out what you
want. What do you love? What do you want to work for?

Do you remember all those times in the Bible where Jesus berates
people for being “hypocrites”? Well, the real word he used was actors –
as in stage actors. And whether you are religious or not, this is
crucial: Stop acting in someone else’s play. Take off all the masks and
find yourself.

Turn On

Start doing what you love. Don’t wait for someone else, do it
yourself. Start helping your friends and neighbors, spend serious time
with your children – not at a game or a party, but just you and them,
talking. Find out what they love. Tell them what you love, what you are
proud of, what you regret. Tell them you love them. Tell them things you
don’t tell your friends. Let them know you.

Start living, not merely existing. DO the things you feel an urge to
do. And don’t fall into the usual trap of “what if I make a mistake?”
That’s simply fear-based conditioning. Resist it. Do what you love, and
in so doing, you will turn yourself on.

Are you going to go through your whole life and never follow your own
wishes, always sacrificing them to the tyranny of other peoples’
opinions? Please don’t do that to yourself – you’ll suffer greatly for
it when you’re old.

Screw all the expectations and turn on – act on your own will.

Drop Out

Stop wasting your time and energy on governments and arguments and
politics. Drop out of their mindset and start reclaiming all those
wasted hours. Lying politicians are simply not worth your devotion. Drop
the endless party fights and stop arguing about them. Politics is ugly,
and politics on the brain makes us ugly.

Stop paying attention to the hundreds of ads you see every day – they
are scientifically designed to grab your thoughts. Turn away. Stop
buying trendy things, and definitely stop buying things for the purpose
of impressing other people.

Stop trying to fit in, and stop living according to other people’s
expectations. Let them call you weird. Let them talk about you. Stop
caring about it. If they were real friends, they wouldn’t treat you like
that. So if they are willing to call you names, you’re better off
dropping them now.

Don’t fight the system – that just keeps all of your energy and
attention focused on them. Forsake the system and start creating a
better life for yourself, the people you love and the people you
respect. Stop giving all your life’s energy to a barbaric system of
force and manipulation.

Let the system go; all of it. Move on and let it rot where it sits.

But We Need A Plan!

No, you don’t. You need a life!

Let go of the plan addiction. Life is organic, not mechanical.

First of all, you need to identify what you want to create with the
precious life you’ve been given. Not what you want to stop, but what you
want to make.

If you’ve never been told to do this before it may seem hard, but you
can do it if you try.

Don’t sit and wait. Stop talking and start doing.

ACT! NOW!

[Editor’s Note: Paul Rosenberg is the
outside-the-Matrix author of FreemansPerspective.com, a site dedicated to economic freedom, personal independence and privacy. He is also the
author of The Great Calendar, a report that breaks down our
complex world into an easy-to-understand model. Visit his site to get your free copy.]

Presidents’ Day Quotes

submitted by jwithrow.George Washington

For your reading pleasure, here is a compilation of pertinent quotes from the first four American Presidents in honor of Presidents’ Day.

George Washington:

  • “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
  • “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
  • “The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.”
  • “The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.”
  • “Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.”
  • “It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.”
  • “Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.”
  • “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.”
  • “Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.”
  • “Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.”

John Adams:John Adams

  • “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
  • “All the perplexities, confusions, and distress in America arise, not from defects in their constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.”
  • “Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”
  • “Power always thinks… that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws.”
  • “Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”
  • “Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.”
  • “Fear is the foundation of most governments.”
  • “Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.”

Thomas Jefferson:Thomas Jefferson

  • “If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.”
  • “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”
  • “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
  • “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”
  • “The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.”
  • “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”
  • “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”
  • “Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.”
  • “To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
  • “It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”
  • “The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”

James Madison:James Madison

  • “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
  • “It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”
  • “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
  • “I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
  • “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
  • “The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.”
  • “Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.”
  • “In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.”

Cultivate Your Garden

submitted by jwithrow.Lotus Garden

This essay is written for those who feel that our society has lost its way.

We see a world in which the collectivist rat race has suppressed minds and spirits. Selfishness and corruption have replaced kindness and honesty. Humility and grit have been replaced by a culture of irresponsibility and instant gratification.

Turn on your preferred news channel and they will be quick to point their collective finger at some group or another and tell you all about how everything is their fault. Now turn off your television and ask your inner self who is really at fault.

Guess what, dear friend? It’s your fault.

Before we can ever expect to see an honest and just society, we must first foster honour and justice within ourselves. We must stop pointing our fingers at others and begin to cultivate our own garden.

Most people are terrified of being different so they attempt to “fit in” at all times. Most people go along to get along so they conform to the status-quo in society. But if you set a shining example of humility, kindness, honesty, and responsibility then others will be encouraged by your example. There is universal truth in the old adage that says “actions speak louder than words”.

I will leave you with the following quote, written by an unknown monk around 1100 A.D.:

“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.
I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.
When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family.
My family and I could have made an impact on our town.
Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.”

The Parable of the Monkeys in the Cage

submitted by jwithrow.Banana on String

Five monkeys awaken to find themselves inside of a large cage. A banana hangs from a string at the very top of the cage and there is a staircase in the middle of the cage that leads directly up to the banana.

One of the monkeys, before long, decides that he would like to have the banana so he goes to the stairs. As soon as the monkey touches the stairs, however, every monkey inside of the cage is sprayed with high pressure cold water from an external hose which knocks each monkey to the ground and makes for a miserable evening.

A few uneventful days pass before a second monkey decides that he would like to have the banana so he goes to the stairs. Once again, as soon as this monkey touches the stairs, every monkey inside of the cage is sprayed with high pressure cold water.

A few months go by and one of the original monkeys passes away and is replaced with a new monkey. The new monkey is amazed that the other monkeys have not gotten the banana and he immediately makes his way for the stairs.

As soon as the new monkey touches the stairs, the four remaining original monkeys immediately yank him to the ground and proceed to assault him.

After a few days to recover, the new monkey once again decides to try to get the banana. And once again, the other monkeys immediately prevent him from climbing the stairs and they beat the new monkey for his efforts.

A few months go by and the second of the original monkeys passes away and is replaced with a new monkey. Naturally, the new monkey is shocked to find that the other monkeys have not gotten the banana and he immediately makes his way for the stairs.

As soon as this newest monkey touches the stairs, the three remaining original monkeys immediately yank him to the ground and proceed to assault him. The first new monkey also rushes to beat the newest monkey with enthusiasm as the first new monkey is now part of the “team”.

The third and the fourth original monkeys both pass away as the years go by and they are replaced each time with a new monkey. Each time the new monkey attempts to get the banana only to be shocked by the beating that he receives from the older monkeys.

Finally, the last original monkey passes away and is replaced by the fifth new monkey. The fifth new monkey finds it strange that the other monkeys have not gotten the banana so he immediately makes for the stairs. As soon as he touches the stairs, the four other monkeys rush to assault the newest monkey.

Now, the four monkeys that are beating up the newest monkey have no idea as to why they were originally beaten for their own attempt at climbing the stairs and neither do they know why they are perpetuating the tradition of beating each new monkey that tries to climb the stairs. As none of the monkeys now in the cage are the original monkeys, none of them have ever been sprayed by water. Nevertheless, the “experienced” monkeys do not try to climb the stairs to get the banana and they immediately suppress any attempt from newer monkeys to go for the banana.

Why is this? Wouldn’t the monkeys love to have the banana?

Well, in their minds, it’s just the way it has always been. The monkeys have been fully cultured to accept the fact that it is unacceptable to climb the stairs in pursuit of the banana.

Silly monkeys, huh?

Avoiding the Identity Trap

submitted by jwithrow.Identity Trap

The identity trap is the belief that you need to conform to what others think that you should be. It is when you feel the need to speak or act a certain way because other people think that you should speak or act that way. It is when you participate in an event or join an organization because others expect you to do so.

While these other people who expect you to conform to certain expectations are typically well-intentioned, you are doing yourself a disservice if you allow yourself to be pressured into the identity trap. Your life will not be harmonious if you are not true to your own inner self.

People, often subconsciously, do not see others as individuals but rather they see others as members of a particular group. They then assume that the other person holds all of the associated group’s beliefs and traits and thus they expect the other person to speak and act accordingly. But everyone is a unique individual and groups are comprised of individuals.

Individuals have a responsibility to themselves to do what they think is right at all times. Individuals have a responsibility to stay true to their beliefs and principles. Individuals do not have a responsibility to put on a façade because other people expect them to be something other than themselves. Falling into and remaining stuck in the identity trap is an impediment to your personal freedom. You can never be free if you must pretend to be something that you are not.

Harry Browne, in How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World, laid out four specific principles to recognize in order to avoid the identity trap. They are as follows:

1. You are a unique individual — different from all other human beings. No one else has the exact same nature that you have; no one else reacts to things in exactly the way you do. No one else sees the world exactly as you do. No one can dictate what your identity should be; you are the best qualified person to discover what it is.

2. Each individual is acting from his own knowledge in ways he believes will bring him happiness. He acts to produce the consequences he thinks will make him feel better.

3. You have to treat things and people in accordance with their own identities in order to get what you want from them. You don’t expect a stone to be a fish. And it’s just as unrealistic to expect one person to act as someone else does. You don’t control the identities of people, but you can control how you deal with them.

4. You view the world subjectively — colored by your own experience, interpretation, and limits of perception. It isn’t essential that you know the final truth about everything in the world; and you don’t have the resources to discover it.

Avoid the identity trap and realize your true individual potential.

MyRA-QE Taper Connection

submitted by jwithrow.Government Help

We have a question for you:

Is it a coincidence that the government has introduced the “myRA” plans just as the Federal Reserve has begun to taper its quantitative easing programs?

Let’s think this thing through for a minute.

We know:

  • China is now a net-seller of U.S. Treasuries so the Federal Reserve has had to step in and purchase U.S. Treasury Bonds in increasing quantities to support government spending.
  • The average American saves for retirement in a qualified retirement plan focusing primarily on mutual funds, exchange traded funds, and stocks with bonds comprising a small portion of the allocation.
  • The proposed myRA plans are designed to focus on U.S. Treasury Bonds.
  • The Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing programs have pumped massive amounts of liquidity into the system which has resulted in a broad increase of stock prices across the board.
  • Tapering QE will withdraw liquidity from the system which will almost certainly result in a broad decrease of stock prices across the board and quite possibly a severe stock market crash.
  • A falling stock market would likely cause many Americans to seek investment options that they deem “safer”.
  • The government is already hard-selling their myRA plans stating that there is “no risk to lose what you put in”.

Hmm.

Maybe our benevolent bureaucrats really do think that myRA plans will help the common man.

But we hold dearly to a personal mantra:

Maximize Capital,
Minimize Crap,
Never Trust the Government.

With that mantra echoing in our mind, we can’t help but be a little suspicious – something funny seems to be afoot.

What do you think?