Tag Archives: Ash Heap Of History

Withdrawing Political Legitimacy

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“The World Wide Web is the greatest idea-smuggling network in history. The question is: Which smuggling operations will put the Web to its most productive uses?  My statement of faith is this: not the state.  Smuggling can lead to secession. It can lead to a withdrawal of faith and hope in the messianic state. It can lead to institutional alternatives to the messianic state.  Example: online education as a substitute for tax-funded education. This is technically possible today. At some point, community by community, there will be a tipping point.  The mark of this tipping point will be this: the inability of local governments to get bond issues passed, despite the threatened loss of federal matching funds.”

http://www.garynorth.com/public/12641.cfm

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Khan Academy’s Challenge to State-Certified Educators

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“The whole system of automatic payments based on seniority and the number of semester hours earned in night school programs and summer vacation programs is about to come to an end.  The teachers’ union is by far the most powerful single union in the United States. It is the most powerful politically. It is the most powerful economically. It is based on an illusion. That illusion is being statistically undermined every day by the Khan Academy. The foundation of the entire public school system all over the world is being undermined free of charge every day. A man with no training as a teacher is clearly the best teacher in the world. This is demonstrated by the number of students he has.”

http://www.garynorth.com/public/12661.cfm

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Under the Microscope: The Real Costs of a Dollar

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“Once upon a time, most paper currency in the world was backed by gold and directly exchangeable for it.  On August 15, 1971, US President Richard Nixon ended the Bretton Woods System (Ghizoni, 1971), in what is now known as ‘The Nixon Shock’, allowing all currencies to float freely, with only the backing of the faith and credit of their issuing sovereign state. This type of currency is known as ‘fiat currency’, i.e., currency that is given value by government decree (Keynes, et al., 1978). This report will not discuss the relative merits and drawbacks of gold-backed currency and fiat-money, only the triple-bottom-line impacts of each.”

http://www.coindesk.com/microscope-real-costs-dollar/

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Amtrak gets creative, funding ‘psychylustro’ arts project

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“Amtrak has decided it’s going to become a veritable Louvre.  Amtrak’s gameplan involves deftly blending individual donations and foundation grants with money from the National Endowment for the Arts and in-kind contributions of its own (tax-funded, for-profit) services. Funding comes from a variety of sources, several of them public. Not included in the $300,000 price tag are the salaries of the Amtrak engineers who ‘are overseeing the action at every site during the artwork’s installation.’  Further: ‘For the next six months, the Mural Arts Program and the City of Philadelphia’s Graffiti Abatement Team have pledged to maintain ‘psychylustro’ and protect it from defacement.'”

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/a-train-wreck-you-cant-look-away-from

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The Peer-to-Peer Economy: Death Blow to the State

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“The most radical application of this idea concerns money and finance. After one-hundred years of government production of currency, and government sponsorship of banking institutions, P2P networks are now providing payments systems, loan markets, and even currency units such as Bitcoin. The implications of this are of course remarkable to consider. It’s one thing to dispense with the need for film processing; its something else entirely to toss away central banks, regulated stock markets, and departments of treasury. These are the heart and soul of political power itself.”

http://tucker.liberty.me/2014/05/05/the-peer-to-peer-economy-death-blow-to-the-state/

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If Snowden’s A Terrorist, What About Uber and Airbnb?

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“Why would Marc Andreessen condemn Edward Snowden for showing the American people that they have forsaken every right to privacy that they once held dear?  His VC firm was behind such disruptive technology companies as Twitter and LinkedIn. Virtual hotelier Airbnb is one of its prize portfolio holdings today.  Is Andreessen a terrorist? Because he is busy scaring the proverbial crap out of people across the globe—businesses, individuals, regulators, and more. He’s putting people out of jobs, left and right. He’s wreaking havoc on the economy.  And, like Edward Snowden, I am of the mind that all the pain Andreessen is causing will be well worth it in the end.”

http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/andreessen-terrorist-government-shutdown-airbnb-uber

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Liberty, NORML and Marijuana Legalization vs. Decriminalization

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“There has always been a market for marijuana. In many ways, it’s a product that, for decades, has literally sold itself. When the day comes that state and federal laws allow for the licensed production and commercial distribution of cannabis, it is likely that the majority of the cannabis consuming public will choose that legal, above-ground product over a black market, illicit product. And in that respect, there will be an opportunity for licensed entrepreneurs and businesses, and for the investors backing those entrepreneurs and businesses, to get in at the ground floor of what will certainly be a lucrative market that enjoys consistent high levels of public demand.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/exclusive-interviews/35378/Anthony-Wile-Paul-Armentano-on-Individual-Liberty-NORML-and-Marijuana-Legalization-vs-Decriminalization/

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Niall Ferguson: Networks and Hierarchies

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“The near-autarkic, commanding and controlling states that emerged from the Depression, World War II, and the early Cold War exist only as pale shadows of their former selves. Today, the combination of technological innovation and international economic integration has created entirely new forms of organization—vast, privately owned networks—that were scarcely dreamt of by Keynes and Kennan. Are these new networks really emancipating us from the tyranny of the hierarchical empire-states? Or will the hierarchies ultimately take over the networks as they did a century ago, in 1914, successfully subordinating them to the priorities of the national security state?”

http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/06/09/networks-and-hierarchies/

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Bill Bonner: ‘Uber Alles’

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“No one is more determined or more resourceful than a Frenchman who sees his revenue threatened by innovation. The taxi drivers of Paris aim to stop Uber any way they can.  What’s the best way to protect yourself from competition? Regulation! They want the new company so tightly bound it loses its competitive advantage. One proposal, for example, would require Uber drivers to wait 15 minutes before responding to a call.  Yesterday, Uber got the best advertising money can’t buy. Taxi drivers not only blocked traffic on the most popular road in the Paris area, the beltway around town – the ‘periph,’ they also took up positions on bridges and overpasses.”

http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/uber-alles/

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S.F. Taxi Chief Resigns, Predicts Industry Wipeout By Lyft And Uber

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“In a sense, it’s shocking to hear such grim assessments about the state of an industry–one that seems like a basic city service–that has been around for decades. But this is a lesson for other cities: San Francisco’s taxi system is notoriously horrible, with too few cabs on the road, too many cabbies who lie about having broken credit card machines so customers will pay cash, and problematic drivers.  A look at 1,700 customer complaints by the Bay Citizen reveals all sorts of issues, including cabbies smoking, texting while driving, falling asleep at the wheel, and just being rude. Should we surprised that the industry is in danger of toppling over?”

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3031448/heres-an-idea/head-of-san-francisco-cab-company-predicts-lyft-and-uber-will-put-the-industry

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