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I have been reading about the California government's attempts to pass a budget (which they just passed yesterday I think) and various other news stories about the U.S. government thinking of taxing this or taxing that and I am of the opinion that the U.S. has gone absolutely insane!
Such that I can't wait to follow through on my goal of moving to South America where there is a much greater measure of true freedom left!
Let me put it this way to my fellow Americans on this forum.
A man owes money. He cannot pay his bills. Instead of lowering the amount of money he spends and living within his means he continues to force me and his neighbors to give him more of our hard earned money so that he can continue to spend on things he wishes to buy. He forces us to give him money by threatening to come in and confiscate what belongs to us if we don't continue to give him money.
What would we think of such a man? Would we put up with that? Would we sit there and grumble but continue to give him money? Would we endanger our own financial welfare and that of our families by continuing to meet his demand for an ever increasing amount of money?
THAT MAN *IS* THE US GOVERNMENT!!! And in the case of California the California government.
Instead of forcing itself to live within it's means...just like all of us must do...it continues to force money out of people through increasing taxes. And if we don't pay the taxes it demands it will come in under color of law (that it has passed) and take our homes, our wages, and even our freedom if we continue to resist.
What happened to We the People? I mean what has happened to us?
How is it that we allowed this insanity to go on?
Are we blind? Are we deceived? Are we not able to see what is going on?
Personally I don't think we the People of these United States have the backbone anymore to rise up and claim the right to live without undue government intrusion into our lives. We are too complacent or unbelieving respecting our own collective power to have the government bend to our will. We are too disunited and unwilling to act. Unwilling to risk the wrath of a government that has run amok.
So personally...as much as I have in times past supported the U.S. and even been proud of the U.S....those days are gone forever. I can no longer stomach living here.
In South America I can at least grow chickens in my back yard and live a life without excessive intrusion by the government. Not in all countries down there but I know some where that is the case.
Quite frankly I am inclined to live in any country that has any semblence of true freedom left than to continue living under the unwieldy behemoth that the U.S. government has become.
I would advice every American I know to get in place an exit strategy. To even get themselves a second passport. Things have gotten that bad in my opinion.
I am fortunate in that I have both more or less in place. I am not only a US Citizen but also one of another country that I hope to move to.
We haven't seen anything yet in terms of the economic meltdown folks. No country can owe trillions and trillions of dollars in current and future debt without the value of it's cash been deemed more and more worthless by a world that is waking up to the fact that the King really has no clothes.
Carlos
PS. The king having no clothes analogy, for any that might not know the story, is form a story of a King who was sold the very best garment by some shoddy tailors who convinced him that they had put on him a wonderful and magnificent garment...though it was in fact nothing at all. Something concocted out of thin air. The King went about his kingdom naked and the people were too afraid to say so. The US is like the King with no clothes.
government is a hungry bear, its guna eat b4 you do even if that means you.
our government is starting to act more and more like our shopaholic wife.
the man with the debt, that man needs to be out of debt.
debt is nothing more than 21 century slave chains. the difference is becoming a debtor is a volunteer program assuming it was not a shotgun wedding.
It's not just financial freedom. It's called every kind of freedom.
A case in point...
Jawalking I believe is a misdemeanor. But if not...my illustration still stands.
I am a supposedly responsible and free man right? So why is my freedom to act as a responsible man restricted by the government? I can no longer look both ways and cross the street when there is no traffic. I must cross where the government says I should cross. Or face a fine and if I can't pay the fine potentially lose my driver's licence and get fined some more and get tangled in a web of ridiculousness.
That's just one little itty bitty example folks.
One can't put down an anchor and live in most harbors here because free harborish is no longer allowed. One cannot grow chickens or rabbits in their back yard. One cannot do certain kinds of solicitations that do no harm to anyone (I'm not talking about pestering someone with telemarketing calls for any anti-solicitors among my fellow Americans). One cannot sell tacos ona street corner as a responsible and free man relying on other responsible and free persons to not buy my tacos if in their free and responsible opinion...my tacos are likely to make them sick.
On and on and on it goes. Laws for this and laws for that. So many that one almost needs a lawyer to let them know what if any law they might be violating by just standing on a street corner and breathing (oh yeah...anti loitering laws for one).
We must wear seat belts. We must only smoke in certain places. We must only be out at certain times of the day (if we are teenagers living under a curfew - never mind parental responsibility for restraining their own children) and above and beyond normal taxes we now pay a whopping 15% more (if one is self employed) so that the governmet can redistribute our wealth to the older one's among us.
On and on and on it goes. I feel like I am in a country that is putting me in a straight jacket.
San Diego has it's own laws. California has it's own laws. The US government has it's own laws in turn. And little ol me is subject to them all.
As I said...insane! There's no real freedom left here. Like the garment on the King with no clothes, freedom in the US is an illusion. We no longer have the freedom that the Founding Fathers of this country envisioned us having. It's gone. And gone for good.
Just about every American I talk to in the real world agrees with my view that this place has become a police state. A very mild one in comparison to what it could be as such but one nevertheless. But it's going to get worse, much worse, as the government tries more and more to control behaviour to conform to it's own ideas of what we can and cannot be allowed to do.
I just moved to San Diego from Canada and my Canadian friends used to tell me more and more that the US was becoming a fascist, overbearing, and authoritative place. I used to think they were a bit nuts. Now I can see what they were talking about and to a great degree I now think that they were pegging things right on.
Carlos
PS. Although my name is Carlos please do not assume that I am a Mexican (my apologies to fellow members of my Hispanic heritage but I am just trying to make a point) who wants the freedom to keep selling tacos on a street corner or wants to just be left alone to continue showing up at Home Depots to work under the table. I am not.
debt is nothing more than 21 century slave chains.
You got that right!
Slavery. Just another form. But slavery nevertheless.
What's better?
Live as a free and responsible person in a place where you only make $15,000 a year but can grow chickens in your backyard and eat from your own vegetable garden OR work like a dog, make $40,000 per year but where you ain't allowed to have chickens and must buy all your food and such that fully half your money goes to pay rent and utilities with almost the other half going to pay government taxes of one sort or another?
I feel your pain...
I see that you live in San Diego. What about a small jump over the border to the land of the free?
Funny you should say that oberon. I actually admire Mexican entrepeneurship and resourcefulness. I think Mexicans, the people on the street, have a much better grasp of what it means to live free than the average American does these days. Truly.
Americans have forgotten what that means.
Of course Mexico does have it's own problems that I would rather avoid. Such as corruption in government and violence of a type that makes me wonder if going to Mexico will cause my head to be chopped off. I've never been to Mexico but have gone to the border several times and stared across .
I'm not sure I want to cross over. Mexicans themselves have advised me to not cross into Tijuana.
God willing, when I get to South America...way South...I will fly over those countries were I would be likely to get kidnapped, beheaded, or robbed.
I would move to Mexico but I am afraid the government there would try to confiscate the land I purchase over there and everything else... I have yet to find a government I can trust... and yet here we are trying to make the government bigger... All tyrants start out with small government and build a bigger one... never in history has bigger government led to a better country... NEVER
Hmmm...Alaska is not bad. Not bad at all. Probably a lot more freedom left there than around San Diego and California. Beautiful too.
I wish you well if your intention is to go there.
Not a bad choice.
Me? I can't stand living inside the freezer section of refridgerators anymore and since I couldn't quite make the move to South America yet I did the next best thing (at least I thought I did) and moved to San Diego. Temporarily.
The worst part about South America is that one can't make a good living down there...at least very easily. So I am hunkering down and focusing on being able to make a living over the internet such that I can live anywhere I want without being dependant on the local economy.
I am making really good progress but it's going to take some time. So for now...I will remain in San Diego and try to not get too involved or upset about government shenanigens here.
Being able to spout off on this here forum is great therapy.
Carlos
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