-
Posts
1,297 -
Joined
-
Days Won
6
Everything posted by Wesley
-
Those who don't want to pay taxes already know where their Tor browser and favorite mixing service is. Those who are operating more above-board with bitcoin are paying taxes anyway by assessing their value to USD for income, paying capital gains, etc. In short, I don't think it will change much except make it clear to bitcoin businesses how they should operate which makes things much more predictable when trying to start an entrepreneurial venture.
-
How do you know? If you could find a few credentialed experts (or even one to start) who think that that is a possibility, then I may consider it more reasonable to think that this situation may happen. Do such sources exist?
-
Didn't have a "Self Knowledge" topic category. So bump in case anyone felt like deleting and then re-entering their vote to add that as an option. If nothing changes, then no worries. Plus, maybe a few more votes will be cast in the poll.
-
I prefer rubbing the forehead of my Stefan Molyneux bust in order to get rewards of empathy and logic. It produces just as good results as worshiping gods!
-
A few weeks ago, I posted a thread with some early ideas as to how we could foster art creation in the FDR community. If anyone would like to see some of the early ideas and support we had for it, you can look at this thread: http://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/38991-fdr-artists/ Since then, the idea has progressed several stages and the current idea is to create a new site that can house FDR member's artistic creations. We have drawn up our concept and created a list of what needs to get done. There are many things on the list we need to get this accomplished in order for this project to succeed. You may be able to help with one or many of them. If you have any interest in helping out on the project, then feel free to put a response in this post or send me a message. I would like it if your post or message contained what some of your skills were that might be helpful and a google mail address so I can include you in on the shared documents. It could be web design, graphic design, marketing help, and several other things. Even if you don't have any of these specific skills, there may be some grunt work or generic feedback you could provide as different stages are completed and we look for feedback on the design or the usability. Thanks in advance for any help you are able to provide and I look forward to hearing from you!
-
Wanna draw a video about Jesus? I've got a script...
Wesley replied to Withanametocome's topic in General Messages
What is your goal with this presentation? -
When I got the "pre-screening" form for NY, there were no free form questions. There was only "are you a felon" and basic things like that. Which, of course, I had to answer correctly or I would be guilty of felony perjury or something. So, no option for any of that.
-
I am able to pretend to be one of the herd. I did it for most of my life.
-
I have been summoned! While I am sure it is annoying for most people, it is a particular kind of annoyance to an anarchist. I get a letter in a sense that tells me that I must perform my duty as a member of a criminal jury and if I do not, they will fine me $1,000 (or I can reschedule so they can summon me again in a few months, which is just delaying the pain). Of course, these are the "good guys". The "bad guy" might be a kid who had the wrong vegetable in his pocket and never threatened me with a fine or jail. Regardless, I will have to call a number to see if I have to go to jury duty in a week and a half. I am planning on trying to get on the jury and then voting "not guilty" to any non-crimes that may be brought against the defendant and "guilty" to anything that is actually wrong that they can be proven reasonably guilty of. It could be an interesting form of civil disobedience, but we will have to see what happens. I am a low number, so it is pretty likely I will have to go in for at least a day. After that, it depends if I get placed on a jury or not. I just wanted to post here and see if anyone had any words of encouragement, or a similar example and what they did, or to tell me not to do this if at all possible because a judge could hold me in contempt or something. I will try to remember and post back here what my experience was when it is all over, if anything interesting ends coming out of this.
-
I think you missed an important part of that story: Namely, that without these various regulations, taxes, and work in order to hire people, automation would not happen near to the extent that it is now. This is not a result of the free market, but a result of fascism and the state making hiring people incredibly expensive relative to automation.
-
Couldn't resist:
-
Upvoting and downvoting is a privilege of all of the donation levels. It is somewhat assumed that people who donate are interested in seeing FDR succeed (as they have donated money to help FDR succeed) which is why voting is available to them.
-
Ok, great. I just wanted to make sure that you and others realized that the image says nothing about the realities of the world and everything about how you view the world. As long as we were on the same page, then its all good.
-
Buy n Large (BnL) is a fictional company of the WALL•E universe.[1]WALL•E himself is a Buy n Large product. In preparation for marketing the movie, Disney purchased a domain called Buy n Large in order to create a viral Buy n Large website for promotional purposes. Now, the domain re-directs visitors to the official WALL•E website. So yea, not sure what the point of this picture is.
-
I Am Adam Lanza's Therapist
Wesley replied to Stefan Molyneux's topic in New Freedomain Content and Updates
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-father-of-conn-massacre-shooter-says-he-wishes-son-was-never-born-20140310,0,4991278.story#axzz2vfVpwg2S -
I know very little about Flickr and I have concerns that if an external site is created, then people may forget about it over time (as either content creators or as consumers). If someone could walk me through how this could be solved with an external site, then I would appreciate it. Also, I would prefer postings to be user-done. If an external account is used I wouldn't want to create the work for a mod to have to make postings all of the time. Maybe there is a solution for that as well that I would be interested to hear. Finally, Flickr seems to me to be for photo sharing and I would not want to limit people who may write poems or songs or stories or some other forms of art that could not be put easily into a photo. This one makes me especially wary of Flickr particularly, however another external site that allows more media could be ok.
-
Yea, I have also heard the charges are somewhat silly. Obviously, you have a better source of information than I did, but I heard that the money laundering was that he had exchanged money on his exchange who had exchanged money with some people, some of whom might be buying drugs and that by this standard every banker in the world should be in jail. I also really hope that this garbage doesn't stick. Talking about a possible loophole in a regulation doesn't seem illegal to me either.
-
Using PHP to figure out if capitalism works
Wesley replied to Mark Carolus's topic in General Messages
It is free and easy to sign up and people are introduced to the site from Joe Rogan or Peter Schiff or Noam Chomsky or Peter Joseph or from an appearance on RT America or from the Bitcoin community. People may not know everything about the topics or definitions of terms that we use as a community. As long as Stef and Mike keeps growing the show, there will always be a stream of people who are coming in with different experiences and preconceived notions as to what things mean. It took me years to develop to the understanding that I have now, and I am certainly still learning. I do know that comments like this will turn away new people who may be interested in the relationship stuff or the bitcoin stuff and not know exactly what is going on with capitalism or why it is advocated. This post makes me feel angry and sad as you criticize people for not knowing why capitalism is argued for in FDR when I think the information about empathy and abuse is much more important information (if even not to the OP, but to the average new person or guest who may stumble upon this thread). -
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
Wesley replied to Mark Carolus's topic in Libertarianism, Anarchism and Economics
This is the part that this community is unique from other libertarian and ancap sites. The argument is that irrationality, statism, violent crime, mental disorders, drug abuse, suicide, poverty, and more can all be linked to adverse childhood experiences. When we make the moral case that children are people to be treated with the highest moral standards that you would ever hold your behavior to, then the language of violence, force, and threats of the state will seem absurd and other solutions will be found through negotiation. Also, all of the excuses for state power of the variety of social and criminal ills will vastly decrease making the excuses for government also negligible. This is the argument for how a peaceful society can be achieved, and it already is becoming less and less acceptable for parents to use any form of abuse against children. Once we have a society of whom the vast majority speak the language of peace, negotiation, and voluntary interactions then reasoning and educating people will be easy. For more on this, there is a video series at www.fdrurl.com/bib you may wish to check out. I think it has very valuable information in it. -
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
Wesley replied to Mark Carolus's topic in Libertarianism, Anarchism and Economics
The vast majority of people do not need to be educated on it. The only reason the current system is the way it is is because the state uses inflation to erode savings, 401K plans in order to herd money into the stock market, and a variety of other taxes and subsidies to herd money into the pockets of them and their friends. Once the incentives change, people will automatically find new methods of operating very, very quickly. Finally, I do not care what framework is the most popular. If we use that standard, then the current statist paradigm is by far the most popular. My goal is to figure out what is correct and then work towards that. -
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
Wesley replied to Mark Carolus's topic in Libertarianism, Anarchism and Economics
In an inflationary system, you are incentivezed heavily to spend now for saving money leads to it losing value. In a deflationary money system people will be much more incentivized to save money, rather than spend it quickly. This will lead to a change in people's thinking and planning processes. Of course there will be growing pains, but sometimes the medicine to moving to a better system tastes bad. That doesn't mean the disease is better than the medicine. Finally, I would also like to point out that Doge will (in the very long term) probably become deflationary as well. When the inflation is not a percentage of the total, but a fixed number and the coin usage and loss increases exponentially with time (or at least at a much faster rate), it is very likely that eventually Doge will also be deflationary. It may take a few years longer than it would with bitcoin, but it does not solve the problem unless the currency programs in a specific percentage inflation per year. -
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
Wesley replied to Mark Carolus's topic in Libertarianism, Anarchism and Economics
For a mortgage currently, there is a positive interest rate that always means you end up paying more for the mortgage than the inflation rate. In a deflationary system, the interest rate could be very close to zero in order to compensate for the difference. Not to mention that saving money will be massively easier, so the need to get a mortgage for the average person is greatly diminished as if you can eve save a little bit over many years, house prices will drop and you will be able to buy a house outright. -
Using PHP to figure out if capitalism works
Wesley replied to Mark Carolus's topic in General Messages
An individual's preference for growth says nothing about a system as a whole or even about the sum total of preferences of the people who make up the system. There are many areas of the economy that would contract or stay stagnant in a capitalist system. On net, it is impossible to determine what would happen. Also, most growth in output would come from higher efficient use of inputs, not from needing more inputs. Therefore, your entire code is meaningless as growth in output doesn't directly correlate with growth in inputs. -
1. You do not buy unowned things. This is not how it works at all. In fact, the guy collecting wood would have some sort of just claim to have homesteaded the forestry rights within a certain radius of his house. 2. It is not perfect or logically and always true to model human behavior in a model sense, however we still model trends to monitor behavior. Modeling and statistics are imperfect, but they allow future and trends to be predicted and estimated. If you do not have some sort of model or example, then you are just making crap up which doesn't exactly fly with a community that basis a lot of its conclusions on empiricism. 3. Your example is reductionist as well (the forest). 4. You cannot hold others to a standard and then apply arbitrary exceptions for yourself.
-
This article was the Federal Reserve's recent response to congressional pressure for the executive branch to regulate or ban bitcoin. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/27/janet-yellen-federal-reserve-no-authority-regulate-bitcoin Basically, the state knows that they want to either ban it or claim oversight over it. However, they do not know how to do it or what to do and they don't want to be the one to do it. Currently, there is a perpetual passing the buck for the next department to deal with. It will be interesting to see who ends up making the first attempts at regulation. Then, unfortunately, we will hit a number of awkward years where governments try to apply decades-old laws and regulations to something they do not understand. Volatility and growth will decrease some (after attempts at regulation are the norm). Slowly, regulations will be shown to be obsolete or silly. Hopefully this awkward period is short-lived.