Aikenrooster

I absolutely hate the cult of tipping. The service industry has done a good job of bullying me into tipping, to be sure, and so has some of my family members. I believe that restaurants are charging MORE than they would, for the food, than if there was no tipping. Yes, prices would go up, but not as much as one might think. They are making more of a profit by not having to pay their workers a competitive wage. I get tired of the waiter/waitress getting down on their knees, acting like they're my best friend, and making fake conversation. Hell, my father even lets the waitress hug and kiss on him, right in front of my mom(who has cancer). I realize the guy is only making $2.50/hr.. Ok, I make about $15.00/hr., and I work a life threatening job. So, I want to make sure the guy is making at least the same wage that I make. OK, so if we're in there for less than an hour and he's waiting on us and another table, then, the 2 tables only need to tip him about $7 or $8, each, to bump his pay up to over $15.00/hour. But, I always get pressured into leaving $15.00, or more, and I think it's utter bullshit that some kid is making $40/ hour, because of this stupid system in America. To hell with this % system, and to hell with tipping on drinks and taxes, too.

Yeah, Stef uses ALL the words in the dictionary on his show. I am sure the same will be permitted here. However, if the curse words are the majority of your posts then you might get a warning.

This is why I refused to have kids. I know I'll probably end up with diabetes, due to my obesity, and I'll be damned if I was going to bring kids into this world who would likely suffer the same fate. I believe I did the right think, too. My 11 y.o. niece is already past 125 lbs. and the 8 y.o. is gaining weight, too. Awful, just awful. I can't believe my brother let's his kids eat processed foods, drink sodas, and eat junk food, such as candy. He never grills anything or eat veggies that didn't come out of a can. You would think after seeing me overweight my whole life that he would make damned sure they wouldn't be that way. I already hate it that other people, in the US, may face increased insurance costs due to treatment that I may have in the future if I get diabetes. Having fat kids in child abuse, IMHO, worse than spanking or being taught religion.

Yeah, free people wouldn't ever think of creating and subscribing to their own armed protective services.

OK, I'll play. I read the blog, but you didn't give any reasons why Dawkins, et al., have made their god the state. I think with Dawkins, and a lot of scientists, it is obvious. They need the state to rob us in order to provide them funding for science, which is morally wrong. The judeo-christian god and the god of the state are in competition for a lot of atheists, and there are probably more reasons, which you could have listed. Also, you spent the last paragraph calling someone an asshole. Don't waste time on ad hominem attacks.

We use computers to automatically place orders for machinery, run machinery, design machinery, and build machinery, etc. But, the computers and machines are still just running human programmes. What happens when we have a machine so technologically advanced that it not only can make a copy of itself, but can choose to design other machines, which make machines? This is one of the great topics for discussion in our time.

I buy my brother's kids Christmas presents, because they expect it, but I didn't buy his oldest child a birthday present this year. She is old enough that I can teach her my philosophy on giving. I told her that I was not obligated to buy her a gift, just because she got a year older, and that I buy her things because I want to. I brought up instances where we did things, throughout the year, and I told her that we(my wife and I) did that because we wanted to, not because of some stupid obligation. I will teach the others as they get older. We have pretty much taken the tact with our families, that we're only buying Christmas for kids, and that's what we do. ... Having said that, there is nothing wrong with giving. People whom I value, I buy gifts for or take them out to eat, or whatever, all the time. I do it because a)I want to, and b)they have earned my respect.

In the spirit of honesty, I made a rational decision to not have kids, for a few reasons, but the primary one was to "punish" my parents. I grew up obese(I still am) and there is no way in hell I was going to allow them to make my children obese, so the best bet was not to have kids. Also, I was raised in a pentecostal holiness church, so I didn't want my parents to be able to influence my kids in that regard. Also, due to my occupation(truck driver), I believe that it isn't fair to have children, if I couldn't be there for them everyday. I don't regret the decision, and, seeing how my nieces have become obese, and how my parents will take my brother's children to church, I believe that I have made the right decision. Also, I can't bring myself to bring children into a world in which they've already been sold into economic slavery. Insofar as not having children, I believe that I made the correct decision, although I think I'm mature enough to properly raise them now.

Unless the entire world shifted to a stateless society, the anarchist society will have to be able to defend itself from armed states and other armed individuals and entities. The anarchist society is going to have to have enough weaponry to convince any other entities on the globe not to screw with it. It's why Iran wants a nuke, and why the US doesn't want Iran to have a nuke.

The correct answer is twofold: A) increasing the minimum wage isn't what's wrong. It's that the minimum wage won't purchase as much as it used to, when it was set. I think the minimum wage, in the US, in the 1960s was around $1.60/hour. If you tied the minimum wage to the price of silver, today the minimum wage would be around $23, per hour. Again, people are blaming businesses and not government. We live in a society where prices are going up. That's insane! Economies of scale, and more efficient use of scarce resources should dictate prices going down, but our government continues to print up more and more money, thereby making our dollars worthless. B) McDonald's has a lot of minimum wage employees riding the clock, but not really producing a whole lot. If there were no minimum wage, a greedy, productive S.O.B., such as myself, would come into the workplace and attempt to bump you out of a job by 1)producing more than yourself, and/or 2)working cheaper. When I proved myself to the employer, I would attempt to get a raise. The minimum wage worker can't really do this, because he's already being paid more than he should be when he starts. Or, can he? Can a well spoken, productive, employee, at McDonald's, who is willing to take management classes, and other sorts of training workshops, and study the requisite material, move up through the corporation? I think he could. This is mean, but, there is sort of a reason why minimum wage employees make minimum wage, and that's because they're not very productive. They're sort of wanting a handout, via government dictate, to be paid for not producing much. I don't think McDonald's would be profiting $15 Billion, per year, if we lived in a truly free society, where corporations weren't a government created fiction, but, so what if they did? They went into business to make a profit, not to give people jobs. When they invent robots to do it all, then robots will be doing it all, and we'll all be out of work.

My wife is 27 years older than me. When I was 22 and she was 49 is wasn't a big deal, plus she couldn't have kids, and I didn't want kids, so that was a guarantee. Aside from some other issues, the age thing is starting to be a problem, now that I am 37 and she is 64. She has a lot of medical problems, so I spend a lot of $ on that, which may or may not occur with younger people. She doesn't care about traveling anymore, and would rather stay home. She has the baby boomer views on everything and she really won't even consider libertarianism much less anarchism. I would warn someone to think before they married and older person. Oh, and the won't change. I thought my wife would quit drinking, but she hasn't. She drinks, smokes right and left handed cigarettes and takes lots of prescription drugs, everyday, so you've been warned.

Lyrics mean almost everything to me. That's why I fell in love with Rush, but, admittedly, if the music sucked, I probably wouldn't care. Fear Factory, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Marilyn Manson, and Rage Against The Machine all have political lyrics, which makes them that much better.

The US does NOT have the right to tell Iran what to do. Currently, we just have more weapons. Iran will get a nuke and then the US will bully La Republica Dominicana or Papua New Guinea. The US is the only state that has used a nuke, so that is the state I fear the most. We Americans go along with this because we think we're getting cheap oil out of the deal. Iran would be smart to stop selling the US oil.

I know Molyneux and a friend of man both want people to use the government as much as possible and hope that Democrats and socialists keep winning so that the government will continue to spend and collapse sooner. But, I think I'd rather see decentralization. I'd like to see a state like, Texas, or a province like, Alberta, secede from their respective countries. If they can succeed, then two things will happen. Other states would secede, AND counties or districts within those states will want to secede from their respective state/province. Also, cities would want to secede. Then, as you can see, you'd start to have more localized government. Hopefully, power would trickle down, and then it would just be communities governing themselves, or maybe you'd have the DROs that Stefan talks about. 7 billion monarchies would be cool. The more I read your OP, the more I think I like your idea. What really irks me though, is that people will smile and wave at a cop, a judge, the mailman, and a soldier, all mobsters, but spit upon a convenience store cashier, a grocery store clerk, and say the most vile things to a restaurant waitress. It should be the other way around.

I curse too much. I don't realize it, until I hear someone else cursing a bunch, then I realize how bad I do it. I don't mind it, if someone uses all the words in the dictionary, like me. But, if you are just cursing, because those are the only words you know, then it sounds silly. I try not to curse around people who I know don't want to hear it, such as my parents and my wife's parents. It's just trying to show respect. This topic, right here, is probably why I am the way I am. When I was little it was probably the subject of many of my first questions about religion and government. LOL.

Yeah, I get the blues big time at Christmas, and usually it involves a lot of regret, for whatever reason. I get really depressed because I couldn't or didn't buy people the things that I really wanted to buy them, and then I get more depressed because this happens every year. I get depressed about how fast time flies by and that I never get to spend time with my family. I get depressed about all the things that I've always wanted to do but I have never done.

I don't think there would be a government mob, by definition, if they weren't using violence and coercion. If people wanted to build a road, for example wouldn't they just voluntarily do it? Why would there need to be a government if everyone were willing to sell his property(at true market value) for the road's right of way and people voluntarily invested into the company that was going to build the road, in exchange for profits derived from tolls and advertising or whatever scheme that might come to pass to make the road profitable. The only reason government is need to build the road is to a)use eminent domain to steal land from people who don't want to sell, b)make your kids and grandkids slaves, because people don't want to pay for it today, and c)print more fiat currency in order to devalue future profits. Without government, we wouldn't have to worry about any of those things. I think Larken Rose is right when he says, "Just ignore government, and it will go away."

I think a great way to reach people is to show them how much freedom they have now and how many decisions they are free to make, everyday, and ask them if they're OK with bearing the responsibility and consequences of those decisions. Then ask them if they'd be OK with government making those decisions for them. Then show the person how much control government has, now, and I think this would really open their eyes. Whether they'd take any action, or not, is a different question. My concern with your approach, is that most people don't pay taxes now, and they are the ones who are using the government's services for free. I think corporations and the ultra-wealthy would still be OK with funding government, as they do now, if they can still control as much of it, as they do now. I don't think making taxes optional would enlighten people to anarchy. I think making each American pay $50,000, this year, to balance our budget and erase our national debt, would open their eyes.

The general populace has no idea how the products got the supermarket shelves. They just think it miraculously appeared.

I thought when cable TV first came out, that when everyone paid the subscription, that there would no longer be any advertising. Now, you pay a lot for cable/satellite TV and, except for premium channels, you still get advertising. At least one can record and skip the commercials, now, but they're still there. Even at sporting events, the game is stopped, so that the TV viewers can watch commercials, and there is tons of advertising in the arena/stadium, so one has to be inundated even after he paid for a ticket. I would like to say that paying for entertainment helps producers, writers, artists, etc., create stuff that people want, since people can vote with their pocketbooks. It sure seems that there has been a lot of bad music created since the internet was invented. There is sort of no way to filter out the bad stuff.

I hope y'all are doing well. I hope to learn a lot from y'all. I've been all over the US and Canada, so hopefully I will be able to see things from each person's point of view, when we converse.