Beatles frontman John Lennon sang the famous song, Imagine – which was a kind of anthem for peaceful co-existence embraced by the very people who seem constitutionally unable to leave others in peace.
That is to say, Leftists.
Which isn’t to say people on the Right aren’t cut from the same cloth. Both sides of the same cloth love to pester, harass – and do worse – to people who just want to be let alone.
Let’s try to imagine what it would be like if everyone did just that.
It would not be utopia, of course – though the authoritarian busybodies of the Left and the Right always insist it must be in that order for it to even be considered an alternative to the dystopia of Left or the Right.
What about the roads?
As if there weren’t any before there was such as a thing as the Left or the Right. As if there wouldn’t be desirable things in the absence of the Left or the Right controlling things. Of course there would be roads. They would be different than the roads we have now because they would be roads laid down without seizing anyone’s land via the legalized expropriation of land styled “eminent domain.” And they would not be owned by the government.
They might be better roads in some ways – and worse in others. But this canard that, absent the Left or the Right, there wouldn’t be any roads is as fatuous as the suggestion that absent legalized coercion there would be no food to eat, no beds to sleep in.
Well, how about peace?
Would there be less – or more – if the Left and the Right left people in peace? The question kind of answers itself, doesn’t it? This is not to say there would sometimes not be peace, here and there. To expect that the peace would never be breached would be . . . utopian. Libetrarians do not expect that. But there wouldn’t be legalized, institutionalized breaches of the peace. Often directed against people who were themselves entirely peaceable. Your neighbor might be a jerk but he would not have the state backing him up. You might have to defend yourself or your property – but there would no way for your neighbor to vote away your property – and make it a “crime” for you to defend yourself and your property.
Imagine that.
Try to imagine what it would be like to keep what you worked for. Not just some of it. All of it. Imagine not “owing” anything to people you’ve never even met, let alone incurred a debt to. Imagine being morally as well as legally responsible for yourself and your dependents only. Imagine others being responsible for themselves and theirs. Imagine not having to worry about your retirement because you weren’t forced to finance the retirement of others all the days of your working life.
The same as regards health care – which almost everyone would be able to afford because they would only be obliged to pay for their own. The few who legitimately could not afford it – anticipating the howls of Left and Right – could be affordably taken care of by the charity of the rest of us, who could afford it – because we would not have been impoverished by being forced to take care of those who could have and should have taken care of themselves.
Try to imagine what it was like to live in America when Ben Franklin was alive.
America’s prometheus was able to retire in his 40s to pursue his interests because he no longer had to work, to earn the money we must to pay what we’re told we “owe” to people we have never met and for things we neither use nor want. In Franklin’s America, people kept what they worked to earn. There was no tax on their income, an outrage that Americans of that America would never have tolerated. A tax on income being a tax on labor – physical and mental – which is a form of indenture, which is a species of slavery.
Ben Franklin did not have to “contribute” to Social Security. He was secure because he had earned and saved a sufficiency of his own money to not have to worry about money in his retirement. Anyone could do the same today if America were like it was in Franklin’s day.
He also owned his home – in the literal sense of that word. As opposed to the degraded and untrue sense of that word today. Franklin did not have to pay to live in his own home once he’d purchased it. It was his, period. That meant having to work much less – or even not at all – in terms of needing to work, to earn the money we need to earn to pay the rent styled “property taxes” on the homes we deludedly permit ourselves to imagine we “own” but never actually do. Because it’s absurd to speak of “owning” a thing you must pay to be allowed to retain possession of.
Imagine owning your home, once you’d paid for it.
Imagine never having to pay anyone a cent, ever again, in order to keep it and live in it. Imagine how much more peace you’d have, knowing you owned your home and so no matter what happened as far as your work, you’d always have a home to live in.
It’s nice to imagine that, isn’t it?
. . .
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Imagine there’s no carbon, easy if you try.
Imagine there’s no oxygen, say it ain’t so!
Imagine there’s no hydrogen, no sun for you.
Imagine no hydrocarbons.
You won’t be able to, you won’t be here.
Gotta have 92 regenerative elements to have a life here on this godforsaken earth.
Purdy much an existential threat if the elements never existed.
When they get here, the fun begins.
Some kind of creation had to take place for all of it to be here like it is.
Enjoy it while you can.
It was a hard day on the planet for John.
Governments exist for one reason and one reason only: to enslave humanity by promising a utopia. And 99% of humanity will see to said utopia, even if it means extinction.
John Lennon’s song “Imagine” was one of the songs that were not supposed to be played on the radio after the 9/11 attacks. There were about 100 such songs, that the radio stations apparently voluntarily agreed that they wouldn’t air, because they might offend or upset people. I recall a couple of others: “Walk Like an Egyptian” by the Bangles, and “Holy Diver” by Dio. It wasn’t government censorship, it was self-censorship by the radio stations. But I think it was the start of the concept that people have the “right” not to be offended.
RE: “the songs that were not supposed to be played on the radio after the 9/11 attacks”
Huh, how about that. I didn’t know they did that. Not surprised though. It wasn’t, “self-censorship by the radio stations” though, rather; it was control being exerted by the Power Elite who own them.
Over the air AM/FM radio sucks so very badly, even well before 2001 – they sucked – they just played the same damn 30 or so songs over & over & over & over. They do not care about how much they all suck. Today, they are just, More sucky.
It’s just like this, which I am surprised is still on YouTube:
‘LEGACY MEDIA is “Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy”‘
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzYj11qWb-M
Believe it or not, I found this ban on songs to be one of the creepier things about 9/11. Yes, the whole thing was creepy. It was obviously America’s Reichstag fire, which I knew would be used to trample on liberty and involve us in pointless wars.
But I really don’t like someone else deciding what I should be allowed to listen to (or read or watch). And it was a hint of what was to come, in the COVID Plandemic, where the mainstream media went full Pravda. Even the rock radio stations joined in, repreating the Covidian mantras, like “Stay home!” But said in a cheery, upbeat voice, as if that makes tyranny acceptable.
“But I think it was the start of the concept that people have the “right” not to be offended.”
A “right” to not be offended would mean the end of humanity, since one’s presence may offend someone.
They said silence is consent….
but….they silenced anybody who opposed the official narrative….
94% of crime is undetected…the control group uses crime to finance staying in power….
only 6% chance of getting caught…stopped…anybody who tries to reveal this will be eliminated….
the control group uses crime to finance staying in power….one example…taxes…another…unjust laws…
The slaves are screwed…..
Crypto-Libertarian Erik Voorhees Warns Your Chatbot Queries Are Not Safe
that question you asked AI Chatbot….. that conversation …..they know your entire history of all conversations that you asked yesterday last year tomorrow and 10 years from now. All of it is associated with your identity.
what it means is ….. all your information – and essentially like parts of your mind like think your intellectual inquiries that you pursue – the things you think – the things you want to debate – the questions you have about life – and like big topics um can be known by Third parties.”
Permanent AI question files……government knows something about you. What if um what if the government learns that you are like uh you know orchestrating uh Trump’s re-election campaign.
“These are very slippery slope arguments and it does not really matter what, like you know Anthropic’s privacy policy says. If they have your information it will be shared with other parties today or tomorrow and probably both. And you can never get it back. So that’s the status quo
New Venice AI Chatbot……
Voorhees then explained how Venice AI prides itself in user sovereignty: “But like Venice was like……. let’s make a service that’s just as easy” OpenAI and others, “but instead of spying on you and recording all your information and attaching it to your identity forever, let’s just not do that.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/crypto-libertarian-erik-voorhees-warns-your-chatbot-queries-are-not-safe
Venice….
https://venice.ai/home
Rating taxes from worst on down: Inheritance tax (you built your estate with after-tax $$ in the first place!), Property taxes (you’re renting your property from GovCo!), capital gains tax (esp. on after-tax accounts!), income tax, then any and all consumption taxes. Actually, the only ones that are fair are consumption/sales taxes.
If the tax on unrealized capital gains becomes a reality, then that would be far and away the worst.
Sales taxes may seem more innocuous, but in addition to regulating what should be private transactions, they force every seller to become a defacto tax collector…and an unpaid tax collector at that. Slavery.
How about inventory tax?
You bought it; you’re storing it.
Keep it x number of days and you have to pay the government a percentage of it’s value! Truly sick.
Agree on inventory tax or business property tax as its called in CA. Being forced to pay taxes, again on the paper and office supplies you paid sales tax on and forced to tell the county what items you have discarded or sold. And the reporting is mind bending at least in our county. To me, that concept is just the epitome of taxation for no reason. You might as well just forget the reports and auditor salaries and implement a flat rate county business license fee.
“though the authoritarian busybodies of the Left and the Right”. There is no authoritarian of the right because the further right, the less government, therefore, less government, less control. This is a lie of the left in order to confuse…
On the spectrum from left to right politically, the left represents absolute chaos and destruction, while the right represents rigid order and conformity. Both sides of the spectrum are just as capable of tyranny and both wish to control the guns of government to point at their enemies.
If only there existed a group of people who did not wish to use the government to control other people….
Hi Gregory,
The “Right” has traditionally been a synonym for Republicans and “conservatives” – the latter and former both being advocates of authoritarian government as much as the Left, just with different emphasis. Obvious examples include the war on (some) drugs and other victimless crime laws, such as those punishing people for “speeding” and not “buckling up” for “safety.” The “Right” also loves the military – and its use – as opposed to peace.
As far as I am aware, only libertarians take a principled strand against authoritarianism as such.
Imagine feeling so good about life that altruistic cooperation arises naturally from within and becomes a mark of a true human being.
Let it grow.
I believe in freedom, however, if we succeed in getting rid of social security, I want a refund for every dime I have “contributed” to this. It could pay my house off and then some.
I won’t ask for another dime.
Don’t forget that your employers also paid a matching amount into social security as well. I want both my share and my employer’s share as well…
I want compensation for loss of income for the episodes where FedGov screwed up the economy by various tax and fiscal policies, this making it next to impossible for the average private citizen to engage in prudent financial planning.
Or to be able to start a business in the first place…
If a thief steals your money, but promises you he’ll buy you something nice with it, are you surprised when he spends it all on himself? Rest assured the money is gone, already spent.
“The appropriate question is not “Who will build the roads?” but rather “Who will pay for them without taxation?” History suggests the answer is “lots of people” and the “public goods” theory is wrong.”
https://mises.org/podcasts/audio-mises-wire/who-will-build-roads-anyone-who-stands-benefit-them
That clip from OJW is so damn good.
Excellent essay, Eric. Even if it is really depressing. It’s pretty clear that today there is zero chance of being left alone – at least as an individual. Watching the decline of the country, though, I wonder if decentralized communities could. Our current government will eventually implode – it is inevitable. We’re too big to succeed. If what comes next is hundreds (thousands?) of independent but interdependent communities, it might be possible to just live and work in peace. Sure would be better than the Mad Max scenario!
Best case, there will be a mixture of the two. Mad Max and liberarian utopia. The question is, where will the money come from?
I wasn’t really a fan of “Imagine” mostly because it didn’t have much of a beat and you couldn’t dance to it, for one thing, and John Lennon and his background musicians sounded like they were heavily sedated—lyrics aside.
“Imagine” is a communistic anthem and appropriately has a depressing plodding sound(The piano!). I despised that bastard John Lennon. For all his talk of “love”, he abused his own family and was a horrible person.
Give Mark David Chapman an award!
Wow. Post anything you have on him. Interested to hear. I was 16, listening to News Radio 88 at home when he was shot.
Lennon was a commie bastard. Never liked him, or his vision of a commie socialist world. That’s exactly what ‘globalists’ are after. The can go to Hell!
Bingo.
>Lennon was a commie bastard.
Yup. And so was his butt ugly GF.
The Japanese-American women I have known (not a large sample) have been a) smart, and b) gorgeous. I guess the stupid, ugly ones become Communists. Must be some kind of “support group” for the deprived, sorry ass bitches.
I’d say OhhNo too waking up next to “that” !!
When Howard Stern sounded like a cool individual, he told a joke on teh air: What’s yellow and sleeps alone? Yoko Ono
Imagine is an incredibly cynical song. But the lefties ate it up.
Here’s how much of a commie he was:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmBg4yQzdyA&ab_channel=BritishPath%C3%A9
“Drug and rock culture was invented by the elites, by the Olympians, by SRI, Tavistock and military intelligence.”
https://elizabethnickson.substack.com/p/the-demonic-flooding-of-america-was
That was wild. Thanks for sharing it, but damn you for yet another rabbit hole to explore!
Laurel canyon.
Definitely gonna have to rethink this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhlOolvKbyo&ab_channel=TheChurch
“What about the roads?
…Of course there would be roads. They would be different than the roads we have now…”
I think we’re seeing what happens WRT roads in the various high speed rail debacles going on in California. If a new road is desired, let the land be acquired legally. Very quickly, opportunists (Nancy Pelosi and Newscum for example) would speculate on the route and buy up the land before word got out. Except that the card would have to be played before the route was mapped out. I wonder if the land grab hadn’t happened if the rail line would be closer to completion if the state just took the route through eminent domain? Not that there’s anything really wrong with that, just that the startup would need to raise much more capital than under any eminent domain scheme.
For a time I lived in Fraser Colorado, the original Icebox of the Nation. There’s a Denver and Rio Grande mainline that runs from the Moffat Tunnel along the Fraser river until it meets with the Colorado in Granby. Well, mostly along the river, except for a noticeable curve about half a mile away from the river as it runs though the valley. From what I recall from visiting the museum, the reason for the detour was because William Cozens, homesteader of the ranch he built along the river, spent the afternoon shooting the surveyor stakes as they were placed by the railroad engineers. They got the message and relocated the line off his property.
>various high speed rail debacles going on in California.
Actually, to the best of my knowledge, we have only *ONE* ongoing debacle (a.k.a. government funded clusterf*ck) at this time.
Fortuitously, we also have a “laboratory experiment” in progress, courtesy of Brightline West, which has already broken ground on their Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga route. They are projecting completion by 2028, last I heard. We’ll see. By contrast, the “California High Speed Rail Project” [sic] has managed to build a few concrete henges in the Central Valley, which start at nowhere and lead to nowhere. “Look on these works, ye mighty, and despair.”
Speaking of Granby and wanting to be left alone, there’s a big anniversary coming up in June.
RIP, Marv
I’m surprised Dark Brandon hasn’t threatened to cut off social security to any State defying his authoritah. *Texas….use your own Texas Guard to stop border crossings and no SS for you!*
If they tell me I have to sign a loyalty oath to the JSI (Jewish State of Israel) to draw Social Security, that is when the guns will come out. “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” as the song goes.
Most people are unaware that in 30 or so AMERICAN states, in order to procure a state contract or to do business with the state, one must sign a loyalty oath to israel.
Failure to sign this loyalty oath to israel or lining out the phrase will result in the contractor or business being denied the ability to do business with the state.
When did israel become a part of the USA?
Since when does a foreign country have sway over what AMERICANS do?
It would seem that any loyalty oath to ANY foreign country, not just israel would be null and void.
Such practices that states are using to blunt criticism of israel should be declared null and void…
Hmmm,
let’s see ….perhaps after Navy Sec James Forestal…Defenestrated himself from Bethesda hospital , 1947…..Just before the State of Big I…came about.
It appears his journal / diary disappeared….
A sort of Tell All….about some organization
The only thing government does better than private industry is kill people and break things. They are extremely good at both.
Who would build the roads? Mostly the same people, only cheaper and of higher quality.
The roads probably would cost a whole lot less. And the quality would likely be just good enough to keep people from filing damage claims, but not so much as to be considered better. Just few or no potholes.
As for cost for travel, probably about the same. Just that like telecommunications networks, they’d focus on reducing maintenance and labor, while maximizing profit. So roads will be just good enough to maintain a certain amount of traffic, just below rush hour (80% perhaps), but no better. When traffic exceeded some capacity then stack another lane over top the old one, or some other solution, but only if the manager of that area of the highway was charismatic enough to convince the CEO it was worth it, while letting the less influential (or more capital intensive, longer payback) areas languish.
Infrastructure is never as simple as free market utopia vs communist utopia. Some places just aren’t going to attract investors while others will have oversupply. During the dot com bubble, thousands of miles of dark (speculative) fiber were laid between Boston and Washington DC, while most of the US had none or maybe one cable from the legacy baby Bell RBOC into their town. Most states supplied heavy subsidies to telecoms to get fiber networks built out because no one was willing to do so without them. We’re still seeing areas that have no fiber into the towns, even if there’s a trunk running through, because the cost of running it is too expensive to make payback as defined by the investors, who expect a certain margin or they’ll dump your stock in milliseconds. Because it might take a project a few years longer to make payback than the latest AI con.
I disagree Ready. The higher the quality, the less maintenance, and the less down time. Which matters to a privately owned road.
A shitty little “city of” in southern Oregon had fiber to each individual house. In 2000.
I call it “twin temples”
>Mostly the same people
Exactly the same people.
One thing that is true, is that no paving company is going to “hopscotch pave” a street with multiple adjacent landowners, only a few of whom have entered into a contract with the paving company. They will *NOT* mobilize, pave the street from your front PL to CL of ROW, skip the next two property owners each side, who do not have a contract, then pave 1/2 the ROW on the opposite side of the street for the next property owner, etc., etc. It just doesn’t work that way, due to the nature of the service which they freely provide, under contract to property owners.
My sister lives in a gated community, which means the roads inside the community are “private,” i.e. owned by the members of the HOA *IN* *COMMON*. And if you own property in the community, you are *REQUIRED* to be a member of the HOA. To get the “private” roads repaved, the paving company will enter into a contract with the HOA, *NOT* the individual property owners, same as with a municipality.
The only truly “private” road is one which has only one adjacent property owner, such as your (perhaps very long) driveway. Sorry, folks, get three people in a room, you have government, no matter what you call it. [As a famous English poet once asked, “What’s in a name? Would a rose by any other name, not smell as sweet?”]
To which I would add, “Would a weed by any other name be not as much of a pest?”
To use a thermodynamic analogy, I regard government to be a heat engine which very low thermal efficiency, i.e. one which necessarily generate more waste heat (hot air) than useful work. So, in the interest of economy, it seems prudent to fire up the ol’ clanker as infrequently as possible. But, there are occasions when the sewage needs to be pumped, and we therefore have no reasonable alternative. JMO.
RE: “no paving company is going to “hopscotch pave” a street with multiple adjacent landowners”
Why not? In rural areas on the gravel roads some sections get sprayed with dust control, others do not.
Some roads get snow plowed by the State, others do not, it just stops abruptly, then down the road nearest the next paved road a section is plowed.
There’s also, ‘Level B Access Roads’ enter at your own risk.
RE: “Sorry, folks, get three people in a room, you have government, ”
So, a family of Dad, Mom & Grandpa = government?
The distinction between .gov & HOA’s seems lost on you? One is a monopoly on force you cannot leave, while the other is not.
Even in a family, a child can run away or get of age of emancipation.
“the only mode of social organization that is ethically acceptable is one that respects our liberty, namely, anarchy . . . anarchy is not chaos or disorder or mayhem but the spontaneous order that arises from free and mutually acceptable human interactions.” –
https://mises.org/mises-wire/state-intervention-and-anarchy
Nobody is forced to live in a HOA.
>Why not?
Tell you what.
Call your local paving company. Explain to them you live on a street with, let’s say., 50′<Xa family of Dad, Mom & Grandpa = government?
Yes, and a family is the only unit of society for which communism makes sense, because all family members are *NOT* “created equal.”
>Nobody is forced to live in a HOA.
No one “lives in an HOA.” People do voluntarily live in private communities which have HOAs. Generally speaking, “membership” in the HOA, complete with “assessments,” a.k.a. HOA taxes, is *mandatory* for those who own property in the “community,” which is enforced by a restrictive covenant in the property deed. So, yes it is a form of compulsion, i.e. government, the only way out of which is to sell the property. IOW, move.
You can opt out of local municipal government the same way. IOW, move to a place more to your liking. Maybe a place with lower taxes and fewer restrictions on your liberties. There are always alternatives.
Sorry for the “garbled in transmission.”
Let us know if you are able to sign a contract with a paving company to repave 50′<X<100' of roadway adjacent to your front PL, but only to CL of ROW. I expect you will be unsuccessful in such an endeavor.
Actually a paving company would. My family has a cottage on a lake in Michigan, and all the roads surrounding the lake are private roads (not gated or anything). There is no HOA, there was no such thing a hundred years ago when it was first developed. There is a voluntary lake association but they don’t even talk about roads let alone do anything about them. So you take care of the road as it crosses your land (most own both sides). Most are now paved in blacktop, but some like ours are not (underground mesh system with sand and gravel on the surface). All are very passable year round (you do snow plowing as well). And yes they were installed piecemeal (sometimes a contractor will try to get several to do it at once for a better price). It’s affordable since you don’t have to do sewers, curbs and sidewalks. It’s also narrower than a government road. None of those things are needed there and it’s great we don’t have to pay for things that aren’t necessary, keeps it more rural looking too.
>sometimes a contractor will try to get several to do it at once for a better price
Then you realize that every project involves fixed as well as variable costs. This is true for design as well as construction, and no doubt in other industries as well.
>There is a voluntary lake association but they don’t even talk about roads let alone do anything about them.
Interesting.
What about drinking water? Is there a community water district, or does everyone have to sink their own well? How about sewage? Probably on individual septic tanks, I’d guess.
>most own both sides
That makes it easier, no doubt.
Do you know what is typical road frontage? The larger the parcel, the more feasible it would be to pave only a segment. I live in a medium size city, with curb & gutter, and 50′ x 150′ lot size typical in my neighborhood. So, mobilizing a paving crew (paving machine, transfer trucks, rollers) is just not feasible for 50′ X 20′ of asphalt paving.
The minimum project size to mobilize a paving crew appears to be approximately one city block, which the city did some years ago, on the block where I live, after I had bitched abut poor road conditions for ~ 5 years. Just had to shame them into it. 🙂
There is a somewhat infamous neighborhood nearby, part city, part county, where “piecemealing” the roadway has happened in the past. City government is working hard to resolve the resulting clusterf*ck, and get the entire neighborhood paved to modern city standards.
There are also adjacent county area neighborhoods which are more like what you have described. The roads are well maintained, presumably by county government, but are built to whatever standard was in effect at the time they were built, which was some time ago. No C&G or storm sewers, steep hills, narrower roads, etc. Would not meet today’s standards, either city or county, but are what they are for historical reasons. You pays your money, and you makes your choice.
I’ve lived in rural areas as well, so I know there is a big damned difference between city and country. When I was a small boy, our complete mailing address was [family name] RFD #1 [city name] [state name]. There were no house numbers, or ZIP codes.
We had drainage ditches, no C&G or storm sewers. County did plow the roads in winter, but they often drifted shut between plowings, even with snow fences. I can remember my Dad walking to the store to buy a few groceries, because roads were impassable.
RFD means “Rural Free Delivery”
Lake is in a rural area, five miles from the closest town. The cottage only got an official address about 20 years ago. Before that you just put the name of the person the lake name and the name of your house (most of the houses have names) and the name of the town five miles away. Everyone has well and septic (it’s Michigan so water isn’t a problem). Average frontage is probably 60-90 ft, though my family has 300 ft of frontage (we have the curve in the road). Most have their house on the lake side (front of house facing the lake not the road) of the lot and a pole barn, garage, gardens or a tree lot on the other, with the road running in the middle. We have trees. Generally you build your road along with your driveway. All of these roads are not through streets, if you don’t live or are visiting you generally aren’t going to drive on it.
My late uncle actually was the contractor that built most of these short little roads (at least the ones from the 70-90’s). He had a small asphalt plant along with his excavating, boat storage and crane rental business. He did asphalt for parking lots and driveways and only fired up the plant when he had enough jobs for a whole day (my cousins called those hell days, a good 16-20 hour work day)
We could have had blacktop but we decided to try to keep the rural feel (and to keep speeds down), so we put in a mesh system a few inches down to hold everything in place (it works remarkable well), with about 15 feet of pavement where we turn off into our drive. We don’t grow mowed grass along the road on our section having tall native grasses, perennials, scrubs and trees to screen the houses. A regular normal road would ruin the feel of the whole property so I hope it stays like that as long as we can.
County police do not patrol, only coming down the road on a call. The post office is the only regular government vehicle that comes down the road. We can also drive atvs, golf carts, (most actually have those) and other unlicensed vehicles on the private roads without anyone being annoyed by the police. I visit relatives (in about 20 other houses the furthest about 3 miles) via golf cart, my car stays parked.
Away from the lake, the county maintains the rest of the rural roads in the township. They are generally gravel with oil. They are liberal with the oil so it seems like it’s actually paved (some people think it’s actually paved). Sometimes some of the gravel comes loose, but a call to the road department will get a road grader and an oiler to fix it within a few weeks. Its basic but the low volume of traffic means it’s enough and enough maintainance is done.
Most new homeowners seem to be educated by their real estate agents so they get what they are getting into. Those that don’t like it seem to move away within a few years so hopefully the hundred year old system continues. My great grandpa bought the cottage over a hundred years ago, and someone from the family will likely own it the next hundred (the lake is named for a family that has now been there over two hundred). Lots of families have owned property there from 40 to 80 years, you buy and never sell!!
Interesting. Thanks for sharing.
The only place I can think of in SoCal which would be remotely comparable would be Lake Arrowhead, but I really don’t know what “da rules” are up there.
My grandparents in eastern Pennsylvania lived on a small farm and their address was also name RFD #1 town, state, zip. I thought that was soo cool.
With the equipment that’s been engineered for the current model of public roads. But a different situation would require a different approach, with someone would engineer to perform the job profitably.
The technology for small scale paving repairs already exists, in order to deal with, e.g. cut & cover for utility trenches, as well as repair large potholes.
But, two things to keep in mind:
1. Economies of scale.
Larger equipment is likely more efficient, meaning the cost per square foot should be less, given a minimum economic project size.
2. Inherent technical superiority of [some] larger sized equipment.
One example: I own a 4 inch belt sander, but to sand smooth a table top or counter top, I do not use it. There is a cabinet shop here in town which owns a 4 *foot* belt sander, which can do a much better job on a countertop than I could hope to do with my hand held tool. So, I am happy to pay them the $40/top to get a superior result, which I cannot duplicate with my own equipment.
True, economy of scale becomes a factor at some level. No one said anarchy would be cheap.
However, I would imagine the various landholders would form natural consortium (consortia?) to negotiate group rates when the time comes to repave, in order to receive a group discount. Oh, maybe not the first few times around, but a good paving salesman would canvas any nearby owners with the “while I’m here…” pitch to get more use out of the equipment and labor.
Again, maybe not the most efficient way, or the least amount of work for everyone, but no need for guns and taxes either.
>negotiate group rates when the time comes to repave, in order to receive a group discount.
Well, yeah, but as I said, part of the equation is the technology employed, not just how much product is being sold.
>maybe not the most efficient way
But we should all strive for the most efficient way, nicht wahr? Most efficient allocation of scarce resources, to use economist speak..
No doubt social pressure would play a part as well. As in, hey shithead, take the fish hooks out of your pocket and chip in, so we can get the job done all at once, and at the best price, by using the most efficient technology. You never know, a few holdouts might just “see the light.” 🙂
Yes, technological innovation does occur. One example from your own industry which you might find interesting. There is a company which obtained local City Council approval to run fiber optic cable in the city streets, using a new technology which does not require conventional utility trenches. Their machine cuts a very narrow trench at the gutter toe, which is much easier to repair to an acceptable level of quality, and probably much faster, as well as bein much less disruptive to vehicle traffic.
Based on the public discussion @ City Council meeting, my guess is they would have been denied permission to do this project using conventional utility trenching methods.
Micro trenching. Google Fiber was the first big user of the technology. Cut down the asphalt a few inches, push in your glass, then seal it up with epoxy resin. Works great in areas where they don’t plow snow. It got some bad press a few years back when they had issues in Nashville, but I’m sure a lot of that was growing pains and competitors making hay out of the outage complaints.
https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind/google-trenches-eroding-in-nashville-roadways/article_b2b0fa16-61fe-11ed-9584-872aa97bb96c.html
Wot? Bad mouth the competition? Why, I never heard of such a thang… 🙂
Life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness was under assault before the ink on hemp paper the Constitution was written on had dried. Hamilton & his whigs. The empirical lincoln and his radicals. And every subsequent leader since the war of northern oppression chipped away at freedom.
It’s increasingly difficult for me to imagine the libertarian vision (aka ‘normal’) against the backdrop of dystopian tyranny that we live under today.
My fantasy is to have a thousand acres, a little brick house in the middle, and a steel building to house my hit n miss engines. To paraphrase President Jefferson Davis in his inaugural address, all I desire is to be left alone.
Amen.
Well said!
Taxes and “fees”, as they’re styled, are the epitome of the Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone theory. The taxes or fees, in most cases, are merely collected to pay for the systems of collection. Without the collectors you wouldn’t need the taxes or fees to pay them and keep up the structures.
This applies to all taxes and fees. Many T&Fs are unseen as they are applied to others who must then pass them along to you, the customer.
People will blame “Corporations” for the fact that prices go up and it’s no longer possible to live a nice, middle-class life the earnings of one person. The problem really lies with GovCo. Some time our local City/County GovCo put out some stats on what had changed over the years from 1970-1995. During that time the population rose 19%. GovCo employment rose 69% over the same period. And, ya’ gotta collect taxes to pay for all those parasites.
Any questions?
Good points Mark.
Orange Man and Joke Biden both put tariffs on stuff from China and bragged about it, as if China was the party paying for those tariffs. I think perhaps the average person doesn’t fully grasp that those costs are passed on to the consumer but thinks the USSA is sticking it to “Chyna” per Orange Man. There might even be affordable EV’s if the Biden thing hadn’t put huge tariffs on EV’s from China. Gotta keep Eloon’s grift going without any competition.
Tariffs are a “double-edged sword”. On one hand, tariffs increase the cost of goods. On the other hand, tariffs can “encourage” businesses to remain within the country instead of chasing “cheap labor” off shore. Keep in mind that Henry Ford had it right. Your employees become purchasers of your products.
The strict libertarian view of tariffs is untenable as it offers no protection to the labor force of a country. Offshoring labor looks good on the bottom line but without customers with jobs, the whole economic model falls flat.
The “Austrian painter” got it right when he monetized labor (giving labor true value) and paid the price for it. The jewish banksters could not see their demonitization (and demonization) of labor go unpunished.
Unfettered capitalism was practiced in the days of the “robber barons” who always regarded labor as a necessary evil, rather than one part of the economic engine. These “captains of industry” were always cutting wages, pleading poverty while living grand lives themselves. They could have easily paid their employees a “living wage” without bankrupting themselves but their greed got in the way. Henry Ford broke the mold and ushered in the creation of the true “middle class”. The rest is history.
A country that does not protect its citizens’ self-interest is no country at all.
Look at the invasion that is presently occurring in western countries…
That being said, the tariffs against China are purely political and punitive and do nothing to protect the American labor force. On the other hand, Trump’s threatened tariffs against trucks “made in Mexico” was an attempt to protect the American labor force. Big difference.
Howzabout “professional wallet vacuums” ?
We don’t own our property, we rent it from the government.
Eric wrote: “The same as regards health care – which almost everyone would be able to afford because they would only be obliged to pay for their own.”
When I was young, I paid for health insurance through my employer. Over the years, the insurance deductibles went up, and my insurance basically turned into a catastrophic policy with high premiums and deductibles.
Now that I have retired, prior to 65, I have to have insurance so that I won’t be bankrupted by a catastrophe (like cancer). The cost of that catastrophic policy that covers nothing and has enormous deductibles – $1600 per month for myself and my wife. If I were just a few years older, I’d have Medicare and then others would be paying for my “free” medical care. It’s all a giant racket/grift operation.
Medicare recipients are CONSTANTLY going to the doctor for every ailment. They get expensive tests, which usually determine nothing but are rather lucrative for the test providers. Yes, your back hurts, but the MRI shows nothing – or a slight impingement – maybe you need back surgery. Or a shoulder replacement (at 80). Or a new hip. Lose weight – nah. You’re old and that new knee won’t really help you that much – no problem – someone else is paying. Can I get someone else to pay for the weight loss injections that cost $1500 a month and tie my stomach into knots so I don’t want to eat?
Medicare and Medicaid are broke – and the money to help fund them is sent to Ukraine, or Israel, or the MIC for more bombs, or to Taiwan, or to illegals.
Where is this “Free Medicare”? I must have applied to the wrong system. We are paying almost $400 a month for our free medicare and it goes up every year. We don’t receive enough $$ to pay the rent expected for today’s trash housing nor enough to eat at MacD’s everyday.
My son has declared war on the Social Security system and refuses to pay anything. I asked him how much he has saved for his ‘golden years’. So far…. “squat” and he is 45. I suspect he and others will put on that ‘help me’ look and petition Corpgov for money when they figure out they have 20 years to live and no money.
I really do wish they would make SS voluntary. Every year you sign a statement you expect nothing from the state. Personally—– I think it won’t matter soon. Deagle has us losing 70% of our population by the end of 2025. If true,,, That probably means,,, War! Most of us will be killed off, the money worthless and SS will no longer be an issue.
Waarrrr!!!!! What’s it good forrr? Cancelling debts and killing off the livestock.
Aint nuttin but a heartbreaker. Friend only to the undertaker.
>Medicare recipients are CONSTANTLY going to the doctor for every ailment.
Not this one.
The medical mafia, a.k.a. “providers,” willfully and deliberately withhold cost data, in an effort to mislead the raw material for their industry, a.k.a. “patients,” that “healthcare,” more properly designated “medical services” are somehow “free,” which they are not.
Buck the fozos.
>If I were just a few years older, I’d have Medicare and then others would be paying
> Can I get someone else to pay
Appears to me that is what you really want.
Those of us who are, or have been, self-employed know:
A) There is no Santa Claus
B) There is no Easter Bunny
C) There is no free lunch
>I have retired, prior to 65
Good for you. Nice to know you can afford to be a layabout.
I suggest you stop whining about how tough you have got it.
Those of us who have no such option, and who have worked until age 70 or beyond in order to pay our own bills, generally do not want to hear about it. The “world’s smallest violin” is broken, and can’t be fixed.
It damn sure doesnt go to dentists.
Indeed we have communism and socialized medicine in all but name. The only ones who pay are those of us who work in the private sector. But we’ve run out of producers (don’t ever think the hordes of scum washing over the border are going to pay into the system…). I’m probably eligible for the Obastardcare subsidies because I work for myself and don’t pay myself much, but I refuse. When the wife had cancer treatments last year, I negotiated the bills down to about 10% of what they were demanding, roughly what we would have paid in deductibles and co pays. Insurance is a scam and a racket, as is corporate medicine.