Government Makes Us Poor

The free market sparks innovation and creates wealth.



Freedom frightens some people. They say if no one is in charge there would be chaos. That is intuitive, but think about a skating rink. Before rinks were invented, if you proposed an amusement in which people strap blades to their feet and skate around on ice at whatever speeds they wish, you'd have been called crazy. There's got to be speed limits, stoplights, turn signals. But we know that people navigate rinks safely on their own. They create their own order, with only minimal rules.

Society would work the same way—and does to a large extent even today. "Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government," Thomas Paine, the soul of the American Revolution, wrote. "It has its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. … Common interest (has) a greater influence than the laws of government."

If libertarians were "in charge," there would be laws to protect us from foreign enemies and those who would steal from us or injure us. Today, by contrast, under the rule of Democans and Republicrats, we're drowning in rules—160,000 pages' worth. Micromanagement kills opportunity and freedom.

Maybe if there were a way to have more competition among governments, things would be better. Competition forces people to become more efficient and to get rid of stupid rules. What if we let people take over some unused land in America to create areas with fewer rules, simpler legal systems, smaller government?

I explored that subject last week with Michael Strong and Magatte Wade, founders of the Free Cities Project.

Strong said, "We want to encourage thousands of people to create new governments that have different rules, each competing for customers with the best education and best health care, the most peace and prosperity you could imagine."

Of course, state governments would have to approve this.

"There are already Native American reservations in the U.S. … They can become more free. Honduras already has something like this. In Senegal, we're encouraging a move toward an autonomous city-state that would allow for peace and prosperity."

Wade is Strong's wife and an entrepreneur from Senegal, where she saw firsthand how bad rules prevent people from creating prosperity.

"We need jobs. Who creates jobs? Entrepreneurs," she said.

But Senegal is awash in rules. There was a government monopoly on cement. When the government allowed competition, prices fell by a third.

She started a beverage company.

"It was an ordeal. I did it because I am from Senegal. I have an interest in trying to improve things. But for an American company … why would they put themselves through such a thing?"

"What people don't realize is the developing world is massively overregulated," Strong said. "Africa is the most regulated continent on earth."

In the Congo, it requires 18 documents to import anything.

Wade added: "The fact we have so many rules—who benefits most? Multinationals."

"And crony capitalists," Strong added. "Corruption in Africa is a symptom of massive overregulation."

Are there any free cities along the lines Strong and Wade envision?

"Hong Kong and Singapore are the best examples," Strong said. "Now they are among the wealthiest places on earth."

And there is a free city in Dubai because the emirate wanted to create a financial sector, but sharia law prevented it.

"Dubai was brilliant," Strong said. "They looked around the world. They saw that Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, Chicago, Sydney, London all ran British common law. British common law is much better for commerce than is French common law or sharia law. So they took 110 acres of Dubai soil, put British common law with a British judge in charge, and they went from an empty piece of soil to the 16th most powerful financial center in world in eight years."

It's what libertarians have said: Freedom works, and government, when it grows beyond the barest minimum, keeps people poor.



NEXT: Hit and Run


  1. Good morning Fuck off, Reason.

    1. Yes, it’s true?this man has no dick.

      1. What are you talking about? His ideas are brilliant! What are you? A LINO?

  2. Even in a relatively small-government state like Virginia, you wouldn’t believe the paperwork involved in setting up and running the little print shop I used to have. And taxes upon taxes, too. Trying to keep it all unraveled was a full time job by two years ago when I decided to get out and work for someone else.

    1. The property taxes in Virginia alone make me question it’s “small-government” credentials. Every year I get to pay tax on a car I bought in another state, where I also paid taxes. What is this money supposed to fund? Certainly not the roads, which eerily remind me of Pennsylvania’s and New Jersey’s hellish roadscapes. Is it paying for those bastards at the DMV intent on wasting the lives of their “customers”? Or, worse still, is this money funneled into the coffers of police stations intent on finding more mundane and arbitrary ways of stealing our money at the point of a gun? Seriously, fuck this shit.


        Serious question: Has *anyone* ever had a smooth/reasonable/pleasant experience with DMV? I know I haven’t. I’ll avoid ranting, because it just raises my BP.

        1. I did once.

          1. It was anomalous.

        2. I seem to recall, ages ago, having an efficient transaction at a storefront DMV.

          So there’s one, out of, I suppose, dozens.

        3. I had an OK time at a storefront DMV just a few months ago. I’ll never go see those feces-covered monkeys at city hall ever again.

        4. Yeah, I once got a new driver’s license quickly and easily, but have had other much worse experiences too.

          1. And it was kind of funny, because that was the first time I got my DL renewed since I was 16, so I never knew why everyone bitched about the DMV.

        5. Strangely enough, it was at a Virginia DMV, Harrisonburg to be exact. Drive through service and credit cards were welcomed. Colorado is positively third world in comparison.

          1. Colorado DMV’s are hellholes. Lines out the door, and somehow, no matter how early you arrive, no one is able to finish their business and leave before noon. It’s like a vortex of wasted time and frustration. It did put all the “Native” bumper stickers I see on shitty old suburbans in perspective, though. Colorado really doesn’t want you here if you weren’t born here. “Just leave all your money at the ski resort and go back where you came from” should be the state’s motto.

        6. I’ve had an ok experiences at a storefront DMV. The line was not too long, and the process was smooth, but the employees were still surly.

        7. one time, in Asheville NC, one of the bluest cities on the planet oddly enough. The staff was professional, even cheerful; the setting was pleasant rather than antiseptic; and despite a substantial crowd, people were waited on in pretty quick succession. Kinda freaked me out.

        8. Whatever anyone does, do NOT move to Maryland if you hate income taxes, high property taxes, and especially the DMV. I’ve been trying to switch my car over for a couple of months now (part of the problem was the DC DMV though). I’m almost through the process, but it’s about to cost me $500 to pass the absolutely ridiculous inspection racket, I mean process. I haven’t tried to switch my DL yet, so we’ll see how that goes.

        9. It’s funny, but I’ve never had a bad experience at the DMV. Building Inspections departments in some cities on the other hand…

  3. If you like this thesis, you should read “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson.

    1. Even if you didn’t, you should still read “Snow Crash”.

      1. I’d also reccommend it’s spiritual sequel “The Diamond Age”. Lots of ass-kicking and cool ideas in that sucker. I think one character had a gun installed in his head. You know, for protection.

        1. Diamond Age is set in the same universe as Snow Crash about 60 years later. The clues to this are pretty subtle.

        2. Those are both good but I still think Cryptonomicon is his best work.

  4. Here’s my fantasy: Libertarians are elected to the presidency and to majorities in Congress. What would happen next? Well, if libertarians were “in charge,” you’d have more freedom and prosperity
    Come on! Even I could write something more….

    1. Why’d you cross out the true part?

      1. Go play with your LEGO?, sweetie

        1. Excellent comeback.

  5. I’m waiting for the transport to the Freehold of Grainne.

  6. States, how do they work? (if only we had a 10th Amendment)

    1. Great idea! A 10th Amendment. That would be really helpful in limiting federal power, because it could reiterate the notion that if not SPECIFICALLY stated as a federal power in the Constitution, it would be left to the states or the people.

      Huh! Good thinking.

  7. Africa is incredibly over regulated. True story – to cross the borders from Zambia into Congo took 7 days (days not hours), it took that long to cross because of the sheer number of bureaucrats and their rules they throw to get their slice of the bribe.

    1. Well, Luke Wilson, it’s easier to point a gun and stamp some(reams of?) papers while letting your life drip away than actually do something people would actually consider paying spening their money on. Path of least resistance and all that.

  8. Government is the only reason anyone can ever become rich! Because of ROADZ!!!11!!!

    1. Don’t you have more Facebook photos to pose for?

      1. Sexting

  9. Once again, Stossel is right on target.
    The most effective regulator is a competitor.
    Government inhibits competition thru regulations that benefit existing businesses while serving as obstacles to the entry of new enterprises. Could an Apple start up in todays over-regulated marketplace? I doubt it.

    1. You filthy fucking racist.

      1. Right on! Capitalism is racism, straight up.

        1. Janeane, you’re really just pissed that you missed your chance on StillerCoaster before I made that first 50 million. Plus my wife is hot. You missed your chance baby. Enjoy the carpet munching.

          1. Zoolander sucked.

            1. A Garofalo and Warren gasoline fight accident anyone?

              1. One Cup?


    The Wild West Redux?! That’s just crazy talk!!


    You mean, like we’re doing?

    1. Unused land. Just spouting off slogans doesn’t go over well, here…



  13. A week late as usual.

      1. I watched this episode of Stossel last week.

        1. Last week’s episode of Stossel was about her period or lack thereof? Whose? Tina Fey’s? Weird.

    1. And a dollar short.

    2. Yep. For those who haven’t seen it, the episode featured a sexy blond Koch Industries spokesperson and Somalia.

  14. While we’re waiting, I offer Obama By The Numbers for your amusement.

  15. The authoritarians are way ahead of this trend. They noticed people moving from New York City and Philadelphia to freer outlying towns. They created the Highlands Preservation Act to ban development on the fringe of the NYC-Philly metropolitan area so that they could nip any competition in the bud.

  16. Has Stossel ever been to Singapore or Hong Kong? The governments of both cities are actually incredibly intrusive in people’s lives, especially education. Ask a filipina migrant or a Vietnamese boat person about “small government Hong Kong”, they are likely to laugh heartily at your joke. Both governments also exercise heavy control over real estate development. But the fact is Hong Kong works and the US doesn’t. The real key is keeping government workers accountable, no matter what the size of the government – and that works only in a small country. If you want the US to work like Hong Kong, Singapore or Switzerland then we need to kill the beast outright and break the US up into 20 or 30 manageable polities. The idea that a country of 400 million will ever achieve “limited government” is a pipe dream.

    1. Great idea, but how do we start? Hey, here’s an idea: what if we let people take over some unused land in America to create areas with fewer rules, simpler legal systems, smaller government? Brilliant, eh?

      1. The feds will soon arrive in armored vehicles and kill you if you resist.

        1. And kill all your pot plants.

      2. Hey why don’t we create a federal system with a bunch of state governments and a small strictly limited federal government that does nothing but handle borders, national defense and the currency and stuff like that. Then let the state governments run everything else with the except of interstate commerce so they can’t erect trade barriers against each other.

        It is so crazy it just might work.

        1. It will work until some of the states decide they don’t want to be under the federal government, and the tyrant in charge wages a war that kills almost two percent of the country’s population as he squashes any notion of states’ rights and establishes federal dominion over the states.

          1. Oh bullshit. First, Lincoln was not a tyrant. Second, the South went nuts and started shooting and got what it deserved. Third, I would gladly take the federal government we had post civil war over the one we have now.

            1. Lincoln would have invaded even if the South hasn’t started shooting.
              While secession was motivated by slavery, the war was not. The war was to establish federal dominion over the states.
              Pre-war the United States was referred to as plural, afterwords it was referred to as singular.
              Fuck Lincoln. Worst president ever.

              1. Worst president until the beginning of this century.

              2. It’s been grammaticalized so we can’t even think of the plural. We can just picture a boot stamping on a human face forever.

    2. And who forces the Filipina illegal alien and chink boat person to go there? NOBODY! They went there because their countries SUCK!

      1. My Irish grandfather thought Ireland sucked, too. Funny how people go to unsucky places and want to stay there.


      This was well known even 200 odd years ago. Hence, the original design of this country as a federation of states, with a relatively small and weak central government.

      1. Or, what John said. Dammit.

        [throws tophat at servant, bangs cane on desk, demands more coffee]

    4. Has Stossel ever been to Singapore or Hong Kong?

      actually, he has; to Hong Kong. Even taped the time it took to get a license for starting up a business. Took him about an hour. Most people spend longer waiting to renew a driver’s license here. He did not say that HK was panacea, just that it was far more biz-friendly than the US in terms of bureaucracy.

    5. 50 sounds about right to me…

      …something familiar about that…

      Nah, I got nuthin.

  17. okay – I’ll try the spell here.

    morning links… Morning Links… (Stave Smith) MORNING LINKS!

    1. When I say Hillshire, you say Farms!

      When I say Hillshire, you say Farms!


    2. Louder!

      Riggs was clubbing last night without ear plugs.

      1. Speaking of clubs, I went to see Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble in DC Tuesday. It was fantastic. Sadly, Levon can’t sing anymore thanks to throat cancer. But he is still a tremendous drummer and his daughter Amy is quite a good singer.

        1. That reminds me. I haven’t watched the Last Waltz in a couple of years. Gotta go dig that one up.

          1. I like that DVD, but after awhile the songs kinda sound the same. Same beat, anyway.

  18. Stossel is the Libertarian Leninist who didn’t have near the success that Lenin did in implementing his ideas. Thus, he’s even more of a failure than that shitbird Lenin himself.


    Marxism of the Right

    1. Libertarians piss off big-C Conservatives even more than liberals do.

      I think its because we remind them of what they used to be, and should be, before they became Liberals v. 2.0. And they hate that.

      1. They don’t understand that you don’t have to be a libertine to be a libertarian. Big C conservatives should agree with libertarians on most subjects because Big C conservatives should understand more than anyone else the importance of civil society and institutions and the corrosive effect government coercion has on them.

        1. Big C conservatives hate big govt when the issue is guns, business regs, or some display of religiosity. They love it regarding abortion, gay marriage, or biz subsidies. One thing Newt was right about early in the campaign – social engineering is no prettier from the right than it is from the left. Of course, the right lost its mind over that.

          1. Gingrich was right. I didn’t know he said that.

            1. Wow. I can actually agree with Newt on something.

          2. Libertarians do hate big govt on some issues.

            Yet liberarians love big govt when it comes to the foremost entitlement program: privation property, as noted by Dr. Ralph Borsodi in his book This Ugly Civilization:


            1. Native Americans practiced literal slavery, along with torture and ritual cannibalism, which kind of hurts your credibility.

              1. Cannibalism, slavery, and sacrifice religions are rare or non-existent in Non-State bands or tribes. They are associated with domestication and agriculture.

                Some Native Americans domestication and agriculture, and that’s where you’ll find slavery, sacrifice religions, and such.

                Nice try, Brandon, but you don’t really know your anthropological data.

                1. This has got to be a joke. Do you realize how absurd it is to talk about “The White Man” as some sort of monolithic entity?

                  And didn’t “This Ugly Civilization” produce the computer you’re typing on, the chair your sitting in, and the means to read books like “This Ugly Civilization”?

                  1. You sound like a Prison Warden scolding a political prisoner over his complaints of being imprisoned. Doesn’t compute, marlok.

                    1. Yeah, Marlok. Don’t you see, he HAS to use computers and make vague, false sweeping generalizations about the white man, because the white man forces him to!

                2. Cortez conquered 5,000,000 Aztecs with 1000 troops. Have you ever wondered how that’s possible? Simple. The people the Aztec enslaved were so badly abused, they were willing to fight and die for someone who stood a chance of defeating them. Europeans did relatively little of the actual fighting until there was some reason to bring in the big guns.

                  The land where I live was uninhabited at the time of the Jamestown settlement because Powhatan (Wahunsenacawh, father of Pocahantas) had everyone to the east of him wiped out. Women of that society were treated as chattel and incubators for babies. Pocahantas’ mother by tradition would have been one of a series of “common” women who was brought to Powhatan specifically for the purpose of giving him a single child. After the child was weaned, the woman would be sent back to her previous status, back to wherever she had come from. She no longer had any connection to her child or to the child’s father.

                  Slavery continued in American Indian culture well into modern times. Allyn MacLean Stearman’s ‘Only Slaves Climb Trees’ (Human Nature, Vol 5 No 4, 1994) is my favorite example of how badly the “Noble Savage” myth breaks down. In Bolivia the Yuqui Indians, once deprived of slaves, cut down fruit trees rather than climb them to gather fruit.

                  1. Aztec enslaved

                    Correct. That’s because the Aztecs were agricultural city-Statists, just like you.

                    Don’t conflate sociopolitical typologies. All were found in North America.

                    Most societies were band and tribal egalitarian Non-State. Some were non-egalitarian chiefdoms. A few were agricultural city-States.

                    Big difference. Take note.

                    1. If they were “agricultural city statists” like the “WHITE MAN”, then they’re violent. What’s that you say? Indians were violent. Well…. then they were “agricultural city-statists” too. Circular logic FOR THE WIN.

                      “sociopolitical typologies” – I gag at your sociological jargon.

                      If your logical and rhetorical skills don’t improve, I’ll assume you’re a fake troll, performed by one of the regulars for yuks.

            2. It’s still an interesting dilemma though. Property rights are often viewed as essential in libertarian thought, and I agree. But this is generally for things that are earned and not stolen or claimed. I guess the first person could have claimed all the land and sold it off to future residents, or they could set up a serfdom. The question is largely irrelevant today when most land is owned by someone (the banks), but someone had to take the land in the first place. Sort of the god dilemma for libertarians.

              On the other hand, what’s done is done and now we should be focused on the best , most free, and and most prosperous way forward for society. Still interesting though.

              1. My ancestor once owned all the land on earth and you guys stole it.

          3. Abortion is not a freedom issue for most conservatives, it is a moral issue in the same way that child slavery is. The disagreement in abortion is not about freedom from its opponents, its about whether the human life in utero has any rights.

      2. Yeah, but did you read that? He talks about “hard questions” that must be asked of libertarians. If he thinks those are gotchas, he’s never actually spoken to one.

    2. Actually, Marxism is the conservatism of the Left, as Bakunin recognized in 1872:


      1. Any attempt at organizing a mass society flouts Dunbar’s Number — homo sapien’s neurobiological limit of the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships.

        Communism is a failure.
        Capitalism is a failure.
        Socialism is a failure.
        Fascism is a failure.
        Libertarianism is a failure.

        Because humans are still Pleistocene animals* best adapted to band life.**

        * Thesis #5: Humans are still Pleistocene animals.
        ** Thesis #6: Humans are best adapted to band life.
        The Thirty Theses

        1. best adapted to band life

          Sssskept me aloyv all theez yeerz man

        2. Lead the way “White Indian”!

          Hit the woods with a group of your pals and go fetch us some pelts. Report back to us in 10 years.

          1. Here’s a nip or two for the trek, and some nice blankets for the litte lady and the young’uns.

            1. Harvard,
              You know how you don’t give money to bums, since it encourages them?

          2. Your ancestors already did it. Anthropologists call band and tribal Non-State sociopolitical typology the Original Affluent Society.

            1. The “original affluent society” where the food outruns YOU. You would cry like a little girl, White Imbecile.

              1. Psychologically projecting again, old agricultural city-STATIST poodle?

                Your father is the third picture down in the following essay:
                Wolves & Dogs

          3. marlok,

            1. You’re right.

              I guess it caught my interest because his arguments are so uniquely idiotic. He seemed like a true innovator in the field of saying stupid shit.

              Setting phasers to ignore.

              1. “I guess it caught my interest because his arguments are so uniquely idiotic”

                S/he has been peddling this crap for months. Most all of the replies point out the stupidity of promoting a life where the life-span `30 years or so, but the shitbag simply offers one more link to a brain-dead ‘philosopher’. And some ‘clever’ insult.
                Bums, handouts; W.I., replies; not going to change.

                1. But think of the advantages of a 30-year lifespan- no Alzheimer’s, very little cancer, and all the pussy is young.

  19. The information I am about to relay to you is highly classified. No one is supposed to know this. I do not know how much time i have to relay this to you. Currently, I am behind several unknown proxies so the government is unable to track down my location.

    However, I know that with several people educated about the events about to unfold, I may be able to save hundreds of lives. These events have been planned out for years in special sessions of the United Nations, barring some representatives from these meetings which were never to go down on record.

    This is completely staged, and everything that occurs results of these evens will be expected and set into motion by the government officials all over the world.

    The Russian Station UVB-76 is a “Dead Man’s Switch” created to detonate a nuclear device set in South Korea’s capital. It will be activated by Dmitry Medvedev’s assassination in early November. It has been made clear in the sessions that North Korea will take the blame and war will begin.

    The United States and Japan will join South Korea as China will with North Korea. Nuclear weaponry will be involved, especially in nuclear incidents on USA’s Western Coast.

    The Middle East will get involved, attacking the Eastern seaboard. President Obama and other continental political figures will be evacuated to an undisclosed location as the stock market crashes, civil unrest erupts and the National Guard takes over and puts martial law into effect.

    Western Europe, Africa and South America will be heavily affected economically while Australia remains virtually untouched. Russia will join China and North Korea and win the third World War, and a New World Order will be put into effect. Tell everyone you know to go into hiding in the most isolated corners of the earth and prepare for the worst.

    I can reveal very little information except for this. I am endangering my life and those of my loved ones by uncovering this massive plot. Please, let no one with authority know.

    1. Now that is bringing the crazy. About time we attracted a better quality of troll.

    2. Nuclear weaponry will be involved, especially in nuclear incidents on USA’s Western Coast.

      The Middle East will get involved, attacking the Eastern seaboard.

      Phew…thanks flyover country.

    3. No worries, I am safe hiding here on my secret moon base.

    4. Sounds like an updated version of Red Storm Rising. When does it come out. Can’t wait to read it.

    5. The dumbest thing here is the middle east attacking the eastern seaboard and thats saying alot. Seriously, with what Navy?

      1. Jane’s Defence Weekly reports that the Dolphin class submarines are believed to be nuclear armed.

        Will you bite the hand that feeds?
        Will you chew until it bleeds?
        Can you get up off your knees?
        Are you brave enough to see?

      2. Iran’s navy is on the way.

        1. Almost.

    6. Cool story, bro

      1. Ain’t industrial civilization grand?

        There’s nothing quite like living under an umbrella of total planetary destruction, delivered in 20 minutes, or another 20 years even without nuclear war, or your money back — for whatever you could spend it on.

        PREMISE NINE: Although there will clearly someday be far fewer humans than there are at present, there are many ways this reduction in population may occur (or be achieved, depending on the passivity or activity with which we choose to approach this transformation). Some will be characterized by extreme violence and privation: nuclear Armageddon, for example, would reduce both population and consumption, yet do so horrifically; the same would be true for a continuation of overshoot, followed by a crash. Other ways could be characterized by less violence. Given the current levels of violence by this culture against both humans and the natural world, however, it’s not possible to speak of reductions in population and consumption that do not involve violence and privation, not because the reductions themselves would necessarily involve violence, but because violence and privation have become the default of our culture.

        ~Derrick Jensen

    7. Icarus has found you!!!

    8. I thought that was 2012, not 2011…

    9. This is disturbing. I live within 80 to 90 million megaton range of North Korea.

  20. The Middle East will get involved, attacking the Eastern seaboard.

    Umm, how? With what?

      The Samson Option Still Threatens the World
      by Carol Moore, December 2009 version…..reats.html

      “One other purpose of Israeli nuclear weapons, not often stated, but obvious, is their ‘use’ on the United States.”

      excerpt from:

      Warner D. Farr, LTC, U.S. Army
      The Counterproliferation Papers
      Future Warfare Series No. 2
      USAF Counterproliferation Center
      Air War College
      Air University
      Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama…..s/farr.htm


        ~Ayn Rand (Ford Hall Forum lecture, 1974)


        ~Ayn Rand, United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, March 6, 1974

        Nuclear attack on the US is going to bring a more godly civilization to America, because yahweh’s Zionist civilization trumps goyim Yankee civilization, just like goyim Yankee civilization trumps those damn Injuns.

        1. Wow. You even worked in the Jews. Bravo.

          1. Nice work there; you’ve earned the Democrat Racist Card Puller Award from the Order of Obama. So proud of you, John!

        2. Ayn Rand was cut from the same cloth as Pol Pot.

          Pol Pot wanted to:?
          (a) “restart civilization”?
          (b) by cleansing civilization of liberal influences
          ?(c)and punishing and starving out people he regarded as subhumans?
          (d) at Year Zero.

          Ayn Rand wanted also to:?
          (a) restart civilization?
          (b) by cleansing civilization of liberal influences?
          (c) and punishing and starving out people she regarded as subhumans (parasites!)
          ?(d) with a wave of the dollar symbol cigarette.

          Not much difference.

          1. You obviously don’t know much about either Pol Pot or Ayn Rad. Read Atlas Shrugged, is it wrong for productive people to quit and let the moochers destroy each other? That’s not a Pol Pot tactic, that’s a freedom tactic. It’s the reason why nobody wants to do business in Detroit and millionaires are leaving New York.

            People are voting with their feet, they’re saying “I don’t deserve this” and are moving away.


            1. I’ve read Atlas Shrieked thrice.

              ‘From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged,” Whittaker Chambers wrote here 53 years ago, “a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: ‘To a gas chamber ? go!'” What he did not write is that Ayn Rand throws in a gas chamber…

              The Greatly Ghastly Rand
              From the Aug. 30, 2010, issue of National Review.

              1. Whittaker Chambers is allowed to be wrong on occasion. Yes, the people who died in that train deserved it, they were all moochers, they had no self-reliance, no sense of honor, responsibility, the world Rand describes is one where the moochers steal from the producers.

                Rand’s train example is simply the consequences of that mentality. In a way, America is on a train right now, 47% of the people pay not taxes, 45% get food stamps, nobody wants to reform social security, Herman Cain’s 999 plan is ridiculed, we have Wall Street protesters demanding living wages and debt forgiveness. If we don’t change course, we too are gonna crash.

      2. Of course. The JOOOOZ are going to nuke the East Coast of the United States!

        Umm, why?

        1. You seen the acts they’ve been booking in the Poconos?
          Nuking’s too kind!


          ~Martin Van Creveld
          Professor of Military History, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

          Dolphin nukes ensure D.C. isn’t immune.

  21. The government and it’s over regulation that makes us poor, they make us import everything and not export our own goods without all the regulations yet we import re-called kids toys with lead in it every month. Ford is no longer made in the U.S., it went overseas and the auto industry in Detroit collapsed. It’s not going to unless we take back our government.
    End The Fed..they bailed out the banks interest free, not us and are offering our future stimulus that doesn’t exist yet to balance the European market and trade.

    Reuters 10-5-11 ‘Bonds fall on European moves, bets on Fed aid’…..QQ20111005

    Betting on our future stimulus, bailing out world-wide banks! No way! End The Fed!!!

  22. Regulating the surface of Mother earth with privation property, is big government’s foremost Land enTitlement program.

    See, and you thought you were against regulation. LOL

    1. Yeah it’s worse when they regulate and give land away their corporate cronies as SUBSIDIES pay for by us!

  23. John Stossel wanks to regulating the surface of Mother earth with privation property, big government’s foremost Land enTitlement program.

  24. I’d like to see Stossel debate Elizabeth Warren.

    I wouldn’t root for either one. I’d just like to see it, although it has trainwreck potential.

    1. Elizabeth Warren has no potential, she is a communist that has never done nothing, never created nothing, never accomplished noting, she’s a dirty politician just like Obama, a nobody, a useless parasite pretending to be your friend.

      Elizabeth Warren is human garbage. She isn’t fit to wipe Stossels ass. I hate her and everything she stands for.


      1. Well, Bill3. Looks like you’ve “volunteered” for our community assistance program. Report to soul-crushi…I mean … soul-…enlightening facility 3b456 immediately. I have some toes that need to be sucked.

  25. Stossel articles really bring out the raving trolls.

    1. LOL

  26. We could also try repealing the 17th Amendment to restore some limits to the federal government and allow competition among the states.

  27. People make themselves poor.

    Freedom allows you the freedom of action to TRY to become and remain wealthy.

    Socialism and government intervention saddles you with burdens that make trying to become and remain wealthy much harder.

    But whether you live in a free place or a corrupt, decaying afterimage of what was once a free place, it is still up to you to make something of it.

    Also, trying ain’t enough. Unfavorable random events will slow and sometimes even stop you. Also, many of us make stupid choices and have to recover from them.

    Freedom is wonderful and I’m all for it – but it is not enough. It also takes perseverance, resilience, and the capacity to learn as you go.

    1. I should have added that socialism virtually guarantees mediocrity – at best.

    2. Freedom is wonderful and I’m all for it


      Real freedom is found in a Non-State sociopolitical typology.

      Never met a libertarian domesticated poodle yet that wanted to live in a real Non-State society.


      1. * http://?

      2. Re: White Imbecile,

        Real freedom is found in a Non-State sociopolitical typology.


        Oh, I won’t bother. You’re just another imbecile who believed everything your 3rd rate political science teacher told you.

        1. Not much into the freedom found within a Non-State society, eh?

          Old Mexican is a city-Statists as much as any Leninist.

        2. OM,
          You’re probably not about to hand out dough to panhandlers, right?

          1. You’re right, sevo, I come in here and clean up.

            That’s because libertarianism is as intellectually bankrupt as marxism.

            It’s funny as hell how self-styled “libertarians” rage against the real and documented freedom found in a Non-State society.


            1. And you still can’t live the shackbrah lifestyle.

      3. “Liar.

        Real freedom is found in a Non-State sociopolitical typology.



        Do they have flying cars on your planet?

        I’ve been waiting forever for them to come up with flying cars here on Earth and it doesn’t appear to be anywhere on the horizon right now.

        1. My friends had a flying car here on Earth. Luckily it landed on power lines under the bridge.

  28. Uh-oh, Stoss is taking on Krugman and Pelsosi.

  29. Regulators are purposely trying to help the big firms at the expense of smaller outfits. Don’t kid yourself, Stossel.

  30. Why is Occupy Wall Street not swarming the Stossel studio right now?

  31. Bivens is right about one thing, he doesn’t understand how regulations impact the private sector, having never entered it.

  32. Bivens understands to make an inedible omelet you have to break a few job-creating eggs.

  33. That’s not a novelty sledgehammer. That’s just a regular sledgehammer.

  34. This asshole gets a virus on his laptop and his first instinct is to hit the store? What is he, a comfort shopper?

  35. We should build a bridge to the moon. That will put people to work for more than just a summer or two.

  36. This Veronique person sounds suspiciously like a foreigner. She’s going to sing “I Wanna Know What Love Is” any second now.

  37. De Rugy hates bike paths because all those years Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France. An American!

  38. I demand toll road vouchers.

  39. Stossel discriminated when he chose his wife?


  40. Stossel’s company is in America, so shut your yap and understand it’s really America’s company.

  41. Ah, this guy wants the Rooney Rule for the job market.

  42. Employers are screening out the unemployed! But I don’t think making them include the unemployed will affect them!

  43. Charney looks like the personification of Montgomery Burns.

  44. I never realized Zeljko Ivanek was so liberal.

  45. Stossel looked like a Soviet propaganda poster holding that sledgehammer.

  46. Fox Business was a little rough on those handhelds.

  47. I don’t think I agree with Morici’s argument about the stimulative effect of destruction, but he’s convinced me to smash my tv.

  48. Patton Oswalt really aged poorly since the last celebrity roast.

  49. Insurance companies can just print money so they’re unaffected by paying to repair the restaurant?

  50. Those hurricanes are a godsend. It should be part of every responsible business model.

  51. Act of Don clause in his insurance policy.

  52. ha! he literally just said don’t ask me rhetorical questions.

  53. Uh, obsolescence destroyed that TV.

  54. Boudreaux can stare right into your soul.

  55. Shakeweight! Well, I asked where the hand jobs were.

  56. Great. Now I’m hungry for IHOP.

  57. Forget Occupy Wall Street, we need Occupy IHOP!

  58. If Womack wasn’t so fucking cheap he would have donated to the Obama campaign and could have gotten a waiver.

  59. I’m so sick of these multinational pancake corporations.

    1. Municipal House of Pancakes.

      1. State House of Pancakes would be a better acronym.

  60. Okay, Stoss, your devil’s advocacy has gotten off track.

    1. Did you say something about devil cakes?

  61. Why don’t you just marry Hong Kong already, John? Oh, I forgot, no mixing of the races.

  62. Stoss hates private contractors now?

  63. The China-man is not the issue here, John.

  64. Don your earplugs, meine Damen und Herren. The Judge is next.

  65. Author Robert Heinlein once wrote, “The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.” Therefore, it’s naturally difficult to get libertarians ? those lacking the desire to control others ? into office. Those who desire to control end up in control. We are ruled by hall monitors.

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