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State Property, by Robert Gore

Posted by straightlinelogic 6 years, 10 months ago to Philosophy
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Here's an eleven-word summary of the thousand-plus pages of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged: collectivism and the morality of coercive altruism are destroying the world. Rejecting that morality is the necessary first step for reversing the trend. Each individual’s life is his or her own property, not the state’s. Establishing that right means intellectual and physical battles that are quintessentially self-defensive: defending the inviolable right to one’s own soul, mind, body, and productive effort—a defense of self.

This is an excerpt. For the complete article please click the above link.
SOURCE URL: https://straightlinelogic.com/2018/02/17/state-property-by-robert-gore/


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  • Posted by CaptainKirk 6 years, 10 months ago
    I helped to convert a neighbor to conservatism using the following (he was a Quarterback in great shape).

    I said... Imagine we had a device that took your health, and shared it with others, like myself. And via your working out, I was able to get rid of excess body fat, but you were given it, since you have a great ability to stay thin.

    Now, Imagine I explained that EVERYONE has a RIGHT to be healthy. That makes sense. And some people are unfairly not healthy, and the healthy people have to step up to do their part to help these people. (Not unlike ANY number of Social programs, Health Care, or Food Stamps, etc).

    And because we have this device, you have to go in once a week, to get your pay check, and they transfer some of your good health to us. Now this requires you workout about 20% more... But you deal with it for the greater good.

    Then, some 5 years later, they say, HEY we need to take 30% because people are still not healthy enough. But you look around, and you see people like me MOWING down more Pizza and Beer than ever before, not taking my personal responsibility seriously. But living off of your excellent genes, and hard work.

    Now, you become a professional athlete, and they suggest 90% is the right amount, because you are like the RARE BILLIONAIRE who needs to share his wealth with others.

    Meanwhile, because you are working out so hard to overcome these "taxes", your body is taking a bigger toll. Your recovery time is increased.

    Would that be a fair world to live in? Would it ENCOURAGE or DISCOURAGE proper behavior? We see that it doesn't change people to just give them stuff. They have to want to work for it...

    The same thing can be said of MONEY and INCOME and TAXES. Just because some people are better at making it than others, or they live in a way that maximizes the effectiveness of their money doesn't mean that it should be taken from them by force, and given to those who will not use it very well... Or who may, but have not earned it.

    He woke up... Because it became real to him. He had health, but not much money. (like the old joke about communism)
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    • Posted by $ pixelate 6 years, 10 months ago
      This is a very effective story. I would like to share something like this with my very liberal neighbors -- however:
      Neither of them is in good health
      One is a government school teacher and the other is on SSDI.
      The guy with SSDI claims to have a bad back, but can often be found chopping fire wood.
      They truly believe that they are entitled to their state pensions and SSDI because "everyone pays taxes." Of course the elementary math quickly illustrates that there are Makers and Takers -- this is a fact that modern liberals would like to pretend does not exist.

      Your story reminds me of the case where a class of students is told that grades will be evenly distributed. So the students that earned A's will have part of their earned grade given to those that were less fortunate and only earned D's or lower. Of course even young students are capable of quickly seeing that such a system will collapse as initiative and reward for effort is eliminated. Where reality is tossed out the window -- where we no longer associate effects with causes and causes with effects -- there will be a spread of mediocrity and suffering will be the only thing that is uniformly distributed.
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      • Posted by CaptainKirk 6 years, 10 months ago
        These 2 define democracy as 2 wolves and 1 sheep voting on what's for dinner!

        We need to redo that Taylor Swift song:
        Takers gonna take! Take it all... Take it all...

        Next, get some VIDEO Tape, over MANY MANY days of this person doing things outside like that.

        I know in MI that started paying BOUNTIES if you turned people in. A gal I dated was divorced from this idiot collecting "fakability", and he got turned in. After like 6 years of collecting it...

        BTW, this is why COMMUNITY (Church, for example) giving is so much better. This guy has no problem stealing from people he does NOT have to look in the face. But would he be so willing to do this if he had to go from door to door and plead his case every month? Furthermore, to people who know him and see him.
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        • Posted by $ pixelate 6 years, 10 months ago
          My neighbor started on SSDI nine years ago. His prior work was in auto-mechanics for the county. He claimed a bad back -- and it was likely legit (at the time). But over the years, he got better. He can now do everything that any of us can do: shovel the walk, cut the grass, load and unload the car, drive seven hours (each way) with the travel RV, go for long walks with the dog, prepare and harvest the garden. About 10 months ago, I heard some whacking from my window ... I work from home / telecommute. I look out and see him with an overhand axe ... chopping firewood and loading it into a wheelbarrow. He should be working. What I have shared with you is anecdotal ... but perty much everyone that I encounter in Libertarian circles has a similar story -- about A Guy On SSDI that is hiking the PCT, working in construction (no W2), managing a family ranch, etc. It gets worse ... in my case, I also noticed that neighbors due-East of me are both on SSDI. He has a bad back and she has fibromyalgia. He can be seen doing woodworking projects in his backyard, cutting the grass... She has raised beds for gardening. I have photos and movies of these neighbors.

          Even More: a good friend of mine used to work as a PI ... his main income was from investigating Workers Comp Fraud. But that part of the business dried up. The localities and the state send these 'disabled applicants' up the Federal level to get on Fed SSDI. There are now 14 million adults on SSDI with outlays of $200B a year. Just thinking about it burns a hole in my GI tract.

          And yet a part that prevents me from turning my neighbors in for fraud -- they have been good people in many other respects... of course, they are total bleeding heart liberals ... but what they are doing ... collecting the welfare fraud ... they are parasites much in the way that a cancer tumor is just trying to live ... to get by on a little bit of the host's rich red blood supply.

          Yes -- that is why community charities are effective. Keep the "do good work" as local as possible.

          I have not yet addressed the SSDI fraud observation with my neighbors. I need to do that. It has taken this cancer of theirs nine years to get to the point where this guy with the Bad Back has the name Lumberjack Leo ... everytime I see and hear him filling the wheelbarrow with freshly chopped wood. I need to gently approach my truly socialist neighbors with my observation and perspective. Perhaps the simple approach of asking when he is planning to return to work could have some impact.

          Unchecked liberalism is so much like cancer ... all those millions of tumors are "living tissue" that just want a little bit of the body's blood supply.
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          • Posted by CaptainKirk 6 years, 10 months ago
            I just remembered in 1994, I was working 3 jobs (Programming and 2 consulting gigs for extra income),
            and I get on the elevator to go to my SECOND job. A "gentleman" steps on and lazily hits the button for the 5th floor and says "Man, I could use some disability about now!".

            And the FIRST THOUGHT I had was "YOU are so lucky I don't have a baseball bat on me, because I would GLADLY grant your wish!"... It's an eye opener... The Looters are literally getting PhDs in Looting!
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          • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 10 months ago
            Send in an anonymous tip with photo evidence.
            I wonder if anything changes if you do.
            Oh, there will probably be a $10 million government expenditure for investigation, but I wonder if anything will change.
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  • Posted by $ puzzlelady 6 years, 10 months ago
    Superb as always, Robert. The one thing I don't see mentioned in all this is how much of the extorted amounts go to maintain the salaries of the growing number of government workers who carry out all these programs. The bureaucratic vampires. Their numbers keep growing, and so do the policies they impose. We should also consider your scenario of harvesting aging organs: young organs are better, so some segment of the younger population will also have to be declared as harvestable.
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  • Posted by chad 6 years, 10 months ago
    We (individuals) have been state property for longer than I have been alive.
    Although I was very young when I suspected something was immoral with the kind of government morality I was being told was good for me (fourth grade) I seemed to have failed to prepare for this moment in time. Everywhere I put my retirement fund the socialists would discover a way to take it.
    The socialists have succeeded far beyond what I thought they would at this time. The ACA (Obamacare) is structured to take money in and not pay any out. It is not about providing healthcare and was never intended to be such. It derives income from real estate sales (3%), a tax on medical appliances as well as demanding that I pay 10X the premium I used to pay and increased my deductible by 100X. Then if I am an unfit member of society they will harvest what is left of me as I leave this planet!
    We are enslaved beyond the imagination of the slave masters and those who would resist are mostly alone in their thoughts and desires there are too few of us to make a difference.
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  • Posted by Owlsrayne 6 years, 10 months ago
    Interesting essay. I agree, then cringed and chuckled at the end. Unfortunately, I didn't save enough when I was younger, and now having a hard time financially. but, I not going to sell my organs to the state. They wouldn't want my organs.
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