From: fedora@fea.st   
      
   On Mon, 26 Jan 2026 10:00:09 -0800, Dude  wrote:   
      
   >On 1/25/2026 4:09 PM, Julian wrote:   
   >> Learning to live with the new tariff reality 250 years after Adam Smith   
   >> put the idea of them to bed   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Two hundred and fifty years ago marks the beginning of what I’m terming   
   >> the Great Revolutionary Era starting in 1776 and continuing until at   
   >> least today and probably ending when we reach AGI and certain powers   
   >> fall out of human reach.   
   >>   
   >> In that year two documents emerged that would shape the modern world. In   
   >> March, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. In July, American   
   >> colonists declared independence. Both were responses to the same   
   >> question: who has the right to take your money, and on what terms?   
   >>   
   >> The colonists’ answer was simple: no taxation without representation. If   
   >> you’re going to reach into our pockets, we get a vote on the matter.   
   >> This wasn’t mere rhetoric—it was philosophy hardened into revolution.   
   >> James Otis Jr., a Massachusetts lawyer, wrote in 1764 that “the very act   
   >> of taxing, exercised over those who are not represented, appears to me   
   >> to be depriving them of one of their most essential rights, as freemen.”   
   >> By 1765, at the Stamp Act Congress, he had sharpened it to a slogan:   
   >> “taxation without representation is tyranny.” If you want to understand   
   >> what led to a lot of this in acute crisis, you need to understand   
   >> banking regulations actually (everything is debts, all the way down),   
   >> Tyler Goodspeed’s book on Legislating Instability is an essential read   
   >> for this anniversary year. Yes it costs a fortune, that’s because it’s   
   >> actually good. He was chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under   
   >> Trump term 1, and is a Senior fellow of the Adam Smith Institute. He   
   >> knows his stuff.   
   >>   
   >> Anyways, let’s go now to Donald Trump’s tariffs in term two, and a   
   >> delicious irony that nobody seems to have noticed...   
   >>   
   >> https://mattkilcoyne.substack.com/p/yes-to-taxation-without-representation   
   > >   
   >Finally, something interesting to talk about: The economy and taxes.   
   >   
   >For the record, I have not read the entire five volumes of Adam Smith's   
   >Wealth of Nations. That being said, he was definitely mentioned and   
   >discussed in my junior college class in Business 101.   
   >   
   >So, I can't remember Smith's exact words, but in a nutshell:   
   >   
   >"Gov out biz in free mart u prosper."   
   >   
   >Keep the government out of people's business and let the free market   
   >operate for the prosperity of the people and for the moral self-interest   
   >it's all good.   
   >   
   >The main idea of the book is to promoted individual  as a driver of   
   >prosperity.   
      
   Tried that 125 years ago.  It got workers 3rd world wages and   
   poisonous products.  The labor unrest took 30 years to finally   
   resolve, so labor leaders no longer got hanged or shot, and decent   
   wages could be had.  And to get it so that slop off the slaughter   
   house floor could not legally be packaged up and sold, among other   
   things.   
      
   That is where smitty's ideas lead.   
   --   
   Noah Sombrero mustachioed villain   
   Don't get political with me young man   
   or I'll tie you to a railroad track and   
   <<>> to <<>>   
   Who dares to talk to El Sombrero?   
   dares: Ned   
   does not dare: Julian  shrinks in horror and warns others away   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)