From: fedora@fea.st   
      
   On Mon, 26 Jan 2026 12:35:11 -0800, Dude  wrote:   
      
   >On 1/26/2026 10:20 AM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >> 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.   
   > >   
   >So, I'm not sure you didn't make some of that up   
      
   It is history.  I suggest you learn some at you local university.   
      
   >, but maybe you've not   
   >thought this through. Everyone wants to be free and prosper and go to   
   >the market - that's a given.   
      
   Absolutely not a given.  Some of us have other priorities.  People who   
   judge others by themselves would not know that.   
      
   Some of us have other understandings. from a historical perspective   
   for instance, of how to accomplish prosperity.   
      
   >The question is, which is better for prosperity? Free enterprise with   
   >individual self interest, or the State.   
   >   
   >The US does not have a purely free market economy - it is a mixed   
   >economy: government and free enterprise. You might be thinking of a   
   >Royal Kingdom.   
   >   
   >You already know all this from junior college. History proves that   
   >everyone being equally poor does not work.   
   >   
   >The key word is PROSPER   
   >   
   >"Go forth and multiply and be fruitful." - God, Genesis (1:28)   
   >   
   >Context: God gave this directive to the first humans, Adam and Eve, as   
   >part of their blessing and mandate to have dominion over the Earth.   
   >   
   >Note: As a blessing and command for humanity to populate the Earth, and   
   >was repeated to Noah and his sons after the flood to repopulate the world.   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   --   
   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)