From: fedora@fea.st
On Tue, 27 Jan 2026 11:14:33 -0800, Dude wrote:
>On 1/26/2026 3:18 PM, Noah Sombrero wrote:
>> On Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:03:34 -0800, Dude wrote:
>>
>>> On 1/26/2026 12:52 PM, Noah Sombrero wrote:
>>>> 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-wit
out-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.
>>>>
>>> So, I'm not sure you've though this through. Every worker should get
>>> paid a fair wage for their labor, so they can go to the market.
>>>
>>> Otherwise, where is the incentive?
>>
>> Ask 3rd world workers who still get 50 cents a day.
>>
>Let''s not be hypocritical. Canada is an imperialist country – a highly
>developed monopoly capitalist state.
From your vast knowledge. Where is the incentive? The incentive is
to live as best you can as any creature knows.
>
>>>> Some of us have other understandings. from a historical perspective
>>>> for instance, of how to accomplish prosperity.
>>>>
>>> Sorry, Pal. You came to the wrong place.
>>
>> Precisely the right place. There is no sense in my telling people who
>> agree with me what I think.
>>
>Let's just be clear: Canadian and US civil society has generally coupled
>the economic system of capitalism with the moral system of
>Judeo-Christian beliefs.
> >
>
>>> We Americans believe everyone is equal under the law and free to prosper
>>> in a free market based on the law of supply and demand. We're not big on
>>> State supported slave and forced labor camps.
>>
>> But wage slavery? Ubetcha.
>>
>It might be better not to mention slavery in this context, since the
>free market brought the slaves out of slavery. Have you hear
>d of the Reconstruction Era after the civil war?
>
>"Radical Republicans" in Congress took control, passing the
>Reconstruction Acts of 1867.
> >
>
>>>>> 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
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