Every society has to spend on its defense, else it will be subsumed into a more aggressive society that will then spend on its war efforts.
Just by breathing, you agree to be ruled by the society whose square mileage your feet are standing on. If you cannot abide that society, it falls to you to use your feet to exit that society and seek a new one.
We’ve created a monster. Governments proliferate. Just like government agencies and departments. The problems are many but I’ll try to list a few:
Its all going to be ok. Obama is going to raise OUR taxes and pay off the national debt.
What if we identified all the wasteful spending we do (I mean like if we were really poor or broke, oh yeah, that’s right, we are). For example if I want to take my wife and kids to a Cowboys game and sit in good seats and I don’t have any freebies (which there must be a lot of tickets bought and given away or passed around because I just can’t imagine people doing this)… this what? Oh yeah… maybe it would cost about $5000 for the four of us… stupid… (I’ve checked with various ticket agencies)
I agree with you 100% (not just because you mentioned the Cowboys)
Think of the implications of Texas seceding, the Cowboys would no longer be "America’s Team ". Or perhaps the notion of seceding means they already are not that anyway.
If my fellow MIssourians were inclined to leave, I think it might come with a healthy dose of “leave us in peace.” Amicable agreements among states may be very possible; agreements pertaining to free travel, free trade and dispute resolution.
Good luck, mon ami.
But then I would divest myself of all of the benefits of modern economies. Indirect exchange and the division of labor are great. It’s the problems of government manipulation of modern economies that I object to. Individual secession seems like a horrible choice.
The government is not society.
I want to be able to choose to decide how much to spend on defense. I don’t want to be forced to spend amounts determined by people I have no relation to.
The US had revolutionary mobs before SS?
But where does it say that we must be ruled by governments?
Then how will companies raise capital and what would prevent the state bank from inflating and financing deficit spending by the states?
In effect, they are the same. Societies form governments to maintain a base level of stability.
Any modern society will have that. The only alternative is a tribe so small as to have direct democracy. And such would be at once subsumed into a larger system.
Sure, in 1775 (but that was not poverty driven).The US had revolutionary mobs before SS?
What we know as government is just the current phase of human cultural development. We are in essence stuck with it.
That’s not true at all. Anthropologists have thoroughly debunked any idea that governments are formed through some sort of social contract. In fact, the real basis of governments are marauding gangs of thugs going by robbing the people. They eventually came up with taxation and defense to perpetuate the system.
I find the government making law many things that are abhorrent, such as fractional reserve banking, abortion, taxation, etc.
Why can’t we choose our governments? Why does government in essence own our property?
One could argue that those revolts were due to corruption of governments and not poverty. Besides, SS was instituted as an income tax, for proof, see how well funded the system is.
Modern nation states have became far more authoritarian. This trend needs to be reversed and we should go back to subsidiarity.