4 ms·

> In America you can pick and choose your favorite government Sorry, that is not true. You get the government that 50% + 1 vote wants, and you get absolutely n

> In America you can pick and choose your favorite government Sorry, that is not true. You get the government that 50% + 1 vote wants, and you get absolutely no choice about whether you deal with it, which sucks if you're a member of the 50% - 1 vote group. If I refuse to deal with Amazon, or Apple, or McDonalds, nothing happens (except I don't get to eat Big Macs). If I refuse to deal with my government, they will send people with guns to put me in jail. The situations aren't even remotely comparable.

anonymouskimmer 4y ago
> "You get the government that 50% + 1 vote wants" If you're lucky you get that. Usually you get what a majority of voters in a majority of districts want, which may very well be a superminority of total voters. > "If I refuse to deal with my government, they will send people with guns to put me in jail." If you fully drop out and become a wandering homeless person inside of a very, very large forest you can probably avoid dealing with the government. If they send people with guns after you you obviously aren't trying hard enough.
- Turing_Machine 4y ago
  > If you fully drop out and become a wandering homeless person inside of a very, very large forest you can probably avoid dealing with the government. Until some ranger in a plane sees the smoke from your campfire and lands to give you a whopping fine. But that's not actually the point. Once again, if I want to stop dealing with McDonald's I can just do it, with next to zero effect on the rest of my life. Are you really suggesting that abandoning your entire life to live in the wilderness is somehow just as easy?
  - anonymouskimmer 4y ago
    No, it's not easy. But for the large companies it's not easy to stop dealing with them either. Unless you're in IT or programming it's basically impossible to boycott both Microsoft and Apple if you happen to have problems with both of them. Even if you're running Linux or BSD in your personal life you have to deal with one or the other at work. Good luck boycotting your local grocery store, especially if restrictive covenants or local monopolies mean the alternatives are non-existent or owned by the same parent corporation. When it comes to the government, as long as you avoid annoying your neighbors, obey traffic laws, and pay taxes, you can spend huge stretches of your life not interacting with it. Heck, if you're a W-2 employee and your workplace takes out enough money from your paycheck you can skip even filing taxes. No one will come after you. In the US governments pretty much leave you alone as long as you obey a minimal set of rules and don't cause problems with your neighbors. > "If I refuse to deal with my government, they will send people with guns to put me in jail." Yes, in some cases sure. But no, typically they won't. Because typically they have no reason to deal with you. Just like in some cases citizens will get significantly hassled by private companies. Today those private companies typically use the government (through lawsuits and the like) to hassle citizens, but it's the private company that's the initiator. And if you refuse to deal with them they'll mess with your life in ways more Kafkaesque than simply sending people with guns to put you in jail.

anonymouskimmer 4y ago

> "You get the government that 50% + 1 vote wants" If you're lucky you get that. Usually you get what a majority of voters in a majority of districts want, which may very well be a superminority of total voters. > "If I refuse to deal with my government, they will send people with guns to put me in jail." If you fully drop out and become a wandering homeless person inside of a very, very large forest you can probably avoid dealing with the government. If they send people with guns after you you obviously aren't trying hard enough.

Turing_Machine 4y ago
> If you fully drop out and become a wandering homeless person inside of a very, very large forest you can probably avoid dealing with the government. Until some ranger in a plane sees the smoke from your campfire and lands to give you a whopping fine. But that's not actually the point. Once again, if I want to stop dealing with McDonald's I can just do it, with next to zero effect on the rest of my life. Are you really suggesting that abandoning your entire life to live in the wilderness is somehow just as easy?
- anonymouskimmer 4y ago
  No, it's not easy. But for the large companies it's not easy to stop dealing with them either. Unless you're in IT or programming it's basically impossible to boycott both Microsoft and Apple if you happen to have problems with both of them. Even if you're running Linux or BSD in your personal life you have to deal with one or the other at work. Good luck boycotting your local grocery store, especially if restrictive covenants or local monopolies mean the alternatives are non-existent or owned by the same parent corporation. When it comes to the government, as long as you avoid annoying your neighbors, obey traffic laws, and pay taxes, you can spend huge stretches of your life not interacting with it. Heck, if you're a W-2 employee and your workplace takes out enough money from your paycheck you can skip even filing taxes. No one will come after you. In the US governments pretty much leave you alone as long as you obey a minimal set of rules and don't cause problems with your neighbors. > "If I refuse to deal with my government, they will send people with guns to put me in jail." Yes, in some cases sure. But no, typically they won't. Because typically they have no reason to deal with you. Just like in some cases citizens will get significantly hassled by private companies. Today those private companies typically use the government (through lawsuits and the like) to hassle citizens, but it's the private company that's the initiator. And if you refuse to deal with them they'll mess with your life in ways more Kafkaesque than simply sending people with guns to put you in jail.