3 ms·

If you are working to build a company in the US, you are building on top of MANY layers of the US infrastructure. Security, transportation, lights, banks, credi

by pekk 14y ago

If you are working to build a company in the US, you are building on top of MANY layers of the US infrastructure. Security, transportation, lights, banks, credit are all things in which the American public is invested, in the public interest. And any company of size depends on individuals besides the founder to do its work. It is not accurate to pretend that you are 100%, solely responsible for your own success, without any other contributing factors. And it is not right to decline any social responsibility in the society which has enabled your successes. Doesn't mean you were guaranteed success. Doesn't mean you didn't have to pay bills or take risks. Doesn't mean you did nothing. Does mean you are not a heroic John Galt pulling himself up by the bootstraps in spite of the rest of society being parasitic. It was your choice to start a business, don't complain at other people if they have not taken the same risk. They also don't have the business.

3pt14159 14y ago
Just because I was born in a public hospital doesn't mean perpetual claim on life. The government may force lower-than-market acquisitions for land in order to provide more prevalent transportation infrastructure, but that doesn't make it right. Other, freer options could have existed, but violence of the state impede their spread. I never signed the social contract; and food to slave does not entitle ownership. My use of the roads, or benefit derived from them, is defensible. Else I ask; in what manner may I make myself free? Is there a way out of the perpetual claim against my livelihood? Further, if social responsibility is so great for my common man, what right do you have to demand my efforts go towards local healthcare when others a bit further away starve? What makes a fellow countryman more due for grain than a differing skinned man in a land far away? Is it not indefensible to claim ownership of my resources for your health, but hold firm against the claims by others against claims of ownership against your wealth for nourishment.
- rosser 14y ago
  Is there a way out of the perpetual claim against my livelihood? Yes. Leave. Every minute you spend still here, you're re-signing the social contract. If you don't want to support the upkeep for the society you've chosen to participate in, and continue to choose to participate in with every action that isn't making for the door, then don't participate. You don't get to reap the benefits of living in a society without sharing some of the weight of keeping it running. You're free to disagree with how it's kept running. I certainly do. You're even free to take action (within the limits of the laws of the society you're part of) to change how it's kept running if you disagree strongly enough, and can present a better alternative. But to begrudge the fact that you ante up some of your livelihood in order to make sure that the laws and services and such that protect and support your continued participation in society, which includes earning that livelihood, while continuing to participate, is selfish beyond reason.
  - 3pt14159 14y ago
    I'm not selfish, I want to be free. I'm not against working and helping the needy, those born mentally handicapped to the poor, for example; what I'm against is what I consider to be the false: Benefit begets claim. I am happy to help the poor, and I do help them beyond the actions of the state. The collective and violent claims by others stop my ability to leave since all habitable land is claimed. Furthermore, maybe I want to live in a collective much like Canada, but since not enough others hold the basic views that I hold, there is not yet a stateless society with voluntary order, including lifelong agreements to pay a portion of gross personal revenue to the collective.
    - smcl 14y ago
      > The collective and violent claims by others stop my ability to leave since all habitable land is claimed Not true, Bir Tawil [1] is an 800 sq mile territory unclaimed by both of the countries which surround it - Egypt and Sudan. However I'm sure that after a short while there the infrastructure, public works, etc referenced by one of the parent posters will be sorely missed. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil
robomartin 14y ago
Again, the only people who say these kinds of things and truly believe them are those who've never started something on their own and made it successful. How could you possibly understand if you lack the context? > It is not accurate to pretend that you are 100%, solely responsible for your own success, without any other contributing factors. I don't know of any entrepreneur who thinks this way. Not one. Your success as an entrepreneur depends on a myriad of factors external to you. The roads? The power grid? Transportation? Banks? Please. Stop it. It hurts. How about we all stop and thank Spain then? Without the Crown investing in expeditions that led to the discovery of the American Continent you wouldn't be enjoying that cup of Starbucks Coffee. Oh, yes, let's also thank our governments for starting wars. Without WW1 and WW2 you might not have penicillin, radios, planes, cars and a bunch of other things you enjoy today. They were brilliant! Too bad they had to kill a hundred million people in the process. Crazy, right? Right. My advise to anyone buying into this kind of thinking is simple: Go start a business. Learn what it takes to actually earn your keep from scratch and even create jobs and be responsible for the livelihood and well-being of families besides your own. Succeed. Fail. Learn. Rise-up and succeed again. Then come back and see what you think of these ideas. I'll bet you a donut you will not think very highly of them. That's the power of reality.

by pekk 14y ago

3pt14159 14y ago

Just because I was born in a public hospital doesn't mean perpetual claim on life. The government may force lower-than-market acquisitions for land in order to provide more prevalent transportation infrastructure, but that doesn't make it right. Other, freer options could have existed, but violence of the state impede their spread. I never signed the social contract; and food to slave does not entitle ownership. My use of the roads, or benefit derived from them, is defensible. Else I ask; in what manner may I make myself free? Is there a way out of the perpetual claim against my livelihood? Further, if social responsibility is so great for my common man, what right do you have to demand my efforts go towards local healthcare when others a bit further away starve? What makes a fellow countryman more due for grain than a differing skinned man in a land far away? Is it not indefensible to claim ownership of my resources for your health, but hold firm against the claims by others against claims of ownership against your wealth for nourishment.

rosser 14y ago
Is there a way out of the perpetual claim against my livelihood? Yes. Leave. Every minute you spend still here, you're re-signing the social contract. If you don't want to support the upkeep for the society you've chosen to participate in, and continue to choose to participate in with every action that isn't making for the door, then don't participate. You don't get to reap the benefits of living in a society without sharing some of the weight of keeping it running. You're free to disagree with how it's kept running. I certainly do. You're even free to take action (within the limits of the laws of the society you're part of) to change how it's kept running if you disagree strongly enough, and can present a better alternative. But to begrudge the fact that you ante up some of your livelihood in order to make sure that the laws and services and such that protect and support your continued participation in society, which includes earning that livelihood, while continuing to participate, is selfish beyond reason.
- 3pt14159 14y ago
  I'm not selfish, I want to be free. I'm not against working and helping the needy, those born mentally handicapped to the poor, for example; what I'm against is what I consider to be the false: Benefit begets claim. I am happy to help the poor, and I do help them beyond the actions of the state. The collective and violent claims by others stop my ability to leave since all habitable land is claimed. Furthermore, maybe I want to live in a collective much like Canada, but since not enough others hold the basic views that I hold, there is not yet a stateless society with voluntary order, including lifelong agreements to pay a portion of gross personal revenue to the collective.
  - smcl 14y ago
    > The collective and violent claims by others stop my ability to leave since all habitable land is claimed Not true, Bir Tawil [1] is an 800 sq mile territory unclaimed by both of the countries which surround it - Egypt and Sudan. However I'm sure that after a short while there the infrastructure, public works, etc referenced by one of the parent posters will be sorely missed. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil

robomartin 14y ago

Again, the only people who say these kinds of things and truly believe them are those who've never started something on their own and made it successful. How could you possibly understand if you lack the context? > It is not accurate to pretend that you are 100%, solely responsible for your own success, without any other contributing factors. I don't know of any entrepreneur who thinks this way. Not one. Your success as an entrepreneur depends on a myriad of factors external to you. The roads? The power grid? Transportation? Banks? Please. Stop it. It hurts. How about we all stop and thank Spain then? Without the Crown investing in expeditions that led to the discovery of the American Continent you wouldn't be enjoying that cup of Starbucks Coffee. Oh, yes, let's also thank our governments for starting wars. Without WW1 and WW2 you might not have penicillin, radios, planes, cars and a bunch of other things you enjoy today. They were brilliant! Too bad they had to kill a hundred million people in the process. Crazy, right? Right. My advise to anyone buying into this kind of thinking is simple: Go start a business. Learn what it takes to actually earn your keep from scratch and even create jobs and be responsible for the livelihood and well-being of families besides your own. Succeed. Fail. Learn. Rise-up and succeed again. Then come back and see what you think of these ideas. I'll bet you a donut you will not think very highly of them. That's the power of reality.