For me shopping starts at Amazon.I don’t always end up there but if nothing else I can read product reviews and get an idea of how others rate the particular item I’m after.
I love Amazon’s return policy. — don’t like it, no problem: ship it back at no charge.With a policy like that I’m willing to take a chance on items that don’t sell me on the reviews.I’m also fond of their Prime membership.Free shipping right to my front door in many cases.
Online shopping has thus become almost painless. Weak-willed individuals might view that as a drawback; I don’t.
“There’s always a better way of doing things,” a senior programmer told me long ago. Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen found a way, and he continues to improve on it at a breathtaking pace.
Unfortunately, American voters won’t be dealing with Amazon or any other online retailer when choosing the next president. They’ll be dealing with a social organization that serves the interests of the few at their expense, but which is widely perceived as the other way around. In casting their vote for president Americans believe they’re voting for the highest “public servant.”
Although presidential candidates are being heavily marketed in the sense of supporters persuading Americans to vote for them, the similarity between markets and politics ends there.
For one thing, even if you choose not to vote, you’re still going to end up with a president others have chosen for you. Today, October 18, 2016, there’s an item on Amazon called THE OLD DARK HOUSE 1932 BORIS KARLOFF 27 x 41 ONE SHEET UNIVERSAL HORROR!! It’s listed for $750,000, free shipping included. I have no plans to buy this. There might be people who would but I don’t know any. Even on our highly regulated “free market” I’m free to ignore it, as is everyone else.
Sometime this November there will be a president I didn’t choose ruling over me. An expensive president, a president with the power to return the planet to the insects. But I will not have any unwanted posters in my house.
Then there are the candidate reviews. Few ordinary Americans have any contact with the candidates, so they rely on hearsay, talk shows, speeches, social media websites, and other sources. Wikileaks is trying to hold up a big mirror to Clinton corruption. But will it matter? If Hillary were to admit to wrongdoing, would her supporters turn to another candidate? Not in year 2016. Bailing out on Hillary strengthens Trump, and Trump — well! Everything is on the table for stopping Trump. Even if she did confess it would only reinforce the position of her hard-core. They remind me of certain friends of the Reverend Dimmesdale in Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter who regarded him with saint-like admiration and thus interpreted his confession not as guilt but as further proof of his moral purity — for showing the world “how utterly nugatory is the choicest of man’s own righteousness.” To her worshippers Hillary can do no wrong, either.
Even conceding for a moment that having a president is a good idea, neither major party candidate promises to support the values of liberty — peace, prosperity, and sound money. They wouldn’t have made it this far if they had. The empire’s unofficial banner is and has been perpetual war, taxes, and inflation. But that’s a banner only waved by the empire’s critics. Our friends in the mainstream media apparently see our best interests lie in uncritical obedience to the regime.
People have opposed war, taxes, and inflation throughout history. Americans were no different and took pains to avoid it. The pains weren’t good enough. Beginning with Woodrow Wilson they voted for someone who promised peace, but took them to war. If Amazon worked that way you’d order a toaster and get a ticking bomb. If you were quick enough you could send it back. Americans couldn’t return Wilson, so they were forced to put up with war, higher taxes, and inflation as they watched their treasured republic highjacked by men making lofty promises.
Amazon represents the trader’s world, where people exchange value for value. It’s a win - win. Politics is the world of parasite - producer, where the parasites rule and are called leaders. Or lobbyists. Or the Deep State. They don’t trade, they steal, and their theft receives the moral blessing of government schooling and government-influenced media. Amazon? They’re in it to make a buck. The state? They’re so dedicated to our interests the sky’s the limit on the debt they rack up.
The real rulers rule from the shadows. The public doesn’t know about the Council on Foreign Relations, the federal reserve, or what the various intelligence agencies do. They’re not sure how the Pentagon works. They’re aware of some of the many bureaucracies but are befuddled about how they fit in the overall government structure. It’s all so big and confusing. They believe all this power is somehow necessary and good. They believe a president can somehow corral it and put it to work for our benefit.
Is the public destined for extinction?
No. But not because they will trouble themselves to question and research the government we have. They were fed the standard history growing up and will stick with it.
The standard history will end when the empire eats itself into bankruptcy. When there is no more money to hand out.
That’s when the public will realize the cost of a free lunch.
