A guest post from “Duct Tape” today

I am wrapping up vacation and a dear friend offered to write a guest post for today! Below is the thoughts and words of reader and frequent commenter “Duct Tape”. His words are important, as they closely describe how to force compliance upon us. When someone else controls our needs, we are in big trouble.

“As long as I have been aware and paying attention, I have heard people speak authoritatively about making sure everyone’s needs are met. Usually somewhere in their diatribe they denigrate and disparage anyone who had more than they need.

Popular culture reenforces this theme. Mick Jagger sang the heartfelt line: You can’t always get what you want … But if you try sometime you'll find, You get what you need. Marx wrote: From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs. Pink Floyd gave it all away in the song The Gunner’s Dream: A place to stay, enough to eat. That’s it. That’s the best you can hope for in a progressive world. The song goes on, but you can tell that they don’t mean most of the stuff listed beyond that. What is the difference between need and want?

Needs are always determined by someone else. When someone gets what they need, they are getting the bare minimum. If this is food, 800 calories per day if the regime is particularly generous. Who decides what enough to eat means? You never get to define what you need.What you do get is always determined by someone else. Their agenda does not prioritize your happiness. It prioritizes their happiness. If you don’t believe me, just research the economic situation at the micro level for any Communist/Socialist country. North Korea stands out. The people are fed what they need. Two small bowls of rice with sawdust mixed in per day for most laborers. Severe punishment exists for anyone who dares to improve their caloric intake. Do you suppose they long for more out of life?

Want comes from the individual. We all know what we want for lunch. Cheeseburger, lobster thermidor, PB&J sandwich. It is what we want.We know that if we can’t afford what we want, we can adjust our economic situation to allow us to indulge our more extravagant wants. A free people have the right to profit from their own labors and to bear the consequences of their failures.

A free market caters to the wants of people. In a free market, the only way to make money is to make other people happy. If your product fails to satisfy the customer they are free to go elsewhere to satisfy their desire. This isn’t so under dictatorship/feudalism, mercantilism, socialism, communism, or the current US model, cronyism. In all those economic systems, the welfare of the customer is at the bottom of the list if it is even considered at all. They are all based on need. Only capitalism puts a priority on serving others. So why is it considered evil that someone can work harder, improve their skill set, or invest to improve their lot in life? Why is capitalism painted as such a dark force?

The answer is that it is very difficult to control people who have taken the reigns of their own destinies. On the other hand, starving people are easy to control. Those who feel they have some say in the way their life is lived are not. Whenever you hear a politician talk about needs, they are saying they want the power to slowly starve you death. For many, the use of force is preferable to making others happy. (These are VERY damaged human beings) Beware of anyone who promises to meet your needs. Face it, no one cares more about your interests than you.”