Once upon a time I was in a local city government and had to resign due to overwhelming disgust at the corruption, even at that level. Preferred contracts, state laws mandating inspections of all government building projects, employees with little incentive to be productive, etc. The back-breaking straw was the building of some small, not so great public restrooms in a park with a price tag more than the median house price in the town I live in. Another example: It is state law that pricing is not discussed when choosing a firm to develop a city growth policy and only AFTER they are awarded a contract will pricing be discussed. So stuff like that baked into the lowest level of governance is quite prevalent. (This is Montana btw, not California)
Of course the businesses we have started track the experience you have described. Bootstrapping is difficult and unless you come in with substantial capital, financing is zero in the first couple years. 100% risk on you. All the while if you choose the wrong tax guy and mistakenly fire and forget, he will disregard obvious deductions because of "technicalities" and even more of the capital you don't have, will go to your overlords. He is rewarded with how well you can comply with the "agency". All quite gross and disgusting. It is a cold hard fact that most people are resorting to lives of corporate or state servitude. Either as punch the clock wage slaves or some bureaucratic rent-seeker making sure corporate or agency rules are followed. The entrepreneur has an uphill battle, at least it has certainly felt that way for us.
I don't think all is lost, in fact I do think there is a lot of potential in a strategy of competition, starving leviathan, and education. Homeschoolers are on the rise, which is probably the brightest light of optimism, but also righteous anger from those who can't exercise that option of the inadequacy of education. Add to that crypto-enabled IT kit and a tax law book full of exploitable loopholes (that they made) it should make it harder to track down people not "paying their fair share" or whatever nonsense there is, but also force them to close some of the loopholes that have helped form this joint corporation and state into the corporatocracy dystopia we seem to be inhabiting.
There is that wokism component. I haven't quite got my finger on how to characterize it yet. They seem awfully happy using the corporatocracy power to achieve their objectives at the expense of us plebes. But as the belt tightens and there are less sheep to throw to the wolves, I expect them to eat each other. (In some ways they already are) May we get a good view from the foothills of the carnage they make. Good Luck Comrades!
I wrote about and have been saying that "the worse it gets the better it gets"
I believe this from a spiritual perspective but also from the materialist perspective of evolutionary pressures. Your article framed the banal everyday existence of people in western countries in a totally different way which shows the cruelty and senselessness of government. Most people can't even SEE it the way you wrote, they have blinders on.
But more and more are starting to see it, to cut through the veil and that is exciting. Not only that but I think the "Agency" and its tyrannical insanity is created an environment, an incentive, to create entirely new forms. Some of these forms will be in the entrepreneurial space where there are new and less controlled ways of making money. Hell, this whole podcast/substack/internet writer thing you're doing is a great example. Who would have thought of that 20 years ago?
But in the meantime it is a grim and dim picture. The red tape and BS is astounding, and most of it exists for no other reason than government control.
I have faith though. The new arena of podcasting/writing/alt-intellectuals are gaining momentum. I think its a genuine beginning. I wonder what kind of desperate, violent response will be generated by the Agency in an attempt to stop it?
Once upon a time I was in a local city government and had to resign due to overwhelming disgust at the corruption, even at that level. Preferred contracts, state laws mandating inspections of all government building projects, employees with little incentive to be productive, etc. The back-breaking straw was the building of some small, not so great public restrooms in a park with a price tag more than the median house price in the town I live in. Another example: It is state law that pricing is not discussed when choosing a firm to develop a city growth policy and only AFTER they are awarded a contract will pricing be discussed. So stuff like that baked into the lowest level of governance is quite prevalent. (This is Montana btw, not California)
Of course the businesses we have started track the experience you have described. Bootstrapping is difficult and unless you come in with substantial capital, financing is zero in the first couple years. 100% risk on you. All the while if you choose the wrong tax guy and mistakenly fire and forget, he will disregard obvious deductions because of "technicalities" and even more of the capital you don't have, will go to your overlords. He is rewarded with how well you can comply with the "agency". All quite gross and disgusting. It is a cold hard fact that most people are resorting to lives of corporate or state servitude. Either as punch the clock wage slaves or some bureaucratic rent-seeker making sure corporate or agency rules are followed. The entrepreneur has an uphill battle, at least it has certainly felt that way for us.
I don't think all is lost, in fact I do think there is a lot of potential in a strategy of competition, starving leviathan, and education. Homeschoolers are on the rise, which is probably the brightest light of optimism, but also righteous anger from those who can't exercise that option of the inadequacy of education. Add to that crypto-enabled IT kit and a tax law book full of exploitable loopholes (that they made) it should make it harder to track down people not "paying their fair share" or whatever nonsense there is, but also force them to close some of the loopholes that have helped form this joint corporation and state into the corporatocracy dystopia we seem to be inhabiting.
There is that wokism component. I haven't quite got my finger on how to characterize it yet. They seem awfully happy using the corporatocracy power to achieve their objectives at the expense of us plebes. But as the belt tightens and there are less sheep to throw to the wolves, I expect them to eat each other. (In some ways they already are) May we get a good view from the foothills of the carnage they make. Good Luck Comrades!
I wrote about and have been saying that "the worse it gets the better it gets"
I believe this from a spiritual perspective but also from the materialist perspective of evolutionary pressures. Your article framed the banal everyday existence of people in western countries in a totally different way which shows the cruelty and senselessness of government. Most people can't even SEE it the way you wrote, they have blinders on.
But more and more are starting to see it, to cut through the veil and that is exciting. Not only that but I think the "Agency" and its tyrannical insanity is created an environment, an incentive, to create entirely new forms. Some of these forms will be in the entrepreneurial space where there are new and less controlled ways of making money. Hell, this whole podcast/substack/internet writer thing you're doing is a great example. Who would have thought of that 20 years ago?
But in the meantime it is a grim and dim picture. The red tape and BS is astounding, and most of it exists for no other reason than government control.
I have faith though. The new arena of podcasting/writing/alt-intellectuals are gaining momentum. I think its a genuine beginning. I wonder what kind of desperate, violent response will be generated by the Agency in an attempt to stop it?
Cheers!