I agree completely. That's how I got here from being a gun control advocate.

Definitely not a good time to be getting into mining. The whole ASIC vaporware debacle is just adding too much FUD into the mix.

As someone above said, if you want to buy a decent video card and do some mining on the side, that's about the only scenario worth doing. Though with the change in the difficulty rate, even that's only marginal and probably provisional on electricity costs and the offset of waste heat savings on heating your house. With that said, mining itself is somewhat educational WRT Bitcoin so carries some value in and of itself just for that.

On the other hand, it's my belief that Bitcoin is going to see some steady increase over the next 12 months. So that is where I have put a small amount of money. There may be better opportunities for you so that's something you have to decide for yourself. Though personally, I consider the fiat economy something of a joke for the foreseeable future so decide carefully.

You don't need to be licensed to go deep sea diving.

You'd be stupid to go without training and the people who do the boats and equipment will (probably) not rent to you without being certified but there's nothing legally stopping you.

The fine state of Tennessee, however, requires a person to go through training and certification for the "privilege' of bearing arms in public. Is that good enough for you?

+1. And particularly in reference to the moral duty of self defense, I would say that I have a moral duty to do what I can to return home at night and keep providing for my family. I guess a single guy with no family has no moral reason not to stand there and be beaten out of this world with an iron pole.

And if you're a company with cash reserves, the government's stealing those too. So the only sensible thing to do is leverage what you have and go into debt as much as possible. Which is great until you hit a hiccup then your suppliers aren't getting paid and that means they're having hiccups too and they're probably leveraged out the wazoo too.

Then there's the whole tax situation which means that it's better for companies to reinvest in themselves in an attempt to raise stock prices rather than pay dividends. That makes it hard to judge the value of a stock and means that the only reason to buy a stock is to hope to pass it off to the next sucker at a higher price, prime fertilizer for a bubble.

Basically, if you're invested in fiat, you're being robbed blind. Best thing to do is dump it as fast as you can and try and avoid the bubbles.

Indeed. All capitalism really is is the ability to retain the excess value created from trade. Banks, loans and all the other financial stuff arises from that but corporations are a government created fiction. It can be called more properly corporatism though it might legitimately be called fascism if that term hadn't completely been distorted in it's usage (by the left, no surprise).

So you're aiming for some kind of robust commune type arrangement?

I definitely agree there's more to life than 'It's the economy, stupid". Specialization has allowed some magnificent things to be accomplished but you are correct in that it's a very fragile system. I've been considering myself ways to mitigate the risk. We are on a very high plateau with a long way to fall. Even without going all the way to a system such as you advocate, there are definitely things that could and should be done to cushion any drastic change in the global economic environment. I try to be a generalist somewhat myself. Who knows what skills might be needed? If all you know is how to rubber-stamp forms in government office, you might be setting yourself up for trouble.

As Heinlein said: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.” I'm a few short on that but I do what I can.

I've never had to use my home insurance either. Perhaps I should cancel it.

It does have a bit of a shady history. And then you have left-anarchists and right-anarchists

I think you are seeing things slightly from the wrong perspective. It's not that gun owners are "scared" of being attacked by citizens or government. These things do happen, even in countries with near absolute gun control such as the UK. My perspective is that gun owners are not afraid of guns. They see them as tools that perform a function. Owning guns is therefore simply a freedom whose abridgement should be opposed as that of any other freedom.

I speak as an emigrant from the UK and former gun control advocate. Shortly after moving to the US, events happened in my life (unrelated to guns or violence) that opened my eyes to the fact that bad things happen to good people. Sometime after, analysis of my situation suggested that owning some kind of firearm might be a good idea (where we lived was a prime spot for people dumping their unwanted dogs). When I got it home, I was somewhat nervous. I had handled a rifle before in the ATC but here was one of those evil handguns in my possession. Within seconds of picking it up, it was clear that it was just metal and plastic, incapable of harming anyone by itself nor inducing some primal urge to kill. Just a thing. Kind-of boring in-and-of itself. I've never had to use it but it's fun to shoot holes in paper and there have been times I've been glad to have it around.

Accepting credit cards is trivial. Square and Paypal in particular make it very easy and will even provide free dongles for your smartphone.

Some are:

http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/jun/12/memeto1-teacher-sets-sights-on-olympic-medal-ar-414880/

The difference is that many teachers are not physically equipped to be able to fight well. Women in particular typically have much reduced upper-body strength compared to men (despite Hollywood's depictions to the contrary). Shooting, however, is a skill which can be rather quickly brought up to an acceptable level by all but the inept (And I don't think there are many who wouldn't accept a requirement for teachers to have to qualify).

So you guys don't wear seatbelts and remove the spare tires from your cars?

And insurance, that's just gambling, right?

Please consider starting a thread about it. I'm somewhat cynical but always interested in new ideas.

For educated, read indoctrinated. It doesn't have to be that way and I am a big fan of true education but in the hands of the state, it has been subverted for unfortunate ends.

The reason for the existence of government is that some people want to tell others what to do and profit off the fruit of their labor. Anything else is post-hoc rationalization. This is why some of the founding fathers attempted to defang the government as much as possible and why they had so much trouble doing so.

If it is a silver wire, maybe.

World did not end so all those who bought silver for trade in a post-end-of-world scenario (yes, I know) are selling.

And don't forget, besides the obvious and egregious examples of the Nazis and Soviets, the relatively open and free governments of the West have quite an astoundingly large amount of blood on their hands.

How many examples do I have to provide you otherwise before you'll retract that assertion?