what is your political preference?

[bryant.coleman]

don't get your hopes up. rand paul will be president but he will be just as corrupt as the rest of them. this is not just corollary either, its causal, the reason why he will become president when his father never could is precisely because he will be corrupt when his father would not have been.

I am not saying that he is perfect. But he is much better than the other available choices (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Huckabee, Bush.etc). Also, he is quiet supportive of the Bitcoin:

Rand Paul Has An Idea For Improving Bitcoin

http://www.businessinsider.in/Rand-Paul-Has-An-Idea-For-Improving-Bitcoin/articleshow/34489641.cms

I was looking more at it until that recent thing [sic]. And actually my theory, if I were setting it up, I'd make it exchangeable for stock. And then it'd have real value. And I'd have it pegged, and I'd have a basket of 10 big retailers... I think it would work, but I think, because I'm sort of a believer in currency having value, if you're going to create a currency, have it backed up by -- you know, Hayek used to talk about a basket of commodities? You could have a basket of stocks, and have some exchangeability, because it's hard for people like me who are a bit tangible. But you could have an average of stocks, I'm wondering if that's the next permutation."

[practicaldreamer]

Help me here. Let's say I'd like to live in a society that can be best described as communist. However, I require all my adult comrads to be there of their free will, absolutely without State coercion of any kind. Does this make me a communist or an anarchist?

Hello - my name is Practical Dreamer.

BTW - when you say "of their free will", what exactly do you mean ?

[crocko]

What means "Libertarian" ?
Honestly I don't know.

[Nik1ab]

What means "Libertarian" ?
Honestly I don't know.

Why don't you look it up on Wikipedia?

[thehun]

Help me here. Let's say I'd like to live in a society that can be best described as communist. However, I require all my adult comrads to be there of their free will, absolutely without State coercion of any kind. Does this make me a communist or an anarchist?

Hello - my name is Practical Dreamer.

BTW - when you say "of their free will", what exactly do you mean ?

I guess he means that people would be allowed to leave at any time without iron curtains impeding their escape.

BTW, those places already exist on a smaller scale. There are kibbutz in Israel, the village of Marinaleda in Spain, several self-sufficient hippy communities around the world...

[Anon136]

don't get your hopes up. rand paul will be president but he will be just as corrupt as the rest of them. this is not just corollary either, its causal, the reason why he will become president when his father never could is precisely because he will be corrupt when his father would not have been.

I am not saying that he is perfect. But he is much better than the other available choices (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Huckabee, Bush.etc). Also, he is quiet supportive of the Bitcoin:

Rand Paul Has An Idea For Improving Bitcoin

http://www.businessinsider.in/Rand-Paul-Has-An-Idea-For-Improving-Bitcoin/articleshow/34489641.cms

I was looking more at it until that recent thing [sic]. And actually my theory, if I were setting it up, I'd make it exchangeable for stock. And then it'd have real value. And I'd have it pegged, and I'd have a basket of 10 big retailers... I think it would work, but I think, because I'm sort of a believer in currency having value, if you're going to create a currency, have it backed up by -- you know, Hayek used to talk about a basket of commodities? You could have a basket of stocks, and have some exchangeability, because it's hard for people like me who are a bit tangible. But you could have an average of stocks, I'm wondering if that's the next permutation."

yea if he even gets 1 single issue right he will be better than the rest

[maurya78]

I am a liberal, fiscal conservative with somewhat libertarian instincts

[Mike Christ]

I'm a hardcore statist.  Answer me this, """libertarians""": who will build the roads?

Statists: 1
Libertarians: 0

[bryant.coleman]

I'm a hardcore libertarian.  Answer me this, """statists""": Who will invade neighboring countries to capture their resources?

Statists: 1
Libertarians: 0

[Nik1ab]

I'm a hardcore statist.  Answer me this, """libertarians""": who will build the roads?

Statists: 0
Libertarians: 2

Without government suppression of technology, we wouldn't need roads anymore.

[Anon136]

[bryant.coleman]

^^^ They will not let the taxpayers deal directly with the construction companies... because they are afraid of losing the bribes and commissions. In my place construction companies pay some 20% of the total amount as bribes. 10% to the politicians, and around 10% to the bureaucrats.

[shawshankinmate37927]

What means "Libertarian" ?
Honestly I don't know.

"Libertarian" with an uppercase "L" is a political party in the USA or a member of the Libertarian Party and "libertarian" with a lowercase "l" is someone who believes in libertarianism.

[tvbcof]

I'd have voted Progressive if it were on the list.

I voted Socialist which is closest to true and makes a point better than Liberal.  I'd change my vote if we got close to what are widely conceived of economic principles associated with Socialists.  I'm more of a capitalist in this respect, but at the present time we here in the U.S. are far to capitalist end of the spectrum and the difficult-to-avoid crony nature of this is a real threat to our political survival.

'SHTF/prepper who doesn't care' is a fun label which I would not reject out-of-hand.

[thehun]

Rand Paul Has An Idea For Improving Bitcoin

http://www.businessinsider.in/Rand-Paul-Has-An-Idea-For-Improving-Bitcoin/articleshow/34489641.cms

I was looking more at it until that recent thing [sic]. And actually my theory, if I were setting it up, I'd make it exchangeable for stock. And then it'd have real value. And I'd have it pegged, and I'd have a basket of 10 big retailers... I think it would work, but I think, because I'm sort of a believer in currency having value, if you're going to create a currency, have it backed up by -- you know, Hayek used to talk about a basket of commodities? You could have a basket of stocks, and have some exchangeability, because it's hard for people like me who are a bit tangible. But you could have an average of stocks, I'm wondering if that's the next permutation."

I guess it's not a bad idea in principle; you can't expect non-tech savvy people of his age to understand exactly how Bitcoin works and why its decentralized nature doesn't allow the implementation of such ideas.

[Mike Christ]

I'm more of a capitalist in this respect, but at the present time we here in the U.S. are far to capitalist end of the spectrum and the difficult-to-avoid crony nature of this is a real threat to our political survival.

Other people would argue that we're too close to the socialist end of the spectrum due to the very anti-private means of production nature that is government laying its hand over everything.  I think both you and those other people are correct: you're looking at the same thing and interpreting them differently.  What's really happening is a centralization of the means of production into a few hands, and political preference on economies usually revolve around its decentralization back into the hands of individuals.  It's for this reason why the left/right dichitomy is false; socialists see libertarians and think, "These people are going to drive us to fascism", and then libertarians see socialists and think, "These people are going to drive us to communism" (and same effect with democrats/republicans, liberals/conservatives etc.); the two ideologies are really the same thing (complete centralization of the means of production), and neither groups are actually advocating for this to happen except through accepting central government and businesses which use it to their advantage.

So it would seem, the true difference in political thought revolves around pro-centralization or pro-decentralization.

[thehun]

^^^ They will not let the taxpayers deal directly with the construction companies... because they are afraid of losing the bribes and commissions. In my place construction companies pay some 20% of the total amount as bribes. 10% to the politicians, and around 10% to the bureaucrats.

Yep. That and/or the fact that Government concessions of these contracts almost always goes to "friends" (not necessarily the one with the best offer on the table), leading to enormous losses caused by inefficiency.

[tvbcof]

I'm more of a capitalist in this respect, but at the present time we here in the U.S. are far to capitalist end of the spectrum and the difficult-to-avoid crony nature of this is a real threat to our political survival.

Other people would argue that we're too close to the socialist end of the spectrum due to the very anti-private means of production nature that is government laying its hand over everything.  I think both you and those other people are correct: you're looking at the same thing and interpreting them differently.  What's really happening is a centralization of the means of production into a few hands, and political preference on economies usually revolve around its decentralization back into the hands of individuals.  It's for this reason why the left/right dichitomy is false; socialists see libertarians and think, "These people are going to drive us to fascism", and then libertarians see socialists and think, "These people are going to drive us to communism" (and same effect with democrats/republicans, liberals/conservatives etc.); the two ideologies are really the same thing (complete centralization of the means of production), and neither groups are actually advocating for this to happen except through accepting central government and businesses which use it to their advantage.

So it would seem, the true difference in political thought revolves around pro-centralization or pro-decentralization.

This is really outstanding analysis in my opinion.  Thanks for the input.

[sana8410]

Simple question:
what is your political preference?
Could be fun to see the results

This is an interesting question. I'm American and lean left, particularly on social issues. I use to be very liberal when I was younger but I feel like I've been making a gradual move towards the center... that or I'm just fed up with the two major political parties.

[noviapriani]

I just choose to not have one. All parties have pros and cons and I would rather adapt to the changes then try and change them myself.