Who's the Real Criminal?. by Jeff Berwick

Last week, in the article, "The Death of Privacy", I stated that I wouldn't care much about privacy if it wasn't for government. One reader wrote in and stated that I should also be worried about privacy or someone could "steal my identity".

I responded, please, steal it! You think it is fun being handcuffed every time I go to the US? If anyone wants to be Jeff Berwick, please, go right ahead!

It is crucial, however, to retort the reasons government say they need to invade and attack financial privacy of individuals. Because none of the purported reasons have any basis on which to stand.

In the year 2000, Ron Paul said, sarcastically:

 

"Financial privacy must be sacrificed, it is argued, in order to catch money launderers, drug dealers, mobsters and tax cheats."

So, these are the scourges that we must divest all privacy and turn the world into a massive police state? Let's look at each of them individually although they are all actually one in the same thing.

Money Launderers. This, perhaps, is the funniest one. Governments make victimless crimes illegal and then, because no law has ever stopped anyone from doing anything they want to do, people continue to do those things... but they are then forced to send the money on a world tour in an attempt to not get robbed by the real criminals, governments, on the pretense that they did something "illegal". Of course, if victimless crimes weren't crimes, money laundering wouldn't be necessary. So, government can stop money laundering today if they want to. Of course, most of the major US banks are actually government sanctioned money laundering centers for the CIA who runs most of the cocaine into the US and who now controls the world opium supply since their criminal occupation of Afghanistan.

Drug Dealers. The most dangerous drug dealers on Earth all have mothers who are so proud of them. They are called doctors. And they are shill-men for the pharmaceutical industry who doles out drugs FAR more dangerous than cannabis and the leaves of the coca plant. In 2009, 37,485 people died from prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma. Regularly, celebrities die from these drugs, such as Whitney Houston recently. Where is the outcry to ban them? Most people are actually now on these drugs and can't actually think anymore, that's why. The War on Drugs is a genocidal farce that has put millions of Americans in prison camps in the US and has killed millions worldwide. Even today, a meth lab blew up killing some people in a nursing home. CNN screamed about how this is more reason to fight the War on Drugs. It is, of course, the exact opposite. By pushing drugs underground the US Government was responsible for this explosion... without it, most drug production companies would be legal and operate safe facilities.

Mobsters. Mobsters would not exist without government. Mobsters get their money from supplying the market with things it wants which the government has declared illegal. In terms of supplying the market with things it desires, mobsters and drug traffickers are entrepreneurial heroes. They should be exhalted for taking so much risk to get people what they want. Some may say that mobsters also do other bad things like extortion. The worst extorters on Earth are governments. In most countries they extort you for 50%+ of your income. Mobsters rarely go that high, so they are preferable. And, besides, it is only because of gun regulation laws and the threat of going to jail if you defend yourself from a mobster's extortion that keeps people from just killing them and ending any further extortion.

Tax Cheats. How is trying to avoid extortion by any possible means, "cheating"? It's not. Governments just indoctrinate us with propaganda to make us feel like it is. The most heroic act one can make is to defend themselves from government theft and to not contribute to an enterprise that is violent, murderous and thieving.

All four of these groups listed above are heroes of freedom.

And, in short, it's time we as a human race wake up and see government for what it is. The internet has been around now for over 15 years so there is no excuse for ignorance.

At the PDAC conference in Toronto recently, after a speech I gave which was very well received, a typical brainwashed Canadian approached me. He was an older man, in his 60s... he still buys into the old paradigm. He shouted, "How would we have traffic lights without government! How!"

These types embarrass themselves with their lack of knowledge. I told him to go home and read some ebooks. These questions have all been answered.

The world's changing. It's changing at a mind-numbing rate. And it will only accelerate from here. Even the statist, Keynesian rag, The Economist, featured an article recently called "In Praise of a Second or Third Passport". They espoused views that citizenship is an anachronism. I never thought I'd hear that from The Economist.

Governments, and the US Government in particular, is in its death throes. It won't exist in its current form even five years from now. It is going the way of the Soviet Union for many of the same reasons (central planning, and a fascist form of communism). And all of these things they are doing, trying to enslave the world financially is just a last ditch attempt at staying alive a little longer.

It won't work... not as long as we can keep the internet semi-free. That's why they spend most of their time trying to figure out a way to shut it down.

In the end, however, they'll be gone... just like every government in history. But in the meantime we have to continue to protect ourselves from their depredations. This includes investments in hard assets, precious metals and internationalizing your life if possible. And if you have no assets, still look to expatriate. Your ancestors came to the US with empty pockets... now it is up to you to go to a more free country even if it means doing the same.

Or, stay and try to get through the transition... even this has major possibilities. In fact, once the US Government collapses you will have a place with over 300 million people who have intricate knowledge of how a semi-capitalist system (real capitalism, not corporatism) works and unsaddled from massive debts and government regulation they could rebuild bigger and better than ever in a matter of years. It could be the buying/investing opportunity of all-time.

Fortunes will be made in the next few years as they always are during a major paradigm shift. At the same time, however, millions will lose everything. Keep in the loop here at The Dollar Vigilante to stay on the winning side.

Once we can identify the real criminals and the real heroes properly we can more easily move on to a better world. That time is coming.