So, I've been focused on a project intended to create a new infrastructure that makes banksters obsolete, because the system they are critical to is a form of slavery. Before the extant technological ability eventuated, and after the agricultural revolution happened, some form of indentured servitude became the best people could hope for in terms of their personal freedom, and individual felicity. Huge armies became possible after agriculture was invented, and capital became necessary to both create such armed force, and oppose enemies so armed.
Individuals were hapless chattel thereafter. As the bleeding edge of technology has become more and more potent to increase the power wielded by individuals, as long as those individuals were collectivized and wielded as armies, individuals were subject to oppression. I have seen a way to break this paradigm, and am seeking to implement it.
It sounds quite difficult to arrange an infrastructure capable to empower an individual to successfully defend itself against an armed force, but technology makes it possible when sufficiently developed. Back in the day when the chipped rock was the bleeding edge of tech, a pointy stick made a single warrior able to defeat several unarmed thugs. Today the tech exists to make a single warrior able to defeat thousands, even an unlimited number of unarmed thugs, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of thugs armed with conventional weapons.
A community of individuals so empowered essentially becomes a free state, proof against most forms of military might. This is my goal.
My problem is that I have not had any goals, other than to die old without contributing to the power of my enemies. How have I contributed to my enemies? By using their debts as money, by funding their war profiteering through paying taxes, and buying products that inure profits to them. Them is banksters, and I've sought to minimize my support by minimizing my income. Worked great.
My needs are simple, and it doesn't cost much to simply wait to die. I used to make a couple roasts a month in a crockpot, which was plenty of good nutrition to sustain me as I labored for my community fixing their homes, but of late I need to prepare only my morning coffee, as my neighbors keep bringing me meals. Since I do a lot of work for nothing more than chocolate chip cookies, I have insufficient income to cause my income to be taxed.
This has been a simple, easy to implement and maintain, and adequate system for my needs. Since so little resources have been involved, zero administration, legal, and accounting expense and time have been necessary to effect it.
Now, as I have a goal that requires capital expenditures (developing technical means of creating the aforementioned infrastructure creating immunity from armed force) this paradigm will no longer work. Some of the equipment I am seeking to employ costs enough on it's own to trigger taxable income if I simply earn enough by working (or other means) to purchase it outright. That then triggers the need for administration, legal, and accounting expenses, that dramatically affect my ability to do work to implement the technological infrastructure, and maintain my survival.
Now, I have the necessary competence to do those administrative tasks, but little desire. I have had multiple businesses, properties, and run crews. That kind of work is not attractive to me, and I'm unwilling to undertake it again. OTOH, I don't trust anyone to handle those affairs for me. Far too many people have been sucked into the wealth creation trap, and almost everyone from crack addicts, to small business owners, to the vile banksters and their thugs, seek enough cash to increase their stash, and have practically zero ethical standards.
I have considered therefore, creating a separate entity to conduct the financial expenditures and earnings nominal to fund the development I seek to undertake. Since I have no interest in, nor intention to acquire, any income from this endeavor, my personal financial freedom would not be challenged thereby. However, it would entail some legal fiction, as in some new account, or corporation, to effect. This creates it's own administrative costs, and necessarily decreases the amount of actual work I can do.
A conundrum.
I am personally willing to decrease my quality of life, research I am able to conduct, and change my daily schedule to some degree. I am willing to work harder, to make some sacrifices, as may be necessary to implement a plan to attain this goal. However, if you consider how much you do every day, every week, every month, to arrange your affairs to satisfy financial and legal authorities, from balancing your bank statements, documenting capital expenditures (for those running businesses), or maintaining financial documents to prepare for tax filings, then you begin to grasp the quite substantial amount of time and treasure doing so costs.
By eliminating that time and treasure expenditure, I have dramatically simplified my life. This transition undoes that simplification, and I estimate would double my workload at minimum.
Now that I am a senior citizen, I am also less physically capable of increasing my workload. I do quite a lot of labor presently. That would decrease, and in turn the ancillary benefits such as free beer and food that I receive would decrease commensurately, again, increasing the time and attention I would spend on managing those things myself. There is a a principle at play here where every change triggers cascades of additional changes, and it is by abnegating capital acquisition that I have profited personally most from eradicating those added expenditures.
Unless you have tried it, it is practically incomprehensible. Money is a robust trap that extracts much of your life. I have more life proportional to the degree to which I eschew money. This is why I have spent no Steem at all. Doing so would have cost me far more time and real treasure--quality of life--than being able to spend money on goods and services could have conceivably brought me.
However, unless I undertake this paradigm shift, the necessary capital expenditures to build the systems of infrastructure I have now determined to build will not be available. Since I cannot trust anyone else to do these things, there is no other option to doing so myself. Frankly, I dunno if it is a wise investment, at this point in my life, to undertake this reinstitution of indenturing to banksters nominal to implement this technology for the few folks that will be competent to see it's utility.
I doubt even 1% of the folks that I interact with can comprehend the potential empowerment I propose to deliver. I continually am told, practically without exception by those that even deign to respond, that money is essential and there is no way, ever, that money will be abandoned.
I have direct experience and considerable proof that money is instead a trap, and is quite like the cheese at the center of a spring loaded snaptrap for a mouse. Community is the opposite, and it is for community that I even consider undertaking this change in my circumstances. Given the very low penetration rate of this system I expect initially, and the high probability of successful opposition, I must consider whether to radically sacrifice my present quality of life to provide the possibility of an accelerated transition to a post-market economy--that almost no one has any clue is even possible, and even fewer desire.
Most of those that do understand the money trap are those that bait it, and the longer they can delay the transition, the better off they think they are. They are wrong, because they have no idea of the actual potential of the infrastructure I am considering, and their experience hasn't shown them how expensive it is to maintain wealth. That's all they've known, and they have no comparison.
The key to solving this problem is the rate of change. By reducing the rate of expenditure, I can avoid the problem. I must here acknowledge that there is another key, personnel, but that key isn't available. So far when you add up all the offers of contributing to the effort, this is something that I will do completely alone, including the most critical part of the effort, and one field I have zero experience in, software development.
As a senior citizen, I doubt I have the requisite time available to build even the software, starting from my extant skill set.
So, there's that. At this point, don't hold your breath awaiting dramatic revelations of a world-changing system of infrastructure development, as I will require decades to build it by myself, while working to sustain my life in the meantime. Given their (probably your) lack of capacity to even see the trap that most people--almost all people--are in, I see no point in sacrificing my essential freedom to an infinitesimally small chance that enough people will understand that it's even a trap, and fewer still see how what I am building breaks it, to undertake that radical change in my quality of life.
TBQH, this change is going to happen anyway, and given the churning verdancy of random minds employed solving their problems, the world may well beat me to the punch. Good.
Expect me to plod along at the pace one mere man can exert in the effort to rebuild the world. It will take some time.
Be patient.
'My problem is that I have not had any goals, other than to die old without contributing to the power of my enemies'
You took the words out of heart and wrote them here. It leaves me in a vulnerable position to think that what I have hidden, can be revealed by somebody else.
Although this is an effective philosophy to live but there is something more that is needed to be dome by us. I hide this because I know that even doing this much is not going to be enough. It becomes doubly embarrassing for me as I am probably less than half your age (you mentioned that you are retired).
In my own way I have been pushing my family to get to know more about their financial options. Although they have started investing in non-traditional markets but my actual goal is for them to know what games are being played behind the scenes and how their own money is being used against them. My short term goal is for them to start managing their own crypto and bullion portfolios, rather than leaving it to me.
I think starting with ones own family should be the proper order of things as they are the ones most deserving our efforts. In the end it is not so much as each man for himself but rather each deed for oneself. Breaking it down into smaller manageable tasks make it easier.
............... sorry for going off a tangent.
I have been on steemit for about a week and am overwhelmed by the amount of people who not only possess the rare ability of critical thinking, but also dignity, honor, humility and compassion that all amounts to a level of spiritual awareness, for lack of a better expression, that I have rarely found within my species. This comment section is a testament to the living human spirit 2018 AD, forever engraved in the steemit blockchain. You are the beacon of humanity. Thank you all for your participation in this exercise of consciousness.
@valued-costumer I cannot stress enough my appreciation for giving us this well-versed, well-spoken, immensely inspirational insight into your philosophy. I envy you for your talents, achievements and fervor. I can directly relate to many of your conclusions, and I have also many times found myself in a dilemma where I had to weigh out my lifestyle against a change of direction to foster positive change. I too have always loathed the scam that is the financial system, and have gotten so sick of it that I have been trying to 'convert' my fellow men for years. Unfortunately, I haven't been very successful. What I tell my friends do seem to resonate with them, but I regret the lack of any significant change in behavior. They all defer to the powers that be without noticeable protest.
So far I have been trying to lead by example and 'recruit' people for our philosophy one person at a time. The reason I joined steemit is that I didn't see the desired success in my 'pass it forward' approach, and thus felt the need for a potentially greater reach. It is a great relief to have met several individuals already that share a similar philosophy. I still have not given up hope that together we can trigger actual change.
The first and most important step in my estimation that to step playing the game, stop financing slavery and war with your taxes, and take your life back. I am not proud of many things I have done in my life, but I am proud that I have never contributed a single penny in income tax. Of course I still have paid property tax and every purchase of goods includes sales tax which is a burden on my conscience. Despite this regrettable fact I believe I have so far lived up fairly to our common goal:
Yet I have long been plagued by a growing bad conscience that this simply isn't enough. Even though I don't believe that I can change the status quo significantly, I know that it can be done collectively. Despite my achieving a high quality of life for myself, my conscience won't allow me to be a hedonist any longer. I can't go on with enjoying the rest of my days without having done more to alter the fate of others. Therefore I chose to not only avoid directly supporting those who enslave us, but to get involved in the resistance movement. I haven't acquired the knowledge or skill-set yet to be a leader, but I have enough awareness and principles to at least speak my voice in order to lift the weight on my shoulders a little.
You on the other hand, along with others on this platform definitely seem to have what it takes to be crucial factors in the freedom movement. I highly recommend you to check out the following mission of one of my favorite political activists:
Crowdfunding campaign was successful and it's set to launch this year. No one speaks truth to power with so much fire like this guy:
I like a lot of those folks, probably all of them, but know of but some already. They're none of them wrong in their assessment that Ken expresses cogently that the financial system is the base of the pyramid of power, and that if only that base were in our possession things would be better.
However, the base is in the hands it's in for reasons. I referred to this when I discussed how the system is perpetuated by winnowing from applicants those that will successfully execute whatever reprehensible and intellectually challenging financial acts nominal to secure funds. Mike Tyson also said this more simply when he stated that Don King would sell his mother for a dollar.
So, wrestling with those psychopaths for the money is not the solution. Indeed, it is the trap they have set. This is why I actually seek to solve the problem, rather than gain the money that perpetuates it. Should I be rapine and predatory enough to gain the money, and thus the power, I will have proved I am not the guy to set us free from it. Further, after spending all that time and effort to gain that power, what could conceivably convince me to obviate it?
Instead, gaining that financial power simply recruits new management. This is why I pointed out that the system cannot replace itself, but only perpetuates itself, and the quest to attain it's power is the exact opposite of solving the problem of freedom.
I am going to build an infrastructure that makes money obsolete.
Thanks!
I'm completely with you on this. Money is the root of all evil and must be abandoned. From one perspective it's obsolete already as it's not backed by resources anymore. Just some virtual digits in a bank account. It's the greatest deception of all time.
I fully support your mission and would appreciate if you keep us posted. Always a great pleasure meeting someone who has seen through the deception.
Well, I was sluffing off today, building a deck for a neighbor who cannot afford it, but who's own efforts were actually dangerous, so I worked for the reward of a longer lived neighbor =p.
As I said, at the pace I can be expected to proceed, there's not much point in abating your breath awaiting developments. It'll be a month or more before I get up the scratch for a printer, and likely this winter before I have much of a handle on how to use it enough to start making modifications.
I appreciate much your kind words =)
This is indeed quite the conundrum.
It is the one thing computers should have done years ago.
That of keeping the books.
That of filing official forms.
It should all have been automated.
The parts that are automated are not easy to control, and are often traps. And the parts that are not automated are so routine that there is no reason they shouldn't have been automated.
A corporation is the only way to do anything these days. But, what a headache.
Fortunately, there is better ways of getting the capital.
Crypto currencies and crowd funding.
Right now, you can invest moneys and expect 1000x returns.
Bitcoin will easily return 100x, but up and coming things like Litecoin, Veritasium, Pillar, NEO, OMG and Theta will return far more.
I have also pondered such great feats, and have come to the conclusion that i should just publish it all online. Steemit seems to be a good place.
I wish you good luck and God speed.
Amen!
I see a way out. I think you have not considered that there are many folks just like you who feel the same way.
I am one of them. I have done both things lived with money and lived without and I can say I agree with you. What is hard to do is not spend money when it is there. When you have it you spend it. When you don't you don't have a choice.
When my world changed forever after a lien by the dreaded IRS. I fired all my employees walked away from a 1/4 million dollar house and closed my company. I traded my truck for a RV and just did nothing for almost 7 years. I did little jobs here and there to buy food and gas. I even had very little tools at that time. I gave away all my home furnishings, only kept the clothes on my back and a few personal items.
It was humbling and difficult for me. The entire time I was searching for answers to my delimma. Eventually someone gave me an old ford van that needed a transmission. I had it fixed and found a job and went back to work. Many things happened and bam I am back in business for myself again. Just because of wanting the freedom to make money without having some asshole running me 40 hours a week. I was living differently though I had a personal agreement with a person on my property. The agreement was that I paid a certain amount monthly until I could obtain financing. I never obtained financing. I didnt have a bank account, I didnt have credit cards.
Since then I have never been a slave to the system again.
I learned recently that you can never gain the spoils of war unless you fight the battles. I dont like it but its our world, regardless of any system developed it will be prey and predators. Every thing we do in our lives is a battle. There are microbes battling every moment of every day we can not even see. Then gravity is battling against weightlessness, friction, etc.
Eat or be eaten you decide.
Decide to fight and decide to not acquiesce to their long term goals. Beat them at their own game. I am sure there are enough competent people that are awake on steemit to change our world.
My final words are someone else's words
Stunning life story. You have come to the only true and logical conclusions; you have to make a decision and you decided. Most people believe there is no decision, that there is just a status quo that will never change and they have to live by it or they won't have any quality of life. Which of course is utter non-sense. I'd rather die a quick and painless death for sticking to my principles and standing up for the freedom of everyone than to live a hundred years in slavery. They can break your bones but not your soul or your mind.
When I read your quote it reminds me of the millions of false Christians who claim to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ yet reject any form of resistance to the powers that be. To quote the immortal Martin Luther King Jr, a baptist minister no less:
We eat and are eaten. It is the way of things.
All I can do is add my power to the fight. I couldn't not if I tried.
Thanks!