This sounds pretty socialist to me.

I get that a lot lol. One moment I’ll be criticized for being ultra right wing and the next I’ll be called a socialist or a communist because I advocate for the voluntary redistribution and democratization of power and resources. Being an anarchist just means I value freedom and oppose compulsion. It doesn’t mean I oppose either private ownership or money pooling and decentralizing power. In fact decentralizing power makes more sense because it empowers more people on an individualist level. More cooperation and economic competition.

I’d have to disagree with you somewhat. Competition is sometimes very necessary and it drives innovation and prices down. For example right now there are like 4 big telecom giants in Canada, probably less due to mergers. Which means there isn’t all that much competition to drive down the price of internet or cell phone bills. Just a quick example there. I get where you’re coming from wanting people on a community level to cooperate more but much like anything else whether something is harmful or helpful depends on dosage and context. If you’re trying to unite a community ridden with poverty, backbiting and enmity you want less competition. If you’re dealing with huge oligarchies and monopolies you want more. I’d also argue anything you need to live should be decentralized and produced in almost every home if possible, at least in every neighborhood. If you thought industry and food prices would be affected by this trade war then consider what it will do to pharmaceuticals when most of those are patented and made in the U.S. AND are all piped through a single warehouse on the east coast. Centralization and importation dependence like that is INSANE! Like if you’re in BC you’re basically getting your pills made in the U.S., imported to Canada, shipped to Halifax, sorted, then shipped all the way BACK to B.C. even if they were originallu produced in like OR or Cali or something. It’s nuts. Which brings us back to producing food, medicine, waste reclaimation, resource production, medical, definitely need midwives (for a number of years moms were being flown out of my home town in order to give birth because there was no one on staff to deliver them. I’m from a small town. So yeah I think of these things), and other basic medical staff. Like things you need to keep you alive should NOT be imported from another province and definitely not from another country. They should be produced in your own town, preferably in your own home. In that regard I’m very much an individualist. That being said if everyone is growing a garden then that lends itself to trade. Also people will have different skill sets. So long as there is a seamstress, a blacksmith and a doctor in town, they can all fill the roles. The problem is when you have to import or export just to get basic stuff done. In that regard I can understand Trump’s position. But, he forgets how Canada got it’s independence. 😉. We didn’t fight a war, we simply produced all our own stuff and became too expensive for the British homeland to support. Canadians are very independent and productive. And my point here is wanting to produce your own stuff and be self sustaining goes both ways which is why it needs to be decentralized. Like I said put the renewable power, water recycling and gardens in every home not just rich ones. Even getting rid of lawns would help. Being self sustaining shouldn’t be a mark of the elites but a normal culture trait. And it doesn’t have to be expensive either. It’s mostly just a shift in how we behave and do things.

Like all this would create resource security, democratize production, and would promote individual liberty. But you can also see how it both increases competition while also brings people together and promotes a sense of community and cooperation. People would be competing less with each other and more creating more completion for big conglomerates. You want tomatoes you or your neighbors can grow those yourselves. You want grain, someone is probably growing that on the outskirts of town. There is no need to import daily resources. I mean I think that should be the goal.

The people who receive from the community but don’t contribute to it when they could in my opinion are parasites. I’m not talking about the elderly and disabled who would if they could and deserve their dignity, of course, because that’s all our destiny. If someone takes from their community without giving back to it, I would have a problem with them and probably insist that they get off their ass or leave probably with other people who care about them and would rather they straighten up. I don’t think that kind of compulsion is unfair.

This sounds like a form of shunning or disassociation to me. And I think you are referring to CEOs of politicians and the like. But what would happen if such elite whales DID leave? What if everyone in the U.S. shunned say Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates? Do you think the shut down of Twitter, PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla and half a dozen other ventures wouldn’t cause a bit of notice? Or all of Meta, including Facebook, Instagram and Oculus VR? Gates may not run Microsoft anymore but let’s just say it shut down in his name or maybe he was shunned because of his support of vaccines and eugenics. Again either his “philanthropy” goes poof or his tech impact does. My point is even if you think someone just sits around gaining a passive income they are usually affecting more than you know. Moreover you have to consider what would be affected by their absence? Even if you don’t like the person in question. I don’t like Bill Gates. You probably don’t like Elon Musk. But that’s not the point. The point is if you shun someone for “leeching off society” what kind of hole is left when they are gone?

All this being said. This whole concept makes me think of ceiling an antisocial individual to an uninhabited island and making them fend for themselves for a time. Maybe something similar could be arranged. Want to get drunk and mooch of your parents all day? Get sent out into the forest with a knife and a week’s rations or something. Want to be a useless douche of a politician? You are remanded to the Amish for a year. The problem is your idea, or mine, of who or what is considered leeching off society or of who isn’t worthy is subjective. So creating legislation would also be subjective. Also who is this society? What are the standards of contributing? If contributing means economic contribution what about all those full time moms? Is non paid work of no value? What about parents loving their children. Does that consist of value? Like I said, subjective.

In a lot of cases, taxation is colonialism. I do not appreciate my tax dollars being spent on international murders, and I don’t imagine most people would appreciate it either if they understood the extent of it. In any government using resources for oppression is intolerable. That being the case, not all tax dollars are used for the purposes of oppression. Taxes fund a multitude of necessary resources, services, and infrastructure in a way a profit-driven organization could not. One may not personally care about babies starving to death being prevented by a government program, but in situations that babies starve to death very negative consequences could arise that come around to affect them and others. In cases like these, I think it’s appropriate to extract taxes from stupid, ignorant, or outright psychopathic people for the social good even if they are individually unable to understand it’s not ok to allow babies to starve to death in a healthy society anywhere at any time. There is of course the matter of the effectiveness and cost of these programs which should of course be open to scrutiny and improvement on a democratic basis.

This basically sums up why I think one should be able to unsubscribe and/or direct where they want funds to be spent. You’re right taxes are often not spent on what we want. And you’re right taxes are often used to support social safety nets. However again you are justifying coersion. Look 50% of the U.S. budget goes to military spending. That means someone blatantly disagrees that babies dying is of greater concern than blowing shit up. And in either case you will have someone feel morally outraged. Either babies and others will die without medical treatment, food and shelter or there will be funds diverted from security and conquest to provide it. Either way you’ll have someone thinking the other should be forced to give up coin to the opposing cause. So why not give both, and all, the choice? Also not everyone wants 50% to go to the military I’d wager.