by
Jeff Berwick
The Dollar Vigilante

Previously
by Jeff Berwick: Anti-Business
US Government Puts a Stop to Intrade Making US Customers Happy

Hello from
Acapulco,

I had a rough
start to my week as I was forced to go to the slave processing center
(passport office) to ask permission from a group of people operating
on behalf of a criminal enterprise if they would allow me to travel
with my six year old daughter who had yet to be the unproud owner
of a slave card (passport).

We are planning
a family and work vacation over Christmas and beyond through Central
and Eastern Europe as well as parts of Africa and, of course, travel
in the so-called free world is not allowed without permission.

As we approached
the passport office my wife did the same thing she does everytime
we go through customs in any country we visit.  She asked me
to promise her I wouldn’t fight with them.  She said, “It’s
for our daughter, don’t ruin this for her.”

I took a deep
breath, as I always do after this request, then nodded my head and
said, “I promise I won’t fight with them.”

After having
to get up very early (something I despise doing) for an appointment
whose time they choose we waited a few hours in your typical government
office with all the plastic chairs and overflowing with people standing
to the sides, all waiting to get called forward by the overseers.
 Eventually (finally) we were called.  The amount of paperwork
we had to provide had taken all week for my wife to gather and she
had checked and double checked that she had everything they requested.

The middle-aged
woman began sifting through all the paperwork.  She was a very
average looking woman just like many you’d see on the streets
of town… you would never guess that she worked for the mafia.
 About a minute later she shoved the papers back to us with
cold eyes, “You are missing two photocopies of this document,”
she said.

In typical
Mexican fashion my wife replied very politely that she wasn’t
aware that two photocopies of that particular document were necessary.
 It finally got to the point where the woman firmly asserted
that we need those two photocopies and we’ll just have to make
another appointment (which takes a week to receive usually) and
come back and do this all again then.

My blood was
already starting to boil, but with a calm voice I asked, “Surely
you must have a photocopier here in this office?”

Her eyes got
even colder as she shook her head.  She then said in an even
sterner voice, “You NEED two photocopies!”

My wife grabbed
my arm as she knew what was coming.

“How can
you not have a photocopier?  The Mexican Government and even
many Mexican stores love photocopies of things more than any entity
I’ve ever known!” I stated with a slightly raised voice.

It was then
that her eyes seem to get even colder and she stared beyond me,
not responding.  Nothing was going to stop what happened next.

“So you
think you have some sort of right to tell me and my daughter where
we can go and what we can do?  Do you enjoy this job, being
the gatekeeper to allowing people to do things and finding the smallest
reason to say no?  What kind of person accepts this type of
job?  What kind of a sick person works for the state?”
I shouted.

My wife had
already grabbed my daughter and moved away as the woman motioned
for security.

“Keep
up the great work, you bitch,” I said as I motioned to the
now closing in security guards that I’ll leave peacefully.  As
I walked out I admonished to the people sitting in their seats,
averting their eyes so as not to become involved in the situation
and I asked, “Why do you people put up with this?  You’re
all a bunch of slaves, you know that right?”.

No one replied.

On the drive
home, without permission to travel, my anarchist wife admitted her
whole frustration with the thing, but said she just doesn’t
do what I did because she doesn’t want to risk them disallowing
our daughter a right to travel because of our actions.

“Oh well,”
I said, finally calming down.  “We’ll just have to
wait another week and try again.”

My wife responded,
“Yes, it’s okay anyway because we still have to get our
two chihuahuas microchipped for them to be allowed to go to Germany.”

Wonder why
a lot of anarchists drink so much?

THANK
GOD FOR THE FREE MARKET

The silly part
is that in almost any situation of government restriction the free
market always finds a way around it.

This assertion
is evident in currency black markets as we are seeing in Argentina
among other places. People trading their rapidly devaluing local
currency for the US dollar, which by comparison is stable. Are they
getting the optimal deal? No, but they are getting the best deal
they believe they can get at that point in time. Otherwise they
wouldn’t trade. Black markets, or free markets as I call them,
exist to address the inherent inefficiencies of a managed economy.

As another
example, after ranting on Facebook about my passport experience,
Randy H. from Panama told me that they have a similar problem there
with government offices that require photocopies of everything but
have no photocopier!  He said that outside many government
offices there are entrepreneurs on the street with small generators
hooked up to photocopiers and printers to help people.  If
only a smart Mexican entrepreneur would do the same thing I would
have had a happier experience!

Thank god for
the free market… it is the only bright spot of hope amongst all
this statism.  It serves to give you whatever you want, whenever
you want it, no matter how many rules and regulations there are
to the contrary.  Take the prohibition of plants (Drug War).
 There are millions of people in costumes with guns infecting
this planet to try to stop people from getting the plants and I’ve
still never found a place where you can’t get the plants.  Entrepreneurs
(deemed “narcos” by the state) build submarines, dig tunnels,
fly drones and risk kidnapping or murder trying to get their products
to voluntary customers.

Earlier today,
I responded to another Facebook post where a person was debating
me and saying that the free markets cause poverity and is unfair.
 The person, an accounting major who said he has figured out
the best system for humans to live under lobbied for something he
called, “Responsible Capitalism”.

Jack Blaylock,
a TDV subscriber came to my defense and responded from an outdoor
table while having breakfast in Probolingo, East Jawa (TDV subscribers
are rarely boring!) and I found his post so well written I
want to include it here:

“I
am one of the founders of a free health clinic for the poor in Indonesia.
My entire life has been a demonstration in many ways that I care
about the little guy. And I now know that it is government regulated
ideas like yours that makes things worse for the disenfranchised,
not better. In the end, one group of humans, no matter how well
intentioned or spiritually and emotionally mature, cannot possibly
‘regulate’ what mother nature does best: free market capitalism
in a pure form. The economic system is no different than an ecosystem
in this sense. No matter how wise, educated and ‘socially conscious’
a ruling class may be, the minute they try and tell the rainforest
which bugs are allowed to breed, and which birds may or may not
sit in any one particular tree, they introduce a subtle but corrosive
change that will ultimately result in the death of the forest. And
here’s the rub: As the forest slowly dies, they will mistakenly
think they have not regulated the forest enough, and continue their
interventionist folly. 

Not much more
I can add to that!

Except this
photo, another beautiful example of how the free market always finds
ways around the government initiated violence.

The free market
wins again!

December 3, 2012

Jeff
Berwick [send him mail]
is an anarcho-capitalist freedom fighter and Chief Editor of the
libertarian, Austrian economics grounded newsletter, The
Dollar Vigilante. The Dollar Vigilante focuses on strategies,
investments and expatriation opportunities to survive prosper
during and after the US dollar collapse.

Copyright
© 2012 The
Dollar Vigilante

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