At least he's honest about theft

Priest urges the poor to steal from chain stores

It's the free market alternative to welfare. It's still the poor and lazy stealing from those who are productive, but it cuts out the government middleman, using the free market to steal from the rest of us.

It's a horrible first step, but it is one. Government can 'privatize' welfare by just cutting it off entirely and letting theft handle it. This would actually increase efficiency by cutting out all the administrators and bureaucrats, meaning that the theft would be less costly per leech. Corporations could properly demonstrate their costs, losing the money thrown at them by the government and having direct theft, but they'd see lower taxes and higher spending as consumers have more money as well.

Maybe this is the first step towards smaller government with the added bonus that it exposes the illegality of the welfare system, allowing us to finally punish the leeches.

A season of giving? More like leeching

It starts out with buying crap from China. Then we wrap these things up and exchange them, blindly. Some give better gifts than others. In other words, an unequal exchange of goods. And people just go along with it. They might whisper about the person, but they don't vote with their wallets and withdraw from the biased exchange.

How about a bit of capitalism? First off, pay for entry to give incentive to the party organizer to geta good tree. Then, no wrapping. Instead have all individuals start with a known quantity, free to trade for what they wish. This gives incentive to get high-quality gifts in order to increase one's ability to trade for desired goods.

I don't have much hope for this. There are too many leeches saying nice things about Christmas. They've tricked the sensible people. They've blinded them with socialist lies of charity and generosity. They refuse to acknowledge that we'd all end up with much better gifts if we worked for self-benefit and let the market take over rather than trying to be nice.

People who disagree with me are Communists

Day by day we make decisions. Cost-benefit decisions. We try to optimize outcomes.

Then some douchebag comes along and says we aren't and we're stupid. Oh? What are you going to do about it!?

Yea that's right, I thought so. You're going to force people to make what you think is the right decision. Communist.

Libertarians for Bigger Government

I believe in two things: freedom and personal safety. Government takes away the first to add to the second. The first few tradeoffs are entirely worth it: I lose my freedom to kill people but I gain a reduced chance of being killed; or I cannot steal but I am not stolen from.

After that there are swift diminishing returns. We get into things like drafts, gun laws, wiretapping, drug laws, and so on. Freedom-hating cowards push an agenda of fear to increase their control at the cost of our freedom.

So pardon me if I sound a bit scared.

Every day we are being poisoned. The very air is filled with toxins. The water. The land itself. Where from? Business. In the pursuit of profit (a noble goal) they take the path of least resistance, dumping pollutants which kill everyone nearby and spread around the world. This is a clear case of externalities; of costs which exist, but are not calculated because the profit-maker does not incur the loss. We are the ones who lose.

How do we get poisoning us onto their balance sheets? Social change could effect this; with consumers refusing to purchase those products which are made in a poisonous manner. This isn't going to happen. Why not? For starters, people are lazy and ignorant. But even if they were aware, they would likely trade lower health later for cheaper products now. That is their choice, but their choice affects everyone around, including those who wish to make a different choice.

Enter government. It exists to protect individuals, including against the tyranny of the majority. I will not attempt to propose an exact mechanism, but it is time for government to protect physical well-being from the poisons of others.

It is time for Libertarians for Bigger Government!