Тег: Counter-economics

How to bring ancap as close as possible in countries with a post-communist economy?

Everything looks quite smooth in the USA, but conditions are different in the former USSR. Often, loss-making state enterprises, mono-towns, an economy tied to the military-industrial complex, and micro-district housing developments hinder individualism and state non-interference — eliminating or minimizing the state and closing loss-making enterprises in a short timeframe would lead to unemployment and the demise of all public sector workers, while the survivors would hang the reformers, disregarding the NAP. Does Russia have a chance for successful libertarian reforms?

анонимный вопрос

Answer by Alex Murin

And why rush? Ancap and libertarianism are an ideology. If people share it, they will be guided by it. If they don’t, they won’t. You cannot force people to live without a state. These are free people; they decide for themselves how to live. It is only in mono-towns and at loss-making state enterprises that people more quickly come to the realization that the government is not their friend. Instead of shops with beautiful displays, kiosks with cheap beer begin to appear; instead of excise vodka, people switch to moonshine. Instead of saying “I am an honest taxpayer,” people prefer to hide their income and conduct cash transactions without documentation.

High-rise development, where neighbors do not know each other and the concept of “one’s own” ends at the apartment threshold, is a serious problem for a free society. Until people become owners of their land and understand that their home is a fortress belonging only to them, it is difficult to speak of freedom and self-government. But we have another factor playing in our favor — poverty. A person who has nothing to lose is more likely to stop supporting the one who robs them year after year than a person who has their own house or firm, who is not ashamed to say “my grandfather and father voted for the Republicans, and I support them too.” There are many paths to a free society; we chose the path through poverty and extreme social inequality. And I would not want to specify deadlines; I would rather indicate the direction.

Addition by Ancap-tyan

During the collapse of the state, we should all take an example from Venezuela. While official propaganda there glorified the victories of the socialist economy and inflation hit record highs, people invested in what was beyond the state’s control — in bitcoin. The volume of bolivar transactions on the localbitcoins service noticeably exceeds, for example, the volume of euro transactions. However, Russians do not particularly need my advice, as the volume of ruble transactions on localbitcoins also exceeds the volume of euro transactions. So, even when the state demonstrates extreme inefficiency, it is by no means necessary to lose everything because of it. When a chance arises to change something in the country, it is better to have resources than not to have them.

Of course, bitcoin is not the only possible investment beyond the state’s control. Even more important are investments in horizontal ties. You may not be a civil society if you believe that political methods are currently ineffective, or if you despise political methods as such. But as atomized loners, you will not survive without the state. Therefore, the well-known communist slogan calling for the unification of the world proletariat should also be taken into account and creatively reworked for yourself, simply by removing the restrictions on the class composition of your community.

Finally, if for some reason you are a public sector worker receiving pennies for meaningless and ineffective work for the state, it would be foolish to discourage you from this job — you would have left it long ago yourself if you could. But you should not obsess over it. They say that in the late Soviet Union, which consisted of public sector workers just a bit more than entirely, terms absent from socialist political economy, such as “shabashka,” “kalym,” and other names for counter-economic phenomena, enjoyed extraordinary popularity. And so it is now — a good leftist under socialism strengthens not the marriage, but the personal budget. You can receive a salary from the state, but it is better to spend your main efforts on side jobs.

Why is counter-economics much more effective than insurgency and armed struggle?

Bitarch Answers

For most people, a radical change in the socio-political formation of society is usually associated with a revolution, which occurs through armed struggle and the overthrow of the ruling regime. However, people miss the main point—upon coming to power, revolutionaries carry out mass purges of their former opponents, creating an atmosphere of fear and hatred in society (for example, the Red Terror during the Civil War, and later the Stalinist repressions). Often, the revolutionary government itself is overthrown by the opponents of the revolution, and its achievements are destroyed (for example, the Jacobins during the French Revolution). All this happens against a backdrop of famine, economic collapse, and technological degradation. It should also not be forgotten that people acting from the underground do not shy away from using violence. We want to build a libertarian society, that is, a society based on voluntary relations. But here is the problem—people accustomed to violence and a violent (military) hierarchy will most likely use familiar methods against dissenters even after their victory. Simply because they do not know any other way!

There is another, more effective and humane way to reach a free society (voluntarism, ancap)—counter-economics. This is exactly what I advocate for, and I hope for the gradual non-violent construction of such a society.

First and foremost, of course, the ideas themselves must be conveyed to people (taxes are theft; the state is a stationary bandit; it is possible to do without it by replacing its institutions with competing public organizations or extraterritorial contractual jurisdictions with voluntary membership). The state exists in people’s heads as a model of behavior, so it must first be eradicated from there. The more promotion channels we master, the better—leaflets, graffiti, social media groups, online and offline advertising, lectures, videos, books, etc.

I want to convey the main idea to people—the state itself creates no value and exists exclusively through taxation. Even income from the sale of oil and gas is, in reality, tax payments. The fewer taxes the state receives, the weaker it becomes and, accordingly, the fewer resources it can spend on suppressing protests and repressing its opponents.

How can an ordinary person enter the fight against the Leviathan without fearing repressions on its part? The answer is simple—minimizing tax payments and maximizing the extraction of state resources through social services (using any opportunity to obtain benefits, tax refunds, social housing, food stamps, discounted travel passes, etc.).

If possible, one should agree with the employer to have the entire salary paid “under the table.” An alternative option is to switch from an employment contract to a service contract (meaning you become a separate contractor for the employer company and save significantly on taxes and, surprisingly, this is one hundred percent legal). It is also worth learning how to use cryptocurrencies, buying food and things at local markets and from private sellers (rather than in a store where you pay VAT), and using the services of private providers and craftsmen (who do not provide cash receipts).

The state already senses something is wrong, and not long ago it declared a hunt for the self-employed. Well, let it run: the costs of collecting such taxes will far exceed the volume of funds collected.

Agree, it is an extremely optimistic picture: the Leviathan has perished, and man remains