[ExI] More deaths from COVID-19 than Afghanistan and Iraq wars combined

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Fri, 17 Apr 2020 at 23:27, spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

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> *From:* extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> *On Behalf
> Of *Stathis Papaioannou via extropy-chat
> *…*
> *Subject:* Re: [ExI] More deaths from COVID-19 than Afghanistan and Iraq
> wars combined
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> *On Behalf Of *Stathis Papaioannou via extropy-chat:
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> On Fri, 17 Apr 2020 at 11:17, spike jones via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
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>  >>…I notice a common notion among those who do not believe that a militia
> is necessary to the security of the free state: they cannot fathom a
> situation where the government cannot pay the soldiers and police.  They
> cannot understand how a government would not be able to pay.  That isn’t
> the least bit difficult for me to imagine, and hasn’t been for decades.
> …What if… we try to re-open the economy, but every time we do, there is a
> massive new outbreak, resulting in a new lockdown?  And what if that
> continues?  For months?  What if longer than that?  Then businesses fail in
> unison.  Tax revenues dwindle to nearly nothing.  Is that difficult to
> imagine?
>
> …spike
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> >…Well, I misunderstood. I thought you were saying the citizens should
> have arms so that they can resist the Government if they tried to abuse
> their power…
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> Hi Stathis,
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> In the scenario easily envisioned, the government fails and isn’t really
> in the picture.
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> >…The only real power the Government has is through employees that can use
> force, such as the police and the armed forces; surely you don’t believe
> that Donald Trump himself will force his way into your home in order to
> take the gold you have buried in the garden…
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> No, governments abusing power would come in other forms besides breaking
> into homes where there isn’t much to seize.  It would be in the form of
> seizing 401Ks, bank accounts and retirement accounts.  Gold isn’t worth
> much in these scenarios.  The currency of choice is food and ammo, but the
> government already has plenty of that.
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> >…Now you are talking about something quite different: what if the
> Government cannot pay its employees? Then I suppose they will ask for
> volunteers, or reintroduce the draft, which is essentially a form of
> slavery…
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> Draft: there would be no draft.  The Fed would need to furlough most of
> the military it already employs.
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> They don’t need to ask for volunteers, they already have them: the
> militias.  The government doesn’t pay the militias, nor does it feed, arm
> or clothe them.  They already thought of that and wrote it into the
> constitution from the start, over 230 yrs ago.
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> In 1789, the notion that the Federal government could go bankrupt was a
> very real and present danger.  They needed a contingency plan, for their
> finances back then were nearly as shaky and dubious as the US government’s
> finances are today.
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> (Well, OK that’s a bit of a stretch, but they were on some pretty shaky
> ground back in the 1780s.)
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> >…That would suck, but it would probably wouldn’t suck any less if there
> were millions of people running around with guns. -- Stathis Papaioannou
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> In the USA, there are already millions of people running around with guns;
> it has always been that way.  The best estimates are that there are
> somewhere around 400 million guns in America.  Some of us have more than
> one of course.  Those millions of people running around with guns are why
> the US government hasn’t already seized more power than the Constitution
> allows.
>
So you say, but is there any evidence of large numbers of Government
officials who dream of increasing their power but haven’t done so due to a
fear of citizens with guns? Some sort of survey, or even a series of
anecdotes?

> There are somewhere between 8 billion and 15 billion rounds of ammo sold
> in the USA per year, and not all of that is fired.  Ammo tends to
> accumulate, because it keeps forever (army surplus WW1 ammo still works
> perfectly even though it is over 100 yrs old) and is an excellent reserve
> currency (better than gold.)  Reasonable estimates suggest there are
> perhaps half a trillion rounds of ammo in the US alone.  The NRA bumper
> sticker has the ring of truth: if we were the problem, believe me, you
> would know.
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> spike
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-- 
Stathis Papaioannou
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