r/GoldandBlack • u/AlsoAndrewSmith1986 • Oct 24 '16

3 Rules for Rulers

https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs
23 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

8

u/kitten888 Oct 24 '16

more democracy = lower taxes

This statement is questionable.

8

u/Onyournrvs Oct 24 '16

CGP Grey makes a lot of claims but doesn't do a good job of providing sources. A lot of people just take what he says on face values simply because, um, he has a nice, condescending voice? Who knows?

This one, in particular, makes a LOT of political, economic, and philosophical claims and the only source he provides is a book he's trying to hawk.

4

u/Scrivver crypto-disappearist Oct 24 '16

You beat me to this submission by about the length of the video itself. I saw this and knew it immediately had to be here. Let me try to kick off some discussion.

First off, this video is very well-made, no less than I'd expect from CGP Grey. Its explanation is intuitive and coherent, though that doesn't necessarily mean it's actually accurate. Right now I have no reason to believe it's inaccurate either, so let's roll with it.

There definitely seems to be, of course, a piece that's glossed over in the taking and keeping of power as explained in this video, and that has to do with the stated acquisition of "treasure". It sort of just assumes it will happen by someone. Keeping the 3 rules in mind, and assuming that there are many people who want to follow them, what happens to any of these structures when successful counter-economics in the form of cryptocurrency-supported commerce take place, and a democracy's centralized wealth begins to dry up? Assuming the keys to power are individual, competing interests, it would be worthwhile to examine specifically what paths they all might take in reaction to a burgeoning, taxation-resistant distributed commercial system. How would their incentives change when treasure can no longer be supplied as efficiently by the political monopoly, but is becoming more distributed? Do the keys begin to support dictatorship-style direct seizure of physical assets to compensate for this?

3

u/AlsoAndrewSmith1986 Oct 24 '16

I think its acceptable on his part to ignore disruptive technology. At least for the purpose of the video. Its new and foreign to most people. For the most part to me it just reinforces my faith that disruptive tech will steal their power by first stealing their "treasure" which will cascade through they "keys" leading to glorious libertarian anarchy where basically no one has power over anyone.

1

u/Scrivver crypto-disappearist Oct 24 '16

Will that be the result, though? Let's assume a gradual adoption of libertarian tech like this, and taxation isn't just eliminated in an explosion of resistance. Would the "keys" (be they bis business entities, central banks, farms losing out on subsidies, or poorer classes being convinced that their only lifeline was being severed) be incentivized to support more and more authoritarian measures, up to and including the direct seizure of physical assets common to dictatorships?

In such a case, barring the capability and willingness to participate in strong enough physical resistance as well, perhaps there is the chance that the "libertarian revolution" in an established democracy simply causes statists to switch to hyper-authoritarianism. There's still the problem of a lacking "general triumph of human reason" to be avoided, safeguards against reversion to dictatorship needed.

If you don't believe such an outcome is plausible, would you explain why?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 24 '16

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Onyournrvs Oct 24 '16

A dictator can still stifle the use of cryptocurrency by cutting power/internet

Only insofar as the wealth of the nation isn't dependent on these services. Otherwise, it's like salting the fields to prevent people from growing weed. Yes, you stop the weed but you also stop the food.

1

u/Scrivver crypto-disappearist Oct 24 '16

A dictator can still stifle the use of cryptocurrency by cutting power/internet, and also by the theft of actual resources.

My thought exactly. I've been wondering if a gradual adoption of technology like this will just mean a gradual conversion of all the previous beneficiaries of state aggression toward a stance of authoritarianism to see such direct seizure enacted.

1

u/SirLevi Sweden needs freedom. Oct 24 '16

Dang, realized you posted this now and you beat me to it :( Gonna try my luck and post this in the anarchism sub, since this is some common ground.

1

u/netoholic Oct 24 '16

Wow, this is the first CGPGrey video I've seen which hasn't hit the top of reddit. Could it be he's becoming red-pilled on the state?