Post Archive
Region: Libertatem
I've been telegrammed 5 votes over the course of my absence (which is a surprise), pushing the FREE Act into the 28 necessary citizen votes. It is now our second constitutional amendment.
On another note, I'm wondering what took so long for others to ratify it. We will seriously have to check our activity levels.
As this means the VWD position will be removed, and their is a vacancy in the Board, I recommend Confederate for the position.
The Libertarian Republic of United Factions Of Beastland was the one who asked us to join.
I think The United Federation of States is doing what they can to get off the ground. Cross-region recruitment is no longer illegal, they require help in establishing a libertarian order, and they have enough drive to form their own region rather than joining the IRU. I wish them well in their endeavors, and hope that they will come to see us as allies.
Well put.
Nevertheless, I am not impressed with Beastland, especially because he failed to notify me.
Yeah, if you made a big deal out of it though, you would have a REALLY valid argument to be upset. He is asking for your regions members without asking for your permission or at least tell you that he is doing it.
Truthfully, I am pretty irritated.
;)
I am back after our espionage mission! Let us rejoice, lift up our voice. ZION!
Not true. Please do not spread false messages.
Who is that guy, anyway?
Well, it seems the FFS has not only waved away the secession but convinced them to come back. I have a lot to learn from their diplomatic prowess, but I fear this will do nothing to combat the nations there that secretly await the region's ruin as they did for the old IRU.
Hello everyone
Hello
We should use the NS calculator to begin a region-wide trading system.
Check it out here: http://www.broomdces.com/nseconomy/regions.php?region=libertatem
Hello everyone! I'm Chinameri ca, by the way. This looks like a really good region.
Would any of you be able to support me in a raid on a communist region?
What region? Telegram me.
TG me the details too I'll tell you if I'm interested then.
"We should use the NS calculator to begin a region-wide trading system.
Check it out here: http://www.broomdces.com/nseconomy/regions.php?region=libertate"
As a pro bragger I must say that I am in the top 10 on the list.
I've personally used other calculators, but I can get used to that one.
That moment when the calculator has a "Tax evasion" section of the black market with a number above 0 when my taxes are at 0 anyways.
Post self-deleted by Liberosia.
Now that's what I call minarchy...
Lol
FFS is becoming extremely hostile to the region. I am unsure of their diplomatic methods and wary of the new Chancellor. What would be an acceptable course of action?
The most acceptable course of action is inaction. Give them time to cool off - they're too stirred up right now to accept any kind of involvement in their affairs from us, and we must not return hostility to a fellow anti-fascist/communist region.
Post self-deleted by Liberosia.
They aren't all bad. Many of their senior members (Adenauer and GOR, for example) are actually quite reserved and have not yet been corrupted by the dark part of the former IRU. It is really only a few corrupt officials that are really stirring people up there - it's a diversion, I think, to prevent any reforms from being made.
In any case, many of them think that you, Liberosia, can be too...hasty and quick-to-act. We need to take the time to make an informed decision before we decide whether to be for or against the FFS. I think they show promise, but I would like for them to cast off a few leeches. (I'd say who, but these are among the same people who would be quick to attack us for so much as saying a word about them.)
Yes, I understand your point, CI. It's true, I am partial to efficiency rather than bureaucracy...I thought that was a virtue rather than a vice. I also like the idea of President Reagan's foreign policy, "Peace through strength". This is why I find it essential to have a strong region, a large region, and extremely strong alliances with a few other regions (the Empire).
Then you will be familiar with the Reaganism "Trust, but verify". We need to know exactly which nations in the FFS are attempting to denounce us (and those who aren't). We need to trust in the nations that offer us trust. Many of them do not know exactly what to think of us, but are being shaken up by a few demagogues.
We can't think of the entire FFS as our enemy. At least, certainly not yet.
(Though that isn't expressly a Reaganism, rather a quip that he later came to use.)
Wise...
I do want an alliance with FFS though.
CI, I recognize your reasoning. FFS does have hostile nations to us, though. These nations are few, however, and do not represent the region as a whole.
Reagan was a god. And despite the lies spread by liberals, the military build-up did not cause the tripling of the national debt. It was the Democrats' refusal to pass the balanced budget constitutional amendment and ridiculous overspending.
True, true...although I wouldn't call him God. I'd call him a good man and a damn good President.
Sorry, that's just me exaggerating again :P I've become so obsessed with Reagan that I know nearly too much about him.
That's good. I liked the military spending increase (for the Cold War) and the long term tax cuts. It's just a shame that the cuts proposed by the Grace Commission were ignored by the Democrats.
An interesting thing about the build-up that few know about is that it helped cause the massive technological revolution in the 1980s. New, groundbreaking computer tech was developed by the military that was later adopted by companies like IBM, which created some of the first PCs and other technological wonders.
Ever read his autobiography?
No...but I don't think the military build up was responsible for a lot of the tech innovations. Reagan had a special tax cut for all things technology, which spurred investment of PRIVATE businesses in that sector.
Oh yes of course, I was just noting that some of the cheap new tech was developed by the newly strengthened military.
What are your thoughts on John Kennedy?
JFK? Not too bad for a Democrat. His tax cuts had some supply side aspects which spurred growth in the 1960's.
On the tech, I get what you're saying. I would just rather credit the discoveries in new tech to private firms because of Reagan's targeted tax cuts rather than an increase in the size of government (however justified it may be).
Indeed. Had quite a big impact on America in a range of ways. The last great Democrat, methinks.
I think I miscommunicated. Of course it was companies like Apple and IBM and Microsoft and Nintendo that brought about the revolution. What I mean is that the military build-up helped advance the tech later used.
On a different subject, how often are there elections here?
The region is structured like a corporation. We have one election: the WA Delegate, which has no protection and can be changed at any time. The rest of the members are appointed by either myself or the Delegate on a merit based system of government. This tradition is explained at greater length here.
In practice, the government of Libertatem has three major branches: the executives (myself and the Delegate), the government (which act as administrators and verifiers), and the legislature. The legislature consists of everyone in the region and has the powers to make new laws and approve amendments.
There has been some pushing for more direct democracy lately. If you wanted, you could draft a bill making a few of the government positions elected.
A company...is like an enormous clock...
All the little cogs need to mash together...
Lol
The Incredibles is a great movie.
That it is...that it is.
So somebody apparently has a nation called Mienkraft and just sent me a telegram about the nation names.
All I can think of is, "Damn, now I can't use that name for a puppet."
But, seriously, that was a good laugh. Stuff like that needs to happen more often.
A day in the life of Miencraft, everyone.
A very rare one, really.
Most often I find idiots.
Yeah, same here.
"True, true...although I wouldn't call him God. I'd call him a good man and a damn good President."
He is such a man he would not even want to be god just everybody friend.
Free states is already of equal size to us!
Reagan was awesome! I wish he was allowed to serve more than 2 terms
Reagan was incompetent, sorry to ruin it for you. I used to be a big fan of Reagan's administration but then I got informed.
In other news, three of my puppets are top five politically free.
Snabagag, you're coming at Reagan from a euro perspective. Aside from Reagan's victory in the Cold War and his supply side tax cuts, he rejuvenated the American Spirit. I remember my dad and my grandpa talking about how, for the first time in a long time, they were able to take pride in being an American. Because of President Reagan, a generation of conservatives were created, which made it possible to fight back against the long time Keynesian influences of the past.
This is a great article written by Peter Sperry of the Heritage Foundation:
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2001/03/the-real-reagan-economic-record
I used that source to kick but in a debate in my history class. As the role of a banker, the pro-Reagan camp squished the anti-Reagan camp in a role play debate.
http://mises.org/daily/1544
"How well did Reagan succeed in cutting government spending, surely a critical ingredient in any plan to reduce the role of government in everyone's life? In 1980, the last year of free-spending Jimmy Carter the federal government spent $591 billion. In 1986, the last recorded year of the Reagan administration, the federal government spent $990 billion, an increase of 68%. Whatever this is, it is emphatically not reducing government expenditures."
"The next, and admittedly the most embarrassing, failure of Reaganomic goals is the deficit. Jimmy Carter habitually ran deficits of $40-50 billion and, by the end, up to $74 billion; but by 1984, when Reagan had promised to achieve a balanced budget, the deficit had settled down comfortably to about $200 billion, a level that seems to be permanent, despite desperate attempts to cook the figures in one-shot reductions."
"Didn't the Reagan administration, after all, slash income taxes in 1981, and provide both tax cuts and "fairness" in its highly touted tax reform law of 1986? Hasn't Ronald Reagan, in the teeth of opposition, heroically held the line against all tax increases?
The answer, unfortunately, is no. In the first place, the famous "tax cut" of 1981 did not cut taxes at all. It's true that tax rates for higher-income brackets were cut; but for the average person, taxes rose, rather than declined. The reason is that, on the whole, the cut in income tax rates was more than offset by two forms of tax increase. One was "bracket creep," a term for inflation quietly but effectively raising one into higher tax brackets, so that you pay more and proportionately higher taxes even though the tax rate schedule has officially remained the same. The second source of higher taxes was Social Security taxation, which kept increasing, and which helped taxes go up overall. Not only that, but soon thereafter; when the Social Security System was generally perceived as on the brink of bankruptcy, President Reagan brought in Alan Greenspan, a leading Reaganomist and now Chairman of the Federal Reserve, to save Social Security as head of a bipartisan commission. The "saving," of course, meant still higher Social Security taxes then and forevermore."
"Another crucial aspect of freeing the market and getting government off our backs is deregulation, and the administration and its Reaganomists have been very proud of its deregulation record. However, a look at the record reveals a very different picture. In the first place, the most conspicuous examples of deregulation; the ending of oil and gasoline price controls and rationing, the deregulation of trucks and airlines, were all launched by the Carter administration, and completed just in time for the Reagan administration to claim the credit. Meanwhile, there were other promised deregulations that never took place; for example, abolition of natural gas controls and of the Department of Energy."
One president does not simply reverse government direction. Carter's deregulation policies weren't the only things he passed to the Reagan presidency...
That article is flawed, Snabagag. While I think of myself as an Austrian (an Austrian (amateur) economist, that is), I have to say, the Austrians at the Mises institute have this wrong. While I am primarily an Austrian, I am also a believer in Supply Side economics. The key to the Reagan tax cuts was sustained real growth, which was achieved at incredible rates. His tax cuts did indeed cut taxes for all individuals. The bracket creep only came with the first tax cut; in the first year of cuts, taxes were officially not cut in real terms because of the inflation. However, this cut only amounted to about $30 billion. The next two years saw collectively a $200 billion tax cut for business and individuals. This combined with the tight monetary policies of the Fed which ended the severe inflation of the 70's (the tight monetary policy was encouraged by Reagan under the advice of Milton Friedman) reduced bracket creep and cut taxes in real terms. Reagan's plan also began indexing taxation for the coming years to prevent bracket creep. Most of the deregulation efforts under Reagan came with his cuts to agency's ability to enforce existing laws as well as a reduction in the rate of growth of regulations. Conversely, spending is the most embarrassing record. Part of this was due to Reagan's military build up, some of it was due to the recession in the early 80's (brought on by the tight monetary policy and responsible for ending inflation), and the Democrat's refusal to cut spending. Remember the Grace Commission; if the Congress had followed Reagan's advise cuts, the budget, even with the increase in Defense, would have been balanced by the 90's.
I simplify everything you guys said with my views:
If we have to have government, it should do nothing but provide police, military and courts. That's very little. And with little social or economic regulation, all federal funds can be put towards those three needs. No problems there.
Post self-deleted by The New Sea Territory.
Expanding on what Liberosia said, Reagan tried very hard to balance the budget. In his words, he didn't want to 'pull the rug' under from the many Americans who relied on subsidies and other budget drains. When he finally did try to balance the budget, the lovely Tip O'Neil's Democrats fought tooth and nail to make sure it wasn't balanced. The Senate even nearly passed Reagan's proposed balanced budget amendment, but once again it was defeated by the Democrats by 10 votes.
Contrary to popular belief, the military build-up did not contribute to the deficit. It was more than covered by the increased government revenues coming in by the mid-80s. But as I said, the Democrats' eagerness to overspend like some hyped-up teenage girl in a shopping mall with daddy's credit card led to big deficits.
Alright, guys. We disagree.
Anyway, I'm watching this documentary: https://vimeo.com/63749370
A lot of it is bullshit because this guy is blinded by religion and does not care for human rights or free speech. However, he makes convincing arguments as to the progress of communism in the US.
Sounds interesting, I'll take a look.
Its a damn good thing wer disagree too. Idea can't be amde if people don't disagree. Also This is a new computer :)
So the spelling sucks.
Get Google Chrome on it, it comes with a spellchecker.
What are people up to today?
Yard work. You?
Cleaning and then back to the stables to continue foal watching and working. :)
You live in the country?
Not quite. Suburbs. There are stables less than a mile away, though, that I work at. It's pretty fun. :)
Sounds like freedom.
Being homeschooled definitely helps with that.
*sips on a nice cup of liberty*
*Would you like some justice? 1 lump or two?*
Two please. Please pass the democracy.
Here is is! How about a conservative crumpet?
I have been meaning to get rid of the tax! It got moldy!
Thank you. Would you care for a heaping plate of free enterprise? It's my favorite.
Yes please can you pass back the democracy and what is for dessert?
*passes back*
For dessert we have a lovely capitalist cake with libertarian frosting. So you don't feel guilty about eating it, it is tax- and regulation-free.
Tasty. Well, justice is sweet!
I will sed you a Conservative cook book with Ronald Reagan cooking a lovely tax-evaded chicken.
Sounds delicious.
Well time to go home for dinner I have a Presidential Pot-Roast.
I don't understand food-political-role-play-conversations. But thats just me.
Hi, liberosia has invited me
Seems like a good region :-)
Welcome!
NIce to have you.
love your flag, made it yourself?
so where you guys/girls from?
What, like RL country or something?
I live in Washington state.
Oregon, here!
RL, state/country :-)
Assembled with Dot's Region Saver.
Written by Refuge Isle.