Topic: New Tennessee law

[Predator Don]

Most of you know I run a fitness center in my hometown. The regs are many. Last year I was given the "choice" of a 25K surety bond or a CD , to "protect" my customers if I went out of business. I complied.....even though 25k, even in my small gym, wouldn't get you any significient money back.. Stupid law. (exempted not for profits, cough cough, YMCA, those whose revenue exceeds 1 million and those over 7 years old.....Yes, I can't believe it either.) Cost 25K to be tied up and we wonder why there are no jobs....but I digress.

Just received another letter from the state (supposed new law, only affecting for profit fitness centers...cough, cough, not the YMCA's)) requiring either a PERSONAL FINANCIAL STATEMENT or MY FINANCIALS OF MY GYM each year. WTF!!!???!!!

I may need bail money, no way I'm sending this to the state. Way beyond overreach.

[Pandora]

Oh fer crissake!  It never stops, does it.

Ok; turns out you need bail money, we'll take up a collection from here.

Or .... organize a jailbreak.  Course you'll have to live on the lam after that and that will mean the end of your business anyway, so .....

In the event you choose to go Galt, we'll have a Plan B.

[Predator Don]

Oh fer crissake!  It never stops, does it.

Ok; turns out you need bail money, we'll take up a collection from here.

Or .... organize a jailbreak.  Course you'll have to live on the lam after that and that will mean the end of your business anyway, so .....

In the event you choose to go Galt, we'll have a Plan B.

I'm not complying. I don't care. First of all, if the state wants this info, its already available. I file taxes, business and personal. What steams me is both the surety bond and this piece of legislative crap are brought to you by the strong lobby of our state YMCA's. It has thier fingerprints all over it. My state is complicit in attempting to put small business out of business, because people can't afford to pay 100 bucks a month for thier dues.

They will not get this from me. I'll sell the place first.

[rickl]

It pisses me off no end the way government is constantly moving the goal posts, so that what was legal yesterday becomes illegal today.

[Sectionhand]

I wouldn't mind joining your gym and paying the monthly dues . It's paying for the Emergency Squad to revive me after every workout that would break me . I ruined my hands boxing at the last club I joined . The ref kept stepping on them .

[Weisshaupt]

They will not get this from me. I'll sell the place first.

The way I look at it, my TEOTWAKI planning has two purposes: 1) to protect me and mine in case the Dolllar does really collapse 2)  to allow me to "Go Galt" even if this socialist/fascist/corporatisst/crony govt  crap  somehow manages to limp along.

[charlesoakwood]

I think it used to be called a double set of books or double bookkeeping or something like that. 

Don't tell them to go to hell, Clemens did that and look at him today.

[michelleo]

It pisses me off no end the way government is constantly moving the goal posts, so that what was legal yesterday becomes illegal today.

that's how they control you...by turning law-abiding citizens into rule-breakers.  Then they overlook their friends and palm-greasers, and prosecute their enemies and those who refuse to back-scratch....just like the mafia.

[Dan]

"Running" two sets of books is the [phrase IIRC.
Clemens lied...as did the runner, Joyner? or whatever her name was. That is what pisses 'em off.
Of course, telling a bureaucrat to screw will get him on your case, so that's probably where it started for the Mouth.

And "Going Galt" is a fictitious solution. In the real world, it's called quitting. Don't quit on our Republic. I ask this for my kids.  
What if Washington, Jefferson, Hancock, et.al. took that route?

And you're 100% right Michelle. The only people who succeed in socialist economies are those who sit up and beg when told. We're seeing that here nowadays.

[Predator Don]

I've contacted (e mailed) both my Representative in the county I live and the county my business resides. I've requested this be investigated and begin the steps needed to remove the amendment. I made my case that this is not the states business. I made my case that this info is already available. I asked a few questions, as to how can I qualify for the exemptions given to other fitness establishments.

I also requested a rational explanation as to why this is the states business, what is the consequence if I choose not to comply and what will be done with my info, if I chose to comply. I didn't like writing as if I might comply, but I don't want some state employee snooping around me. This is a shame. I don't like the idea of being intimidated.


I need an explanation. I shutter to think what the state would do if they deemed my personal or business financials inadequate.

[rickl]

"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris.  "We WANT them broken.  You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against--then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures.  We're after power and we mean it.  You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it.  There's no way to rule innocent men.  The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.  Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one MAKES them.  One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.  Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens?  What's there in that for anyone?  But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted--and you create a nation of law-breakers--and then you cash in on guilt.  Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

--Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged" (1957)

[Dan]

When I read that the first time, it was like an epiphany.

[Weisshaupt]

And "Going Galt" is a fictitious solution. In the real world, it's called quitting. Don't quit on our Republic. I ask this for my kids.  
What if Washington, Jefferson, Hancock, et.al. took that route?

And you're 100% right Michelle. The only people who succeed in socialist economies are those who sit up and beg when told. We're seeing that here nowadays.

"Going Galt" happens by degree, and is anything but ficticous. You may not even be aware or conscious of your decision to "go Galt".. It just no longer makes economic sense to keep keep working as hard,  to hire a new employee, to start a n expansion or a new line of business. While I have no hard evidence to prove it, I suspect much of Hauser's Law is a result of people going galt in response to higher tax rates.. if they raise the  top marginal rate  to 60%, some percentgae of people don't find it worth it to put in the extra time/effort to earn the next dollar of which they only keep 40 cents,  raise it to 90%  and even more people make that decsion because it only gets them a dime. It is the inevitable consequence of Socialism and of punishing the producers. I wrote a post on this a while back: http://ittbbb.blogtownhall.com/2009/03/20/who_john_galt_is.thtml

You can't quit on a Republic that no longer exists.  Washington, Jefferson, Hancock and the rest of the Founders took up arms to create a Republic-- and it was lost - long before I was born. Momentum has carried us another 100 years or so, but now there isn't room for honest men. . You can either beg for your table scraps from the Socialists,  or you can drop out, and become a Neo-Hippie in the style Leary originally intended (only without the drugs)

 

"Turn on" meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers that engage them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. "Tune in" meant interact harmoniously with the world around you - externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. "Drop out" suggested an active, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. "Drop Out" meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean "Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity". Timothy Leary- Flashbacks .

I have kids too, and the only way to help them and to  hurt this beast is to deprive it of revenue. We will leave our kids with a way of life that is independant of the government, and that is as close to freedom as we are going to be able to get.  I don't see it a quitting, merely responding to the incentives given.  If a new Washington, Jefferson or Hancock  shows up to lead us in rebellion and  in arms, I will follow,and support it. Hell the founders WOULD have been done by now. I just fear there are not enough Americans left willing to fight, and the process is now so corrupt we have no chance of winning in an election.  

  

[ToddF]

Sounds to me like rent seeking trash trying to squeeze the little guys out of business.

I have mentioned how much I loath rent seeking trash, and the politicians that service them, haven't I?

[rickl]

Well said, Weisshaupt.

The idea of "going Galt" isn't new.  Slaves have practiced it from time immemorial.  Those who were condemned to a life of forced labor fought back by doing the bare minimum of labor necessary for survival.  They would slack off whenever their master's back was turned.  And of course they tried to escape whenever they could.

What was new with Rand was her realization that people who work with their minds could do the same.  That was why Hugh Akson, a world-class physicist philospher, chose to run a roadside diner instead.

"Going Galt" isn't quitting.  It's the individual saying to the totalitarian state, "You don't own the product of my mind, and I will deny it to you.  I will do the bare minimum for my own personal survival, but no more."

The British Empire of King George III in the 18th century didn't hold a candle to modern forms of totalitarianism.  America's founders rebelled over trivial levels of taxation and regulation compared to what we're facing today.  We probably should have had a second American Revolution in the 1930s.  Today, it may well be too late, and we may just need to wait for the collapse of the centralized state and try to pick up the pieces afterwards.

[AlanS]

I'll sell the place first.

To sell it means they've won.

[rickl]

I'll sell the place first.

To sell it means they've won.

I don't agree.  Neither did Ayn Rand. 

Selling it and walking away says that you're refusing to play the game by their rules.  Closing a business eliminates jobs and reduces the tax base.  It says "F*ck You" to the state.

[Pandora]

I'll sell the place first.

To sell it means they've won.

No.  They might believe they've won.  What accrues to them though is *nothing*, and Don moves his assets, of all types, into providing only for his family, in an off-the-grid manner, and the looters get bupkis.

[Dan]

No, folks, you're dead wrong. You're pulling your chips off the table and quitting the game. You're quitting on all the other citizens who want this to work and will eventually fight for it. You're taking your ball and going home. What Rand wrote about was fiction. There is no hidden valley to run to. Literally or figuratively.
I understand the concept has been done i.e slavery, but that's vastly different. Those people had literal chains on them and guards standing over them. It was their only form of resistance, token as it was. There obviously was no democratic solution from their standpoint. That ours is either being stolen or has already been stolen (our voting process has been corrupted and will be more so if anything resembling amnesty passes) is leaving us w/ little time and fewer options..
And please tell me how that course of action, pulling your money and productivity out of circulation, could possibly affect an entity that can create and print it's own money via fiat? You're hurting yourself more than them.

But I still hope to get the chance to stand w/ you when those 2d Amendment remedies are implemented.

[Weisshaupt]

No, folks, you're dead wrong. You're pulling your chips off the table and quitting the game. You're quitting on all the other citizens who want this to work and will eventually fight for it. You're taking your ball and going home. What Rand wrote about was fiction. There is no hidden valley to run to. Literally or figuratively.
And please tell me how that course of action, pulling your money and productivity out of circulation, could possibly affect an entity that can create and print it's own money via fiat? You're hurting yourself more than them.

But I still hope to get the chance to stand w/ you when those 2d Amendment remedies are implemented.

The "Game" as it were is over.  We lost - a long time ago in fact. With the Income Tax Amendment. With the Popular vote of Senators. With FDR and the New Deal. If a 2nd Amendment remedy is forthcoming, I don't doubt that most here WILL stand with you, and we will be able to BECAUSE we have Gone Galt and are still independent of the government. Yes, we are taking the ball and going home.. but that doesn't mean we are throwing the ball  away.. merely that we are unwilling to play ball when the rules are so F'd.

We can hurt the government by withdrawing effort because of the nature of money-- it is a symbol of value, but not value itself.. When nothing of value is created, there is nothing to loot. Print the money, and it becomes more meaningless - because it is backed by nothing- the government can't be productive. . You force the government into a situation where it must try to use the whips and chains, where it must overtly take from people that already have little, and it forces these jerks to understand who and what they are and to display it.

Under thecurrent system youcan be a  chump or a looter, or withdraw.  A chump still produces, and that bread is taken and given to those who didn't produce. It keeps them alive. Produce only enough for you and yours..and have the ability to prevent its being taken by force, and those slimy little toadies starve.  I wish there was an armed rebellion going on, because it would be the better and faster way... but that is also forcing a rule change and refusing to play ball with the corrupocrats... Playing by the rules is no longer an option, and the more we demonstrate how inept and hopeless an blind faith in govt is, the faster we might get to a flash point- or not.   I see no other option now other than to let the ship of State sink under the weight of the parasites - the  rats, drowning the rats along with it. I suspect we will need water flooding the higher decks before enough people  will take up arms against the rats, and by then, it will be too late to save the ship.  We know how to build a life boat, how to swim and how to build a new Ship once the rats have gone down with the old one - but that means we need to be well clear of her when she goes down so we don't get sucked down after her.