Yes, I’m on Twitter now…
While I’m not sure that I’ll definitely find it useful, I’ve been persuaded to try Twitter. Those interested can follow me there[RSS] or get a consolidated activity feed[Atom].
We can’t stop here! This is bat country!
We’re in for one wild ride. See here:
Boom Without End: What The Web Knows…..
Which brings to mind a question:
Would there be interest in taking up a collection to fund a Mandarin translation of New Libertarian Manifesto?
Food rationing; food shortages
It’s starting; just a little bit.
I understand that April is not to late in the season to plant potatoes in much of the US.
MORE: US Facing Diminishing Supplies of Rye & Wheat
As Food Prices Soar, Some Shortages Appear
Run on rice makes its way to U.S.
Era of cheap food ends as prices surge
Americans hoard food as industry seeks regs
Bay Area Shoppers Asked To Limit Rice Purchases
Wall Street Journal editorial: Time for Americans to stockpile food
Extraction of THC-rich oil from marijuana
The following video is said to be a demonstration of a procedure for extraction of THC-rich oil from marijuana. Please note that the apparent use of volatile solvents indicates the procedure can only be safely carried out in a well-ventilated area, presumably in a friendly jurisdiction (whatever that might be).
Google stock overpriced? Nahhh…
Concern is spreading that Google’s stock price breaking $700 per share yesterday is ominous.
Since mid-September Google has added 30% to its stock price and an additional $53 billion to its market capitalization — or about one and a quarter Yahoo!s.
It’s amusing to see people point to that as an example of “mania” for a particular stock. While I think it’s indeed bad news, the thing is that people saying this sort of stuff get it precisely backwards. What these analysts overlook is that 30% Google stock price climb since mid-September roughly tracks the increase in the price of oil and gold while the dollar has plunged to a record low against the euro and stocks (generally) are in freefall.
Google stock is only “soaring” because it’s standing still while the dollar crashes — hard. It’s acting to preserve value — like any other trustworthy commodity. This while the US Federal Reserve just keeps inflating away, indirectly stealing the purchasing power of the productive class in the name of financing ongoing war and other government spending.
Micro-biz in a can: Agorist bookshelf essentials
Among the things I’m personally doing is trying to come up with a list of “bookshelf essentials”. The basic idea is to come up with a small stock list for agorist book distributors in cities with local infoshops to offer on a consignment sale shelf at that infoshop, with sales receipts used to replenish that stock and profits split with the store collective in consideration of use of a small segment of their shelf space.
Of course, the local collective may not want you in their store. A lot of that possibility may hinge on your own ability to explain the fundamentally anti-capitalist nature of market anarchism. But let’s assume you’re not a jerk, that you’re very intelligent, that you’re friendly to your fellow radicals and that you have a pretty good grasp of how anarchist schools of thought are reconciled by free association in a stateless society. They may find it makes sense to allow you to spend your own money to increase the stock they have on hand generally and, hence, the wider selection of books they will be known to offer. Let’s assume you can get a small consignment shelf.
Well, what do you do with it? My initial thoughts on this…
The basics, as a matter of course:
1. New Libertarian Manifesto (cost: $12.95)
2. Agorist Class Theory (cost: $5.25)
The very essential:
3. For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto (cost: $27.00)
4. Studies in Mutualist Political Economy (cost: $20.99)
And a narrowly-focused (as well as very cheap!) supplemental one that overcomes a lot of the skepticism about the practicality of provision of law, security and defense in a stateless society:
5. Chaos Theory: Two Essays on Market Anarchy (cost: $5.00)
Two nice optional extras, that I will be reviewing shortly, can be worked into your stock plan at a later date. I won’t use their costs in my figures below and just mention them here for your reference and to emphasize that the basic plan can be changed to fit your own preferences and the amount of money you can dedicate to the project.
6. Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice (cost: $29.95)
7. But Who Will Build the Roads? Market Anarchy Explained (cost: $19.54)
Let’s assume you want to start with minimal stock and, hence, minimal capital investment and minimal risk. Suppose, just to pull the figures out of my ass, we want to stock our shelf at quantities of 4 units for books in the first tier above, two units for books in the second tier above and four units of the cheap third tier book. Simple arithmetic shows how much capital the agorist entrepreneur will need to put into stock.
$12.95 * 4 unit(s) = 51.80
$05.25 * 4 unit(s) = 21.00
$27.00 * 2 unit(s) = 52.00
$20.99 * 2 unit(s) = 41.98
$05.00 * 4 unit(s) = 20.00
Total stock investment?
51.80 + 21.00 + 52.00 + 41.98 + 20.00 = $186.78
So, basically your little consignment shelf represents a little under two hundred bucks, so far.
Of course, you’ll also have shipping costs and so forth, but I’m just trying to provide a rough sketch here. Maybe you should stock more quantities of the best books with less selection, or some other mix altogether. Don’t worry to much about profitability. The business becomes part of your activism and your activism becomes a part of the business. The books themselves are not the money-maker, but an essential part of the business as cadre-building effort. Even if the whole thing is a loss, attempting to at least try to make it pay for itself allows you to leverage more resources and extend your reach.
The thing is, marketing those books is not something to leave to the inanimate wooden shelf to do for you.
Develop at least two seminars, presentations or classes — whatever you want to call them. Develop your own custom material to take advantage of your own unique viewpoints and knowledge. The first seminar should be a free basic one and the second a modestly priced advanced seminar. The first one serves as an introduction and also provides the opportunity to plug the books for sale. The advanced seminar, potentially, serves as the real principal moneymaker and, perhaps more importantly, cements the customer relationship. Someone will have taken a first class, read perhaps one to three really astounding books and then came back to you for an advanced class that fills in some of the gaps and answers a lot of their questions.
Spring for free sodas at your basic seminars and fifty bucks worth of flyers to publicize a schedule of seminar dates. Total cash outlay so far: around $250.
If there are a few libertarians in your area who might support such an effort financially, and you yourself don’t have $250 to invest in it, get your business plan / project plan nailed down in a lot more detail and then put out your request for $500 in donations or whatever through Fundable. With Fundable, nobody pays until the pledge goal is achieved.
Feedback and suggestions?
Money Laundering 101
Students of counter-economics, take note of a good initial introduction to the fine art of money laundering: How to launder money (from Wisebread: Living large on a small budget).
Shameless commercial plug
A friend of a friend has a little button business with some charming witticisms you can pin to yourself.
Kansas City scene: non-corporate food
I was just tickled by my friend Freeman’s post a while back on grey market food supply, including an informal “bread club”. I’ll now be adding the recently discovered Kansas City Food Circle to my blogroll.
“Farmers, are you wondering how to get a successful CSA (community supported agriculture organization) started? Eaters, do you wish there were more CSA’s available so you don’t have to be put on a waiting list to eat the freshest produce in town? In order to help meet the present and future demand for CSA’s in the Kansas City area, a coalition is being formed to grow CSA’s in KC.”
This is far more than just dietary snobbery and hippy-dippy, organic fun and games, folks. A dollar collapse is becoming increasingly likely. Support local agriculture.
