The Battle For Liberty

Historically freedoms were almost always achieved by battle - fights to achieve liberty, and fights to keep it.

The instances where people have been granted more freedom without a violent struggle are very difficult to find. Those in power always seem to want more power - until those under their power become slaves. America was founded by those leaving a powerful government.

Slaves are poor producers and not at all creative - but who cares when you have hundreds of millions of them?

In America for instance confiscatory taxes from all governing bodies keep growing, and are now over 50% of income. In the 1950's one person in the couple worked - and they did well, with taxes of under 5%. Now both parties work, and increasingly one of them works two jobs. Earnings adjusted for inflation are down so the lifestyles of the couples will continue to fall.

The couples incomes taxes, fees, social security, penalties, employer's required matching fees, and unfunded government debt, etc are well over half their combined income. One of the two is a slave to taxes - and receives scant benefit for their slave labor - they are working for the big bureaucratic government - for free.

America has a debtor's prison still, don't pay your taxes - you can go to jail.

All government is basically managed by violence, or the threat of violence. "Get out of line, the man comes and takes you away." was a Vietnam war protest song - it is now the way of American life.

Actually there are several problems with any large government.

• Once you get above the size of a tribe there is no less efficient way to meet individual needs than to create a bureaucracy.

• There is also no less ethical way to meet a perceived need than to create a bureaucracy and force others to fund it.

• Those that have a greed in mind rather than a need have no better tool to escape responsibility for reprehensible acts than get a bureaucracy to order them done.

That unfortunately is how all modern governments work.

Big government is now forcefully removing liberty from the country. Both major parties are ready to lie, intimidate, and physically fight to keep government and their power growing.

Is the only way to restore liberty another battle? Or has the battle already been lost by a people too cowed to protest? "A nation of sheep begets a government of wolves." - unknown

Read up and study a bit of history - see if you can find that rare instance where powerful interests willing gave freedoms back to a people once they were taken.

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Tough Choices For Your Business

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If you want to profit from direct marketing, and in particular Internet marketing, you need to build a list of "opt in" folks that want to hear from you.

I have an e-book on Internet marketing that includes a couple of months of lessons, and it gets me a bit larger list. Those that like what I write, and enjoy all that free information, may learn that they can trust my recommendations. That is good for me and for them.

Those that don't like my writing "opt out."

I have also just found a group of products offered by an experienced and successful direct marketer that are honestly far more powerful than my single e-book.

That presents me with two problems, to recommend his product firstly, and to build his list secondly. Not my list, his list.

Here is the best solution I can come up with since I know my Internet marketing e-book also has value.

Absolutely get his products - they are almost free - they are very professional - they can make you a lot of money.

Consider getting my e-book also. It is free - follow the course and you will learn the Internet marketing business.

For your own sake get them both, but sadly, if you only get one - get his.

Allan

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A Nebulous Distinction

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The various groups of our society use self descriptives of inclusion while their actions are exclusionary.

To appeal to the whole of society -- affiliations carry tags that state their purpose which are in sharp contrast to their reality.

If they say they are in favor of diversity - their membership is made up of minorities that shun association with the majority. If they say they are in favor of tolerance - they are singularly intolerant of any group they consider exclusionary. If they say they are seeking freedom of expression - they are likely a vocal group that will try to drown out and insult others.

Their selected descriptive names end up being a baseball bat to strike at societies head. They want an action extended to them that they would not consider extending to others.

To pick a positive attribute for your groups name is a marketing ploy to raise guilt free donations - but is is even more deceptive than any marketing ploy you may despise from other interests.

Is there a solution, or should there be one?

As in most mass communications the proposed answers are in mass controls - regulations and laws. Almost every regulation and law creates the exact opposite effect of the intended consequence - and a host of unexpected side effects which are mostly detrimental. These effects inspire more laws - and more difficulties.

The answer is not societal at all. An alert individual will laugh at the silly pronouncements of these self styled liberating gangs with an exclusionary agenda and move on. You can be such an individual, but society and their institutions will not teach you how.

Define yourself.

Define yourself not by the group you belong to, or the groups your group excludes, but by your own decisions and choices. Don't go looking for someone to teach you how to be an individual - just start being one today.

Right now.

"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." - Voltaire

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Both Sides Of Your Business Tapestry

Consultants love great words like synergy.

Talking about the whole being greater than the sum of its parts creates an attractive picture. The tapestry we weave is one where benefits blend with interrelationships and make a beautiful presentation.

Have you ever looked at the back of a tapestry?

It is a mess of strings and strange shapes.

Our neat projections sound terrific. The reality is that it is impossible to unravel all of the relationships and their consequences when we make a change. Most of the time we end up winging it.

We know product A and product B both sell better when they are displayed next to each other. Thats the beauty of synergy.

In reality though how do we make our decisions when product A has to be reworked for competitive reasons. We normally test market various versions of A.

It gets too messy to try and consider all the versions also against product B, even though the existing synergy may be a significant part of our profits. Throw a few dozen - or even hundreds of products into the mix and cost effective testing of all options is virtually impossible.

For large organizations this becomes even trickier. With different profit centers bearing unequal costs and benefits - whats best for the whole is frequently ignored.

Perhaps the best we can do is to remind ourselves that there will be unforeseen consequences tied to our actions. After each change - we need to evaluate the effects on the whole operation.

When we stand back to admire the change - we have to remember to keep testing.

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Changing course

If I have veered away from my normal rants for a while don't be disappointed. You can still review them from the side bar - most of the topics that excite a rant will not improve.

• Public schools will keep getting worse - no matter how much taxpayer money is thrown at them.
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• Politicians of every stripe will still lie, cheat, and steal. Their fully owned junior high cheerleaders will still use doublethink to root for their political team and dis the other party.
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• Bureaucracies are like balloons - they will continue to expand to the detriment of society, until the collapsing industrial age pokes them with a sharp corner.
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• The too big four - government, corporations, unions, and education are doomed just like other bureaucracies. They are dragging society down with them in a vain effort to perpetuate themselves.
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• Just as England in its high tax socialism prior to Margaret Thatcher experienced a brain drain as the most talented Brits left home - so there is now a quiet exodus of talent from huge organizations toward technologically empowered individualistic achievement. (the merely competent and worse will remain)
  

That list is the basis for many ranting posts.

I tend to rant here when I find myself ranting in more sedate venues - A Sovereign Speculator is my release valve.

So expect more rants in the future - for now I'm loving producing new things instead.

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A Money Making Internet Business

It has been many years since I've written powerfully effective copy.

Much of what I have done recently has been soft sell and almost apologetic.

At one time I was capable of the "do you really love your wife" close - although I seldom used it. The "who wears the pants in your family" style only seemed occasionally appropriate. I prefer to use facts and positive emotions to help someone make a decision in their own best interest, a decision they are frequently afraid to make alone.

I tend to write the same way I sell.

The Internet is full of scams promising to make you rich tomorrow if you give them money today. Reasonable people will respond to reasonable projections - not hype. But what do we do to direct the others to real opportunity rather than disaster?

Money Not Made Can Be Money Lost Forever

We use the old negative sell. Fear of loss is a greater motivator than hope for gain.

You don't get much response by telling folks that with hard work, determination, imagination, and persistence they can be successful entrepreneurs - within five years. Maybe.

That is the truth. The learning curve of entrepreneurs dedicated to their own success is a steep climb to the entrance of a roller coaster or a rocket. It is fun for those that pursue it with gusto - fearsome to a bureaucratic wage slave in a cubicle hell cell.

I need to write stronger copy to distract the moths from the candle flame of instant wealth. I don't know if I was ever good enough to do that with just logical reasoning. I am certainly not that good now.

So I write short sharp copy: money making Internet business ideas

Or I write long explanations hoping to coax a reader into a decision that is in their own best interest: Recommended By A Business Opportunity Consultant

What I have not done - that would surely be most effective, is fight fire with fire, hype with hype: Learn how a normal Joe earned three million dollars in two years - you can do it too.

It may even be ethical to use such tools, for the suckers benefit, directing them to a real opportunity rather than the scam they will otherwise surely choose. But the suckers wont stay and do the consistent work real opportunity demands. Either way they still lose.

For the suckers it is their own greed and sloppy thinking that condemns them, not the offers of the scam artist. Heck, the suckers even believe politicians.

For me I guess I will have to keep it long or keep it strong - but I can see no long term gain for anyone in shoveling hype.

Allan Wallace

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