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The unreported facts about the riots in Egypt, and a way forward for the Egyptian people. From Freedomain Radio, http://www.freedomainradio.com Sources: http://www.fdrurl.com/egypt1 Text: Egypt: The Price of Statism 6,000 years ago, Egypt was the first state. 6,000 years is a long time to try a social experiment out -- how's it going? Well, after 6,000 years of state rule, more than 40% of Egyptians live on $2 a day. A tyrant has ruled for over three decades. Protesters and activists are arrested and imprisoned at will. 70% of the population dependents on food subsidies and handouts from their political masters. The Egyptian government spends $2.74 billion a year on bread subsidies alone. The government spends more on subsidies -- including gasoline -- than on health and education. This breeds ever-increasing political corruption and favoritism, endless dependence on state handouts, and destroys Egyptian agriculture, because it's impossible to compete with almost free food. The Egyptian government depends on $1.5 billion of stolen US taxpayer money every year. Why are the riots happening now? Well, the food price index has jumped 32% in the second half of 2010, and Egypt is the world's largest wheat importer, reliant on countries like Russia and Pakistan for its food supply. The Russian and Indian governments have both recently banned grain exports, cutting off Egypt, among others. Egyptian agriculture has tried to make up the difference, increasing its output by over 20% recently, but it's not enough. Fires in Russia destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of grains; Canada's wheat crop was decimated by heavy rain; arid weather in Argentina devastated the soybean crop, and recent floods in Australia destroyed much of the country's wheat crop. But it's much more than that. In America, one third of the US corn crop is forced by government edict into ethanol production, significantly affecting world food prices. The creation of over $7 trillion worth of debt by the Federal Reserve over the past few years has pumped money into the world's central banks, driving speculation in commodities, also increasing world food prices. Interestingly enough, my sources tell me that the police have vanished from most neighborhoods, and so people have simply gathered together to peacefully protect their own property from others -- a perfect example of the spontaneous order that always emerges when the state withdraws. So, to the friends of freedom in Egypt, I say: forget about choosing a new ruler -- look around, at what is working in your own neighborhoods, right now - no taxation, no arrests, no subsidies, no debt - and imagine the possibility of not choosing another master at all! Where are you going to go politically? American-style democracy? Look at gas canisters that are choking you -- "Made in the USA!" -- look at the bribes of the American government that keep your rulers in power. Don't head that way. Egyptians -- stop choosing your rulers -- make the only choice that matters -- no rulers! 6,000 years ago, Egypt was the birthplace of the state -- wouldn't it be wonderful if, in 2011, it also turned out to be the grave of statism?
stefan_molyneux: video link The unreported facts about the riots in Egypt, and a way forward for the Egyptian people. From Freedomain Radio, http://www.freedomainradio.com Sources: http://www.fdrurl.com/egypt1 Text:
The unreported facts about the riots in Egypt, and a way forward for the Egyptian people. From Freedomain Radio, http://www.freedomainradio.com Sources: http://www.fdrurl.com/egypt1 Text:
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it" - Thomas Jefferson.