No Treason

I see there are a few other definitions of Sunshine Capitalism on the ‘net, but I can’t think of a better use for the term.

I define Sunshine Capitalism as the human side of malinvestment in the Austrian Business Cycle Theory.

Sunshine Capitalism is

1. When boom time capitalists become bust socialists.
2. When people take cheap and easy credit, and pretend to be entrepreneurs, starting businesses without a market, or the skills to conduct that business profitably.
3. When would-be boom period capitalist geniuses are exposed in the bust times by run down capital goods and diminished or non-existent capital reserves.

1. Bust Socialism

We all know the type.  These are the guys who cry for government intervention in the market place.  The ones quick to sign up for cartelization, rationalizing bailouts, and praying for political miracles.  The sort of gutless character that would rather see his competitor bailed out, if it means he can get bailed out as well, rather than duke it out in the open market he paid lip service to during the boom phase.

2. Wannabe Entrepreneurs

The Wannabe Entrepreneur is a businessman because somehow he’s been extended credit for an enterprise, that in more rational and frugal times would not be financed, or if it was, it would not be a project a relative unknown and incompetent such as himself would be allowed to manage.

A recent example, was a person who approached me about starting an internet forum.  He had no experience, no vision, no potential members, no business model, no support, no friends etc.  What he did have was money for advertising.  When you think you can advertise your business into a successful direction, you’re recklessly wasting capital.

3. Capital Consumers

And lastly, we have the Capital Consumers.  These entrepreneurs can be found at various drinking establishments on a Friday early in the afternoon.  With so much cheap and easy credit, capital goods are replaced on deferred payments, existing capital goods are never maintained.  The goal here is not ownership, but revolving credit, and when the liquidation eventually comes, complete and total bankruptcy as capital is never accumulated prior to taking on new work or long term projects.  Capital Consumers look smart as long as their bank manager returns their calls.

These are some of the stereotypical businessmen I have met and interacted with over the last 10 years.  Now that I see the bust, their panicked attempts to compensate show their success to be a mirage, not an oasis.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today – but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.

Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.

Sometimes anarchists talk about forming liberty colonies or seasteading.  The goal being to find somewhere, anywhere outside of state jurisdiction, or prime for micro-secession from the monopoly institution of state.

The one place that provides an escape from the state and the scarcity of “property” (in the loosest sense, elbow room) is space.

Sure, it might not be feasible to live generationally on space ships or stations.  Sure, there may not be many or any easily habitable planets.  But it seems to me that we’re getting closer and closer to commercial space travel.  And when that day happens, someone is going to wander off the accepted and beaten path, and attempt to blaze their own trail.  It’s quite likely many will.

My goal is to never stop looking upwards with hope no matter how much the state wants me to focus my gaze down.

I’m bringing this up because (1) I am in a sci-fi mood lately, (2) libertarians/austrians/anarchists seem to do a lot more staring backwards than forwards, and (3) a young fella on the Mises Forums inspired it.

The term “monopoly” was originally used to describe the process of a state/monarch granted exclusive privilege.

That is to say that our predecessors understood that all men compete, and will compete for profit and market share, unless a higher power or authority conferred exclusivity on a person or firm.  That the market is a natural state, and that the institution of state attempts to change the natural order to solicit a specific outcome.

Anti-capitalists today do a tremendous disservice to the liberty agenda by reinforcing the notion that businesses are able to attain monopoly status without indicating that monopoly is state driven through licensing and other forms of regulation.

It’s important that we never miss an opportunity to tie monopoly to the state.  It’s not just having the right message, it’s about communicating the sort of information that allows people to see the state not as a series of specific interventions, but as the prime mover against nature and man.

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