Maggie's Farm

The fact that the question was even raised at a town meeting is a lurid sign of how far we've travelled down the road of socialism.
We are not going to stop big government. Federalism** is dead. Legislation never expands freedom but only constricts it. Only by violent revolution that we will be able to reorder society back to the federalist form originally intended. We are well beyond Orwellian predictions.

“The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.”
Thucydides

We do not with our sense of humanity subscribe to Thucydides overtly however to deviate from it’s meaning is to give license to the government, any government , to define our lives in it’s entirety.

Over the last sixty years the citizenry has been presented with a choice. Pay ever increasing taxes to governments, local ,state, and federal and “be saved”, or refuse to pay the tribute in the amounts “legislated” (triillions in corrupted money, kickbacks and such devoured by governments).

Some argue that roads to nowhere, $800 toilet seats , and $500 hammers aren’t necessary but are soon confronted with the overweening truth that if they don’t want those items, they will also not receive money for clean drinking water. Needing the water for survival the citizen concedes and the corruption of the system becomes ever more sophisticated. It finally reaches a point where rejection of any legislation is akin to calling a Sicilians mother a bad name.

Thus the hard realism: “The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.” Our saying from Thucydides. Today it has morphed into “The strong do what they want and the weak have to accept it or else”

Thus is what is known as the Melian conundrum. We are now at the mercy of our own government and many are actually begging for more enslavement.


**Federalism
From Wikipedia
.
Political federalism is a political philosophy in which a group of members are bound together (Latin: foedus, covenant) with a governing representative head. The term federalism is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units (like states or provinces). Federalism is the system in which the power to govern is shared between the national & state governments, creating what is often called a federation. Proponents are often called federalists.

Grant,
The “or else” is that what you currently have will be more severely attacked by more taxes, outlawing, or confiscation of the item or lawsuits bankrupting you. Lawsuits are a favorite for even if the charges are specious, you still must defend yourself.
As to your situation, you happen to be talking to a former Smith Barney & Merrill Lynch broker of almost 20 years experience who lives just south of Jacksonville, FL. I know the life.
I bought a ranch in Montana and in two years will be living there full time. At 60 I have piled it up over seven figures so I think I'll do just fine. It took years of denial, living well below my means, and staying out of debt.
Today I have no debt, three cars, two less than three years old and one, a 1999 Honda Odyssey with 23,000 miles on it.

I do not know what to tell you since I do not know anything about you. Patrick Henry said, “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.”

Our citizenry’s path for three score has been a consistently larger and more intrusive government, demanding more of our personal resources for redistribution to others who have no valid claim on those resources.

You have any path you chose, but I am sure sacrifice will be necessary, nothing worth having comes cheap. If out west is where you chose to go, Dripping Springs , Tx is a great place. I have often thought that a Physician Assistant degree is one that will never become obsoltete and will become more in demand as the Boomers age. They take about two years to acquire. USF probably has a program and it’s just about as portable degree as I can think of.
Good luck
Habu
PS.. There are very few jobs in Montana, it’s a poor state.

Well Montana might be OK but for folks like the Unibomber and the infamous Montana child molester and sexual sadist Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, who fed his neighbors human pot pies. It's a good state otherwise.

Of course there's the occastional griz attack cougar attack,wolf attack,heart attack, but it's all good.

I remember when JFK was president he got on this big kick of having folks do 50 mile hikes. What a crock...he must have been high on the drug du jour...but thousands did and I think you even got a patch for your jacket.
He of course was riding Marilyn for his "bad back"

I guess it beat humping it over hill and dell.

There is a way I can have my cake and eat it too !!!

By riding a bike around the block several times I can fulfill the necessity I believe is inevitible, except the reward will be much greater. Each rounding of the block will be a "revolution" ...so there, we avoid the bloodshed, and the government can only tell me that I MUST wear a helmet, can't exceed the speed limit, but I get to decide how much air to put into the tires.....ahh freedom..