Be Thankful If You Were Not Born in the US

By: Jeff Berwick | Wed, Nov 23, 2011

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Being born in America at anytime between 1623 and 1970 would have been quite a stroke of luck. You would have lived in one of the freest, most productive, and because of that, most prosperous regions on Earth. Luckily, America got its heavy socialism out of the way right from the get-go.
In 1621, the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock, had initially imposed a form of managerial socialism. The concept, like it is today, was for no one to have private property rights and to donate the fruits of your labors into a pool with everyone else and to then distribute those labors by need. The experiment, like every other experiment in socialism, ended in nearly everyone starving to death.
Faced with starvation or changing, they saw the error of their ways and let everyone take possession of their own plots of land and enjoy the proceeds for themselves. According to Jeffrey Tucker, of Whiskey & Gunpowder, "This led to trade, honesty, hard work, and eventually bounty. This is why the crop yields of 1621 were catastrophic and the yields of 1623 were bountiful. The celebration of Thanksgiving really dates from a market produced bounty. (The entire story is related by Bradford himself.)"
What followed was truly something spectacular. This region, who had as its most cherished philosophy, freedom and liberty, went on to be the most amazing area on Earth. It attracted all the best from most other countries - mostly because those countries did not have the freedom, liberty and the subsequent prosperity of the US.

THE FALL OF AMERICA

Unfortunately, by 1913, America had fallen into a trap that has occurred so often throughout history. First, it forgot what made it so prosperous in the first place and, secondly, it forgot the warnings of its early founders about, "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations-entangling alliances with none."
And so, in 1913, with the advent of the Federal Reserve bank, the future for the US was set. It only took twenty years for this new system to bankrupt the US Government in 1933, resulting in the US Government confiscating gold from US citizens. Then, less than forty years later, the US Government was bankrupted again, this time resulting in any link to gold being removed from the US dollar in 1971.

The years of 1970 and 1971 should especially be remembered as terrible years... interestingly, all under the Nixon years, although not all of it was completely his fault. On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was founded... a despicable, anti-human idea that still haunts us to this day with the "global warming" scam. To see literally hundreds of shocking, genocidal quotes emanating from the environmental moment, check out this website: green-agenda.com. Here is just one, "Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsiblity to bring that about?" - Maurice Strong, founder of the UN Environment Programme.
Then, on June 17, 1971, Richard Nixon launched the heinous "war on drugs" which, to date, has killed and incarcerated millions and spent over a trillion dollars in the process while making the world a much less free place. The triumvirate was fulfilled with gold backing being completely removed from the US dollar on August 15, 1971. Since then, the fate of the US has been written in stone. After 1970, we never refer to the US as "America" anymore... because it isn't.
It took nearly another forty years for the effects of all these events to destroy the viability of the US. And now, Americans, in many ways, are more indebted and enslaved than any other people in the history of the world.

THE MOST INDEBTED AND ENSLAVED PEOPLE IN HISTORY

The US Government, which under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), has $75 trillion in debts and liabilities, meaning that for each American, there is over $245,000 in federal government debt and liabilities. Or, nearly $1 million per family of four. And this does not take into account state, municipal and personal debt. By this measure, no other people in history has ever been more indebted.

Dorli Rainey, 84, Pepper Sprayed in Seattle

And, with the Patriot Act and literally thousands of other acts, rules, regulations and laws, Americans also can make a case for being the most enslaved in human history. You could say North Koreans are more enslaved in that they are not allowed to leave their own country. But, at least once they escape their own country they will have the option and ability to open a financial account anywhere else in the world... unlike Americans, whose IRS and Government have made it so onerous for international brokerages and financial institutions to open an account for an American that most US citizens are persona-non-grata outside of their own borders.
Inside their borders, as Americans get tazed, pepper sprayed, beaten and caged on a regular basis, they are beginning to realize that the land of the free and home of the brave was a catchy jingle from centuries ago. It is now the land of the fee, home of the slave.

TRAPPED

Today, as the American government works to erect a wall and conducts unmanned drone flights on the border with Canada, many in the US are awakening to the fact that they are becoming trapped.

The US Government has even made it so all student debt is now completely inextinguishable in bankruptcy... meaning that for students who wasted 4-8 years of their life getting what is often a worthless piece of paper and six figures of debt, they will be enslaved for life and, as we are predicting at TDV, will be forced into the military to pay off their obligations.

GIVE THANKS IF YOU WERE NOT BORN IN THE US

In an erstwhile change of fortune, what was once the best place to be born, between 1623-1970 has now become one of the worst. Only those born in North Korea and Cuba, and a handful of other despotic regimes, can be said to be much worse off.
Take this Thanksgiving holiday to re-assess how and where you want to live. The US still allows international travel and does not have complete capital controls in place - although the ever-present "customs officials" hiding down every walkway to most international flights and cash sniffing dogs in many US airports now hints to the fact that the infrastructure is now in place to restrict capital.
Give thanks, this year, to free-market technologies such as the internet which allow many of us to live wherever we are best treated and to establish our finances and affairs in such a way so as to not be under direct assault by government at every twist and turn.
Take this opportunity to internationalize your IRA, move your financial assets into hard assets like gold and silver, and get a foreign passport. And, if possible, investigate expatriating to almost any other country in the world. Almost any other country, with a few exceptions, is sure to be freer and less indebted than the US at this point.
By looking to leave the US at this point you will be following in the footsteps of America's founders who fled countries in which they were heavily oppressed or enslaved or where there were no opportunities of creating a successful life. Take time this year to remember this spirit and remember what John Milton stated in 1666, "Our country is wherever we are well off".

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