Verse ancap Brazilian doomer

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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: September 28th, 2023

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  • I’m a libertarian in Brazil, so my takes may be different from yours (I’m not even sure if the word means the same thing for me and for native English speakers).

    This is the far right libertarianism, which has essentially become an extremist, authoritarian form of capitalism. In essence, those with immense power tell us that nobody has any right to oversight and regulation over others. Their power becomes insurmountable, and their control over the economy becomes absolute. We live according to the standards they provide, because we have no alternative.

    Big corporations (which, I agree, are a cancer to society) lobby regulatory powers to weaken local and mid business and to evade taxes in ways small business simply can’t, that’s the source of their power. A lack of government regulation would not be good for them, because it would empower their competition, and that’s the last thing they want.

    I don’t see how any system could succeed, considering the circumstances.

    To me, the big problem with libertarianism is that it requires a big level of maturity from the population. It requires private regulatory and certification companies, union of workers to seek working rights in a non-violent way, and people to support charity initiatives that help the poor and endangered. All of that is not impossible, but people are very used to that being a government responsibility, it won’t happen over night


  • As a libertarian, I don’t trust these billionaires a single bit to do it.

    They are not libertarians, they don’t care about the free market, small local business, regulatory and certification companies, or what else. They are very happy to lobby the government to enforce any anticompetitive practices that will benefit them in the long run. They probably just want a new way to evade taxes, they don’t give two fucks about libertarianism.

    Sadly, tech bros won’t see through it and will hype anything these clowns do.






  • First we have to convince people here that this is a problem at all. Most people think that the solution to the traffic problem is more roads, more lanes, cheaper cars, and better buses.

    The buses are bad? Just make them better. There are too many cars in the streets? Just make better streets

    Buses are that bad usually because they are a monopoly or very close to it. The government chooses which company can do public transportation by rigged licitations, and no other company can do it. Then they have no reason at all to do a good job.

    Most people seem to have given up on the idea of more train lines. No company can do it, only the government. Every politician promised it, but adding train lines to an existing city is very hard, so none do


  • Here’s the thing: I live in a mid sized city in Brazil. As in America, Brazil is very car centric (thanks, Kubitschek). But there’s no trains. The capital city of my state has a single urban train line, and I think it’s the only in the whole state, that’s as big as France.

    Your options here are:

    • use a car and endure the traffic;
    • get a poor planned, crowded and falling apart bus, and endure the traffic, because they rarely have exclusive lanes;
    • get a motorcycle, so you can split lanes and get through the traffic, but risking your life and not being able to carry more than one (adult) person and a handful of small items;
    • or use a bicycle in this very hilly and mountainous place, with close to no infrastructure to make it less risky.

    I chose to use a motorcycle (although I couldn’t afford one yet because we’re poor), but I understand that for anyone with a family, owning a car is not a choice, it’s a necessity (and it’s a very expensive one)