As I remember, the "happy ending" in Manna was only available to those whose ancestors had the foresight to invest in the libertarian Australia Project.....

That was my thought. I want to know the location of his sea steading city so that if I'm forced to be a pirate, I know where to raid for supplies.

Basis Peak, if they ever get the notification software, is a good start, but it needs voice recognition.

Of course, I suppose, if you had a Pebble, you could just program it to bring up voice rec on your smart phone and use your bluetooth headset.

Then of course you wouldn't need weather to decide when to leave work (or IF it is worthwhile to leave work at all, I've had a couple of times when it simply wasn't worthwhile to leave work before midnight).

Free will is not an easy app to code.

Definitely. If a 5-year old boy can manage it then it is worth aspiring to. I'm assuming his programming skills are thin on the ground as well.

This story really surprised me - I expected that sort of behaviour from a Socialist Five Year Plan but not really from the US. Even the instructions from the Party Secretary fit: "The fish division hasn't done anything new in 20 years. Get out there and do something big and spectacular.". The main difference is that the fishing would at least initially have been reserved for party members, maybe top party members.

That story had a link to the next part which took a more modern approach. I found the whole thing fascinating.

And this has happened in every industry invented within 30 years.

Not freely. Restaurants and daycares are regulated by the state, using laws written by larger businesses. They are limited in their ability to compete. Not sure about bicycle shops, but there is a reason why the price is going up, and it isn't because the technology has really changed in the last 75 years or so. Startup costs will prevent businesses from being opened, unless they are extremely minimal.

"As long as the opportunity to start your own business is equal"

There's only one sub-industry I can think of today where that is true, and I've yet to meet anybody who is making a living at it (though, in that sub industry, cell phone app authorship, there have been some big short-term winners, most of them produce fad and fashion, not trend).

The problem with Karl Marx, as with most economists of any stripe, is they are incredibly short sighted, and cannot see beyond the present generation very easily.

Thus B replaced A (Aristocrats) by revolution and good business sense, just a generation or three before Karl lived. So he expected P would replace B eventually (because that's what progress means). He failed to take into account original sin, thus B & P really aren't that much better than A, the feudal lords they replaced.

Ron Wyden I see as giving in quite quickly. He ran on the idea of being a Hatfield type conservative, bucking the party that endorsed him, and then morphed into yet another party hack after he was elected, paying back those who pay for his campaigns.

Same with Rand Paul, he's just got a different set of donors than most Republicans, which can appear to be solid beliefs when they really aren't.

The flip side of corporate political campaigns, is that good businessmen don't spend money without a significant return on investment, for anything.

except Natalie, of Natalie's Cakes N More bakery, is African American.

I notice that a bunch of rich white conservatives though got together to support her:
http://www.gofundme.com/NataliesCakesnMore

The only thing faster than the rioting, is this GoFundMe account, in which she's not only got back the $20,000 needed to rebuild her bakery, but a good year's salary in the bank besides.

by do a lot of damage, I mean completely collapse it. Most nuclear silos though are a hell of a lot deeper than 60 feet, and are built out of reinforced concrete, not packed earth.