What would Mugg & Bean be like if it was a parastatal?

grvdigga asks in a comment to yesterday’s post:

Was having coffee with my mates – about 10 of us this morning at Mugg & Bean. I raised this issue and they all though it was a wonderful idea.

Its dawning upon me that 99.9999% of people fully endorse anything the government does and cant even begin to contemplate a future where they have to think for themselves. These are intelligent, successful people and I suppose as long as the status quo exists they will prosper and be happy.

As long as the status quo is in place I will continue to look and sound like a bit of nut. If it all goes to hell and economies and governments collapse I should be able to come out fine as I have prepped in spades and continue to do so.

The question I have for you is, do I just shut up from now on or do I continue to risk being excluded as people see me as a conspiracy theorist and outlier ?

Additionally, if things were to get pear shaped, do I now rush to the aid of all those who discredited me, or do I just ignore them for being fools ?

Serious questions to which I hope someone has an answer.

This is one of the major challenges facing libertarians, free-marketeers, and anarchists, especially today with the state taking up over a third of the global economy.  People honestly believe that the government adds value, that they are not a redistributive and wealth-destroying entity. I’ve found that making economic predictions without being alarmist, and being correct over time, do result in people at least considering your point of view more seriously.  When things get (really) pear shaped, your friends will remember you warning about certain issues.  What you do then is entirely up to the strength of your own personal and financial position, but you can always advise.  Unfortunately we all suffer throughout this mess, our standard of livings are all declining, even if not in nominal terms, it is worse off than we would have been otherwise, a real decline (so to speak).

On a personal level of being considered a conspiracy theorist, etc, my girlfriend thought I was going loony when I first began assimilating the libertarian philosophy.  Soon she will be my wife, and she now makes better economic predictions than Cees Bruggemans (granted that’s not hard), and sees the world in crystal – libertarian crystal.  Know that you’re dealing with conspiracy facts, not conspiracy theory.

With the state destroying everyone’s standard of living, I personally view it as something of a responsibility to learn, understand, and communicate the ideas of Rothbard, Mises, Hoppe, and Kinsella, to friends, family, and colleagues. The knowledge has never before been so freely and easily available.  It is also the reason this blog exists, to spread the idea of economic liberty.

My advice would be to learn to convey the message of economic liberty, to explain and describe in simple terms how the free market is really a place of inter-personal cooperation and exchange. A market free of government interference is freedom, peace, and prosperity.  If you want to convert people to libertarianism, you need to hone your communication skills. You need to be able to communicate the ideas very effectively.  Understand that not all people have the same liberty key, that there is no one single idea that will get everyone to understand the true meaning of liberty.

Anyways, at Mugg and Bean this morning, you could’ve asked your mates if the government managed this coffee shop, do you think 1) they would set prices right, 2) would expand the shop when demand grows, 3) would reinvest profits to maintain the capital structure, 4) would be liquidated when they sell poor coffee and people don’t show up, 5) would serve you from behind glass security tellers, 6) would have metal detectors at the door, 7) would only operate from 10-3, 8) would answer the phone when you called, 9) would pay their suppliers on time, 10) if they go bankrupt, would they just jack up tax rates to cover losses, 11) would they have sufficient stock on hand to serve customers, 12) would they have a billing system that works, 13) would they bribe people to frequent the shop with subsidies, 14) would they have an incentive to increase their range of product offerings if that’s what consumers demand, etc etc.

Just comparing how that Mugg & Bean operates with your local post office, SAPS, home affairs office, Eskom, Telkom, or magistrate’s court should crystallise it for some of the people around the table in no time.

And right at that point when you can see the penny drop, that’s when you ask your mates why we let these guys run anything, anything at all!

Others at the table may still resist, but it is about converting one person at a time. It takes a small group of people to take the lead before paradigm shifts actually happen. If we don’t, there are fewer who will.