One time a buddy of my dad’s had cancer, couldn’t work and needed money. He sold my dad a pistol for 300 bucks. My dad’s more of a revolver guy so he sold it to me for 300 bucks. Fast forward 4-5 years the guy is back on his feet and wants his pistol back so I sold it to my dad for 300 and he sold it back to his buddy for 300. Then I went out and bought one just like it for 400.

I think that works in places where you know the people involved or at best if you don’t know them you know their cousin. There’s other things involved. If you go to someone who doesn’t know you from Adam they don’t have that personal connection so that’s a non starter because they’ll always have something else to do with their resources if the possibility of profit doesn’t exist.

My pet idea is that the Libertarian Party and its dues paying members would have been better off starting their own bank and credit processing system than wasting the money in politics. The response is typically I would be interested in that if was profitable. Why would profits come into it? You aren’t receiving a return on your investment in the libertarian party. So you’ll waste money on politics but because it’s a business you suddenly have to make money instead of just breaking even or even never seeing that money again but now there’s a system in place that does more for your ability to do business without the government shutting you down with a simple email to your bank instead of taking your bank to court, than 70 years or 700 years of playing politics was ever going to get you.

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Yeah, the preoccupation with profits is actually dragging down the ability to disengage with the state, as only the state and state-friendly banks/corps can guarantee profits.

Bitcoin is making that even more obvious. Trying to make investing with Bitcoin about profits always leads to stablecoins, altcoins, gambling, etc.

And there is nothing stopping my casino bank from continuing to bear interest on my deposits... as long as they feel like it instead of rug pulling.

https://freebitco.in/?r=1600054

People are off complaining in a different thread about how religious people are insane because they spend money on things that aren't profitable for metaphysical reasons like karma or the good state of the soul, wanting to do good, etc., but maybe having non-profit motivations is actually an economic superpower for a group.

Maybe that's why there are so many religious people. 🤷‍♀️ We help each other and pay for stuff, even if we don't get paid back in money.

Psychic profits are still profits. When someone donates $5 to a homeless person, it's not because they expect a monetary profit; it's because the psychic/emotional profit they get (helping someone else) is worth at least $5 to them.

What I've never understood about non-fanatic religious people is why they don't go 100% in. On one side of the balance, you have eternity. On the other, some integers. Infinity is always going to beat some integers. I understand the suicidal jihadist way more than I do the Sunday church-goer who puts $5 in a basket. Why not $500? Why not 5 million? Why aren't you living as a missionary in a tent, giving up all earthly possessions to maximize returns times infinity?

You don't get to go to a better heaven if you just throw more money into the basket. 🥴

Geez, you are completely bigoted.

I'm no closer to understanding now than I was when I wrote my original note. Thanks for the helpful discussion!