Welcome to Prosperity
August 26, 2009
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Good morning friends, and welcome to Prosperity. As you look around you'll notice that a great deal has changed since the last time you were here. Before we get off the bus, please make sure your front and back life saving plates are secured in your vest. Don't want any shrapnel to accidentally rip through your torso like a hot knife through butter. I know they're heavy, but what's another 40 pounds added to your body weight?
"Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism." - Ludwig Von Mises
Quickly make your way to the gate, where the Ugandan security guard will check your credentials. Even Ugandans have found a better life here in Prosperity. Soon the whole world will be Prosperous. After they are done, shuffle up to the main palace grounds. That friendly security officer from the US Army with the loaded M16 will make sure to double check your credentials. Submit to a search of your belongings. They will also take your fingerprints and start a databse file on you. Security is important at Prosperity. Take a moment now to read and comprehend the United States Central Command Mission Statement:
With national and international partners, U.S. Central Command promotes cooperation among nations, responds to crises, and deters or defeats state and nonstate aggression, and supports development and, when necessary, reconstruction in order to establish the conditions for regional security, stability, and prosperity.
Notice all the tanks around the perimeter. We will spread Prosperity to the neighborhood, even if we have to shell them back to the stone age in order to do it.
"What the incompatibility of war and capitalism really means is that war and high civilization are incompatible." - Mises
That smell you are currently taking in is nothing to worry about. Here at Prosperity we are still working out the details of modern plumbing. A little team spirit and a can-do-attitude will guide the way to proper toilet engineering eventually. As some of you may recognize, we are now on the grounds of an old royal palace of the Baath party.
"If some peoples pretend that history or geography gives them the right to subjugate other races, nations, or peoples, there can be no peace." - Mises
Security is important at Prosperity. You can't have any Prosperity without a good Security plan. What good would it do? So that is why you are now surrounded on all sides by 20 foot high walls. You can clearly see the four guard towers overlooking the walls, (and my word what a view those guards have!), and the triple strand concertina wire at the top. Soon this whole neighborhood will be basking in Prosperity, but first we must watch everything they do. That's the Security aspect. These things take time.
"The way to eternal peace does not lead through strengthening state and central power, as socialism strives for." - Mises
As we walk through the main palace grounds, notice that everything in the palace has already been looted. There really isn't much to see here, except all those databases containing the fingerprints and identification numbers of everyone here at Prosperity, as well as any outsiders we can catch. Let's move on.
"The salesman thanks the customer for patronizing his shop and asks him to come again. But the socialists say: Be grateful to Hitler, render thanks to Stalin; be nice and submissive, then the great man will be kind to you later too." - Mises
Outside the main palace, we are building quite a Prosperous community here. Look at all these amazing structures. In just nine years, we have planned and built up this entire fortification. Of course, there is still work to do. Yes, I realize that most of these structures are just 10'x10' wooden sheds and trailers. All we need to make this place great is a little more team spirit and a can-do-attitude! Prosperity is definitely on its way. Our problem was merely a lack of inspiration among the staff. Those people have been dealt with. They weren't team players.
"A society that chooses between capitalism and socialism does not choose between two social systems; it chooses between social cooperation and the disintegration of society. Socialism: is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings." - Mises
Finally, be sure never to step outside of the grounds of Prosperity without an armed convoy. You need a minimum of four tactical humvees, each with a 50 caliber rifle on top. This is the cost of Prosperity. Some people, it is clear, do not want Prosperity. So we have to deal with that. It's unfortunate but we may have to force Prosperity on everyone eventually.
[Forward Operating Base Prosperity is an actual base in Iraq, situated in an urban hell hole in Baghdad. When I found out about it, I almost fell out my chair laughing at the name. It seems that Orwell has found his way to Baghdad.]
"If one rejects laissez faire on account of man's fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action." - Mises
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