Samuel Edward Konkin III - Counter-Economics: From the Back Alleys to the Stars

Counter-Economics
From the Back Alleys To the Stars

by

Samuel Edward Konkin III

How You FreeYourself and Society, Too

Counter-Economics, by Samuel EdwardKonkin III, courtesy of the Estate of Samuel Edward Konkin III, isprovided under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 CC BY-ND.

First Edition: November, 2018. ISBN:978-0-9777649-8-3

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Praise for Samuel Edward Konkin III

Konkins writings are to be welcomed. Because weneed a lot more polycentrism in the movement. Because he shakes upPartyarchs who tend to fall into unthinking complacency. Andespecially because he cares deeply about liberty and can read andwrite, qualities which seem to be going out of style in thelibertarian movement.Murray N. Rothbard, PhD

TABLE OFCONTENTS

Introduction:
by Samuel Edward Konkin III

Are youreading a self-help book, a personal liberation manual, a financialadvisory, an esoteric economics text, an anti-political platform, amuckraking history, a sensational expos of underground life, or ananarchist cookbook? The answer is all of the above .

That may sound confusing, but the main purposeof this writing is to extract unity from these topics usuallyunconnected in most minds today. I hope it will indeed amuse andexcite the reader about another, accessible way of life, give newexplanation to some of the vexing problems that beset our sociallife, and perhaps solve a few. Along the way, a few more burdensmay be lifted off the back of many of the oppressed especiallythose who have chosen to fight back. Above all, may some of you bemoved to act on your own behalf.

That iswhere it begins with the self. If the individual has rights andchooses to exercise them in the teeth of organized,institutionalized opposition, Counter-Economics begins. One neednot be an anarchist or even much of a libertarian tocounter-economize and most to date have not been. Yet if asocialist or fascist or even one devoid of ideology or thoughtlearns and applies counter-economic acts, the purest libertarianismhas been, to my mind, advanced.

To that end,I have deliberately left the philosophical implications ofCounter-Economics to the end of the book. And to make sure youvefound wading through the subject exciting enough to take a plungeinto deeper theory, Ive put the economics next to theend.

This is notmeant to lure the resistant or to trap the unwary. This book isneither treatise nor manifesto; the author has those availableelsewhere. Counter-Economics is meant to make Counter-Economics as accessible to as manyas possible.

Up front,then, with the deep stuff in the back, heres whatCounter-Economics is. Economics is the study and practice of humanaction involving voluntary exchange. Establishment economics isthe presentation of explanations of human action in such a way asto benefit the establishment or ruling segment of society. Theformer is an attempt at science; the latter is con-artistry. Counter-Establishment Economics is the study and practice of that part of humanaction committed in spite of the official legitimacy (governmentlegislation) to the contrary.

As counter-establishment culture proved unwieldy in the 1960s and was shortenedto counter-culture though not without subsequent misrepresentation of itsaims counter-establishment economics will be shortened to counter-economics . To avoid misrepresentation, what I refer to asCounter-Economics will be capitalized consistently and defined inthis way:

Counter-Economics is the theory and practiceof all human action neither accepted by the State nor involving anyinitiatory violence or threat of violence.

If thisformulation appears a bit arcane, it is required explicitly toexclude murder and theft from Counter-Economics. Governments have anear-monopoly on murder (war) and theft (taxation and inflation)and we can leave the few freelance statists out to give us a sharp,clean distinction.

Given, then,the libertarian moral code of not harming your fellow-sentient,Counter-Economics is doing what you want, when you want, for yourown good reasons. And, with that, we push the theory to the backand get ready to survey the field.

The focus of the book is to show thereader what Counter-Economics is. Well look at it in every aspectof life in all parts of the globe and beyond. Black market; greymarket; dissidence both foreign and domestic; tax resistance;economic feminism; underground schools and shopping centers; gold,silver, barter, and illegal aliens; creative computing and secureinformation systems; gun-running and Bible-smuggling; lifeextension and intelligence increase; self-fulfillment andpsychiatric resistance; sensational exploits and cold, hard,historical revisionism; alteration of inner space and outer space its all here.

After seeingfor yourself, and then understanding in full, if you wish to tryit youll find that you already have! If you wish to expand yourfreedom, youll undoubtedly find some new ideas. Most important tome, if you are already expanding your freedom and were concernedabout its validity, you hopefully will see the picture in full andjudge for yourself your rightness.

If anycounter-economist changes her or his mind about giving up a life offree marketeering to return to the straight, sick, statistsociety, this book will have half-fulfilled its purpose. And ifothers perceive her or him in a new, more sympathetic light, theother half is fulfilled.

And now onto real humanaction. SEK3

PART ONE

Chapter One:
Tax Counter-Economics

A vastunderground economy rivaling the entire output of Canada in size,involving as many as 20 million people and generating hundreds ofbillions of dollars in untaxed income, is thriving beneathAmericas economic mainstream.

All told,more than half a trillion dollars a year about one quarter ofrecorded output in the U.S. is involved, according to someestimates. Even the most conservative judgments start at nearly 200billion.

U.S. News & World Report
Cover story, October 22, 1979

Theressomething happening here. What it is aint exactlyclear

Stephen Stills, For What Its Worth
(recorded by Buffalo Springfield)

Somethingcalled the Underground Economy has been discovered by thelarge-circulation, Establishment media. The Los Angeles Times , for example, during the years that the authorkept close watch, ran the following stories:

July 17, 1979 100 Billion Underground Economy Revealed (Section IV, Pages 1 & 11).Anybody who has looked at the subterranean economy will tell youits very large, Allen Voss of the General Accounting Office toldthe House Ways & Means oversight subcommittee.

Officialsdescribe the underground economy as consisting of persons whoreport less than they earn, including those who engage in barteringor work for cash only, and those who dont even bother to file areturn.

September 18, 1979 Underground Economy Comes Up for Air (Part II, Page 5). Columnist Robert J.Samuelson complains, Government agencies have a way of conferringrespectability on ideas, and thats just what the Internal RevenueService has done for the underground economy. Until recently,this was just another random subject for newspaper and magazinestories. Now the IRS has delivered a heavy report estimating thatperhaps one dollar in every ten of income has gone underground, andis not reported for tax purposes. Suddenly we have a full-scalesocial problem.