By Aden Tate
History has shown us that collectivism detests the individual. The man who can exist independent of the system, who thinks for himself, who is not easily swayed, and who has values rooted in absolute truth which he refuses to give up – this is the enemy of collectivism.
But if we take a closer look at one aspect of the individual – his ability to exist independent of the system – is it not clear this is an end goal of prepping?
Is that not what a prepper strives for – the ability to exist independent of the world around them so that disaster does not affect them in the way that it affects others?
It is, and this is why collectivism criminalizes preppers over and over again.
We’ve seen it before and we’re seeing it right now, most notably in Turkey.
Turkey is cooked, and we all know it.
For those who keep a fairly accurate pulse of world events, you know that the fiat currency of Turkey – the lira – is collapsing.
As of this year the lira has lost approximately 40% of its value, and from all appearances, it shows no signs of stopping its downward spiral anytime soon.
Inflation is rapidly leading to hyperinflation within Turkey and the Turkish citizens have recognized this. People began attempting to step away from the lira and delving into cryptocurrency in an attempt to protect themselves.
And then the Turkish government made crypto illegal as a form of payment on April 30, 2021. This was done to prevent “irreparable damage.” What’s ironic about this is that the Turks said this was because cryptocurrencies were “neither subject to any regulation and supervision mechanisms nor a central regulatory authority.” [source]
That’s a fun train of logic from the people that are in the process of destroying their own currency.
Crypto – long argued to be the libertarian response to centralized currency – is kind of scary to delve into if landing in a Turkish prison happens to those caught with it. And attempting to dump their personal lira savings into US dollars, euros, or any other fiat currency is practically impossible for Turks as well. Their hands are tied. What then is the natural response?
Your country is being rocked by hyperinflation. Your fiat money is worthless. Forex is regulated to the point of being impossible. Crypto is banned. The price of food has shot up 27.1%.
What do you do?
You don’t want to just watch your life savings be vaporized. You aren’t going to watch your family starve.
And so, you may think it’s a wise idea to put your money into something that will retain its value. This is the reason people invest in gold and silver after all, isn’t it? This is the reason James Wesley Rawles pushes guns, tools, and gear for investment, right?
And that’s exactly what people in Turkey started to do.
Then the criminalization of Turkish preppers began.
People there have started turning to tangibles. They saw what was coming – how things were taking a turn for the worse – and so they attempted to prepare for it.
Then, the ironically named Justice and Development Party (AKP) submitted a bill to the Turkish Parliament asking for fines of anywhere between what would be $7000 – $144,000 USD for those “hoarding….food and other goods”.
That was Step 1 in the criminalization of preppers.
Step 2 took place this past week as 51 various Turks were arrested by police for “panic hoarding” new cars. Turkish media widely reported people were investing in new vehicles as a means of inflation protection.
But this was deemed to be a threat.
These 51 individuals were accused of “lowering dealership inventories,” which allegedly led to higher prices. The AKP fiddling around with their centralized banking system most certainly couldn’t be the cause. It must be the citizens’ fault that inflation is rocking the country.
And so, anybody who attempts to protect themselves from totalitarians must be stopped.
The criminalization of preppers coincides with inflation and war.
Look at what we’ve witnessed in Venezuela – yet another collectivist society that has been rocked by hyperinflation. It was there, after communist policies caused a 20% shortage of basic goods, that Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz called for prosecutors to target those who were “hoarders” of staples of daily life.
In other words, if you had a supply of rice stowed away in your basement, you were no longer safe. Now, you were a target.
We’ve seen this vilification even within the United States.
Consider that it was in early 2020 that the mainstream media criticized those they deemed to be “hoarders” in unison. Have too many cans of soup in your cart? According to the media, you are now worthy of public shame.
It was during this same time that we saw a Brooklyn man have his home raided by agents who confiscated his supply of N95 masks for “hoarding” them. Keep in mind he had purchased all of these masks. They were not stolen. They were legally his possessions.
“Something needs to be done about those people!” is what the TV indoctrinated were being led to say, in the hopes that public support could be used to “justify” whatever policies were going to come down the road in the near future.
Despite public opinion, building up our personal stockpiles is exactly what we need to be doing. And now, before it’s too late. Check out this FREE quickstart guide to help you create your own food supply quickly and affordably.
What are we going to see next?
Is Turkey the canary in the coal mine? Is what is happening there – massive inflation bordering on hyperinflation (all caused by government policy), nobody producing anything, massive shortages of goods, and the criminalization of preppers to the point of outlawing any degree of independence from politicians whatsoever – simply the first case of this noxious policy?
Within the US we’re already seeing widespread shortages of goods. We’re already seeing massive inflation to the point that this is the highest levels of it the US has ever seen.
Does the complete criminalization of preppers within America come next?
About Aden
Aden Tate has a master’s in public health and is a regular contributor to TheOrganicPrepper.com, TheFrugalite.com, PewPewTactical.com, SurvivalBlog.com, SHTFBlog.com, ApartmentPrepper.com, HomesteadAndPrepper.com, and PrepperPress.com. Along with being a freelance writer, he also works part-time as a locksmith. Aden has an LLC for his micro-farm where he raises dairy goats, a pig, honeybees, meat chickens, laying chickens, tomatoes, mushrooms, and greens. Aden has two published books, The Faithful Prepper and Zombie Choices. You can find his podcast The Last American on Preppers’ Broadcasting Network.
If this occurs what you would have to do is prep slowly that nobody knows. Instead of one kilo of dried beans get two etc… When they start rationing then its too late because you will be in long lines for that one kilo of beans. Better yet just start growing your own its not prepping really if you are growing it its your own supply.
It’s not about prepping or hoarding, it’s about you have something, and they have the guns and numbers to take it from you, for themselves. Where do confiscated goods go, into public supply channels? SURE they do.
“it’s about you have something”
(nod) “you don’t understand, mr. rearden. you’re the one who has something to loot.”
for these people, the universe and everything in it (including you) is created for them. it’s all theirs, by divine decree. you having anything apart from them is theft – theft from them. they righteously won’t stand for it.
“Where do confiscated goods go, into public supply channels?”
yes. see, in their minds, THEY are the public, and you aren’t. “the party is The People” is them telling you to your face what they’re doing.
“Where do confiscated goods go, into public supply channels?”
.
Wanna bet? I’ll bet most of it goes to *certain people* who *deserve* it. (like politicians and their hangers-on)).
Governments going after Preppers……nothing new there.
If you’re a prepper, and 99.9% of us who go to The OP are, you’ve should know enough not to scream from the rooftops…..”I’M A PREPPER!” Prep in total silence. Does your neighbor need to know you have 10 cases of TP or you have 2 freezers full of meats? Nope. Does your neighbor need to know you have enough arms to make the local National Guard armory jealous? Hell no.
Now if your neighbor is a fellow prepper and is part of your Prepper Group, I’ll share ideas, thoughts and other things but raw numbers about my supplies, still nope.
Loose Lips Sink Ships. Practice OpSec and go Gray Man.
Even better, buy some land in the middle of nowhere with a well or permanent stream, build a “hunting cabin”, dig a good “wine cellar”, and stock it up silently.
Exactly what I’m doing in the hills of Colombia. And offering 1 acre and up lots to those that are interested.
[email protected]
http://www.carolinerefuge.com scroll past the empty headers and there are photos and videos.
Kinda like The Lone Ranger did with his silver mine. The only entrance was through the floor of his cabin.
Yeah, I’m dating myself.
Too funny!
“Does your neighbor need to know … you have 2 freezers full of meats?”
your power company does.
“your power company does.”
Yeah, not so sure about that. Some folk have 4 TV’s and A/C on all the time, dryer being used every other day and no freezer, others 3 freezers and frugal with everything else. How would the power company know what is being used where ?
Exactly, plus I’m also running on a mix of street power & solar. With two freezers running I think my power bill went up maybe 5 bucks a month.
“How would the power company know what is being used where?”
by frequency and load. really it’s very simple, individual equipments are easy to recognize and distinguish from other equipments. ‘course having that data requires individual monitoring, and the new wifi meters provide exactly that.
If you run your freezers off of a Bluetti Generator or other solar based generator and charge it from the wall outlet the utility should only see the power draw as a transformer; heck you could also use an inverter, deep cycle battery and a battery charger. Those a little bit better at electrical engineering may know better.
true. but then the utility controllers will have a data point that you’re hiding something, and they’ll move you up higher in the “check out this guy” queue.
It’s very old school trade-craft but with an oscilloscope you can discern individual key presses on a computer based on the different signals sent out.
There are very few people left who remember that, let alone capable of doing it.
SMART meters…
Plenty of Marijuana growers have been arrested because the power company reported them.
Best advice.
Dear Daisy,
EXACTLY this happened in Venezuela. It´s UNDENIABLE the close ties of globalists trying to grab power by all means. The very same politics, the attitude, the hate speech (“hoarders”? a family head getting groceries by bulk to feed his family in time of need?) and the finger pointing, as “the reason of the scarcity problems”.
(“hoarders”? a family head getting groceries by bulk to feed his family in time of need?)
yes. absolutely. see, in their minds, that’s THEIR food you’re taking, and they want it back.
“globalists”
and who are these “globalists”? name them.
Never, I mean Never tell anyone you are a prepper, unless they are a member of your household and are on board with the prepping mentality. Be discreet when bringing items into your home. Hide your prepps if you can, and you can get creative with hiding, never brag about what you have and make sure you have some ‘giveaway prepps’ for the cronies that may come for your stuff. I may have difficulty refusing to feed a child or elderly person, but I’ll cross that bridge it comes . Hope it never does .
“Hope it never does”
it will. that’s why so many “preppers” head out into the wilderness – to cut that human connection.
Aden-
Excellent and timely article. I think my biggest takeaway from this is the broad categorization of “hoarding”, “prepping”, etc by big government is the flexibility they retain in determining what constitutes a prep. By utilizing the broadest language in these otherings, they only foment discord while continuing to eat their imported caviar. The sheer scale of the implications is absolutely terrifying.
They want people to rely on government. If people aren’t relying on them, they lose control.
.
Slow prepping works. A little extra each trip. (Also helps if you’re poor, like me)
Always pay cash whenever possible. I’ve always done that. (Prepaid debit cards bought with cash are another option.)
Don’t be afraid of the *Loyalty Cards*. I have several of them. I don’t even remember what names and other info I put on most of them. You won’t get sales ads, but so what.
It might raise a few eyebrows if your name is John Galt, though.
After last year, 2020 The Year of TP Panic Buying, I do not think this is just limited to the prepperverse.
Seen lots of people who only had a week (if that) of (for arguments sake) TP on hand at any given time, now got a month or two on hand.
Some are still buying more than that.
Pre-COVID, I would not of called them preppers in the slightest.
Per one of Daisy’s articles, we do the use one, replace one to our usual preps. Rotate accordingly.
Around here, having a well stocked pantry is just common sense, even long before COVID came along. Same thing with growing a garden, canning, hunting, etc. You know, those skills, knowledge, abilities before Wally-World, or the microwave.
Pre-COVID I would of never thought it possible for some of these draconian mandates seen here in the US.
Now, I would not rule out anything.
Hey there 1st Marine!
Yup, use one, replace one is great as long as inventory is rotated. Me too! Stay vigilant here.
I think the biggest point here is to keep quiet about what you may have. If no one knows about your stores, it stands to reason that you can stay under the radar for a while. There are other variables as well. It has to be a bit more difficult if you live in any kind of a community with close-by neighbors. Can’t imagine what it takes to be a prepper in a large metro area :-0
Gray man is great in this instance. Keeping your finger on the local pulse of what’s happening is smart too.
Hi ya, Dawn!
Yeah, I know we are not supposed to talk preps, but just like with farmers who always talk about the weather, pastures, livestock, when we get together with neighbors, we talk about gardens, hunting, the weather.
But as you point out, it is just the culture out here.
And, we keep watch out for each other. When a car slows down, I make note of it, even took pictures a few times.
I see several major differences in Turkey and the US:
They just started turning to “prepping”. We have done it since our country was founded. Maybe not personally, but even the Early pilgrims and colonists were “preppers”. It is in our Blood.
They don’t have the same safeguards on personal possessions and freedom that we do.
Here we are armed, any large, coordinated move against “preppers” would result in armed insurrection and the Government knows and fears it.( Just look at the fear the Jan 6 Protest, caused in DC; fencing, troops, checkpoints, etc.).
We also have whole states that would refuse to comply with such measures. Just as they have resisted Biden’s various sets of illegal Edicts and his failure to secure our borders.
Now we get to the issue of the government (or other groups) finding your “preps”, before or after SHTF.
You should be Caching your non perishable preps. Even if they are just in your back yard. The amount of time and effort someone would expend in trying to find them, negates the chances of them even trying.
Then there are False walls and other hiding place you can put in your home, for more perishable items that you need to rotate the stock on. This is riskier, so if they can be cached, they should be, but in a separate cache from non perishable items, if it is a large amount.
It seems in the Article, that planning and concealment were never considered as the way to go.
So I don’t consider those people in the article as “preppers” but as “hoarders”, because they have no plan of action and no real depth to what they are prepping.
We must know the difference between the two.
Don’t just be a hoarder.
Turkey has a past, too. It was also an empire – the Ottoman Empire, which defeated the Byzantine Empire and ruled for more than six centuries, even before America was discovered by Europe. It fell from internal divisiveness and inequality.
“Humans”.
I wonder if they thought back then “it can´t happen to us for… reasons”. I´d believe they did, because, again – “humans”.
Every empire think it´s special. Every one is unique, but not special: every single one fell. Maybe US is the first exception to that rule. We´re living just a tiny period of history, so who knows.
That´s to say differences between US and Turkey or any other nation are much smaller than the similarities. These differences have a huge impact in the outcome but ultimately humans are humans, and humans are everything in any context. And the government and politicians there aren´t much different than anywhere else either, so there´s that.
Also to say ” things change”. They change even more and even faster in politics, in economy, money change people, governments, corporations, motivations, alliances, everything. And everything change a lot more faster and crazier during crises.
Weapons. We always come to that. But no weapon can kill what moves and motivates people: ignorance, greed, fear. Or else, all mankind´s problems would have been solved already. Guns kill other people and they kill us, too. And that´s it: a lot of dead all over. I fail to see what that proves, but OK. I love guns too.
Humans are humans everywhere. Things may happen differently in different locations, but that doesn´t mean they can´t happen or the outcome will vary greatly. People are the problem AND the solution.
More to the point of the article, the Apparatus doesn´t have to check on our stuff. There´s like 1000 ways to investigate, oppress, suppress, terrorize and co-opt the population, some without them even knowing. These techniques have been evolving throughout the ages, we´re good at all that.
The enemy lives, sleeps and works next to us. Sometimes it´s our own family. Consider that heterogeneity is a characteristic of most modern societies in most places, and no one is really safe. Technology is also a huge ” informant”. Unless you´re a real spy or a hermit, you can´t escape those things.
Preppers think they´re ´special´, but we´re not. I´ve read countless books on war, disaster, etc. and never found reliable statistic proving preppers rate of survival is higher than any other demographic. Maybe it is, but something goes wrong for whatever reason and it´s game over, I´m dead. Snowflake Joe living next to me didn´t buy a single 9mm or can´t operate a walkie talkie for his life, goes on to live tilll 90 (maybe with my prepps to go through SHTF LOL). We prepp to increase our odds and soften the blow, but we´re not special. No one is.
Fabian,
Great post.
The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long and America has burned o-so very bright indeed.
1StMarine,
I´ll just quote Churchill when asked what he thought of Americans:
“Americans? I love Americans, they´re great. You can always count on them to do the right thing, after trying every other option”.
Which is actually a great compliment when you think how many other nations keep doing the wrong thing after exhausting every other option. Also to say there´s hope 😉
LOL
“Preppers think they´re ´special´”
yeah, loner isolates do that.
Fabian,
Spot on !!
Yup Oklahoma is a not comply, care or worry bout it. Sure ain’t enough feds to enforce anyway and if the military is used then things are going sideways and no turning back. Let’s Go Brandon
“would result in armed insurrection”
been hearing that for 30 years. “if this or if that, then watch out!” never happens. never will.
I’ve pondered hiding things, I read an old Samurai book that talked about where peasants hid food and how they would rip up the floor boards if they thought you were holding something back.
The thing is that if they bring dogs in then nothing will stay hidden, not money in the walls, or guns, or bullets or food. Even if you put things in a food saver pouch and seal it, it just takes on the slightly leak and the dog will find it.
A “prepper” is someone who stocks up in advance, when supplies are abundant. he hurts no one, and is not part of the screaming gimmee-gimmees when shortages show up. Even wealthy ones cannot–cannot–cannot feed the whole county, but they have supplied food pantries as well, reducing the problem a bit.
When the heads pop out of the sand and discover shortages and buy tp, food, etc., when it is already rationed, their efforts to protect me, me, me, really do worsen the shortages for others. THAT is hoarding.
But you have to be a real prepper to understand or face the difference. Most Americans are beyond-spoiled and consider themselves completely ENTITLED to whatever they desire, not to mention what they actually need. When times get as rough as they are about to, these infants will consider stealing and murder to be virtues.
If you STILL have inadequate stores, you need to prep quickly–yet unobtrusively.
NOW is the tail end of prepping. There will be at least a month, probably more, of partial availability in which you can and should stock up on whatever is still freely available (and which you need–it is a bit late to stock up on barter stuff–others need it).
Figuring out ways to grow your own may save your life. But this did not help much in the Holodomor because people could see the crops growing and guv goons stole them.
Learn about invisible edibles that most people simply do not recognize as food.
“invisible edibles”
would like to hear what you mean by that.
The second half of the sentence is the answer to your question.
it’s about communication. I’m sure the writer knows what he means but the idea is to reach the audience.
“do not recognize as food” reminds me of that line from ratatouille, “if you can get past the gag reflex then all kinds of food possibilities open up.”
Good article , but too late … in the second year of FEMA they put in place 3 things that you may not have been paying attention too . 1.FEMA was made as a ” law enforcement” , 2. “They” were allowed to build ” detention centers” , 3.”They” made it illegal to have more than 90 days of food
in your home AND you can be charged with hoarding and imprisoned.
I read this when the re-write came out, but not many realized what it meant.
About this same time there were several other things that started happenning , many states were making it illegal to gather rainwater , and many corporations started buying water rights.
Ther so many “small things” done there is not room on these comments to tell all the things I have noticed in my 64 years. PAY ATTENTION to the little ” erosions” to your freedoms.
As we head into the holiday season stores are showing the ravages of shoppers.
How will that look when double digit inflation and true supply chain issues really erupt?
How will the stores look when people are limited/rationed?
People call me a “hoarder” because I have extra salt packets, pepper packets, disposable forks, knives and spoons in my desk drawers.
Some people call me “smart” for having it in case I forget real cutlery or condiments at home.
You could be a “prepper” for having a garden when others spend money on big TVs.
You could be a “prepper” for having a shed with tools when others spend money on bigger TVs
You could be a “prepper” for having – insert whatever item that is practical – when others spend money on the biggest TVs.
Now throw in limited supply, scarcity, and people being scared to death.
You’ll be a “hoarder” because you grew a garden and saved the seeds and now no one can get that particular seed.
You’ll be a “hoarder” because you accumulated practical tools and now people can’t get and/or afford them.
You’ll be a “hoarder” because you laid back -insert scarce item – knowing shortages were coming.
The point is people will put on whatever name they want for you because you just became a “have” instead of a “have not” by out thinking them.
Most prudent people see the writing on the wall and are stocking up on things and don’t really care how they get labelled but they need to be.
We have seen how other countries have acted during an economic/currency collapse so we should take heed and plan accordingly.
Call it OPSEC, call it hiding, call it being quiet, call it “grey man” but at the end of the day, you need to look and act like a “have not” because otherwise you’ll stand out in the crowd and that is never a good plan.
“at the end of the day, you need to look and act like a ‘have not’”
most “preppers” like to talk about how they have everything they need out in the country. do you think the cities will see it that way when things get tight, and take action?
“Call it OPSEC, call it hiding, call it being quiet, call it “grey man” but at the end of the day, you need to look and act like a “have not” because otherwise you’ll stand out in the crowd and that is never a good plan.”
Make sure you have some normal for your area clothes that are a couple of sizes too big. Wear these so people will see the too big clothes and think you’ve lost a lot of weight. You’ll fit in with those who haven’t had enough to eat and have lost weight due to that.
I’ve noticed at thrift stores that large to 2XL are usually picked clean but there will be a decent selection of 3XL and 4XL. These are perfect for looking like you’ve lost a lot of weight.
Another Great Article by Aden, Thank you Daisy for the warning and printing it.
Keep putting out the articles.
Stay Safe,
Dennis Porter
Here’s the problem: keeping one’s mouth shut is easy. But what if you need to have a worker or trades type in? Hiding is a good thing, but it’s difficult to hide two freezers and shelves fulled of canned food in the basement, when that trades person needs to be in the basement to complete the contracted work. As people become hungrier, rest assured these things will be remembered. In fact I think Selco even mentions this.
“these things will be remembered”
centralized, data-based, parsed for prioritization, and assigned to waiting “social justice warrior” teams as scheduling permits.
just like in the soviet union. same people, same playbook.
D I Y .
“collectivism detests the individual”
not quite. rather “collectivism” hates anything it doesn’t own and control. especially nations, because those are the real threat to the “collective” – individuals are no threat to a “collective” at all, but are disposed of individually at leisure.
“Does the complete criminalization of preppers within America come next?”
not exactly. the process is to criminalize everyone and everything that “the left” doesn’t own and control.
FEMA is not your friend. They are “authorized” to go door to door if necessary and SEIZE–at gunpoint–anything you have that they need: Food, water, fuel, clothing, tents, firearms, ammo, etc. Presumably that “authority” also includes the right to conduct illegal searches of your property to find your stuff they will steal from you. You either have to be completely off the grid (nearly impossible: no bank or other commercial accounts, no cars, real estate or other property in your name, no commenting on sites like this, etc.), or have your stuff so well hidden that they can’t find it. I would recommend a stash in plain sight for them to steal–while most of your stuff is so well hidden that dogs, metal detectors and soil density detectors can’t find it–and THAT is much harder than you think.
“FEMA is not your friend. They are “authorized” to go door to door if necessary and SEIZE–at gunpoint–anything you have that they need: Food, water, fuel, clothing, tents, firearms, ammo, etc.”
And that right there is why the second amendment won’t save you when you need it most. At that moment it won’t exist.
“I would recommend a stash in plain sight for them to steal–while most of your stuff is so well hidden that dogs, metal detectors and soil density detectors can’t find it”
the book “the mandibles” addresses that. most searches will be “pressure” – the troops simply rampage through the house hoping to make you panic and simply turn over what they’re looking for, then they move on after a few minutes because they have a lot more houses to search.
now a real boolshevik search is much simpler. they just run a bulldozer back and forth across your house until it’s all reduced to matchsticks, then sift through the debris. if they need to dig up your property they’ll make YOU do it, while stationing a guard to watch you for however long it takes.
the point being that you can’t hide, you’re going to have to fight.
No such thing as “off the grid” if you pay property taxes. You are very much on their grid.
If memory serves we’re already screwed, Bathhouse Barry signed legislation while renewing aspects of the Patriot Act, and specifically legalized the government’s confiscation of our stores.
So we must hide it, and for God’s sake, don’t talk about it.
One way to help your Preps, sign up for commodity disbursements, but that’s what you save is the rice, beans, and other USDA Food stuffs. In a few months you’ll have quite the supply of staples.
Yes, in answer to your question,Aden, it will happen here. Sooner than anyone realizes.
Could you Pleeeez insert a link for forwarding by email to friends. A lot of Preps don’t use social media. Thanks
Spreading fake news is not helpful and diminishes the message you’re trying to send.
Aden Tate tells a tall tale about the Brooklyn man who hoarded masks. I do give him credit for linking to the story though.
The man had massive amounts of masks, not for his own personal stash or even to share with friends & family. His intent was to sell them at price-gouge levels which he tried to do. This in and of itself doesn’t justify confiscation, but you have to always remember the state can do whatever it wants and can suspend or interpret the Constitution any way it wants in time of crisis.
Do you guys not even read Selco?
The Brooklyn man engaged with FBI (his first mistake) and as soon as he started answering questions (huge mistake) he set himself up in case he told them any falsehoods (a crime). He could have easily told the truth and said he anticipated demand and stocked up to make a reasonable profit. That is not a crime. But he lied which gave them all they needed to arrest, charge and confiscate the “evidence”. He should have kept his mouth shut and called his lawyer.
The man is an idiot and not a prepper at all, and deserves no sympathy. He really was hoarding and not prepping. And anyone here who thinks they can rely on the government to respect their rights and play fair is not really a prepper either.
And what’s wrong with this man making a PROFIT? Who makes the determination as to what markup he ought to charge before it’s considered “price-gouging”? That same argument is being used against established businesses that, frankly, due to demand, don’t exactly have to hold “sales”. Not that I don’t feel a sense of “Karma, bitches”, when someone of his ilk gets tripped up.
Declaring an “emergency” doesn’t give the Government an excuse to confiscate private property, else; there is no such thing.
A case in point from many decades ago: in the Depression, in SE Ohio, a farmer who did have quite a bit of land was in a quandry. Some of it was wooded, and he’d made money cutting timber and, in fact, operated a sawmill. But falling lumber prices made the effort unprofitable. He was also barely making a living from the crops he and his sons raised, as food prices were also rock-bottom. With his boys soon to be young men, and if the land was barely sustaining the one family, the father couldn’t expect it’d support each boy’s family once he married. He decided to go into the scrap business; and it was hard going at first, but eventually he acquired inventory, customers, and a good reputation. Moreover, as his sons became old enough to work the business, it could grow and did. With plenty of land, and a lot of it wooded, there was no problem in having piles of metal scrap, thousands of tons of it, lying around. The farmer-turned-scrap dealer particularly liked to deal in aluminum, as it endured the weather well, and prices fluctuated enough that he could “buy low, sell high”. As the war clouds brewed overseas, and American aircraft manufacturers ramped up production of warplanes, jobbers came to him regularly. Once Pearl Harbor happened, the Government demanded a huge jump in aircraft production, and the War Production Board itself came calling, wanting to buy ALL his aluminum inventory. He was quite willing to sell, until the Government demanded a steep discount due to it obviously large volume purchase. The dealer refused to sell until his price was met. Angered at this man’s price demand, he was denounced in the press as a “war profiteer”. The WPB, after several months, tired of negotiating, and went to the Federal Court to order his aluminum seized, and took it. It took years of expensive litigation before this man collected payment, which, of course, wasn’t what he’d originally sought.
America does not want its citizens to be self sufficient.
Please see my youtube channel to see what they are doing to a self sufficient disabled genius who had to flee America because of loss of social skills and government harassment
youtube.com/user/diaryofawolf
look for the attack by rogue police video.
The fellow who a couple of years ago attempted to corner the N95 mask market is one Baruch Feldheim. Sez it all. KARMA.
But you’re right, the supplies were his property, LEGALLY obtained. If a doctor was willing to cough up $12/mask, it either means he was woefully unprepared, or just plain stupid.
Poor turkey….