The Sovereign Individual

By Stephen Downes
October 27, 2000

Dr. Lorne Taylor, Alberta's Minister of Innovation and Science, gets it. While on the one hand he is supervising a number of information technology initiatives in Alberta, on the other hand he recommends that people read James Dale Davidson's The Sovereign Individual.

From an Amazon review of the book:

Early in this book they make the point that an enormous amount of the revenue of nation-states derives from a tiny portion of its inhabitants and that the state redistributes this income to their disadvantage. The changes they foresee will remove any benefits to such contributors who will be in a position to seek newer and more favourable jurisdictions. They predict that people of 'wealth and talent' will be able to avoid the strictures of geography and 'predatory taxation' and sketch a world view of Sovereign Individuals who can shop around for protection and advantageous taxation systems.

 Well and good. But there's a lot of morality coming into play here too:

The language of the middle part of the book is pejorative. They talk of 'have-nots'; 'under achievers with credentials' and label the critics of their worldview as neo-LudditesÂ… In the last chapter, on morality and crime, the authors hope for a common and generally accepted moral code based on religion that would introduce some humanity into their scenarios.

What we need to be careful about here is the tendency to misinterpret 'being right' about the forces shaping society with an analysis in terms of contemporary political debate. The discussion about taxes, for example, has nothing to do with their being "predatory" or government "rapacious," as Davidson suggests. It is a simple fact that people will be able to pay their taxes where they choose, and this simple fact has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with technology.

These changes are apolitical. We need governments which will engage in infrastructure projects, such as Alberta's high speed backbone, education projects, such as the Heritage funds, and at the same time, being innovative, entrepreneurial, efficient, flexible and attractive to taxpayers. It's almost impossible to do, and really easy to get wrong.

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Re: The Sovereign Individual

Anymouse, November 7, 2005

You are perfectly correct in your reservations re James Dale Davidson.He is little more than an over promoted used car salesman. In fact on that note I owe an apology to used car salesmen,not all of them are dishonest and at least when you buy one you have a product that may or may not be worth what you paid but at least you have it. On the other hand James Dale Davidson has a history,particularly through Agora Inc.with its office in Baltimore conveniently located to the Beltway and his National Taxpayers Union in Alexandria, Virginia where he can on one hand lobby for his own interests in the U.S.and also commit securities frauds that have been for years over looked due to his political connections and the Beltway far right's appreciation of his dishonest psyops such as trying to pin the death of Vince Foster on Bill Clinton and later when Davidson's own employee died mysteriously he used his far right www.newsmax.com to try to blame that on Clinton as well. Anyone can just look at his history of penny stock frauds,including Genemax with its University of British Columbia connections and the idea if not reality of a 'cancer vaccine' and his illegal pump and dump through his many mail and cyber fraud ops of that scam.And sometimes he enlists the worst of Canadian society just as he does the worst of Americans to help in his frauds such as convicted Canadian stock fraud Brent Pierce and Grant Atkins who ran Genemax stock promotion out of a Blaine,Washington office while simultaneously forming an organization called 'NAANSS' to fraudulently claim the collapse in share price was due to 'naked shorting' rather than their own illegal pump and dump activities. The man is a fraud who should be arrested if he shows up in Canada rather than being lauded by lame brain Canadian politicos who are probably sympatheic to his political and criminal greed.Here again not all Canadian politicians praise him but any who do are suspect in my opinion. I could say more but one can google 'James Dale Davidson Tony Ryals' and probably find plenty.Davidson also has a penchant for mining company penny stock scams as well as pseudo-biotech.I know he had a Canadian account for dumping Anatolia Minerals stock on the public, perhaps the Canadian public.And even if that scam mining pump and dump ever did mine in Turkey a disaster or peasant revolt would ensue I am sure.And he held MIVTherapeutics penny stock out of Canada in his NTU office in Alexandria,Virginia in his and his children's name and pumped and dumped those on defrauded investors as well. I suspect he may have something to do with CMKX Canadian mining penny stock fraud that was touted by 'Bob O'Brien' and run is by Urban Cassavant and also mafiosi Robert Maheu of Howard Hughes fame. I suspect 'Bob O'Brien' of www.ncans.net is either James Dale Davidson or his parrot. My advice to all Canadians is,if you see James Dale Davidson hold on to your pocket books and get away as soon as possible. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

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