Category End of Brick & Mortar Stores

Jan 26 2024

The Price of Dying – Repeal the Estate Tax


Posted originally on Jan 26, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

Angel of Death

They say the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. And taxes on dying if you’re in the US. That’s right, the luxury of death comes with a price in the land of the free, thanks to the death tax. Now, Republicans are working to introduce legislation that would allow Americans and their families to rest in peace, free of charge.

The estate tax, or death tax, was first executed in the United States in 1916 as a means to generate revenue for the federal government. Supporters said it would address concerns about wealth concentration. The tax has been rewritten and revised over the years and numerous states have imposed their own death tax on top of the federal one. This is not the same as the inheritance tax that directly taxes beneficiaries.

US Representative Randy Feenstra, a proponent of eliminating this absurd tax, believes this bill is hurting farmers in particular. I have heard similar sentiments from my own clients. People fled England to America to avoid government confiscation of property through taxation. Britain has a 100-year land lease program whereby you pay the actual fair value of the property you bought outright. At the end of that 100 years, the next tenant must pay the full fair value once again. This is how the “rich” made their money keeping it in the family and never selling land. It is also why Britain was forced to hand Hong Kong back to China after 100 years.

People fled to America so they could actually pass property down to their children like the rich landholding families in Britain. This was the origin of the term “freehold” meaning you could actually own the land. America was the land of opportunity because it was all freehold and people could for the first time rise from the poor rank to that of the rich by hard work, saving, and being able to create wealth for the family unit. This was the American Dream.

Failing to repeal this tax will change American agriculture. As Rep. Feenstra notes:

“Over 99% of our country’s two million farms and ranches and over 95% of our nation’s small businesses are owned and operated by individuals and families. In other words, the American economy is powered by mom-and-pop shops on main street and farms that have been in the family for generations. Naturally, the federal government only sees these incredible farms and small businesses as potential sources of tax revenue, completely ignoring the sacrifice and labor that made these enterprises successful.”

This is one of the reasons why the wealthy in China are buying US farmland. The manner in which governments globally treat farmers is shameful. The government is not our next of kin; we do not save our entire lives to provide a better life for government.

Jan 26 2024

Your Morning Coffee is Killing the Planet


Posted originally on Jan 26, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

The ruling elites want to strip us of all our earthly pleasures. Swiss banker Hubert Keller took to the stage at Davos to declare that coffee consumption is destroying the climate.

“The coffee that we all drink emits between 15 and 20 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of coffee… Every time we drink coffee, we are basically putting CO2 into the atmosphere,” Keller stated. Every time we BREATHE, we are “putting CO2 into the atmosphere” and this argument is completely absurd. Life cannot exist on Earth without CO2. Surely they serve coffee on Mr. Keller’s private jet.

The World Economic Forum first presented this idea in August 2016 in an article entitled, “Your morning coffee is destroying the planet.” The article begins by discussing the waste of plastic cups – OK, fine, pollution is an undeniable problem. This was also when Keurig machines and coffee pods became popular. It seemed reasonable to find a plastic alternative, but that was merely a way to plant the seed.

Fertilizer 2

Coffee agriculture is a significant global market. The annual revenue of the global coffee industry is estimated to exceed $200 billion, with over 25 million farming households depending on coffee bean production for their living. Global coffee production reached 168.5 million 60-kilogram bags as of 2021/2022, and coffee is commercially produced in more than 50 countries. The United States coffee industry alone is responsible for nearly 1.7 million American jobs and $225 billion of national Gross Domestic Product.

The global market for coffee shops is projected to reach $237.6 billion by 2025. Countless mom-and-pop shops are centered around the world’s second most popular beverage. Coffee is ingrained in countless cultures throughout the world. It is part of our daily routine and way of life. Interestingly, his warnings come at a time when Starbucks plans to expand into China and is defying the WEF by siding with Palestine in the Israel-Palestine war.

YOU WILL OWN NOTHING, including coffee production, according to the WEF:

“The opportunity is to basically bring capital for return in this value chain, to basically, you know, acquire or lease these coffee assets, these monoculture coffee assets, to transform them to a regenerative agroforestry model. In doing so we would create effectively a climate and a nature premium which will have a lot of value for these parts of the value chain that can inset these climate and the nature premium and you end up with basically coffee plantations that are fully regenerative, that are sequestering carbon, that are positive for nature, that are restoring biodiversity, and that basically are creating better value for an asset that has a longer life without actually the consumer paying any more for its daily coffee.”

“A regenerative agroforestry model” is precisely what farming has always been and there is no need to redesign the wheel. The WEF introduced the concept in 2019 in an article entitled, “How regenerative agroforestry could solve the climate crisis.” The article claims that farming, the most essential industry for our survival, has contributed to 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and is the cause of 80% of deforestation. The latter is the key here – they want the land in order to seize the means of production.

LandUseEfficency.WEF_.Farming

The globalists claim that “land use efficiency” needs to improve by 2030. They have already implemented restrictions on fertilizers and taxed the life out of farmers. I mentioned in another article how US farmers are unable to pass their land onto the next generation due to the death tax. Globalists like Bill Gates have been buying countless acres of farmland to prepare for the next step. Farmers throughout the world are protesting the increased regulations, but you won’t see that covered by the media.

The ultimate plan is to force farmers to lease their land. You will own nothing, but they will own everything.

Nov 16 2023

Crime is Killing Brick & Mortar Stores Re-Posted Nov 16, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 


Crime in America is completely out of control. Since looting is legal in Soros-backed blue cities, countless stores and businesses are fleeing. This is also occurring with the most basic stores, such as pharmacies and grocers. Countless stores have begun locking up their inventory, and shoppers must flag down an associate to purchase low-cost items. They do not even do this in third-world countries as the issue here is psychological. Crime and not creative destruction will be the end of brick & mortar stores.

One pharmacy in Washington, DC, has resorted to arranging pictures of products on their shelves. One social media user showed that even the toilet paper is missing from the shelves, replaced with a framed picture of the product. The workers at these locations cannot personally shop for each customer, and people are refraining from in-person shopping in general.

Around 70% of the US population shops online, spending an average of $3,428 per year. This figure will likely rise as it is simply not possible to shop in physical stores amid this intense crime wave. Online shopping in the US has increased by 16.2% since 2020, and global online sales are expected to reach $7 trillion in 2024. This is an international trend as countries like the Philippines (+26%), India (+26%), Indonesia (+23%), Brazil (+22), and Vietnam (+19%) among countless others have seen a spike in e-commerce in the past year alone.

In Asia, the shift toward online shopping is due to convenience. This is the creative destruction Schumpeter promoted, as it is simply faster and more time-efficient for many to shop online. In the US, however, the trend toward online shopping is being fueled by CRIME.

But brick & mortar stores have served a purpose in our society. If I buy a new suit, I want to feel the material and try the clothing on. I do not want to return and reorder items as that eliminates the convenience factor. The troubling thing here is that Americans living in high-crime cities no longer have access to the basic necessities. No one wants to wait 15 minutes for an associate to grab toilet paper from the back of the store. How low have we fell as a society when we cannot trust our fellow man to act humanely? There are countless societies that have say markets with no cashier as each person is trusted to leave behind the proper payment.

We will see a surge of government-run stores that are guarded and managed by the public sector. The globalists will have an easier time turning American cities into 15-minute cities since the city government will already have control over the food supply, and those receiving government aid will be required to shop there.

So while brick & mortar stores are dying, there is a cancerous wave of degeneracy infecting American cities. In recent years, the government led masses to feel entitled and underprivileged. They are the victims despite committing crimes. This view is promoted in universities as well. That us vs them mentality has led to a divide where Americans do not view their fellow Americans as neighbors and it is destroying the most basic aspects of society.