Salon: Inside the Shadow Economy

from Salon:

A day laborer waiting on a street corner for a morning's worth of work hacking brush. A sweatshop employer paying less than minimum wage and skimping on overtime. A woman running a day care center out of her apartment. Drug dealers, sex workers, unlicensed street food vendors. A plumber who deals only in cash or a farmer who trades food for help with the harvest.

What do they all have in common? They're part of the "shadow economy." Also known as: the underground economy. Pick an adjective, any adjective: informal, gray, black market, under-the-table, hidden, unobserved. There are many different names for the realm where taxes aren't paid, labor laws are ignored, and cash is king. But on at least one point most observers agree: the shadow economy -- in the U.S. and abroad -- is growing. And that's not healthy. In a shadow economy, workers are often unsafe and ruthlessly exploited, while governments are deprived of crucial revenue -- yet still forced to foot the bill for essential services.

Read the rest:
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/feature/2011/09/29/shadowintro/index.html

Illinois Judge Tosses Out Wiretapping Case, Declaring It Unconstitutional

http://www.pixiq.com/article/illinois-judge-tosses-out-wiretapping-case

What is the Chicago Agorist About?

What is the Chicago Agorist About?

Agorists believe that all interactions and relations are by voluntary mutual exchange lacking any force or threat of force. Ethics by definition must be universal meaning no person or group has a just claim to initiate threats of violence to achieve any ends. Those that identify as the "state" claim a right to initiate threats while calling them by other names to avoid the appearance of unethical behavior.

Taxation is theft by another name.
Imprisonment and all other detainments absent agression by the person being detained are a theft of a portion of a persons life.

We advocate living free whenever and however possible and viewing those that claim exemption from morality under sanction of a fictional state for the criminals that they are.

Mutually beneficial market transactions should be carried out while ignoring those claiming state power whenever possible. Continually avoiding taxation and regulation whenever and however possible, we gain small advantages over those that follow the coercive dictates of those that claim state power.

The focus here is on those calling themselves the "state" and the "City of Chicago" and those of similar ilk in the surrounding area and those who they claim to rule.