Topic: Economics
The Day They Repossess The World... I suppose that I cannot sit idly by in the midst of the current economic "crisis" without at least offering some commentary on my assessment of the crisis/non-crisis nature of what is actually going on out there on the world financial scene.by Michael
(libertarian)
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The Day They Repossess The World...
October 8, 2008
I suppose that I cannot sit idly by in the midst of the current economic "crisis" without at least offering some commentary on my assessment of the crisis/non-crisis nature of what is actually going on out there on the world financial scene.
For as long as mankind has had recorded history the true ruling portion of any society has led us to believe that the workings of economics and finance is an unfathomable, mystical and unpredictable realm about which even the "experts" cannot accurately make predictions with any certainty or expertise which is indeed for them quite a handy philosophy to promote because within this, if we buy into it, we don't hold them guilty for the greed, oppression and exploitations they employ in order to garner unto themselves an inordinate and unjust amount of the wealth that has been legitimately produced by others and illegitimately collected unto themselves by fraudulent means and practices.
The "crisis" nature of current events has more to do with their artificial system of the monetization and distribution of wealth as superimposed upon the actual, physical production of that wealth and thereby funneling the control of it into their own hands.
In recent history, every time an economic and financial "crisis" occurs control of wealth passes into and is concentrated within the hands of fewer and fewer of the true ruling portion of what has now become a global society and this is, of course, by their own design and not just an arbitrary result of economics and finance which are unpredictable--but I speak not of the visible rulers (who are but governors) but rather of those who rule from the proverbial "corridors of power unseen."
Now, the "non-crisis" factor in all of this will put the economics and finance of reality into perspective for all. There has been no interruption in our ability to produce physical wealth. There are still ores being mined. There are still trees standing to be harvested for lumber. There is still oil and natural gas being extracted from the Earth. There was a harvest of grain and food crops this year. There are still cattle on the hills grazing upon the grass; cows being milked and birthing calves, etc., etc... There has been no large scale drought, famine or pestilence; no catastrophic disaster(s) which have halted our ability to produce physical wealth from the naturally existing resources of our planet; no earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes or asteroid strikes upon the surface of the Earth...We, the common folk, are still here, ready and willing to offer our Labor to be invested upon these resources that are still readily available in order to convert them into the useful products that satisfy our needs and fulfill our wants...Nothing stands in the way of this production except the spurious, artificial superimposition of the illegitimate monetization and distribution of this true wealth and this, of course, by design. It is no longer a "national" pond for the big fish but rather it is now a "global" pond and the big fish get bigger by swallowing up the small fish to the degree that the big fish--the true ruling portion of a now global society--are swallowing up sovereign nations by employing carefully and previously laid legal tenets and entanglements that allow them to seize control of the assets of sovereign nations. In other words, they've rode them for broke--it has been unscrupulous entrapment and the nations have been tempted into a position that they have subsequently assumed and which think they cannot [legally] escape...
And we, as the common folk and the citizens of our beloved sovereign nations, if we are going to relinquish our sovereignty voluntarily to the big fish of the recently formed global pond, it would then have to be only under artificial (though not commonly perceived as such) economic and financial duress. Put it to a democratic vote--it would fail. Try to force it upon us and a sizable segment of us would take up arms to resist it. Put us in dire economic and financial straits and present it as the only comfortable solution for a way out and we will beg for it...
So now, I would like to present some historical perspectives in economics and finance. A Tale of Two Economies was almost the title of this essay because, historically, there has always been a correct minority of economic thought that operated in the reality of the physical realm but which has always been usurped, overshadowed and trumped by the artificial majority of scam artists who pursued their own greed and self interest...it is a tale of the Producers and of the Parasites and who has won out...
The word economy is derived from a combination of two ancient Greek words: oikos, meaning "the house;" and nomine, meaning "to deal out." So that in its most ancient and simplest form economics was applied to the management of a household and its resources.
Even to this day, boiled down to its most basic and simplest element, the economy of a nation is the sum total of the production and consumption of each individual household in that nation, the most fundamental of which; food and water, clothing/shelter and energy, have not changed since olden times.
But in the recent and current application of the words economy and economics are used to refer to some high, lofty, unfathomable realm within which the ebb and tide and flow cast everyone helplessly about while the "experts" attempt complicated and mystical explanations and predictions for its vascillations or say, as has always and recently been said, that they cannot predict what the economy will do in the future.
But rather than being an uncontrollable force before which mankind stands helpless, hoping only to cope and to make the best of circumstances which are explained as being beyond our control, AN ECONOMY IS WHAT WE MAKE OF IT!!!
Unfortunately, the economics and finance of today are what we have allowed others to make of them!
About the time that Andrew Jackson was President of the United States of America these words were written by an economist named John Stuart Mills--even though John Stuart Mills ridiculed those who wanted a physical tie between real wealth and the artificial monetization of it (in other words, he was in the camp of the Parasites rather than the Producers) his words were herein quite realistic and objective and should, by us, be taken note of:
"The things [material resources] are there. Mankind, individually or collectively, can do with them as they please. They can place them at the disposal of whomever they please, and on whatever terms...Even what a person has produced by his individual toil, unaided by anyone, he cannot keep, unless by the permission of society...The distribution of wealth, therefore, depends on the laws and customs of society. The rules by which it is determined are what the opinions and feelings of the [true] ruling portion of the community make them, and are very different in different ages and countries and might be still more different if mankind so choose..."
So what he was saying was that an economy is what a society/community makes of it, or what it allows others to make of it...in particular, it is done in accordance to the "...opinions and feelings of the [true] ruling portion of the community."
This is indeed contrary to the current implication that an economy is an unstable, unpredictable, unstoppable force that moves of its own accord by mystic and unfathomable principles and however it is inclined to move so that in its wake and aftermath society/community must hopelessly, helplessly and haplessly struggle and cope.
If then an economy is not a thing which acts of its own accord, independent of mankind and of the will of mankind, but is rather what is made of it by the society/community and in particular by the opinions and feelings of the [true] ruling portion of the society/community, to whose advantage is it that an economy be regarded as such an uncontrollable, rarely predictable force before which society/community and the individuals of which it is comprised stand, leftover to the whims of Fate, whether to prosper or to fail?
"...exploitation of the weak by the powerful, organized for the purpose of economic gain, buttressed by imposing systems of law, and screened by decorous draperies of virtuous sentiment and resounding rhetoric, has been a permanent feature in the life of most communities the world has yet seen."
R.H. Tawney
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
1926
Once stated it is quite understandable that the Parasites who exploit have it to their advantage that an economy be perceived as an uncontrollable, unpredictable force, for such a belief would exonerate them from the guilt of the woes of this present world as they accumulate unto themselves an inordinate amount of physical wealth while others suffer in want.
Before we begin to consider the fundamentals of a productive, alternative system of economic theory, let us consider another statement by a proponent of the current exploitative (Parasitic) system:
"Civilization is what happens in cities and the city is dependent on there being a surplus from the food producer [i.e. the "Farmer"] and on some existing organization which can take it way from him...With this food surplus, the political organization feeds kings, priests, armies, architects and builders, and the city comes into being. Political Science in its earliest form is the knowledge of how to take the food surplus from the food producer without giving him very much in return. (i.e. Parasite)"
So said Professor Kenneth Boulding, Political Science professor and renowned economist at Michigan State University!
Within this somewhat shocking statement lies the element of the conflict, the conflict between the parasitic Metropolitan social structure and the productive Agrarian social structure, Within this somewhat shocking statement is an admission that the current economic, financial and political system is exploitative of both material resources and human resources. Also, within this somewhat shocking statement is insight into the fact that these things encompass not only those who labor to produce food, but all who labor to extract physical Wealth from the Creation in the form of Natural Resources and those who labor to modify these resources into Usable Products through the process of Manufacturing.
Almost everyone is familiar with the term parasite. By definition a parasite is an organism living in or on another host organism, dependent upon it fully for its sustenance without making a useful contribution and usually injurious to the host. The parasite obtains benefits from its host but at the expense and to the injury of that host.
Our current society suffers from acute parasitosis of the economic and financial kind! It is of interest that the word parasite is derived from the ancient Greek work parasitos, which was used to refer to someone who habitually dined at the table of others.
In this current parasitic Metropolitan social structure there are many who habitually sit down to dine at the table of others...your table as well as mine!
Vincent C. Vickers was an Englishman educated at Eaton and Oxford. In 1910 he became Governor of the Bank of England, so he was no stranger to the realm of higher finance. In a book entitled ECONOMIC TRIBULATION he spoke of those who habitually dined at the table of others:
"If productive industry could cut the intervening profit of the middlemen and trade direct with the individual consumers of their products, there would follow an immediate demand throughout the country for a much greater production , necessitating an increased employment of labor and therefore an eventual reduction in taxation. These middlemen, these agents, these brokers and jobbers, money and metal exchange operators, moneylenders, issuing houses, banks and insurance companies these ENTREPRENEURS create nothing at all. They are the drones of the national beehive and live and are dependant upon the honey that others collect. Like the unemployed, they are supported at the cost of the nation."
Vickers was all-too-kind in calling them "drones" which depend "upon the honey that others collect." More appropriately they are parasites dependent upon the sweat and life's blood of others.
In another vein, Dr. Charles Walters, Jr. puts it like this:
"Once upon a time the nobles of Europe believed they had accomplished the physical impossibility of perpetual interest simply by owning all the land and raking in tribute from the peasantry, and when death finally pulled down an economic maggot, then there was always the heir. The historical showdown arrived, of course, and the "new nobles" were forced to invent a more subtle form of tribute taking. It came on as debt, interest, compound interest and all the institutional arrangements required to make the producing community share its income with the creditor."
Likewise Walters was all-too-kind in likening them to "maggots." Vickers "drone" analogy bespeaks of some possible potential future contribution to the genetic advancement of the hive; Walter's "maggot" reference implies that they live off of the waste and discarded feces of their consumptions--but they are indeed parasites; milk-white and pasty, gross and repulsive parasites who need a host much more than the host needs them--but who presently destroy their own host to their own detriment...
...but there really is a flip-side to all of this--a positive one that involves Local Resource Utilization to the benefit of the local community regardless of the global aspirations of the Parasites--stay tuned for Part Two...
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 1 thumb so far
The views expressed in this
article are those of Michael only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Michael is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Want to comment on this
article? Leave your comment here. Your email address is
required to track your comment. However, we will neither
publish your email address nor distribute it to other
organizations or persons. The only reason we might use
it would be if we needed to contact you regarding your
comment. All comments are subject to our
terms of use policy.
