Seeems a bit odd to engage in a discussion/debate over ‘money’ when we have so many other legal issues demanding our attention.
I’ll offer this item from the very astute Jesse as an illustration of ‘mainstream thinking’ on the matter.
I, as most of you are well aware, disagree with most mainstream arguments/rationales surrounding that failed attempt to ‘simplify’ barter commonly known as ‘money’.
What you SHOULD glean from Jesse’s article is the (in my opinion) ‘mistaken’ notion that the value of gold is somehow immutable and that all ‘value’ stems from this singular relationship.
So, good citizen, how much IS an ounce of gold ‘worth’?
Before being abandoned the ‘universal standard’ was $35 per ounce. Now that ‘standard is hovering around $1,400 an ounce (and it was stuck at $200 an ounce for years after ‘freak event’ that pushed gold to $800 an ounce in the late Seventies…)
So the relationship between gold and dollars isn’t nearly as ‘solid’ as its followers would have you believe.
for a different ‘twist’ on the same problem we have this article by Mr. Krugman which nicely illustrates the dangers of chasing chimera.
Which brings me back to the destructive effect of focusing on invisible monsters. For the clear and present danger to the American economy isn’t what some people imagine might happen one of these days, it’s what is actually happening now.
Unemployment isn’t just blighting the lives of millions, it’s undermining America’s future. The longer this goes on, the more workers will find it impossible ever to return to employment, the more young people will find their prospects destroyed because they can’t find a decent starting job. It may not create excited chatter on cable TV, but the unemployment crisis is real, and it’s eating away at our society.
There are real problems and imaginary ones. How unfortunate is it that those responsible for making the decisions around here are unable to distinguish the difference between the two?
To put it more bluntly, capitalism ‘failed’ (repeatedly) in its initial attempts to institute it for precisely this reason over two hundred years ago.
Given the ‘global race to the bottom’, where does the ‘incentive’ to create jobs in the more expensive here come from?
Short answer, ‘nowhere’.
Capitalism couldn’t get a solid ‘foothold’ until the ‘basement’ was established (and ultimately closed to outsiders.) Commercial ventures were constantly being scuttled by products produced in ever-cheaper labor pools.
This provides all the ‘proof’ anyone needs that money failed miserably in its original goal.
But capitalism ultimately DID take root…with a little ‘help’ from its backers…and to this day none dare call it ‘collusion’.
So, where are your ‘free markets’ now?
The same place your individual ‘freedom’ hides, in your ‘imagination’!
If you don’t feel like a chump good citizen, you should!
You’ve been taught to chase a lie your entire life and now you’re about to have the rug pulled out from under you…which might be funny…if you weren’t about to fall into a pit lined with sharpened stakes.
Worse, the ‘history’ of revolution within our species isn’t particularly promising. The axiom ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ keeps being verified over and over again.
There are revolts followed by bloodless ‘counter-revolts’ that open the door to the same forces that sparked the revolution so they can seize power once more…worse, it happens EVERY time!
To guard against this constant threat the system itself HAS TO prevent the self-interested from ever being in the position to turn the tables in their favor.
That is why A Simple Plan was designed to put the laws we all must live under BEYOND THE REACH of the self-interested.
A leader’s job (under ASP) is to ‘solve problems’. It is their problem solving capabilities that win them the ‘top spot’ in their respective division.
They are NOT ‘legislators’, they are expressly forbidden to draft (never mind implement) laws ‘on a whim’, to do so is an exile offense.
As I have mentioned before, we need to ‘re-think’ the entire legal process from top to bottom.
Even lawyers will tell you that the law and justice are only, er, ‘tenuously’ related. This is the primary reason for abolishing the ‘practice’ of law as a paid profession…because you ‘get what you pay for…’ which tends to defeat the whole purpose of justice.
Toward that end the ‘deep pocketed’ will cease to exist. Everybody works for a paycheck, no exceptions!
The ‘plus side’ of this change in method is, EVERYBODY works!
Life is a pretty simple equation that the HOPELESSLY STUPID keep ignoring.
You WORK which provides you with MONEY so you can obtain the things you need/want!
Nothing too complicated there, it there?
Why am I ‘ignoring’ the elephant in the room?
With nearly half of the world’s workforce unemployed, where are all of these jobs going to come from?
Easy, we just ‘adjust’ the workday/week so everybody can ‘participate’.
That, good citizen, is every individual’s most basic RIGHT! Each of us has the RIGHT to participate in human society.
Being denied that right justifies criminal behavior, just as it does today.
So we had best make damn sure that everyone is allowed to participate in our society because ‘exile’ (the ultimate punishment for criminal behavior) is a ‘one way trip’.
Which is to say you can’t play the ‘I was denied my rights’ card with the ‘I didn’t like the job I was qualified for’ excuse.
A vast majority of jobs will only be for a couple of hours at a time, a couple of days a week. Surely you can ‘suck it up’ for a couple of hours! It all the more incentive to ‘win’ come test time. If you get promoted, you change jobs!
Yeah, I’ve received some complaints that A Simple Plan isn’t that simple, and they’re correct. Paving a new road without cracks is a painstaking task and I only provide the ‘foundation’, the finished product is up to you and future generations to craft as you like.
A Simple Plan is a ‘finished product’ but the ‘execution’ of it remains ‘flexible’. I propose some ‘variants’ to provide space for humanity’s diverse ‘appetites’.
Sadly the word ‘harm’ encompasses different things for different individuals. It is entirely possible for one man to love what another loathes.
I am of the, er, ‘opinion’ that ‘tolerance’ should reign in as much as no one is ‘harmed’ by the practice in question.
It is neither practical nor reasonable to attempt to ‘legislate’ behavior.
Murder is a rather interesting case study in precisely this sort of verbiage because it only forbids killing between individuals, leaving killing by committee both intact and acceptable.
The recent ‘execution’ of a well-known ‘global criminal’ is proof of this. Bin Laden COULD HAVE BEEN captured…but he wasn’t…because ‘the committee’ had already passed judgement on him.
Talk about your ‘slippery slopes’, we had best stop in our tracks else we set off another land mine!
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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