Saturday, October 21, 2017

Labor, Purpose and Wealth.

We have enough food to feed everyone on earth; but, we do not. We have enough resources to clothe and provide shelter for everyone on earth; but, we don't do that either. We have enough things that we can achieve that we do not need 99.9999% of us to be poor and could make most productive; but, we don't want to do that.

Let's talk about what we could do. We have more than enough minerals and the technology to send us to Mars and beyond. That is not a guess, it is a fact and the fact that we have put men on the moon and sent a spaceship beyond our own solar system says we could do what we want in this arena. We have more than enough people to create a whole industry to put us further into space and improve our infrastructure in any ways we want. Why don't we? What is stopping us?

People who don't understand the illusion of money wealth will say we cannot afford it? Why not, we can print all the money we want and we allocate the resources as we agree to? You will probably not understand the first few times you read it. Money is merely a promise of future labor or materials in exchange for labor or materials today. Money is nothing more than a contract. In and of itself cash has very limited value, it has no intrinsic worth. This becomes real clear during times of hyperinflation. After the south lost the civil war, what was the difference in value between a confederate dollar and a confederate 100 dollar note? None, they were both worth a penny of United States currency and only as an amusement. All of the promises that had been backed up by that cash were voided.

When I got divorced the court said that I got all of our debt (including the debt she acquired while taking her boyfriend to hotels and restaurants as she was cheating on me). The court voided and promises she had made to me (such as being faithful); but, made sure our joint debt was still paid, only by me alone. The government can pick and choose which debts must be met. Why would anyone support a system that only benefits a few, like .001%?

You know in the bible God told the Israelites that all debts had to be extinguished every 7 years. Of course he also said that it was wrong to charge interest? You know what the problem of charging interest is? It means that the value of what you have given changes, that the promise that is made when you get paid in cash does not need to be kept.

We have seen a decrease in the cash value of labor for the past 40 years and an increase in the cost of materials during that same period. Materials are becoming move valuable as labor is becoming less valuable. At the same time minerals are actually becoming cheaper to mine. That is why all the benefit is going to a very few people, the people we allow to own all the minerals and equipment that we as a society have built.

I shall ask it again, how is it possibly right that someone could be born and be entitled to nothing while another can be born entitled to everything, including the life of the one born in debt? Why should anyone accept that they are not entitled to some part of this earth?

There are no rules. There are no laws. There is only common agreement based on mutual benefit. When that common agreement is violated, there is no longer a valid government. This is called the "social contract" in political science. The question of whether or not I should care about any "law" (agreement by others to control me). If you think I am a libertarian, communist, or anything else you are both right and wrong. The only question for a society is how should we organize ourselves to benefit all of us to the fairest and greatest extent possible. Money (promise of labor or material) is supposed to be a tool to achieve that goal; but, we don't use it that way anymore.

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