[GJM] Working with Banks and Corporations to Achieve a High Degree of Global Justice?

[Steve Consilvio]

On Feb 21, 2007, at 2:00 PM, discussion- 
request at globaljusticemovement.net wrote:

> But, it does
> require a total re-thinking of business strategies
> that will ultimately lead to greater profits, and more
> importantly greater global justice.  -Robert Seale

Robert, you have said a couple of contradictory things (not all of  
which are quoted above.)

1. Monetary reform is too hard, therefore we should not attempt it.
2. You have an idea for monetary reform called TFE
3. TFE will eliminate hyper inflation and devaluation
4. TFE will lead to greater profits.

Don't worry about your passionate defense of your ideas. I have a  
thick skin, so calling me naive is okay. May I expect the same favor  
in return? What you have here is doublethink. The bad thing about  
doublethink is that it contains contradictory ideas. The good thing  
about doublethink is that there are ideas, but they need to be made  
consistent, and they usually can be.

Needless to say, I think most things other than monetary reform are  
band-aids. We can and should use them, but the  strategy needs to  
support the goal of monetary reform, which is both an intellectual  
and a practical challenge.

I wish I understood your idea of TFE better, but I think you are  
spending too much time thinking of money as "real" when in fact money  
is an intellectual agreement. Thinking it is "real" is the central  
problem and why we have crazy behaviors like trying to turn lead into  
gold (from dirt to dirt) or the 1849 Gold Rush (crossing the country  
to sit in dirt looking for dirt. and then locking the dirt in a room  
and guarding it once found.) There is nothing more absurd than money.  
We assign values to things without understanding the concept of value  
or the role of value within the whole system. (Allegedly this is the  
role of economics, but clearly the theory cannot separate the forest  
from the tree. Most theory only describes the practice of businesses,  
not the practice of society and the role law plays in granting  
privileges to a select few. Again, this is because money is thought  
of as real and not as a tool.)

Economics is not the same as business. Economics is supposed to  
discover what is wrong with business.
History is not the same as politics. History is supposed to find what  
is wrong with politics.
As we know, those in business and politics make claims to history and  
economic theories that have no resemblance to reality, but fit their  
goal very well. They are projecting what they wish to see and  
repeating what they have been indoctrinated to believe.

Politically, the thing that you do not recognize is that the banks  
and corporations are also victims in this system. They can't "fix"  
it, even if they desired to, just like a philanthropist is  
ineffective, too. The "system" is stronger than all the players  
because the system is mis-diagnosed. Everybody plays a role as  
predator and prey. While it is easy to blame the richest person or  
richest organization as the "worst" predator, in fact they are doing  
nothing different than anyone else. Any game of competition will have  
one winner and many losers. It is like a ladder where at the top rung  
you simply fall off with a thud. The Interest Mechanism makes the  
ladder perpetually taller (bigger numbers) so the "thuds" get worse  
and the divide from the top and the bottom is worse, but the system  
itself is essentially unchanged, only more developed. There is an oak  
tree in every acorn, and what changes is not the mechanics but only  
the volume of material involved.

As such, the predator is as enslaved as much as the prey within the  
system. (Also known as the Lion and the Lamb, in biblical terms.) Fpr  
the weak to be strong and for the strong to be gentle requires a  
shift in both of their thinking. A solution requires trust and self- 
restraint; fear must be exposed, but exposing fear to the fearful and  
pride is not easy. In our case, the goal is a change in the system  
because the system reflects the thinking. ergo, to change the system  
you must change the thinking. And what is the biggest problem with  
the thinking? Doublethink. It isn't the person that is the problem,  
it is the contradictory ideas that they believe and promote. (aka the  
sins of our fathers) We have all been indoctrinated before we were  
educated, and the most powerful myth in the world is the idea of  
money and marketplace theory (profit and interest as normal and good.)

I know I am a predator. I've owned a business for twenty years. Every  
penny I have made and lost was in a predator-prey system. Did I have  
any choice? It is either win or lose. You avoid the whip and go for  
the food; that is what everybody does. There is no other choice  
offered, there is no other way to survive. Be a slave or be a  
slavemaster. Both choices stink, and when the prophets say they won't  
participate people think they are crazy, when in fact they "get it"  
sooner than everybody else does.  As the ladder gets to ridiculous  
historical heights, like it is now, and more people are losing, then  
society starts to fray. The blame game takes over, even in an  
agrarian society. (Debt is not a modern phenomenon.) We are an  
industrialized co-dependent society. It is impossible to live off the  
grid, nor do I think it makes sense to do so. Man is a social animal.  
We should enjoy each others gifts and talents, but we do have to fix  
the system where it is wrong: Money. While it is a moral struggle,  
the systemic problem is mathematical. 2+2=5 is wrong, and there are  
an infinite number of other wrong answers. Only 2+2=4 is correct.

Look at the three empires: Non-profits, governments, and businesses,  
and the individual families. All four are in a perpetual "budget  
crisis." To get out of their own budget crisis they seek help from  
another of the three entities. We are all equally a part of, and have  
a vested interest in (as a society) in all three empires and our  
neighbors. Like a clock, there is no extra part. "Blame" is not going  
to fix anything, nor is saying one part should take the burden for  
another part. That is the root cause of the problem we have now.  
Every solution is just cost shifting, be it taxes, profits or  
donations. The money shifts, the problems remain. The three empires  
are always building and expanding, and their needs "to shift money"  
always take precedence over individuals. The government builds a  
courthouse and raises taxes while citizens starve, the same as  
universities and businesses.) Why? Because the system doesn't work,  
regardless of how you use whichever power you have. The assumption is  
that these organizations make society stronger and better, but what  
they really do is impoverish everyone and other organizations  
simultaneously. Why? Because of how money is used as a commodity. 2 
+2=5 makes 5=2+2. The boom and bust cycle is a reflection of the cost  
shifting. And, occurring simultaneously is the inflation and  
concentration of wealth. It isn't that the rich get richer, they are  
also getting fewer. Inflation creates an illusion that there are more  
rich people because the numbers are bigger, but a lot of the increase  
in standards of living is due to technology and productivity  
advances. More machines do more work for everyone. (And my how the  
landfills fill with the junk we "need" to sell to survive.) The raw  
numbers themselves are meaningless since bigger income comes with  
higher overhead, too. Today's millionaire is poorer than yesterday's  
millionaire.

We need a system where everybody works together effortlessly.  
Cooperation is needed, not competition. My plans go a long way  
towards doing that, and (within reason) are consistent. However, they  
are pretty radical at the same time. Everybody has to let go of their  
indoctrinated bias, ROI, investments, 401K's, stocks, etc. While it  
may not be easy, clearly repeating past errors in new ways (2+2=16,  
etc.) with new faces (Left, Right, Green, Pope, Muslim, King,  
Dictator, etc) is not going to work. Every society has been based on  
the same math that I am complaining about. What makes my ideas  
different is that I am not just pointing to only Interest (anymore, I  
did for awhile,) but also to Profit. Making 36% is usury, so why  
isn't making 36% on a transaction where goods are exchanged equally  
problematical? We all do what the other guy is doing, but what we are  
all doing is creating inflation and indirectly causing the problem  
with our own overhead. To survive, everyone tries to buy low and sell  
high, be it goods, labor, employees, taxes, etc. Everybody is chasing  
"money" in whatever form it is in.

My ideas can be promoted easily, and implemented, without government  
legislation, which has a value in and of itself. The government has a  
tendency to scare people, regardless of what it chooses to do. The  
government is always a step behind, too. (It's lonely at the top.)  
The current massive hoards of idle wealth are still controlled by  
individual Scrooges. Which is to say, our problem is not so much  
poverty as it is a mismanagement of wealth. Unions have pensions in  
the multi-billions of dollars. That power is useful, but not the way  
they are using it. The hoard is generated by greed, the same as any  
other hoard. The laborer and the owner are not very different  
(despite Marx's claim to demonize one and champion the other.) We are  
all, in ways great and small, making the situation worse. We are all  
cogs in the predatory system. This is because our moral, political  
and economic theories are all inconsistent among each other. (I  
sometimes say the problem is triplethink, not doublethink, because it  
more accurately describes the triangularization.) I call myself a  
"religious libertarian communist" because it is the only way to make  
the abstract, social and practical consistent. It creates a world of  
mercy, freedom and plenty, but requires the self-restraint of fear,  
pride and greed equally. No easy task, of course, but it is a good  
map, I believe.

You want  "a re-thinking of business strategies that will ultimately  
lead to greater profits" but what I am describing is a rethinking of  
the marketplace where "profits" no longer need to exist.

peace,
Steve
www.behappyandfree.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net/attachments/20070221/c108a460/attachment.html