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

[Muhammad Mukhtar Alam]

Ecological audit of all the visions are necessary..we just need reverent conusmption, thought and production patterns..for ecological safety..
   
  Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam

Steve Consilvio <steve at behappyandfree.com> wrote:
  
    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
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