[GJM] Budgeting is cruelty to humans.

[Dan Parker]

I would say that budgeting will become of increasing importance;
but in a better money system, where all have the basics and
the money (or information tokens) better reflect environmental
constraints (which is the reason for the real budgeting).  GPI's,
real cost accounting etc are facets of this needed change.

What currently passes for budgeting has the exponential
forumula of compound interest behind it and is part and parcel
of a money system that was accurately described by Paul
Hellyer as "infinitely silly".

There will be no beauty in zero trees, or zero clean rivers.

Profit, as in budgeting, can have different meanings and it
is a mistake in my opinion to give up a utile word, simply
because it is hijacked by unscrupulous people to describe
unprofitable activity.

I would also caution against dismissing democracy in favour
of unfettered action by those deemed wise. There is a lot on
the historical record regarding this; never mind the logistics
regarding how easily concentrated power is captured by
"those with the mentality of gangsters" as Lord Acton put
it.

Better Thomas Jefferson's maxim:

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of
society but the people themselves; and if we think
them not enlightened enough to exercise their control
with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take
it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."

Dan







----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Challen" <peterchallen at googlemail.com>
To: "Discussion Forum for Global Justice" 
<discussion at globaljusticemovement.net>
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 1:20 AM
Subject: Re: [GJM] Budgeting is cruelty to humans.


> Thank you for this splendid article
>
> Peter Challen
>
> On 26/09/2007, Steve Consilvio <steve at behappyandfree.com> wrote:
>>
>> Budgeting is cruelty to humans.
>> by steve consilvio
>>
>>
>> The cruelest concept in the world is the idea of budgeting.  Osama Bin 
>> Laden
>> recently suggested that in Islam there are no taxes, only a tithe of 
>> 2.5%.
>> Like the Grey Panthers of  the Proposition 2 1/2% movement, he sounds 
>> like a
>> hollow politician promising a chicken in every pot if we would just give 
>> him
>> more power.  Yet, those who set the budget never deliver the pot nor the
>> chicken. Where does the "savings" go?
>>
>> A budget is a numerical expression of self-righteousness.  It is because 
>> of
>> a budget that people can step over a beggar on the street and say "I gave 
>> at
>> the office."  A budget is how we plan our compassion conservatively.  A
>> public budget is how activists measure "their fair share" when they lobby
>> for the funds of their neighbor.  The government leaders budget what they
>> think is an appropriate amount of suffering by the citizens while still
>> ensuring their personal comfort and safety.
>>
>> Employees are forever forced to meet their budget, and managers prove 
>> their
>> worth by bettering their budget.  Slaves are still being bought and sold,
>> but with greater efficiency, thanks to paper money and computers. Debts 
>> are
>> stronger than chains, and more painful than whips.
>>
>> When a business does not meet its budget the laborers are fired or 
>> punished
>> to protect the owner's budget. Churches act in a similar vein, as Osama's
>> offer demonstrates. The elders will build a castle for rituals while the
>> flock shelters under a tree.  Athletes and musicians get drunk on 
>> adulation,
>> while others budget for a percentage of their fame.
>>
>> While we think of governments, businesses and non-profit  organizations 
>> as
>> different entities, in fact they are all exactly the same.  They are all
>> ruled by the love of budgeting money, and the corresponding myopia that
>> follows with it.  Individuals budget part of their earnings for 
>> investing,
>> so they can use their surplus to prey on those who borrow.  Budgeting 
>> makes
>> it easy to be both prey and predator simultaneously.  How did Orwell miss
>> the obvious?
>>
>> The government prints the money and then demands it back again.  What is 
>> the
>> point of this nonsense? Could we find a more absurd way to govern 
>> ourselves?
>>   Democracy is a system where the wise must ask the permission of the
>> unwise.  We have a government that will foreclose and evict people from
>> their houses to protect the budgets of the money-lenders.  A government 
>> of
>> the foolish, by the foolish and for the foolish may never perish, but 
>> there
>> is always hope that it will pass. Will Scrooge awake to see how the love 
>> of
>> money cost him more than what money can buy?
>>
>> The rain falls on both the just and unjust, and the wise and the unwise.
>> Perhaps we can purchase redemption, but that would require breaking the
>> budget, erasing the numbers and starting anew.  The world is thousands of
>> years late for a scheduled Jubilee, and so we share poverty and war 
>> instead
>> of joy.  Why do we teach our children lies about money and power?
>>
>> Inflation destroys every budget, and inflation is caused by how we
>> understand money and how we value things.  All profit and interest 
>> returns
>> to us as an increased expense.  The vicious circle returns to where it
>> began.  Every budget is based on taxes, profits or donations.  They are 
>> each
>> one and the same.  We braid our own noose.
>>
>> People live in a greater fear of numbers than they do of death or 
>> damnation.
>>  If people understood the beauty of zero, then they would not be so 
>> afraid
>> of it.  It represents perfect balance.  Everybody can afford zero; there 
>> is
>> no need for this budget madness, the huge deficits or the gigantic
>> endowments and pensions.  Will we waste the entirety of our brief 
>> existence
>> doing nothing but counting and chasing the money we coined?  To be happy 
>> and
>> free we must think differently about money.  Budgeting is cruelty to 
>> humans.
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>>
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