[GJM] Paula Gloria and Robert Ashford!!

[Rodney Shakespeare]

Steve,

May I ask if you have read any of the binary economics books?  I ask because there are several inaccurate statements in your email and I do not have time to deal with them all.  A new paradigm is a new paradigm and it requires to be examined, and understood,  in its own terms.

Rodney Shakespeare.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Steve Consilvio 
  To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net 
  Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2008 8:19 PM
  Subject: Re: [GJM] Paula Gloria and Robert Ashford!!


  Robert Ashford states that "once you understand that capital creates its own capital," and that using computers has made it easier to make money.  This is true, but not new.  The "counting rooms" that were occupied by Scrooge, etc., have become modernized.  It is the same counting that has always existed.  Most people know this is true already, but they think it is a "good" thing.  (They are not ignorant of the fact, as he implies.)  They get their 5% interest payment from the bank, and wish they had the ability to make more unearned income.  In fact, people save their "nest eggs" specifically for that "capital creating capital" to occur.  (Marx was such a dolt he stated that it was unimportant and swept it under the rug, focusing instead on who owns the shovel.  Henry George focused on the dirt, and ignored the shovel.)


  Binary Economic promises to "count different," (focusing on the numbers) but it is still counting and following the same paradigm of economic thought that exists currently (private property, centralized government control, overlords who "know best," etc.)  The college professors don't use a shovel (Ashford's example) any better than the people manning the counting rooms.  The difference is that the college professors sell their words, whereas Scrooge sells numbers.  (I sell shovels.  Everyone sells something!)  The "greed" issue (manipulating money) goes back to a much older argument: the one between Socrates and the Sophists.  The Sophists (like college professors, priests, stock advisors, reporters, etc) would sell their words, Socrates did not.  While the Sophists were anti-slavery, they were similarly "pro-marketplace," (pro-selling.)  They thought everyone should be equal in the marketplace.  


  Binary economics has a strong echo of this belief, and the equally proud claim that men are wise enough to govern themselves.  Again, Socrates did not put such faith in the minds or habits of men.  He believed in God and held virtue, not the marketplace (economic theory) as what was necessary to create a virtuous society.  Binary economics, like all of economic thought, attempts to claim that a virtuous society is possible without virtuous men.  This is the root of the oxymoron.  The separation of church and state has essentially codified this idea into law, with the resulting ad nauseam debate over which economic theory is "right," (see recent presidential debates) when in fact they are all inevitably wrong.  We have at this point tried them all; if you read enough history, you will see that.  Binary Economics is similar to the Diocletian reforms of the third century, sans a computer, of course.


  The solution is not in what the government "should" do, the solution is in what the individual should do.  The government is simply a reflection of the beliefs of the individuals.  If the people lack virtue, then the government will be incompetent.  If the people are virtuous, then they don't need the government.  The wise don't need to be led, and the unwise cannot be led.


  While it is not easy to lead a virtuous life, it is important to know the difference between virtue and folly, otherwise we track in the wrong direction, and make things worse instead of better.  Every individual already has the power to improve society, they are simply unaware or unwilling to do so.  The unwilling will reap their own reward, but the unaware are up for grabs.


  What we need is an American divestiture movement.  The nonsense of "socially responsible investing," "green investing," endowments of universities, UPlan's and interest-bearing savings account for children all teach the "counting room logic," of Scrooge.  The winners embrace the same habits as the losers.  The issue isn't whether we use computers to do the counting, the issue is habit of counting.  Binary Economics extends this ignoble tradition, it does not limit it.


  Think of economics as a math equation.  There are an infinite number of wrong answers, but only one right answer.  Zero is the perfect number.  Zero represents nothing and the whole.  Everybody can afford zero.  Our problem is not creating and distributing goods, the perpetual problem has been the math we use.  Capital creates capital whether it is interest, taxes, profits or donations.  All involve counting, and counting eclipses the true nature of creation, sharing and cooperating.  We cannot "count" our way to happiness, but we can count our way into misery.


  To those who believe that Binary Economics has promise, please, "Stop Counting, and look at the math instead!"  The math of 2+2=5 is everywhere, in everyone's finances.  The application of "value" to a good is the problem.  We cannot be "do better," that which should not be done at all.


  peace,
  Steve Consilvio
  www.behappyandfree.com




  On SundayJan 6, 2008, at 2:00 PM, discussion-request at globaljusticemovement.net wrote:


         Paula Gloria talks to Robert Ashford on Binary

    Economics on another of her You Tube contributions on

    the same subject!! I do not know whether Rodney has

    seen any of this yet. I assume he has but is

    maintaining a "dignified" silence...







       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB433xWc3tw








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