Indeed, slavery rather than voluntary exchange has always been a large part of human interaction: <
the majority cannot get blood out of a stone
but the majority can and had always tried
w/ bad consequences for bloodless stones |
>
The process is more genteel these days, with Calvinball rules [rule by making up rules] enacted by democratic process, but really little different from the Roman mobs in the Colosseum or the tumbril mobs of the 18th century in downtown Paris.
In my memory, conscription to forcibly send men to Vietnam to decimate the local yokels with napalm and whatnot was considered a good thing. Libertarian virtues and Virtuous Victorian Values are thin on the ground nearly everywhere, though Hong Kong is fighting a rear-guard action, to some extent. Eudaemonia, an excellent Greek word, needs resurrection and application everywhere.
Mostly majorities are focused on getting blood out of stones. They will be bitterly disappointed and quite possibly dead.
I'm currently resident in London, in an apartment in a terraced row of battery hen economic units. While the weather is fantastic, the economic foundations which developed the British Empire are not evident in the locality. It's hard to see what keeps people supplied with food and electricity to run the tubes. There is some economic activity lurking in downtown London I guess, though Bob Diamond of Barclays resigning suggests that all is not well at Canary Wharf and likely elsewhere.
It costs one million pounds to buy a stack of bricks along this average sort of street. I recall when one million pounds was a significant part of a country's national accounts. There has obviously been substantial dilution of said pounds, especially when the size of economic activity compared with 60 years ago is accounted for.
Continued dilution and competitive central bank efforts in that, looks more than likely.
The hunt for stones with blood is on. Bloodless stones will no doubt be caught in the crossfire.
These million pound piles of bricks will not be moving anywhere. Those bricks have blood. They can be used to fund governments for a long time yet as landlords don't get much sympathy - especially as rents rise to cover the cost of government imposts. The ex-aristocratic landlords of your current country manor of a bygone era have obviously been feeling the pinch.
Incidentally, it occurred to me that the unit of economic activity 100 years ago was the brick. Now, seeing the hordes with their mobile Cyberspace deVices, it's obvious that the unit of economic activity is now the pixel. Here's Microsoft's advertisement which shows what the street scene is like here in London with everyone on their deVice, ignoring children and their surroundings: youtube.com
Gold was the unit of economic measure 100 years ago. It will not be the unit of value in the mobile Cyberspace era any more than the brick is.
Incidentally, gold, bricks and Cyberspace meet linguistically in goldbricking: en.wikipedia.org
Mqurice
PS: Maybe goldbricking [the idea of coating a brick with gold to defraud people - the original usage] could be reversed and those with gold to hide could coat gold bricks with actual brick and hide the gold in these piles of bricks. Hollow out the inside of bricks and pour gold in. There are several construction sites nearby with loads of bricks being delivered. Renovation of run-down piles of bricks now worth a million pounds is worthwhile, so it's a significant activity in London. Hiding gold for the financial interregnum and Teotwawki is probably a good idea. In a bank vault is a bit too obvious and accessible by authorities, or anyone. |
