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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mcg404 who wrote (19681)	11/24/2003 9:08:13 PM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81205

John > that constant paradox, for everything we gain, we also lose... Actually I don't know much about the library but I used to have a friend on the ham radio who was always talking about it. So you did indeed give me some pleasure both to search for info about it and then to tell you. wired.com >>>Historians quibble over details of the original library's demise. Various researchers claim that Julius Caesar burned it in 48 B.C., that Augustus Caesar destroyed it in his pursuit of Mark Antony, that early Christian monks burned it in 391, that Muslim zealots decimated it in 642. In short, the place was doomed. It contained too much knowledge that offended too many people. <<< I'm almost beginning to see why you apparently hold non-learning in such reverence. > become aware of the need to, in some cases, reject the gospel of 'free trade' and compel a little protection (via their retail dollar 'votes'). Maybe reject Walmart's low prices? Yes, I do understand. But it's a philosophical question which flies in the face of everything society attempts to achieve, particularly efficiency. Actually I have though about it myself because the end point of the Wal-Mart process is an attempt to obtain as much as possible for as little as possible using as few workers as possible to produce it. In other words, if one Chinaman, using a magical computer and a million robots, could make everything in the world, --- and by so doing, unemploy everyone --- that would be Wal-Mart's heaven. However, one realizes that what is going on is not as simple as merely producing and buying goods as cheaply as possible. What we are not told is that all the benefits of the Chinese slave-labor production are not passed on to the American consumer. The conduit, both of money to China and of goods from China, involves two chains of parasites eg banks, financiers, shippers etc, and includes numerous politicians who have vested interests in "keeping prices low for the benefit of the American people" and "for keeping peace in the world". The situation is comparable to that of subsistence farmers in (non?)developing countries who produce cheap cash crops for export and to make money for foreign landowners rather than food crops to feed the starving multitude in their own country. This is the basis of the "banana republic" concept where, in the end, the middle-men and the banks regulate/manipulate the two-way trade between two nations and thus, effectively, govern both. Involved in the process is, of course, the manipulation of the commodity market where the product is sold. Thus the Americans would find, if they could speak to the Chinese, that they have far more in common than they realize since both nations are being exploited. But, to function correctly, the situation requires that the Americans hate the Chinese, and vice versa. The reason the Americans must hate the Chinese is obvious but they are also told it is necessary to do business with China, to encourage the American "democratic system" of "free trade", because otherwise the Chinese, being communists, will want to make war against America. As I keep saying, more important than the nature of the business itself is social control. If the government can keep people either begging for jobs or happy that they have one, they will not "rock the boat". If people are educated, confident, independent and self-sufficient they will definitely not need government --- nor will they need religion. There is nothing like a bit of fear and insecurity to ensure that people cling to both.