#61.2: What We Know Now - Q & A

A reader we'll call John writes:

What is intelligence? Why should I think you's (sic) are so intelligent, that some group you's (sic) could negotiate a new city, where everyone gets their wish, to be left alone, and also, the earnings will balance to the costs, in terms of who orders who in the industries formed?

There is no fairyland advocated by this blog.

Do you's (sic) think that can just happen with little thought and planning?

We're not advocating any changes except to more economic redundancy and production to scale at every local level where any planning is done by individual businesspeople who know what needs to be planned and done rather than some state or board of overseers. We are not advocating anything like a social utopia here. We hold a particular distaste for what one of our French friends aptly described as “great useless plans.” All that inevitably fails and when it does many millions of lives are destroyed. Briefly stated, any kind of central planning is doomed to failure. It has been tried again and again and again with the same results. The only reason people like you (kid) fall for the allure of centralized planning as a solution is that YOU expect to be one of the BIGS entitled to a swell life for being so goddamned smart, which you clearly are not!

You's (sic) haven't really shown me compelling proof of your balance sought, but have only marred in your statements, haven't you's (sic)? Why should I trust that is, THE TRUTH? You's (sic) are speculating about the future; do you think it is intelligent to sprinkle in so many claims of TRUTH in a blog that is speculating of the future (sic)?

You're literally so stupid that you wouldn't know TRUTH if you fell over it tomorrow morning before breakfast! I'm only including what you wrote so the rest of us could have a good laugh.

Then there was something from someone we'll call Pete, who wrote,

I literally just last night was discussing with my friend that theory (that Keynes and the “Austrians” are two ends of the same banker preferred and predetermined dialectic), that this is two sides of a coin, but that there are plenty of coins we're not paying attention to.. can you give me an example or two of other forms of economic study that have

1. basis in reality

2. application
3. a substantial number of people who follow it 

First of all, with due respect, Economics is a closed system of indoctrination, not a legitimate science as this blog has more than adequately proved; there is really only one coin when it comes to present world trade and finance affecting all of the present forms of money -including bitcoin; the way of Keynes, which has the majority following, or that of the “Austrians,” which has a growing following, owing mostly to that this is the only other place to go, which has nonetheless enshrined in its ideas, actually taken for granted, the presence of loaning money at interest which in ALL cases is usury.

We apply a rigorous definition of usury on this blog. It apples to any and all requirements to pay a loan of money back with ANY interest. The reason being that the money that is loaned is created with which to pay it back but the interest never is. Business must endure ups and downs and planning does not help especially the bigger any enterprise gets. There are natural limits to scale which are constantly exceeded bringing eventual failure. But the interest must always be paid. Where does it come from since it was never created? This has been and always will be regarded as a fundamental and irreconcilable flaw in the monetary system which directly affects EVERY economy. Ultimately the debt cannot be repaid despite how many people are cheated or despoiled of their property in order to pay it. There are other and better methods of finance that do not require the payment of interest.

Basis in reality – that's a pejorative term, a JEER. Was that your intention? The people who devised bicycles, telephones, airplanes, etc. were likewise jeered as were those scientists who believed that rocks existed in outer space which were capable of falling into the earth. Nevertheless, these things are now widely accepted without any jeering. Jeers, cheap shots, etc. should be noticed and those doing the jeering shunned. In no other way do those with promising ideas move forward. If you honestly wish to know this blog's proposal's basis in reality, read the works of E. C. Riegel included on this site.

The basis of this blog's proposal is its definition of a Value Unit or Valun. This is to be an international standard of measurement similar to a metric unit or older statute measurement of distance. A Valun will always represent the purchasing power expressed as a relationship between an ounce of gold to dollars (or any other recognized currency) at the close of business on a specific date; our proposal is that date be November 2, 2011.

Application? This blog's proposal is an alternative to the present monetary system including finance and banking and would be applicable in any situation requiring money and finance. The role of a local bank branch is changed in a number of respects. We will call them exchanges instead of banks. These proposed Valun exchanges would all be local and PRIVATE (not just anyone off the street would even be allowed entry into these premises) and therefore membership in them is similar to joining a private club. Indeed from the beginning it will be required to have 2 sponsors in order to join). The entire system will run IN PARALLEL with the existing system and serve as the only alternative left when all the rest of the present systems are gone, which inevitably they shall be, though it may take a decade or so. We frankly believe we're close to the end of this cycle. Fool us once, shame on us, fool us again, shame on them.

We're looking for a substantial number of people to recognize the viability of these ideas which is the stated purpose of this blog. We are not offering merely another alternative that operates the same as all the other money, like bitcoin, but something entirely different; money that is NOT a commodity, but pure money, a device used to split barter.

[UPDATE 8/30/15: I was asked to explain precisely why centralized planning inevitably fails. Explaining why is frankly surprisingly simple. Everyone knows that decision making takes place at all levels simultaneously all the time, around the clock. Everyone, everywhere, is making a decision about something. As it turns out, most of those decisions prove to be correct, and usually the difference between the number of correct vs. wrong decisions remains somewhat the same as the level of the decision maker rises. The only problem is that the higher up in the decision making chain one is, any wrong decision affects far more people adversely than a wrong decision taken farther down the chain. That's why all central planning eventually fails; too many bad decisions affecting too many people adversely.

What chain? The chain of command of course. Why should there be any chain of command? In fact most things would work far better without a lengthy chain of command. Everyone knows that micromanagement is no way to go. Yet, conditions regarded as inefficient and counter-productive are allowed to continue, not due to what is done but rather who is doing it. There are special privileges allowed the very rich. The poor, though they may be individually quite talented and -were things a bit different- might be able to earn their living, nevertheless matter for close to nothing to the “special people” and their interests.

Social services as public policy; i. e. All forms or instances of socialism, are and were always intended as a means to keep “the masses” in order so that they wouldn't cause a revolt. If your view of socialism differs, perhaps you're suffering from idealism, in which case you'd best go have a good hard look in the mirror and decide to give it up and see how the world really works, right now. Socialism is a direct means of public control by the state, always was and always will be, because the state pays for it, the beneficiaries do not. Any other quibbles are quite frankly ... irrelevant.

I also would remind all my readers that with regard to the “special people,” I'm not including those who have managed to become moderately comfortable or well to do, I'm speaking of those whose power and fortunes are gargantuan, even when compared with the self made or family millionaires, who are often the leading lights of their local communities. These self made or family inherited people are in fact the real John and Jane Galts, the pillars of society, those without whose efforts, the life the rest of us lead would be far more arduous. These people deserve all the credit they get for what they do. The same cannot be said of the billionaires, the hedge fund managers, those involved in financial or legal plunder, anyone working for some government agency as a front for special interests run either by or for oligarchs.

Honestly made fortunes are usually recognizable and those who make them usually know how to recognize each other in the places where they meet. Most would be able to recognize, and a few have told me, of their run ins with oligarchs, government agents or special interests. They are usually aware of the differences.

Even if one is not in the John or Jane Galt social strata, yet aspires to it, one usually knows better who one is, how well one's business is doing, perhaps has some plans for maintaining it, expanding it or getting out of it. Most independent business people have been entrained to fear competitors and others who are not even in their line of business.

If one looks candidly at the reasons for these fears, they all boil down to money, the fundamental scarcity of it in order to maintain and grow business, etc. The reasons given for this scarcity are patently absurd, deliberately confusing and evasions of the facts, which are, that all money in the present system is created as a loan at interest, but none of the money to pay the interest was ever created. Just where is it expected to come from? There isn't enough. There never was and under this present system never can be enough.

But for the time being we have to live with it, knowing that each year, in order to sustain the growing debt burden -which can never be completely paid back EVER- a certain number of people must go broke or into foreclosure or asset seizure or bail ins, so that the money lenders can get control of those real assets -on the cheap- and reap a great profit if and when they can sell them. And all they had to do was lend the money.

This scarcity of money leads invariably to what we call the “musical chairs” business economy; that is that business failures are the deliberate result of the present monetary system; it's functionally designed to accomplish this, it can't help but do so, there is no way to fix it, it is a terminally destructive machine that has been tried for many thousands of years and carries within it one of the most significant inventions of mankind; money and the inevitable curse of humanity; the lending of money at interest.

How then should anything big be financed? People ask questions like who paves the roads? Let's look at things differently. Let's say one has to pave a stretch of road and it costs $20 million. Who has that kind of money? Well, some people who do really big projects like that might have that much money, but this is a public road and everyone is going to be using it. Typically the locality or state or country takes out a loan of $20 million for the road and gets the road done. This is important to the state or locality as someone, somewhere is collecting taxes from the people and businesses that live on or near the road. The better, more fit the road is, the more business is likely to get done and the more money transacted and more taxes paid. That's the idea anyway. The taxes are supposed to pay the interest on the loan, which could be as much as THREE TIMES $20 million, by the time it's paid off, due simply to compounding of interest, and the time it takes to pay it all back.

We have said before and reiterate that compounding of interest is usury on steroids, one of the most outstanding and popular SCAMS perpetrated on the public by the financial community. But, we'll leave it at that, because everyone must live with this right now.

The usual means of financing a road construction is through various public debt instruments, usually called bonds -sold in large denominations, transferable with an expiration date when they are considered entirely paid off and retired. The bonds are sold through a bank, an “underwriter.” The state collects taxes from the public in its jurisdiction and pays off the bondholders until all the bonds mature. They usually pay a dividend too so people can and do earn their income from collecting dividends on bond holdings.

Under a Valun system, the locality or state would bid the road contract, it would turn out to be, let's see -today a Valun is around $2.93 so $20 million is ... let's make it 6.826 million Valuns. Now we have to ask a serious question: that road is worth 6.826 million Valuns today, but how much more would we expect to be paid by the state or locality authorizing (causing the construction to proceed) if we had to wait to be paid for 3 months, 6 months, a year? You see, if they don't have the cash up front, they have to borrow it. But in a Valun system, the result is that the eventual cost of the road is definitely more to everyone, but there is no interest involved as the payment schedule merely calculates the higher cost of the road over time and all the Valuns involved would have to have already been created somewhere else. The end result would be far cheaper construction costs as usury (especially including compounding of interest) is eliminated. From a purely accounting perspective, any actual costs of any big project would actually reflect the true value of those projects, as what is paid for them is nothing but their actual cost in materials and labour, not that of the loan of money,]

[UPDATE 9/1/15: You just called John stupid. Elsewhere on this blog, you sometimes call people idiots. I understand and agree with you in most cases. Had John read this blog and really tried to get the proposal, he wouldn't be asking some of the leading questions he is. But you might have heard about or seen this:

Trey Gowdy SAVAGES Jonathan Gruber

Notice that Gruber was asked if anyone else at the academic conference he was attending bothered to call him aside and suggest that his remarks were inappropriate and not one of them did. That should tell us something about the professors at MIT and frankly every other college. Just who do these people think they are! I just want you to be more careful. You sometimes have to deal with people like John in this world. If you don't like his line of questioning, maybe it's best to ignore him from now on.  Best,  

Bill in NC

Thanks for sharing this, Bill. I actually believe John is what is commonly termed a troll. I have no idea who he works for or what causes he has committed himself to, but he clearly has not gotten this blog's proposal and he's intent on foisting his own ... pardon the expression, beside the point issues, into the discussions here. I am considering posting more of his drivel here so I can give him, and any like him, the resounding thrashing they deserve. It is one thing to attract the worthy and quite another to fend off troublemakers. John is a disrespectful, “know it all,” pushing his own agenda, who gets off on jeering other people. If he thinks his centrally planned fairyland using just another commodity as money scheme is such a good idea, let him go off somewhere and do his own blog. But he wont get anywhere with that. He's interested in trying to get other people to argue with him. This is an attention getting technique used by a lot of very sick people, and yes I've just called John sick too, because he is. Now onto something different:

Your proposal about labour contracts has many interesting implications. Anyone in the VEN selling their labour has a contact that allows them to create money with which to get paid. They do their work and the money is paid back to them on a pay date. Since the money that buys labour is not from that business, that business runs without considering any cost of labour. This reduces their risk, but what's really interesting is all that any business would need consider is their costs of materials, utilities, taxes, etc. Whatever profit the business earns is over and above the costs of these things -minus labour costs. How does one then determine what any labour costs and where then is the competition for lower wage costs? Also, no matter what it is, what's to prevent people from wanting to work doing something menial and getting paid way more than their labour is worth?

Ben, TX

Let's look at this: the labour contract was the instrument that caused the issuing of the money. The A member only has this right under the proposed system. But the first place the money shows up is in the business account of the business that is the other party to the contract, a B member in the VEN. That business must pay the A member his wages on whatever pay schedule is stated on the contract. At that point the money goes from the B member's account to the A member's account. Since the money still began as an entry on the business's asset side, it must still be figured into everything that business seeks to sell, to the costs of goods sold. Therefore the labour any business contracts is a cost affecting the eventual price of the projected good or service the business offers for sale.

The only difference is that in most usual cases a business must come up with the money, they either have it or must borrow it, while under the VEN rules, all labour is self-financing; money is issued directly through offering to provide labour for it. Each business must still keep costs down, so this does not mean that a business would be willing to hire someone to do something trivial and pay them some exorbitant amount of money, whether that be in Valuns or any other kind of money, as labour costs must still reflect the eventual price of whatever is sold.] 

[UPDATE 9/3/15: Would I be stupid for asking you to explain your view of socialism? You stated rather bluntly, “All forms or instances of socialism, are and were always intended as a means to keep 'the masses' in order so that they wouldn't cause a revolt.” Aren't the proposal's intentions toward the indigent a kind of socialism? Please explain.

Gretta in Switzerland 

Very well. Socialism, of whatever form, presupposes the existence of a state to keep law and order in the societies they profess to govern. Sometimes the people are enlightened enough to demand that any state ruling them protects their lives, liberty and property. One example of socialism has been tried, where the state becomes the owner of the people, their lives and property and relatively speaking the people have no liberty. The result is a reinstatement of serfdom. A serf is a human being that is said to “belong with the land” he lives on. If the landowner were to sell the land, the people living on it would go with the land. That's traditional serfdom and it has been one of the unstated objectives of socialism as a means of political control, because most governments would like to know where all their subjects are all of the time. The bankers behind all governments especially want to know too, as to them people are merely things; chattel (cattle) to be used and abused as the overseers deem fit. 

But what if instead one looks at every human being as someone who has within themselves wealth, of however meagre quantity, determined as skills or talents to do particular things, which could be sold to produce an income? There are two ways to issue money in the proposed system: either one works for it, in which case the money is issued as part of the contract to do work, a simple labour contract, or if one is deemed too poor or disabled to do any work, a stipend, a minimum subsistence, is determined by the local independent exchange (IE) and that indigent A member is allowed to issue so many Valuns each month until their circumstances change or for their lifetime. 

We maintain that any and all instances of “blaming the poor” for this or that economic difficulty, as Ayn Rand and her supporters have attempted to do, are not only dead wrong and irrelevant, but actually would destroy the prospects for anyone else to acquire more money and become rich. There is as we have described it in this blog a difference between being wealthy, which is potentially a universal human condition, and being rich, which means one just has a lot of money. There certainly will be rich people in the Valun system. Rich people can become and sometimes are the pillars of their communities as their riches generate opportunities for everyone else. 

What the proposal does is take the “helping the poor” side of socialism down to the local level, to the level of what someone who is poor requires to carry on a level of life the rest of the community accepts as a subsistence level. For the time being, because that's what people must live on, we would accept the current amounts of money handed out to the indigent by governments as a basis for determining what this subsistence level might be. For instance, if one is getting a grant of $1,500 per month, a parallel amount of Valuns would be allowed to each indigent A member. The number of Valuns would change each month based on the fluctuations in prices of dollars and precious metals so that each and every Valun issued preserves the purchasing power it had at inception, right now at least $2.16 per Valun on 11/2/2011 the proposed inception date. At this time each Valun would represent the current purchasing power of $2.91 and under the proposal the Valun would never fall in value lower than $2.16 ever. It's built that way, something the present system can't claim

It should be clear then that under the proposal, “helping the poor” would no longer be something that can be used as a political issue to gain advantage for this or that politician or political ideology. It would not be something determined “on high” and dictated by any state (or bank) but would be something handled locally by each neighbourhood independent exchange (IE).]

#0 Lea's Story

 

“they took my license fer not bein' able to pay child support because i am disabled 'n they didn't take that into account ---- i have been desperately tryin to get this mistake fixed fer 8 yrs now (4 yrs w/out dr license) ---- i was livin' in my vehicle and traveled to fairs 'n festivals fer my work --- now i am homeless w/ NO income and am supported by taxpayers money.”

I've left these words exactly as she wrote them. There will be more to this story as it is an ongoing saga, one of countless tens of thousands out there because not everyone can or will fit into some cookie cutter system devised by the few at the top to keep the rest of us in line so that they can ... rule over us. This woman is significantly disabled but the “authorities” in her state (OREGON) seem oblivious to this fact and have demanded that she pay up or she's lost her drivers' license, so she can't even go anywhere to get any money to pay them. This is STUPIDITY and must be exposed!

Please send the link to this story far and wide: make it go viral!

Lea's Story Update

[UPDATE 8/30/15: "i met w/ child support DA this wk (w/ my advocate) to discuss makin' a real pmt agreement ----- the only agreement she will offer is the one agreein' to pay any amt fer first 6 mos. and then start full monthly pmts EVERY month ---- after 8 years of tryin' to come up w/ this and all the testin' 'n documentin' she KNOWS i have no way of gettin' that amount of money on a monthly basis ---- so she still holds my driver's license ---"

This is clearly an infamous extortion technique recognized by tens of thousands of people out there who have also been so affected.  Please spread this story widely and if you happen to live in Oregon, please send whatever short letters of complaint to get this STUPID and UNREASONABLE demand removed from this poor elderly woman and have her drivers' license restored so she can at least TRY and make a living!

[9/1/15

]   

#0 Bitcoin is NOT Your Money

Source: Greece to Receive 1,000 Bitcoin ATMs as Trust in Banks ‘LongGone’ 

Arriving on the heels of our last post, we view this story as not just a bad pipe dream, but wonder just how much 1,000 ATMs would cost, in some other money other than Bitcoin, to whatever BIG is attempting to “make money on money” by “coming to the rescue” of the Greek people.

We reiterate: Bitcoin is just another commodity masquerading as money. Bitcoin is NOT money anymore than silver or gold coins were money. There's a lot of things in the world that are not what they claim to be and a lot of people who are not what they claim they are either. That may be the way of the world, but that's no reason to be lulled into believing something is so when it is not so. If one is looking to discover The Truth; the ultimate authority, then one has to dispense with things like wishful thinking, believing in substitutes, the “anything will do” philosophy that robs society and individuals of their ability to distinguish better from the not so good, etc.

To reiterate, money is anything required to split barter between two individuals. To the extent that some commodity is used as this instrument, the instrument is not money and moreover the commodity used actually participates in the trade, thereby changing in some external or arbitrary manner, the terms of the trade. Gresham's Law restated, turned on its head as it were, is a real law. It proves exactly what we have been saying all along; the cheaper the form of money, that form will drive all more expensive forms of money out of circulation. Hence, all attempts to construct some single metal or bimetalic circulating money supply are stupid, lame brained, hair brained, backward and ignorant wastes of time and resources! Gold and silver will always be commodities. Bitcoin, which has fluctuated in price because it is from the outset announced to be a scarce commodity, is proved not to be money either. Please do not fall for any of the stupendously erroneous and irrelevant considerations that apply to “block chain technology” etc. All that is mere smoke and mirrors.

This blog's solution, and this has always been so even though the claim may sound outrageous, is the ONLY real solution that will work today, tomorrow and forever. But it requires people everywhere to recognize certain historical and practical facts and after that to come together and organize to implement the proposal. If one cannot understand that the only money that is real is what a human being issued, not some government and not some bank, then one really doesn't deserve to be anything but a slave to some government or some bank. Bitcoin is no different. What do you think a Bitcoin ATM would dispense? Euros in this case. Isn't that the significant tip off that Bitcoin is just another invention of the same clique that's running everything -and has for many hundreds of years? Get a reality check, people!

#61.1: What We Know Now

I suppose it is true that fewer people in the world today are bothering to read anything. If they can't get it by video or audio, they just wont get it. We are becoming functionally illiterate by the hundreds of millions. Technology isn't helping it either. Nevertheless, this will be a kind of call to action.

We could begin this post by summarizing what we know and what we resolve to do. We could describe things from real time perspectives in real economies that are at work today, driving forward the relentless business of world trade. We might consider the magnitudes of monetary relief required. We should speak frankly concerning the present system. We are willing to be pragmatic -up to a point- with the affairs of the world. Our purpose has been from the outset to offer an alternative, a genuine and honest one. Yes, it has to do with money. Yes, it has everything to do with money, starting with whose money.  [If you use the translator to read this in your own language, much of the text that follows is not translated for some peculiar reason.  If you really want to know, you'll have to get my words translated for you elsewhere.  LOL, I noticed as soon as I put this in, everything was translated.]

The coinage of various states or political confederations bears adequate witness to whom it belongs, almost. The paper currencies bear surer signs; they say right on them to whom they belong; to any number of assorted central banks.

These institutions are run and organized much as they were thousands of years ago. Our friends in Asia had made us aware of this and pointed our attention to The Babylonian Woe of David Astle, the retired Canadian Mountie who wrote a fully footnoted and well researched book. It literally identifies the links between banking and the military industrial complex, extending back over millennia and clearly implicating banking as at the root of all war! 

The money is not yours. It never was nor ever can be. As it exists today, those foolish enough to think that everything, including their lives, is not somehow and somewhere weighed in someone else's monetary balances have played the fool or been played as a fool. Foolishness exists today in the billions of people. The blind are leading the blind. I often wonder whether bankers are aware of the great and inevitable harm they do, without even knowing it.

Let's look at it straight. Any modern lender asks a return called interest on any loan of money. They are asking you to come up with that interest. From where does it come? Is there enough total money to cover all the outstanding debt? If not, why not? 

Well of course, there isn't enough money, never was nor ever will be, because the banker's only hope of getting assets for cheap is in foreclosures, etc. No matter where the money goes in measuring value, the banker is always dealing in current money. One of course hears utter nonsense from people who are supposed to be respectable, defending the system without understanding that asking back that which was never created is fraud. Being fraud, it is nevertheless permitted to feed parasitically on all that is genuine. This is at best a very poor running machine, at worst ... 

Some of us remember the 1960's. What we remember is that there was a senseless war going on back then too. The facts of the matter were that certain people, the first billionaires, had a chance to make billions more ... while other people died, while valuable agricultural property was poisoned, while ... well you get the idea. There are plenty of people hopping up and down hoping to get another one started in a country near you. 

And yet, knowing that the fundamentals of the system are EVIL, yeah it's about time we call things what they are, many of us did our time working for or in it anyway. Why? Because they have the money, that's why. It's really that simple and that powerful. 

So we can dispense with all politics except for that which is LOCAL. Let's first dismantle the first myth -that any or all of the money you have is your property. Then, that there really are differences between any of the major political parties. Politics is “bread and circuses” for “the masses” presented by those who know how to manipulate public opinion. All one really has to do is follow the money, their money of course, which a while ago used to be nothing but actual exchanges of silver and gold, which is also their money. THAT my friends is why the precious metals issue had to be dealt with squarely in this blog's proposal, from the very beginning. Those who didn't get it or still don't are ... not very intelligent. 

But perhaps it's beside the point. Right now, Greece is imploding as an economy. Southern Europe shall be right behind them and of course, Ireland. The EU may be imploding. And then look what the Chinese were forced to do; devalue their money! It cheats the average Chinese worker to try and keep the illusion that foreign export markets are still working properly and efficiently; keeping the illusion alive a little longer, so that what? ... Just what do they have in mind when it all fails? Will they just wipe the debts clean and give us new money that works just the same as what we have now? That would definitely include any and all government issued interest free money too, as that's not our money either, sorry! 

Right now we have millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of human beings who cannot find employment for whatever skills they may have simply because they have no money and the only way they can get any is by borrowing it at interest or indenturing themselves as a servant of another. If you have a regular job, that's what you're doing ... unless, you're the owner. Then what? You understand what real value is as you trade for it all the time. What you do, whatever it is that you own that you put into practise in any form of business is your wealth! 

Bet you thought wealth is just lots of stuff people have that they might sometimes have to sell. No. Wealth as anything capable of producing an income. That's such an important concept that it bears remembering: Wealth as anything capable of producing an income. If it can't do that, it is not wealth! 

We imply that anything standing idle for any reason represents an inefficiency in any system. Now that does not mean to imply that one should expect to work all the time, long and tedious hours, etc. We know of places where it is cheaper to live, though the economy is everywhere pretty thin these days. There are some exceptions, for short periods of time, a few months only, where some classes of people may still go and spend money freely. But mostly this is going away. Wealth seen in this way becomes too frivolous for anyone just trying to survive. 

But the concept of wealth and its relationship to income is VERY useful. This new emphasis implies that anything not capable of producing an income is not wealth. This means that precious metals are not wealth since no gold or silver anyone knows of is capable of reproducing more of itself. There is no income there. We hate to break it to you “gold bugs” but you've been had. Their “real” money is just as much a hoax as the government issued borrowed at interest money that's unpayable, since the interest to pay it was never created. Explain your way out of that one, you useless economist eggheads! 

But we put up with it because we are sane regarding their probable use of FORCE to uphold their version of reality ... and of course it has everything to do with the money in your wallet, in those plastic cards we all use now, so everyone who wants to move any conceivable product can somehow get to us quick so we can spend that last measly dollar (euro, yen, yuan, etc.) and keep the whole thing going. 

Meanwhile people are starving, going uncared for, enduring “austerity” etc. for being the victims of a system that robbed them of their original livelihood through monopolizing, raising economies of scale to the point where as much wealth was destroyed as could ever replace it. 

Now how is that true? Refer back to the restatement of the definition of wealth that is used throughout this blog. When all the many tens of thousands of businesses run by couples and families (the “mom and pop's”) were displaced by the bigger corporations, all that wealth and everything it represented was destroyed. Why? Because all those incomes were obliterated. If all those displaced were hired at or above what they had been making, and that works for a time until the corporation reaches its diminishing returns to scale, then all goes along for awhile until the banking credit cycle makes money too scare, for no real reason except to suit the takings of the bankers. This has been allowed to go along without much of a protest, except perhaps for Iceland. But who really cares about Iceland? They are strategically vulnerable. Any bully country emboldened by some nervy bankers could do what they wanted with them. 

The various political governments of today are bullies, bought and paid for by the same money clique that runs the banks. The government of the United States, since the time of the Constitution, has been a debt slave to the banking system because the Constitution was conceived, written and delivered by powers who met in secret to determine just how the government was going to be able to borrow money. All governments going back through time have always wanted to borrow money. Where do they get the money to pay the lenders back? From you. How do you get the money, their money mind you, to pay them? You either work for it or they give you some. If you're in the latter category, you're particularly vulnerable. But if you can remain healthy, you still have some wealth. Any skill worth paying for is by definition wealth. 

The political spectrum has different meanings for everyone who imagines themselves to be part of it, through voting, etc. There is a whole spectrum of people who call themselves Liberal. Some rather independent folks, especially those who want back to the land, consider themselves Liberal. Likewise Conservatives can run from the ultra nationalist fringes to ... well, I have been trying to tell any genuine Conservatives, those who believe in God, country and family, that there just isn't any place for them at the national levels anywhere in any Western democracy. Whatever they had hoped to “conserve” (in terms of their lifestyle, culture, attitudes, preferences, etc.) has long since been stolen, bludgeoned off the cultural stage, savaged in public, ridiculed and dismissed as ... reactionary or worse. 

The two polarities are really two sides of the same coin, run of course by them through their money. Here's the political system in the United States in a nutshell: 

The Blue Team: On the Liberal side one has the Mob, the Democrat Party, the party of government employees and any public employee interests including better than 90% of the educational establishment. Rare, though it does happen in more “red state” rural areas, some public employees are GOP aligned, but it's rare. 

The Red Team: On the not really conservative side anymore, the loyal opposition is really what used to be the out and out plutocrat party that has no regard for anyone but themselves and this runs all the way back to Henry Clay and Alex Hamilton before him. Abe Lincoln, the railroad lawyer from Illinois, was Clay's protégé and became the first Republican president. The Republicans have at various times thought of themselves as representing any small scale independent farmer or businessman, but they have always represented anything that's big, corporate, monopolistic, the banks, etc. 

The real reason people are taken in by the Republicans is that they think that if they just work hard enough or smart enough that they too will be rewarded with wealth in the usual sense of the term. We have news for you: if it ever comes down to your farm or your business as opposed to their BIG corporate farms or their BIG corporate businesses, guess who is going to win? Yeah and why? Because the bankers would far better want to deal with a BIG than you. And, where is their money from? Does it really matter? IT'S THEIRS not yours. 

I know plenty of people out there (the real John Galts - and Jane Galts) who run good strong thriving businesses that are not among the BIGS, but in almost every case, they must rely on some source of help, information or money that is either from a government or a BIG and of course everyone is forced to deal with a bank. 

There are people of both parties involved with the military industrial business and banking. Insurance, which is really like the accumulated money, huge amounts of it, like the liver of the system, is also heavily involved in all major business activities, especially concerning liability and casualty issues. One could be of any party and almost claim to believe the same things.  There is no real difference, which is why no matter who you vote for the government still wins.

There are many hair-brained people running around these days advocating atrocious ideas.  Here's one that's particularly disturbing. There are people running around on the conservative side who are promoting a Constitutional convention (dangerous in any sense) to propose a Balanced Budget Amendment to the US Constitution. That's like throwing a huge monkey wrench into the flying machinery of the economy; it would destroy the present system overnight. That's NOT the solution. 

The only solution that makes sense must be LOCAL and universal at the same time; the proposed International Standard Value Unit or Valun. Recently it reached a fair trade value of $2.97 an all time high. This means that from an initial value of $2.16 against both the dollar and gold, a 37.5% growth in the unit's ability to measure value since inception has been realized. It's ability to measure value can never fall below its inception. We'll describe what this represents in raw potential numbers in a moment, but ANY commodity as money, with THAT being a consideration, is by long experience doomed as a solution.   This will never be a commodity as money system

The solution must RUN IN PARALLEL with the present system and be there when it fails. That means it should be up and running NOW! But it would take an agreement among people to make it happen; the first meeting of the people who decide to form the proposed International Valun Exchange Society (IVES). 

What are we talking about in terms of raw aggregate numbers? There are those out there right away that will rush to the conclusion that any representation of monetary units means that there will be a quantity of money to price goods, which are other commodities. No, the actual quantity of money will fluctuate according to what needs to be bought or sold and nothing else. This is a credit clearing based system. The value represented by each and every last quanta of Valuns will always remain the same: each individual Valun will over time tend to experience fewer price fluctuations. 

An example: let's say one lives in a county with 50,000 people in it or less. Let's say that of that number, 10,000 are potential local independent exchange (IE) A members (and 500 of these A members are heads of companies that would become B members). At start up, each of these A members gets some money to begin with. How much? It will depend on the rules decided by IVES at its first meeting, but the proposal had been suggested here that 200 Valuns would be awarded each A member at inception. Let's consider what that would mean right now. 

Right now, 19 August, 2015, a fair exchange for a Valun in dollars is $2.94. 200 Valuns would thus be equal to the purchasing power of $588.00 and 10,000 potential A members would have 2,000,000 Valuns equal to the purchasing power of $5,880,000. That's just the beginning as there will be other lawful means of issuing Valuns (determining what the indigent status of A members entitles them to in Valuns issued per month) and all labour accounted for under each and every labour contract under the proposed rules would issue Valuns as well. You can easily see that the means for creating fair and honest money is not difficult and could be initiated at any time and the proposed Valun would be among the heaviest of present day currencies; presently almost twice that of the British pound. 

Most importantly, we acknowledge that we accept present national or supranational money because we are FORCED to do so. When that system fails, and it shall, we agree never again to accept a bank issued money as genuine. Likewise we agree never again to accept a money issued by any government whether loaned at interest or issued interest free as genuine. They never were and they never shall be. The world suffers their existence through ignorance, and through the uses of barbarous FORCE or the threat of such from bully governments in debt to bankers. Figure out whose really to blame for all the misery in the world including all its wars, most of its hunger and most of its continued ignorance. Most importantly who is to blame for the WASTE OF NATURAL TALENT inherent in human beings ... all for want of money? 

So who should pay attention? We accept that the true John Galts out there are those with the skills used to run the present machine. They are used until their usefulness to them is concluded. Then they may end up being dispensed with. Stuff happens. So we are dealing with a felonious oligarchy and their paid goons and minions of other supporters, that runs the world and uses their money to do so. What's the solution short of violence, which they of course will instigate (as they are already doing and as they always have done)? 

Organization. We instigate the VEN before establishing it as proposed in this blog.  Specifically we are looking to enrol all craftsmen, all independent businesspeople, naturally or organically committed farmers, people with all kinds of practical skills. The purpose of the enrolment shall be to inform all the enrollees of each other's existence. There is much of this already going on all over the web. What this particular list shall serve are the needs of independent businesspeople who will be identified within certain boundaries; a city or even a neighbourhood, a county, an unincorporated district, even in some cases entire states or provinces. In a country like France it would be organized by departments, in Russia by various identified divisions. 

At the present time, all these members would agree to trade with each other in preference to any of the big multinational corporations, which will not be on the list. They will agree to trade in whatever national or supranational money they are presently FORCED to use, the idea being that independent levels of production and redundant economic participation by independent small farmers and entrepreneurs is vital to the survival of everybody after the inevitable monetary crash of their money and its systems. We must have in place the familiarity with each other and the willingness to help one another. If we have lost that, then we are really lost. 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

David Burton 
dpbmss@mail.com

[20 August, 2015

Let's say I'm a rich dude with lots of cash and I want to buy some Valuns so my purchasing power isn't lost when their money fails? What do I do?

The first thing to understand is that there is no International Standard Value Unit (Valun) in existence yet so you can't buy any. The Valun is only a proposal which must be accepted by a group of people brought together by their common interests who put forth a manifesto or basic working document to announce to the world at large that the proposal has become an actual working agreement. You could be one of those who start this required organization.

Secondly, it would be more important for you to know just what talents or skills you have that constitute your personal wealth; that which is capable of providing you an income, a service that you could eventually sell to others who would be willing to buy it from you in Valuns. Mere things could eventually be sold for Valuns, but under the proposal, the only way a Valun can be issued is in exchange for labour or if one is without money, that is they are indigent, they can issue a certain number of Valuns per month based on the rules set up by the organizations, the IVES and the IEs proposed.

One cannot live as an island unto oneself. The idea that one can be self sufficient is a big fat lie. Why is this idea of complete isolated independence launched in the first place? It's a con game promoted by those who know better and want to impose various monopolies on others. The truth is that everyone needs someone for something. This truth implies that when people get together for various things, they form organizations. The natural ones are family, extended family, nations. The notion of people working together is also natural and how they decide to do this becomes their organization.

Extending this we have various natural businesses where people discover and implement their wealth to generate income. The only problem has been what money to use to trade with anyone near or far for whatever any local organization or person might want. Clearly there are problems with their money which is why this fellow is concerned enough to ask what he should do with his stash.

Ultimately, when there is a working organization, when a recognized Valun is in existence, then anyone with dollars, yen, rubles, euros, yuan, whatever, would visit their local independent exchange, assuming they are a member of it (else they wont get in since these will always be private), and exchange their currency for Valuns. It matters very much what the IE does with these currencies. They will be used to buy silver or gold and that will be held in a safe. This precious metal will not belong to the A member as in all fractional reserve fraud schemes. He will have and actually own his Valuns. These precious metals belong to each independent exchange and their sole use shall be to convert as needed back into their money to pay their taxes. This proposal is not and never has been a tax dodge. If that's what you're looking for, please look elsewhere.]

#0 We're Not in Kansas Anymore

If I had a friend who had once upon a time actually been from Kansas or perhaps had spent any time there, as I have, and she had asked me where I thought we were at the present time, I'd tell her that we were far from home. In order to discover what was actually the truth, no The Truth, as in the only real ultimate authority, I have had the opportunity to go very high and very deep, travel halfway around the world, visiting some centers of worldly power, meeting some extraordinary people, including a former Congresswoman from Massachusetts, who is actually one of the most impressive women I have ever met. I have also brushed shoulders with a variety of men and women from across the world, especially during my five year sojourn in New York City. I was married there and had a very interesting and vibrant social life at the edges of the entertainment and media businesses.

One finds out quite a lot just by keeping one's ears open and usually one's mouth shut. It is always best to have had as well the fortune to at least try and dress the part and adapt to the pace of places where power concentrates. The times I remember best are focused in my memory. I cannot recall precise details except for a few clear lines that I didn't forget. I made a point in fact after a while not to want to remember. Why? Because mush of what was being confessed to me, usually in private parties around Manhattan, and this was back in the 80's, was frankly pretty terrible.

One of the things I have noticed is how cheaply individual human life is counted in the scales of the high and mighty. Whether millions or billions die makes no difference to them, as their position, so they suppose, is fundamentally secure and they will always be well taken care of. The allure of this and how it shapes and warps human character, makes a lifetime study all by itself. Suffice it to say the most fundamental temptation as a means to further myself and my career involved trying to get me to betray and abandon my wife, who was someone one usually liked right away or didn't. Needless to say, I was faithful to the last, which came in 1994 when my wife died of natural causes owing to a rupture of a terrible head injury from her teenage years. “Tell my girls to avoid physical injury as it shortens your life.” As she was prepared to leave this world, on the night she eventually lost consciousness, we discussed the entire battery of things that were most important to us. One of them involved study into these very subjects. She always hated banks. I never understood this until recently. As a matter of fact, I had worked for banks, including The Bank of the United States in a strictly technical (non policy) position. But even so, I got some recognition for the way I was talking in the cafeteria, of course supporting policies that accepted Keynes and Friedman (whose views I was at that time impressed with). My intention at the time was to secure the best course that would guarantee the stability of the banking system, the flow of money and the strength of the dollar. But I didn't consider unemployment or debt so much in my analysis because as most economists still try to do, they consider economics from a trickle down point of view recognizing but never questioning the flow of money.

Actually ladies and gentlemen, whether of Kansas or not, you could go to any number of links listed alongside this page to get to enough opinion on the present system and how it affects the world around you, the world you were born into, the world that has been changing for everyone, affected by “cultural designers.”

Here is a remarkable conversation. Much of what these men discuss has been verified by me over many years. Have a listen. Soaring Eagle Radio with John Adams, Cultures Are Created

Peace