An Overview of Economics

Sustainable Prosperity for Everyone - Not Extremes of Wealth for Bankers and CEOs

 

Contemporary crypto-fascism (neoliberalism) could, with equal justice, be called corporatism because it represents the merger of state and corporate power.


Famously, politics and religion are subjects that can easily become subjects of heated and even unreasoning discussion. Of course, there are at least two other subjects that come under this heading as well: sex, and economics.

 

Individual organisms that don't reproduce aren't represented in the gene pool. Individuals that reproduce to a greater degree are better represented in the gene pool. And individuals that reproduce most of all have, up to a point, anyway, the best chances of all to be represented in the gene pool. This dynamic is probably what underlies the human obsession with sex: the most obsessed individuals were those who were also most likely to reproduce. This dynamic is also what underlies the difficulty human beings have in managing their sexual impulses.

 

But why mention this in the context of economics? Because it's probable that a compulsive obsession with wealth accumulation has similar biological underpinnings. Individuals who accumulate no wealth are in a difficult position when it comes to ensuring the survival of their offspring. Everything else being equal, the most wealth-obsessed have historically probably included many of those most likely to be able to ensure the survival of their offspring.

 

But reproducing to the maximum extent possible isn't necessarily rational behavior. Circumstances can, and do, change. Coordinating reproductive urges with larger concerns is essential. Families that are too large can't be well-managed. Inevitably, some offspring will be starved for attention, affection, and guidance - and even food. And there are many other matters of interest and importance in life apart from reproduction. There are good reasons why we don't especially honor the most reproductive among us. And it would make no sense to have our banks, media, and politicians exclusively controlled by individuals with the biggest families.

So, too, with an obsessive compulsion to accumulate wealth. Wealth beyond some threshold does nothing to ensure a better quality of life for the individual. Moreover, beyond that threshold, an obsessive compulsion with the hoarding of wealth begins to harm others in society, as all resources are finite. And, of course, beyond some threshold, an individual obsessed with accumulating ever greater wealth misses out on many other matters of interest and importance that s/he should more properly be concerned with. Hence, beyond that threshold lies mental illness and sociopathy. These are not to be confused with "success".

At some point, then, such obsessive economic conduct ceases to be beneficial to either the individual or his society, and crosses over into the harmful and destructive. Indeed, an obsession with wealth can be vastly more destructive than poorly managed sexual impulses. Bill Clinton's affair with Monica may have affronted his wife; but his dalliance with NAFTA was a disaster for the entire country, for other countries, and for democracy itself. (Yet there was not the faintest hint that he should be impeached for promoting NAFTA. And, in the case of the notorious TPP, Barack Obama busily engaged in promoting the same sort of anti-democratic affair, which, like NAFTA, was carried out in secret, corporation-led negotiations.)

Badly Needed: the Moment of Economic Sobriety

The corporation, in its current form, is a device for the concentration of wealth in the hands of its owners and simultaneously for stripping it from its employees. Employees usually develop little or no equity in the corporations they work for, and so suffer from the opportunity cost of not having their own corporation. But, even if they did, their employees would then find themselves in the same position. Hence, the corporation in its most familiar form is a kind of institutionalized moral plague; and the larger the corporation, the greater the affliction. And fascism, as the system of governance that most actively seeks to further this particular contagion, is the greatest of all moral and economic catastrophes. Contemporary neo-fascism is, in effect, the institutionalization of a destructive, obsessive compulsion with concentrating wealth in a few hands. Unfortunately, the "power behind the throne" in America and in the world today is just this sort of institutionalized crypto-fascism.

This power is ultimately grounded in privately owned central banks, which control the creation and distribution of money. The supply of money, of course, crucially affects the ability of economies everywhere to function. As the supply of money inherently and inescapably has political implications, the control of the supply must be brought out into the sunshine of public, democratic politics and must once again be made fully subject to public control. (Honest discussion of the nature and political role of privately owned central banks like the "Federal" reserve is one of the most taboo of all subjects, and is very rarely discussed in American corporate media. Tellingly, the average individual has never even heard of BIS, the central bank of central bankers, even though its actions affect the lives of every single human being on Earth. The other most taboo subjects center around the owners of these banks, and on the activities of the private political clubs of the hyperwealthy, like the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Broadcasters, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the assorted banker's and financier's associations.)

 

Creation of a truly just and rational economics will require us to frankly acknowledge that compulsive economic conduct beyond some threshhold is indeed pernicious and psychopathological. It will require us to admit to ourselves that clubs and other institutions for the advancement and institutionalization of psychopathology are grievous affronts to democracy. It would do the Bilderbergers a world of good to come out of the closet and honestly confess: "I am a Bilderberger, and I have no power over my obsession with money and power." Secret membership in the National Association of Broadcasters (the full membership is known only to themselves) must become a thing of the past. Full disclosure of the ownership of all media is needed, as well as media that is actually mainstream. Swiss banks (and others) must abolish offshore accounts for billionaire tax cheats. We should begin to discuss a maximum wage, as well as a maximum net worth.

 

The biological natures of some among us may well militate against economic justice, and some natures much, much more than others. Similarly, the alcoholic may be infuriated by suggestions that he even is an alcoholic, let alone suggestions that he control his compulsion. In both cases, intervention does not come without a price or without difficulty. Yet, in moments of sobriety, everyone knows what must be done. Even the alcoholic. Even, in their most honest and sober moments, the bankers themselves. It wouldn't be especially surprising to find a mirror in a bank somewhere with the message "Stop me before I steal again," scrawled across it.

 

Economics at Everything Progressive

At Everything Progressive we try to remediate the economic illiteracy wrought upon citizens by defective textbooks and fascist media conglomerates. (This aim has alarmed and dismayed some powerful people, and has also resulted in censorship and vandalism of our site.)

Our objective in doing so is not to inspire armed revolution, but rather, among other things, to prevent an armed coup d'etat. The creation of NORTHCOM, a military command for the military control of America, the placement of the National Guard under the direct control of the President, the creation of 17 different "intelligence" agencies, the "Citizen's United" decision of the US Supreme Court, chapters of the NAFTA, CAFTA, and TPP "trade" accords that undermine US sovereignty, and the domestic use of predator drones, among many, many, many other things, very strongly suggest that US-based crypto-fascists have in mind the outright termination of democracy in the US - and everywhere else, too. Steps toward this have already been taken by central bankers in Greece and elsewhere; and the activities of all central banks everywhere are coordinated, via BIS, among other institutions.

The primary economics resource at EP will eventually be found here.

 

The Editor / Everything Progressive