MONEY AND INFLATION








A Study in Thought

sa036



by





Marius Heuff

Chapter 1

Content

Money, seen as a form of energy.
Barter; the voluntary exchange of goods and services.
The importance of mutual agreement and equality in power.
A review of the mechanisms of task-differentiation and inter-dependence.
The need to understand fundamental mechanisms, before a grasp over social and economic phenomena is possible.
A confusing complexity, and the tendency to hide behind it.
A prayer on the altar of economic recovery.
The universal lure of affluence, reflecting a strong appeal to our biological heritage.
A thin veneer of ideological and religious beliefs.
The dangers of success.
The versatility of the tool of money.
Money can buy everything.
Modern problems in living off the land.
The chicken-coop.
The dangers of dependence, poverty and entrapment.
Social phenomena resulting from population pressures.
Money; a "cheque", or a "letter of credit".
The primary mechanisms for the rise of class-divisions.
The practice of psychological exploitation, and the need to obtain "money-energy".

The best way to understand the role and function of money, is to see this remarkable invention as a form of energy. We all know, that, long before money was introduced as an ingenious way to facilitate trade, the exchange of goods, and, to a lesser extent, the exchange of services, took place as a "barter". In barter, two parties exchange, voluntarily, and, ideally, from a position of essential equality, an amount of goods, after a voluntary agreement has sealed the value of the exchanged goods or services as "roughly equal".

Let us first look at the development of barter, as it arose out of the earlier developments of task-differentiation and inter-dependence. We have traced, on previous occasions, these developments in more detail, but, it may help us to understand these trends, if we review the sequence of events, which, eventually, led to such far-reaching consequences as the economic and industrial growth of a nation or an entire Continent. Before we can hope to unravel the complexities of a modern society, as well as the links between trade, finance, gross national output and the balance of payments, we should be able to grasp the fundamental concepts and developments that have brought us to a condition of economic inter-dependence and inter-wovenness; a situation that is so characteristic for our contemporary societies.

Unfortunately, the ramifications of the industrial and financial worlds, the gigantism of some corporations, as well as the uncertain attempts of governments to influence the value of their currencies, (affecting the prosperity of their citizens and the economic fortunes of their societies), all these factors have contributed to an ever increasing and confusing complexity. This complexity has become a perfect excuse for our leaders to hide behind, whenever somewhat blindly executed measures fail to produce the desired results. No-one likes to admit failure, and, complexity and difficulties have always been elevated to an exalted mystique, whenever failures became unavoidable. There are many areas in our contemporary societies, as well as in our contemporary grasp over reality, where chaos and confusion are the undisputed masters, but, in no other area is the confusion and chaos of incomprehension so acutely felt, by virtually everyone in society, as in the realm of "the economy".

We have discussed, on previous occasions, this remarkable phenomenon of our times, where government after government has come to pray on the alter of the gods of economic recovery, desperately trying to find a solution for the disruptive tensions that are mounting within and between their societies. Certainly, all the major, developed or industrialised nations, grouped-together under the philosophy of "Capitalism" or "free enterprise", have, for nearly a decade now, been looking towards the panacea of economic recovery.

It is even more remarkable, that the Socialist societies, governed by the ideas of collective ownership and the essential equality of all members, have also succumbed to the lure of economic prosperity; this glittering goal of an ever-increasing rate of consumption of one kind or another, in spite of the fact, that the Socialists visualise an equal distribution of this prosperity amongst everyone, and not just "the rich". The drive towards an increasing economic prosperity has blurred, to some extent, the ideals of essential equality and social justice on a large or world-wide scale, because the goals of prosperity are, often, limited to national entities, and the mechanisms of economic development lead, therefore, quickly to increasing disparities between nations.

Once again, the biological heritage of human nature has won-out over the guidelines of a conceptual framework of ideas and ideals. From time to time, even, the Socialist nations are turning against each other in a primitive display of suspicion and hostility, fueled by nationalist sentiments. It is, indeed, remarkable, how easy it is to forget an ideology, and, how quickly divisive strife and envy, suspicions and acts of hostility will re-assert themselves. An ideology is nothing more than a thin veneer, capable of coalescing, temporarily, the competitive hostilities of a group of people against a common enemy, but the veneer easily cracks and peels off, after the common struggle has been won.

It is remarkable, but, quite logical, that the real enemy of every great ideology or religion, is its own success. As soon as the galvanising obstacles have been overcome, and the common objectives have lost their relevance through accomplishment, an ideology or religious belief has outlived its usefulness and starts to decay. Fortunate, indeed, is the religion that has enshrined its arch-enmey as an invincible, evil force, equal to God, because the danger, associated with a complete victory over such an enemy, has then been eliminated!

"What has all this to do with money", you ask. Money is the source of energy that enhances our security and gives us power and freedom. Money is, now, in our modern societies, by far the most useful form of "biological energy", and, this versatile source of energy, exchangeable for almost anything we want, has become the main objective for most affluent people. With money, we buy, not only, security, freedom and power, but, all sorts of luxuries, as well as a kingdom of fantasies, dreams and emotional satisfactions. In short; there is nothing more versatile than money, and, we have come to believe, in spite of a lingering conventional wisdom to the contrary, that money can buy us everything, and, therefore, also, happiness.

We will see, that, most of us are, indeed, completely dependent upon, at least, some flow of money, or, cash-income, because most of us have lost the skills and the energy to supply all our needs from the basic resources of our natural environment. Most of us could not even tap these natural resources, because we live, by and large, in densely populated areas, where we have no access or rights to any of the basic, natural resources. Most people, even, those who live in poverty, have lost the skills, the freedom and the control over a territory, and, they are, therefore, unable to revert to a more natural way of living entirely "off the land".

In most areas around the globe, the number of people living closely together is too large for a natural life-style of feeding-off the territory one occupies or controls, and, it seems inevitable, that people live in crowded conditions and abject poverty, without any hope of ever having enough territory to support themselves adequately. The poor live like hens in a chickencoop, locked-up together, scratching desperately for a grain of rice or a worm in the barren soil, which is trodden upon, so often, that even grass can not grow, there, anymore.

We have to remind ourselves, that the developments of inter-dependence, as well as the prosperity of the small, successful social unit that developed or utilised the techniques of task-division and organisation, are a labile and hazardous pathway in the search for viability. If such a society becomes stunted in its growth, or, if it is conquered and exploited by a larger and more powerful society, the members can barely maintain their existence in a state of poverty, lasting generation after generation, because they have become dependent upon the mechanisms of social organisation and task-division.

At the same time, the ability to seek a better ecological niche by moving away and settling somewhere else, has been lost. The earth has been settled, almost everywhere, and, oppression, domination and exploitation, can not be compensated for, anymore, by "moving away" from the oppressing force. Often, people have no choice but to stay, to amalgamate with the oppressors, or, to wait, patiently, for signs of weakness and an opportunity to start a rebellion.

All these social phenomena; the relative over-population of the human species, the remarkable penetration of the human being into a large variety of habitats, the development of inter-dependence, task differentiation and social organisation, these mechanisms are all interwoven with the development of the manufacture of goods, the exchange of goods and serivces, as well as the eventual emergence of a trusted and agreed-upon system of credit, where the direct exchange is replaced by the acceptance of an intermediate and widely accepted commodity; money.

Yes, money is a cheque, or, rather, it is a letter of credit. It is not a personalised "I owe you", but, it is, really, nothing more than a piece of paper syaing; "holder is entitled to purchase an amount of goods or services with the nominal value stamped on this bill or piece of paper". Sure, money is an "impersonal cheque", that can be cashed by anyone, who has such a cheque in his or her possession, while the personally addressed cheque can only by cashed by him or her to whom such a cheque has been issued.

Let us review, then, from the beginning, how task differentiations and the mechanisms of inter-dependence became a central mechanism for the evolution of large-scale social developments, and, how, later, the introduction of the monetary system became another mechanism, facilitating the processes of task-differentiation or specialisation in function. In essence, we are seeing just another avenue for the mechanisms of secondary social integration. When these processes lead to a segregation of people in "layers", or "classes", we see, that the accumulation of wealth and power is greatly facilitated by this strange commodity, money. Money facilitates, not only, the differentiation of the members of society, but, it also contributes to the break-down of social cohesion because of the seemingly inevitable trend for every social unit to divide along the lines of success and failure; of wealth and poverty.

The drive to display "wealth", or economic power, has always led, quickly, to decadence and waste. The drive to consume luxuries and display wealth made the institutions of slavery possible in the past. Now, we are experiencing, in many affuent nations, a massive drive, shared by a majority of the members, to live in affluent conditions. This widely spread affluence is made possible by industrialisation, rather than the exploitation of human labours, and, this drive seems to be spreading all over the world. Most people, in nearly every society, seem to be fascinated by a high standard of consumption, which we, in the West, have so unthinkingly and blatantly adopted, often for the sake of "making money"; by luring others to spend their earnings on our products.

Therefore, we will also have to examine the factors of psychological exploitation and indoctrination into a consumerist life-style. These techniques of persuasion have become essential tools of survival for the larger enterprises, because they need a continuous and massive flow of "money-energy" through their systems in order to remain viable.

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Chapter 2

Content

A remarkable dependence on money, when living in an affluent social environment.
The modern "job".
The pressure to spend; fashionable opinions about social success.
The lure of an affluent life-style; a gradual entrapment into financial obligations.
When existental needs merge imperceptibly with the pleasures of consuming luxuries.
The urge to display wealth and power, or the ability to spend money.
The far-reaching implications of being in debt.
The role of financial entrapment in the build-up of chronic tensions and anxieties.
Reckless borrowing, and the temptation to engage in unscrupulous short-cuts.
The existential anxieties of commercial interests; advertising.
Mergers and monopolies through price-fixing.
The "Age of the Economic Dinosaurs".
The still unfathomed impact of affluence and economic pressures.
The conflicting interests between saving and spending, investment and consumption.
The growth-cycle of an economic enterprise, and the need to remain viable.
Financial institutions, and their fees.

Is money indeed energy? How do energy and money relate to each other? In our modern societies, most of us are integrated into a system of economic inter-dependencies to such an extent, that we do not maintain any of the basic functions ourselves. We have to buy our food, shelter, clothing, transportation, etc. We spend roughly eight hours a day, five days a week, on a "job", where we sell our time, and, perhaps, our skills, to a buyer, or employer, be it a government institution or a private employer.

Some of us have a business of our own, where we manufacture something, or, we may sell a skilled service as a "professional", provided, of course, that we have been properly trained in a particular field of skill and knowledge. Most of us, however, work for a "salary" or a fixed wage, and, we are, then, employed by someone else. With the money we receive in return for the work we do for our employer, we maintain our existence. We have to spend a certain portion of this income to supply ourselves with the basic necessities such as food, shelter and clothing, and, we spend, quickly, the rest of our income on items and services, we think, we need or deserve.

In an affluent society, there is a continuous, and, often, intense pressure upon us to spend all we have earned on items and services that are constantly being pushed into the focus of our attention. We are made to believe, that such a spending allows us to live a life-style that is desirable, or, even, enviable. If we give-in to these consumerist pressures, we indulge in pleasures, pass-times, hobbies, vacations and travel, which, we have been made to believe, we need for our mental health. We, as hard-working members of these affluent societies, like to believe, that we deserve all these trappings, or, that we have to indulge in them, if we want to maintain a certain social status.

We see, therefore, that, very quickly, the monetary income we have secured with our job, becomes dissipated in a round of financial obligations we have taken upon ourselves, and, for most of us, affluent wage-earners, the amount of money that has to be spent in order to maintain truly basic necessities, is small compared to the amount of money we spend regularly, as a fixed part of our weekly or monthly costs, maintaining a life-style, we think, we need, or deserve. Most of the time, we adopt, subconsciously, a way of life that requires a far greater flow of cash than is really necessary.

The way we eat, clothe ourselves, the housing we buy or rent, the mortgage we take upon ourselves, the luxuries we place in our homes or garages, all these items, which we are constantly being offered and pressured into buying, are items that are far more expensive than we really need. As a result, only a small porton of our monthly income is left-over for real savings. Most of our "savings" take place by paying-off debts, such as a mortgage or a car-loan, and, we are, then, in essence, "consuming now" our projected income of the future.

We have touched upon an important point, here, which needs to be stressed, once again. In an affluent life-style, we merge the existential needs, (which are the minimum requirements of existence), with the desires for display, gratification and power. These desires are stimulated and cultivated, continuously, by commercial interests, in order to entice us to live a life-style that consumes or requires all our income. Such a life-style means, that we become ever more dependent upon the continuation of this flow of money or cash-income, and, since we often over-extend ourselves and borrow money for consumption, now, in the hope of paying it back, later, (at a substantial cost), we all become increasingly dependent upon this steady flow of cash or income.

This represents a form of seduction or enticement into a position of "financial slavery". Technically, this entrapment into financial slavery is a voluntary act, but, given the persuasiveness of commercial propaganda, it represents, in fact, an involuntary and deceptive act of aggression, perpetrated by commercial interests against the people of their own societies. These practices have led to a high level of stress and a chronic anxiety, where large parts of the population live continuously in an uneasy anticipation of likely disaster, if anything would happen to this flow of cash. Sickness, loss of a job, or cut-backs and bankruptcies in the institutions that generate this flow of cash, are disastrous developments, leading to severe tensions and stresses for the people involved, since most affluent people rely, so much, on this steady flow of income.

The lure of an affluent life-style is enormous. People, who see, daily, the symbols of an affluent life-style being displayed all around them, can not avoid being impressed and somewhat envious, and, all too often, the emulation of such a life-style becomes the all-absorbing passion of their lives. Some grab this luring life-style too quickly, by counting, recklessly, upon a steadily enlarging cash-flow in the future, and, they go precipitously in debt. Others may become obsessed with the task of acquiring the required magnitude of cash-income and start to engage in various "short-cuts"; various quick ways of generating a flow of cash, ranging all the way from unscrupulous profit-taking to outright illegal and amoral activities, such as theft, embezzlement, the sale of illegal drugs and other services, like prostitution, protection rackets, gambling, etc.

In short, this entire web of criminal activities and organisations is centered around the objective of trying to squeeze as much money as possible from those members of society who are most vulnerable to exploitation; either as a result of their poverty, social status, their job, or their habits, ignorance and weaknesses. These people become easily vulnerable to pressures, enticements and blackmail. Legitimate commercial interests are also tempted to resort to tactics of persuasion that are technically legal, but, may well be detrimental to those, who are gullible and vulnerable to exploitation.

All business interests are faced with the never-ending task of "making money", or, a profit. A profit is the net surplus in monies left-over after expenses have been met. These expenses may have been incurred in order to sell a product or a service upon which the income and viability of a company or enterprise has been based. The quickest way for a company to generate a cash-flow is to ensure, that a significant segment of the population will commit a part of their income to buying its products. This has to be accomplished by advertising; by making the product known, and, at the same time, by enticing the people into believing, that it is important, beneficial, or, even, necessary to acquire this particular product.

At the same time, commercial enterprises will keep a sharp eye on the competition, since too fierce a level of competition will dry-up the cash-flow for them all, and will make everyone vulnerable to losses. Therefore, in the complex, affluent societies, competitive strife has a tendency to be replaced by a tacit, and, sometimes, open cooperation between commercial interests in order to avoid a price war. Often, the corporations engage in mergers, or "take-overs", diminishing the diversity and competitiveness of the business world. Sometimes, a semblance of competitiveness is maintained for the purpose of preserving a desirable public image, but, in reality, very few of the services and items offered to the public are truly subjected to competitive pricing.

Many people have become totally captive to the persuasiveness of the advertising techniques of commercial interests, as well as their often hidden positions of power and monopoly. This means, that these enterprises have gained control, not only, over the will and the mind of the public, but also, over the prices they have to pay. At the present time, commercial interests are, often, so successful and powerful, that they monopolise the mass-media of television, radio and the press in the more affluent, Capitalist societies. Even the political institutions of these countries feel the stranglehold of the large commercial interests, and, politicians, as well as civil servants in a position of power, are besieged by powerful lobbies. I believe, that this period in the history of affluent mankind, in particular, the history of the modern, Capitalist societies, will become knows as the "Age of the Economic Dinosaurs".

We still have to realise, and acknowledge, the gigantic impact of these dinosaurs upon our lives, including our outlook and overall viability, and, we have to become aware of their interference with our ability to see reality clearly, and choose intelligently from the many serious choices we are confronted with. We have become robots, slovenly enslaved to consumerist instincts, on a scale never seen before, and, we are consuming energy in a wasteful way of life, also on a scale that has not occurred before.

However, let us return to the flow of cash. We have seen, how we all have sold our time, and, perhaps, our minds, for the sake of a regular income of money. We have seen, how the commercial interests are likewise dependent upon a continuous and sustained income of money, generated by the willingness of the consumer to spend his earnings. There is, therefore a measure of inter-dependence between the mass of consumers and the commercial interests, and, we see, now, why it is not at all in the interest of society, if some people begin to hoard their income by saving it and living frugally. In doing so, a significant amount of cash would become sequestrated. Commercial income would begin to drop, and the availability of job opportunities would decline, jeopardising this continuous flow of cash through society.

The attitudes of frugal self-sufficiency are a threat to the survival of the consumerist society, but, so is the accumulation of wealth into the hands of a few rich people, because, they too, sequester a major portion of the available capital from the mainstream of consumerist spending. Whenever money begins to accumulate into the hands of a wealthy elite, we see, that the world of commercial enterprises orients itself, increasingly, upon the wealthy or affluent consumer, and, then, the poor, those, who have little money to spend on anything beyond the barest necessities, become totally uninteresting to the business community.

In spite of the strenuous efforts by commercial enterprises to entice customers to buy their products and control the intensity of competitive strife, the level of commercial success always fluctuates. Control over competitors is seldom complete or long-lasting. Commercial success leads, invariably, to complacency, shoddy workmanship, and, after a while, even an intense campaign of advertising will be insufficient to convince the consumer to buy. Sales decline, cash-flow slows-down, and, there will be an intense pressure on the viability of a particular commercial enterprise. It will have to improve its performance in order to survive.

Commerical viability can be increased by bringing-out an innovative product, an improvement in the quality of existing products and services; by lowering prices, streamlining production processes, and, by cutting "over-head" or unnecessary costs, such as unproductive managerial positions. Often, cash-flow problems will have to be overcome by major expenditures, required to carry-out the necessary changes, but, borrowing money brings a whole host of problems to the fore. Nearly all corporations and business enterprises become borrowers of money at one time or another. They too, pay a price for the financial service of providing "capital" to work with, and, it is logical, that the need and desire to borrow has led to the development of many financial institutions, such as banks, trust-companies, the bond- and stock-markets, as well as a host of smaller financial institutions, like credit unions and finance companies that cater to the needs of the small, individual consumer; often, at a high price, indeed.

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Chapter 3

Content

The logic of wealth; the richer you are, the easier and cheaper you can borrow money.
The "gravitational" pull of money, and the forces of social fragmentation.
The territorial needs of a living organism.
The nature of multi-cellular existence; symbiotic, as a colony of cells, but competitive in relation to other multi-cellular organisms.
Socialisation, seen as a parallel of cellular symbiosis.
A look at symbiosis, parasitism and predation.
Basic biological mechanisms provide a solid foundation for the interpretation of human behaviour.
The main reason for social integration; a benefit for every member.
Pre-human social developments.
The temptation to exploit.
When the mechanisms of hierarchical ordening go astray.
The reasons, why the processes of social integration come to a halt.
The vulnerability of mutual inter-dependence.
Natural selection shaped the qualities of social leadership.
The a-sexual and sexual modes of social pro-creation.
Limitations of the social unit.
Cultural innovations and tools form the foundation for the much larger social entity.
The integrated nature of leadership in small social units.
Intuitively intelligent leadership.

There is one invariable "law" in all these developments; money makes money, or, rather, you have to have money before you can borrow it. If you need money, for one reason or another, the price you pay depends on your assets. If you are poor, you have to pay a high price for it, or, you may not be able to borrow at all. If you are rich, it is relatively easy and inexpensive to borrow, because you have a good "collatoral" to the monies you are going to borrow, and, you can "shop around" for the best price. Because money makes money, if invested or managed wisely, the rich are getting richer, and the poor stay poor, or, they become even poorer, as we will see, when we discuss the effects of inflation upon living standards and income.

Not surprisingly, a society that allows the accumulation of wealth into the hands of a few people will see, invariably, the fragmentation of society into a number of diverging classes. If these divisions become very sharp and "inherited", the seeds have been laid for social upheaval, or, even, a rebellious uprising against the established order. We have discussed these social aspects before, and we will discuss them again. Let us come back, here, on the role of money. We should review the changes that take place in the relationships between individuals, when they begin to form a structure of social integration. These changes result from the development of inter-dependencies, which are themselves a result of task-differentiations or specialisations in function. These mechanisms were, initially, made possible by the emergence of a hierarchical "order", and, later, by the exchange of goods and services carried-out from a position of essential equality.

The members of a species are, in essence, identical to each other; at least, if we look at the anatomy of their body and the physiology of their behaviour. Their behaviour will show competitive posturing, as well as the characteristic of "teritoriality", because each individual member requires a certain territory in order to maintain its viability and satisfy its existential needs. Each member siphons-off the required biological energy from its environment and lets it dissipate through its system. We have seen, in the previous essay, that this is the essence of all living existence. As soon as the basic existential requirements have been fulfilled, the organism will channel its surplus energy into growth, and, eventually, into a process of reproduction.

In the single-celled organisms that reproduce a-sexually, duplication occurs, if the organism reaches a certain size or state of "affluence". The genetic code, embodied in the chromosomes, reproduces itself and moves to opposite sides of the cell, and, then, the protoplasm of the cell is pinched in half. Each half becomes surrounded by a semi-permeable cellular membrane and grows into a complete cell by "filling-out" its protoplasmic constituents.

In the sexual mode of reproduction of single cells, a certain amount of genetic material is exchanged between two cells, forming, temporarily, a protoplasmic bridge, and, we have discussed, before, how the larger, multi-cellular organisms invariably use the sexual mode of reproduction; partly, because the "splitting method", or a-sexual method of "mitotic division" is unsuitable for the larger organisms. In addition, the sexual mode provides the species with a very useful variability in the spectrum of structural and behavioural characteristics. This spectrum is then "presented" to the selective forces of nature for the sake of adapting the gene-pool of a population under pressure to changes in the prevailing circumstances.

Eventually, a form of symbiosis develops, where a community of cells searches, and finds, if successful, a vastly enlarged range of existence possibilities with the help of a process of task-differentiation and specialisation in function. The crux of this phenomenon can be formulated by saying, that, in task-differentiation, the cells divide into groups that remain closely adherent to each other, but, each group becomes specialised and develops a specific function. These functions are complementary to each other. Then, the multi-cellular organism as a whole carries-out all the functions that are necessary to keep this multi-cellular society of integrated cell-groups alive. Each cell-group specialises into a function on which the entire community begins to depend, and, these groupings become far more viable, and far better able to defend themselves as an integrated unit, than would be possible for each cell or cell-grouping on its own.

This, in a nutshell, is the essence of the mechanisms of multi-cellular symbiosis, and, all multi-cellular life-forms depend on these inter-dependencies. We, human beings, are an example of such a multi-cellular community of symbiotically organised and tightly coherent cells. The multi-cellular organism with its specialised but inter-dependent cell-groups, or "organ-systems", forms a single living entity that behaves and reproduces as a unit. A population of such organisms, able to reproduce sexually, makes-up a single species. A species is therefore made-up of very similar but not completely identical organisms. The population of a species shows a "spectrum of genetic variability". These multi-cellular organisms show, again, as individual entities of existence, the primitive behaviour-patterns of competitive strife, while the cellular components and population groupings, making-up this unit of living existence, live in a harmony of obligatory inter-dependence.

In the phenomenon of cooperation between a number of multi-cellular individuals, we see, to some extent, a repetition of the symbiotic developments that took place between the cells and cell-groups of a multi-cellular organism, but, there are also significant differences. Let us first discuss the phenomena of symbiosis, parasitism and predation. Symbiosis is the development of a mutually beneficial condition of inter-dependence, where both partners carry, approximately, similar advantages and disadvantages associated with these relationships. In parasitism, the benefits of inter-dependence are weighted heavily in favour of the parasite, while the "host" is being exploited. In predation, the predator becomes dependent upon the capture and destruction of its prey in order to fulfill its essential energy requirements. We will not elaborate, here, on these definitions, since we have discussed these mechanisms extensively before.

The various mechanisms of inter-dependence play an important role in the human society as well, and, we have to keep them in mind, if we want to understand the complex and contradictory phenomena of collective and individual human behaviour-patterns. We have inherited, on the one hand, a strong tendency to behave competitively, or, even, "predatorily" in our relations with each other, but, on the other hand, we have also inherited an instinct to seek our existential security in varying degrees of cooperation and inter-dependence. Our attitudes show a gradual change, or sliding scale, from symbiotic harmony to exploitative parasitism and outright predatory aggression, where we conquer, kill and destroy in order to obtain what we want or need. The classification of human behaviour-patterns as examples of symbiosis, parasitism and predation forms a useful framework for the analysis of the complex phenomena that are operating within the human individual, as well as in his social inter-actions.

The main reason, or, perhaps, the only valid reason, why the mechanisms of mutual inter-dependence may proceed to the harmony of a symbiotic relationship, is the reward of increased viability for the symbiotic or social unit as a whole. This means, that the benefits and burdens are roughly the same for all the members of such a socially integrated entity. We have seen, how viability of the pre-human and early human social units, (primarily groupings of related individuals), depended on the coordination of hunting skills, a successful defense against attack and predation, an intelligent search for shelter from the weather and harsh seasonal changes, as well as an ability to make use of a variety of food-sources.

In such a social unit, tasks became divided, naturally, where the strengths and skills of the hunt and the defense were separated from the skills of food-gathering and the care for the young and the sick in the "home environment". Later, the more complex groupings showed an ever increasing tendency to divide the tasks and chores amongst the members of the group, and, these task-differentiations reflected the mechanism of hierarchical positioning, which, in itself, represented a modification or adaptation of the instinct of territoriality, making the process of social integration possible in the first place.

In the early stages of social development, task-differentiation, hierarchical positioning and the development of inter-dependencies were rewarded by an increased viability of the community as a whole, but, because there is always the temptation on the part of the stronger members to exploit a hierarchical position or superior power for egocentric or "predatory" purposes, the natural growth of mutual inter-dependencies was quickly halted by increasing internal tensions. The weaker members of such a social unit were easily exploited and would have to bear, then, a disproportionately large burden of the chores. Then, the sense of belonging, (the experience that it is an advantage to belong to a particular social entity), began to disappear. Hostility and resentment towards "the authorities" would counter-act any further tendency to rely upon each other, and, the process of inter-dependent relationships with task-differentiations and specialisations in function, would come to a halt.

Every human being learns, quickly, that mutual inter-dependencies and task-divisions require a measure of trust and mutual reliance, which are, at the same time, a weakness and a vulnerability, in particular, if the predatory instincts of powerful members are not controled by social "escape" mechanisms, or tacit agreements of customs, mores and behavioural guidelines, curbing the exploitative practices of the more powerful members.

From the beginning of these early, natural experiments with the socialisation of multi-cellular organisms and the tentative beginnings of task-differentiation and hierarchical positioning, the qualities and functions of leadership were crucially important for the viability of the group as a whole. These qualities were responsible for maintaining a tolerable level of dominance and exploitation between the invariably unequal members of a small social entity. If certain members would experience an intolerable degree of exploitation and dominance, the social escape mechanisms would simply make them "split-away" from the group and move-out into the surrounding territories, where the processes of rebuilding a social unit would start, again, from scratch.

In a way, the growth and proliferation of small social groupings resembled the method of a-sexual reproduction employed by the single cell, and, only later, when societies became far more complex and multi-layered, do we see the invigorating influences that came with the cross-fertilisation of ideas and cultures, whenever different social groupings were forced to live in close contact with each other. As long as the natural environment made it easy, or, at least, possible, to absorb new social nuclei that had split-off, the size of the social grouping was, probably, limited to a dozen, or, at the most, a few dozen individuals. We have outlined, before, how physiological limitations were the primary limiting factors preventing the emergence of much larger social units; at least, until relative over-population forced an entirely new road of cultural evolution, where explicit and implicit behavioural guidelines played an increasingly important role in the organisation of human beings living together at close quarters.

In these early social units there would, probably, not be any distinction between the many social and political aspects of leadership we are now familiar with, nor, would there be a clear distinction between task-differentiation, hierarchical positioning, or the development of a voluntary exchange of goods and services. Every aspect of life and leadership was fully integrated, and every happening or event was under the constant scrutiny of the leading personality, who would, intuitively and instinctively, maintain order and harmony. Intuitively intelligent leadership would prevent predatory or dominating attitudes by high-ranking members, and, if the leaership itself would succumb to the temptation to adopt such exploitative attitudes and practices, (which, undoubtedly, would happen, on many occasions), the internal tensions would quickly mount to the point of an intolerable stress, and, the social unit would fall-apart, having lost the essential reason for its existence.

Leadership qualities were undoubtedly sharpened by the forces of natural selection in this long and ruthless struggle for survival, which was carried-out, subconsciously, by the numerous nomadic groupings of early mankind. In these early stages of human development, nature was still able to encode genetically a few principles of harmonious co-existence and social viability; at least, it could do so for the small-scale social units that characterised the existence of early man.

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Chapter 4

Content

A review of the mechanisms of early, large-scale, social integration.
The beginnings of a cultural code and its artifacts.
An easing of living conditions, but, social mechanisms remain organised around basic existential requirements.
Social stratification; the low status of the "providing classes".
Rulers and their conquests.
The concept of an increased energy-flow; facilitating existential chores through coordination, cooperation and task-divisions.
Increasing the availability of energy-sources.
The drive to make more intensive use of natural resources because of increasing population densities.
The fragile nature of the voluntary exchange, and its decay into an act of robbery.
The birth of slavery, and its exploitation by an upper crust.
The Industural Revolution, harnassing extra-human energy-sources.
The break-through of generally shared affluence.
The relationships between power and wealth, land-ownership and military service.
The likely resurgence of inequities after a revolutionary over-throw.
The principles of trade and profit; work, made possible by an energy-gradient.
The temptation to "colonise", or control trade and natural resources.
The ever-recurring practices of exploitation.

Let us visualise the circumstances, which, in all probability, forced the coalescence of many small, nomadic groupings into more permanent and far more densely populated settlements. These settlements arose in fertile and valuable areas, such as river-valleys, and, the same pressures that led to larger and more permanent settlements, also gave rise to a remarkable spurt in the evolution of social or cultural mechanisms. These mechanisms allowed such densely populated areas to become viable and reasonably harmonious centers of civilisation. The remains and artifacts from these early experiments with large-scale social units allow us to reconstruct, tentatively, some of the cultural developments that took place, when people were forced to live ever closer together, with increasingly complex social relationships and inter-dependencies.

With the rise of large-scale settlements, we see a rapid development of such "cultural traits" as the art of recording and reading, or writing-down graphic representations of symbolic awarenesses and communications. We see, also the emergence of more explicit rules and regulations for the large number of social contacts that were taking place, as well as the settlement of disputes that would inevitably arise. A successful structure of social regulators would lead, often, to a restless exploration of new existence possibilities, especially, by those, who were born into such a fortunate, vigorous and healthy social environment. These restless explorations happen, partly, in response to the frequent challenges that arise with a rich variety of social contacts, and, partly, because of the drive to explore. The latter would be fueled by an increasing surplus of time and energy, as it became steadily easier to provide for the basic necessities.

This entire complex of differentiations into specialised patterns of functions and behavioural responses, under an umbrella of increasingly more sophisticated guidelines, takes place simultaneously, but, it is true, that a particular example or incidence of cultural growth and social success, is, often, characterised by a specific feature; e.g., a specific cultural or technological innovation would play a major role in a specific success story of social growth. Any development that would make it easier for people to satisfy the basic requirements of existence, (and would, at the same time, regulate the myriad of social contacts reasonably well), would lead to vigorous social growth or expansion of these larger settlements. After all, the basic existential requirements of human existence, including psychological needs and desires, lie at the root of the numerous social activities and experiments with exploratory behaviour-patterns, and, all these diverse activities account for the varying levels of failure, stress, success and expansion, which are reflected by the ever-changing aspects of a "civilisation".

It seems unavoidable, that, eventually, a society diverges into a number of social classes, where people enjoy differing levels of power and privilege. As a result, social strata will become associated with specific tasks or obligations; such as the manufacture of certain goods, or, the provision of certain functions and services. Traditionally, the suppliers of goods and services have always ranked rather low in the social hierarchy. We always see a ruling elite, amassing power and wealth by an inseparable combination of conquest and exploitation. They exact tributes from those under their powers, and, the wealthy and powerful members of an elite excercise these powers in a varying alliance with those who divine the will of the gods, as well as those, who do the actual fighting on the battle-fields.

The wealth of ownership, especially, of land, was distributed amongst those ruling and warring classes, and, the manufacturers of goods and the providers of services were, often, little more than serfs or slaves. We never intend in these discussions to recount a particular historical development, because we are interested, only, in recalling the generalised concepts that lie behind the phenomena we can observe throughout history. In order to explain, why we seem to have such a belated growth and gigantism of the corporate structure, we have to go back to the images that describe a flow of energy. Let us recall, how the living organism can be considered as a system of "reactable substances", functioning as a rivulet for the dissipation of a biological energy-gradient, accumulated by electron-excitation during the absorption of solar radiation.

The rationale behind the process of task-differentiation lies in the simple fact, that, it is easier to carry-out, many times, one aspect of the many tasks involved in maintaining viability, compared to ranging, continuously, throughout the entire spectrum of existentially significant chores and activities. Besides, the cumulative efforts of a group of people who have been efficiently organised into a specific objective, are far more effective, compared to the best efforts of a single person. Similarly, many heavy labour tasks will require the strength of more than one individual to be accomplished, and, last but not least, the inter-play between various individuals in the hunt, (some driving the prey and others intercepting it), made it possible to bring-down the larger and faster animals, which were entirely out of reach for the lone hunter. In this way, the food-supplies were enlarged significantly for a community of human beings who had learned to carry-out complex tasks by acts of cooperation and intelligent foresight.

Later, the construction of more sophisticated shelters and defensive structures, agricultural projects, food-storage and irrigation facilities, as well as the domestication of animals, all these activities required the cooperation of many people. Cooperation and task-division, paid-off handsomely, therefore, in the form of an increased level of viability for the cooperating groups of socially integrated individuals. The energy-resources became vastly enlarged. Many sources that were previously out of reach, became available, and, security was enhanced by the construction of superior shelters, better systems of defense, as well as a more abundant and varied supply of foods that could be preserved for a prolonged period of time and distributed when necessary.

As the fertile areas of the globe became quickly inhabited by a large variety of socialised groupings of human beings, inter-human strife and competition between social groupings became an ever more dominant feature of human life, since the enlargement of a supply of food, as well as other valuable materials, now required the conquest of an area that had already been settled.

Man's conquests have become, therefore, more predatory in nature; perhaps, not in the strict of sense of "cannibalism", where the killed enemy became a source of food, but, the predatory nature of each conquest was clearly demonstrated in the acquisition of natural resources and man-made products from the conquered society. These resources became, thereby, available as a source of food or energy for the conquering society. In all these inter-human contacts and struggles, the transfer of goods was rarely a "voluntary exchange", but, it remained, nearly invariably, a forced exchange; a robbery, where the conquered society was, often, ruthlessly exploited to the point of utter destruction.

The energy-flow through the human organism was slowly enlarged by these developments of cooperation within a social grouping, as well as by predatory conquests, competitive strife and exploitative practices. Again later, the conquering society learned to harnass the physical labours of the members of a conquered society, and the practice of slavery was born. The first affluent societies were entirely based on the labours provided by the lower classes of society. These classes existed in nearly complete bondage and were, often, openly exploited, with scant regards for the concepts of "human rights", and little attention to the psychological mechanisms of identification and compassion.

The dependence upon slavery became, quickly, so widespread, that the affluent and economic momentum of such a dependent society would collapse, if slave-labour would disappear. We see, then, the remarkable fact, that the institution of slavery became so widely accepted, and, was so unquestioned, that it became impossible to imagine a society without some form of slave-labour, even, when standards of ethics and compassionate identification were rapidly rising, especially, during the time, when the great, sophisticated religions came into being.

The practice of slavery persisted, in one form or another, until man learned to harnass the natural sources of energy to do the hard and back-breaking work for him. These forces were provided, primarily, by fossil fuels, wind-power and hydro-power. These developments broke-through and blossomed forth with the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Only then, became it possible to create a prosperous economy without slavery, in spite of the fact, that many working conditions in the early phases of the Industrial Revolution were still very much like "slave labour".

The introduction of "machinery" made it possible to increase man's energy consumption beyond anything seen before. The break-through of the machine, (this mechanical device that can do useful work for man, while being fueled by a non-human energy-source), is responsible for the growth of the economies in the more affluent nations, and, now, even, the poorer and most backward regions on earth are rapidly applying the fruits of industrial technology, freeing man from much of the physical labours needed to provide his sustenance. However, at the same time, the application of modern technology and non-human energy-sources opened the way to an extravagant and wasteful life-style for the industrialised masses.

There is another development we have to discuss. We have seen, that wealth and power remain closely related, and, it is clear, from a look at history, that, even, the earliest accumulations of wealth were closely linked to a position of power. Rulers acquired their lands and possessions, almost invariably, by coercion and conquest, and, those, who were affluent land-owners, had to bow to the will of the ruling elite, in order to keep their possessions. Logically, land-owners were required to serve in the armies of the ruling elite, and, vice versa, the leadership would give-away tracts of land to those, who had served the leadership well, militarily. Here, we see the one of the major reasons for the close links between the ruling elite and the military.

If such a society or leadership would crumble, these barons and land-lords had to provide for their own security, and, they required, in turn, military service from the people who lived and worked close-by, and, who were, to some extent, dependent upon these land-lords for their security. The process of feudal allegiance repeated itself, as faithful warriors of the land-lord were given a piece of land themselves. We also know, from history, how well the Christian Church participated in these processes and amassed a fortune in land-holdings and other possessions.

Revolutionary upheavals, violent and rapid changes in the established hierarchy by costly and devastating acts of warfare, as wel as more gradual mechanisms of change, all these mechanisms and events have been important features of social transformation throughout history, whereby the tensions of frustration, dissent and injustice were dissipated, only to be replaced by a new leadership, a new division of classes, and a resurgence of the same, old problems, often, within the time-span of a few generations.

Leadership institutions and far-sighted rulers, who recognised the importance of satisfying a sense of justice and essential equality amongst their peoples, were able to forge, often, long-lasting empires, but, as soon as internal dissent and injustice, corruption and exploitation resumed their devasting course, the society would decay again, rapidly, into warring factions.

In the earlier phases of civilised, or, rather, "regulated" inter-actions between large social groupings, the processes of trade played a major role in fostering contacts, knowledge, and, to some extent, understanding and mutual appreciation. Trade is, in essence, the transport of items from a place of abundance to one of relative scarcity, and, this activity allows enterprising people an opportunity to acquire such goods at a much lower value, (or cost, in terms of money or value), than the exchange-value of such an item at the place of scarcity, or sale. This difference in value is the force-field that makes the "work" of trade possible, and, often, extremely rewarding. In spite of the often hazardous and arduous process of transporting goods, (open to pirate atacks and all sorts of natural dangers and disasters), the possibility of a significant profit was opened-up. As a result, the perilous undertaking of a trade across geographical and cultural boundaries was often abundantly rewarded, if such a transport of desired goods was accomplished successfully.

However, implied in this process, is the development of a sufficient level of understanding and cooperation between people and groups of people, before a more or less voluntary exchange of goods becomes possible. After a successful voluntary exchange, the stronger society was always tempted to move into these lucrative foreign areas and bring them under their control as "colonies". The lure of exploitation and conquest has always been strong, even, if official reasoning was often cloaked in more diplomatic terms. The tendency to exploit and obtain by force, is a strong human drive, making us true, predatory animals in the biological sense of the word. We tend to exploit every opportunity to gain an advantage, be it a weak neighbour, the poor, or the gullible. It is time, that we recognise, fully and openly, the ever-present temptation to exploit people, as well as all sorts of natural resources, whenever an opportunity presents itself to do so.

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Chapter 5

Content

Conquest and colonisation; "neo-colonialism".
Supporting a friendly puppet-regime.
The fragile nature of voluntary agreements.
The importance of maintaining a position of essential equality.
The principles of free-enterprise.
Failures of the free-enterprise system in actual practice.
Sketching the developments in a social environment, starting from a set of hypothetical, free-enterprise conditions.
The inevitable divergence between people or groups of people.
The never-ending game of free-enterprise.
Sanctioning class-divisions by property laws.
The accumulation of wealth.
The gradual development of dependence and enslavement of a majority of the population, resulting from unbridled free-enterprise mechanisms.
Worker-eploitation during the early phases of industrialisation.
The practice of collectively bargaining for a work-contract.
Enslavement resulting from a chronic burden of debts.
Measures to re-distribute wealth, and slow-down the emergence of disparities.
A tendency for the smaller enterprises to disappear.
Why free-enterprise leads to class-divisions.
The naive belief, that the losers are willing to continue to play the game of social differentiations for the rest of their lives.
Difficulties associated with efforts to harnass egocentric instincts for the benefit of society as a whole.
The "competitive game".
The myth of free-enterprise lingers-on, as long as territorial or economic expansion provides another chance to those, who, initially, lost-out in the game of free-enterprise.

After the practice of open conquest and colonisation had become unacceptable in world-opinion, the same motives continued to operate more discreetly under the guise of a pseudo-sovereignty, where a "friendly" regime in a resource-rich area would be supported by a powerful neighbour in return for the "privilege" to extract a number of valuable resources and commodities.

It is clear, then, that a truly sovereign encounter between equals or equally powerful societies, together with a truly voluntary exchange of goods and services, is not as common as one would like to think. If such an encounter does take place, the condition of equality does not persist for any length of time, as competitive pressures, together with an intuitive search for an advantage, have a tendency to disrupt the balance of power. Only under specific conditions, where an encounter between individuals or groups of people is subjected to stringent and explicit guidelines, maintaining and guaranteeing a condition of essential equality, is it possible to see a truly voluntary exchange of goods and services.

If it would be possible to maintain a situation, where a large number of essentially equal individuals engage in a voluntary exchange of goods and services, then, the principles of free-enterprise would, indeed, be valid. It would indeed be true, that, a free competition amongst those who manufacture goods, would lead to excellence and a reasonable price for the consumer, and, it would equally be true, that, an open competition between the members of society for a chance to earn money in a "job" of one sort or another, would lead to the most economic labour-costs and the best possible quality of workmanship. These advantages would again be passed-on to the consumer, because of competitive pressures between producers.

What has gone wrong with these assumptions? We know, that it does not work, and, the system of free-enterprise has never worked, even, from the beginning of its conception, yet, the myth of free-enterprise persists, tenaciously, in our affluent societies, because we have not been able to formulate, clearly and precisely, the reasons, why the principles of free-enterprise are doomed to failure.

Let us assume, that it is, indeed, possible to start with circumstances that fulfill the premises of the theory of free-enterprise, and, let us assume, that there exists, indeed, a fairly large group of essentially equally placed individuals, who are willing to exchange goods and services on a completely voluntary basis. This group of equally placed individuals represents differing qualities and skills, different levels of intelligence, keenness of observation, ambition and credulity. We see, that, immediately, some members of this group will be able to produce a product or render a service that is highly valued, while others will have a difficult time producing anything of value at all.

Those, who are successful, will quickly accumulate most of the valuables, and the rest will have to work hard to obtain something. The process of a voluntary exchange of goods and services leads, therefore, to a differentiation, or separation, between those, who are successful, and those, who are less successful, or, perhaps, even, complete failures. As long as there is no significant or serious consequence from this process of differentiation, the mechanisms of free-enterprise will have the same effects as any other "game", where people engage, voluntarily, in a contest to test their skills. The winners will receive prestige and admiration, but the social status, security or living standard of each participant does not change significantly, since all individuals return, in essence, to the previously existing status-quo, after the game is over.

Not so, however, with the game of free-enterprise, where the laws of society sanction the permanent possession of the goods and assets acquired in this game. The game is never finished, and, in most societies, the off-spring of the successful players of the game of free-enterprise will inherit the spoils of their parents, and, these heirs have, therefore, a head-start in comparison to those, who have been born within the poorer and less successful classes.

Therefore, even, if the conditions for a system of free-enterprise exchange of goods and services could be met at the beginning, very soon, a divergence in wealth and power would take place, leading to permanent class-divisions, and, it is clear, that an unequal position of power negates the principles of free-enterprise.

Let us look, more in detail, at the existential consequences of this type of class-divergence, where the members of society are becoming segregated into classes with diverging living standards and economic powers. The accumulation of wealth, (usually the ownership of land), in the hands of a few powerful individuals, leaves no other choice to the remainder of the members, than to seek employment in the service of those who own land.

After the Industrial Revolution, we see a similar process taking place, except for the fact, that the predominant accumulation of wealth and capital is now associated with large factories and companies, providing an opportunity of employment in the manufacturing process or the service-industry. Still, land holdings are, often, a silent but powerful and important "side-effect" of the concentration of power and wealth into the hands of large corporations.

The main point we want to emphasise, here, is the fact, that the continuation of the processes of task-division or specialisation in function as a result of the mechanisms of trade and manufacture, (and, later, by the mechanisms of industrial mass-production), makes it increasingly more difficult for the members of society to remain self-sufficient on an area of land. They are forced to seek a livelyhood in the service of those who have become wealthy and powerful, and, in doing so, they lose their freedom and status of equality, and, as a result, the voluntary nature of their decisions to exchange their services in return for an income, disappears completely.

The effects of these differentiations in power between ordinary workers and employers came to light, very clearly, from the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Free competition between the workers for the available jobs led to a ruthless exploitation of the need of these workers to put bread on the table for their families and themselves. Equality of position disappeared entirely, and, the power of the individual workers was totally over-shadowed by the power of the employer. Logically, it was necessary for workers to band together in "unions", and, to use the "power-tool" of the collective work-stoppage, when bargaining for a labour-contract. Collective bargaining was the only way to negotiate more or less as equals with the employer, and, to obtain a contract that transferred to the workers, at least, some of the benefits and profits generated by their own labours.

The collective bargaining process was the only way to re-establish a semblance of a balance of power, but, at the same time, this development violated one of the cardinal principles of the philosophy of free-enterprise, because it took the element of competition out of the labour-market. This violation of the free-enterprise philosophy by the formation of labour unions and the practices of collective bargaining, together with the collective work-stoppage, or "strike", created an uproar, and, only a constant exposure of the plight of the workers and the persistent education of public opinion about the near-slavery conditions of the early Industrial Revolution, were able to make a gradual impact on the laws of society.

This impact was undoubtedly enhanced by the fact, that the system of universal suffrage had given each adult a vote, and, this mechanism gave the poor, and the working classes, a numerical advantage in the election of their political leaders. This is the main reason, why, eventually, political leaders introduced a number of legislative changes that gave the working classes a measure of protection against abuse, sickness or the loss of a job. These laws also gave the workers a number of rights, e.g., the right to leisure and vacation time, as well as the right to safe and healthy working conditions. Slowly, the labour unions became accepted and their existence was guaranteed by law. As a result, their powers gradually increased to the point, that, eventually, they were able to dictate their demands to the employer, especially, when this employer became the government itself with its many bureaucratic institutions.

We will later explore the changes in the balance of power resulting from this steadily enlarging power of the labour unions. Here, we want to explore the fact, that the development of working conditions of near-slavery were a repetition of the same trends we see throughout history, again and again, in particular, when the laws of a society allow the accumulation of land and other forms of wealth into the hands of a small, ruling elite. Every time this trend developed, the accumulation of wealth, power and territory into the hands of a small elite, resulted in a reduction of the possibility for the ordinary members of society to remain independent. Ordinary people were no match for the powerful elite, and, slowly, the independently existing farmers and self-employed workers would be swallowed-up by their more powerful neighbours, especially, when they could not repay their debts. Even in modern times, we see, how large corporations and companies have a tendency to enslave the people living around them by enticing them to become indebted. If the people can not pay, these companies usually acquire the land and properties of the people who live there.

The free-enterprise system leads, therefore, invariably, to a segregation of people into the wealthy and the poor, unless stringent regulations slow-down such a process of class-differentiation. It is interesting to note, that the modern, affluent and democratic societies have, indeed, introduced many measures to re-distribute the wealth of society, the "common wealth", by such fiscal measures as progressive taxation, tax-credits, grants, subsidies and low-interest loans, public-works programs, as well as all sorts of social programs and provisions against misfortune, sickness and unemployment. Yet, the process of class-differentiation continues, and, the smaller, independent companies and corporations find it difficult to maintain their viability.

Just as individual people were losing-out to those, who were more successful and became more powerful, so are the small business enterprises increasingly "swallowed-up" by larger competitors, and the competition between small business enterprises is, therefore, rapidly disappearing. This situation is somewhat similar to the plight of individual workers, where a completely free competition for the available jobs led to poverty and exploitation for those, who had to accept almost any sort of working conditions, just to be able to feed themselves and their families.

No-one will dispute the fact, that completely free enterprise is not working, but, by examining the reasons, why it does not work, and, why the assumptions of the free-enterprise system are based on a set of extremely labile conditions that can not be maintained for any length of time, we should be able to see, more clearly, why the practice of unbridled free-enterprise is so divisive for every social environment.

We should look at yet another aspect of the theory of free-enterprise. This theory assumes, that it is possible to harnass the individualistic, egocentric or competitive instincts of the members of society for the good of society as a whole. At the same time, it also assumes, at least, tacitly, that all members are willing to continue to obey those laws and regulations of society which ensure, that the spoils in this life-long game of competitive strife are given to the winners and their heirs. It is naive to think, that, any law or regulation will remain a respected tradition, if it encourages class-divisions and negates this basic and essential principle of social integration; nl., that the benefits of belonging to society are distributed evenly amongst all the members. We see, indeed, that the losers in this life-long game of free-enterprise do not feel any loyalty to their society, and, they are, eventually driven to an open rebellion and an armed struggle.

Any attempt to harnass egocentric instincts for the benefit of society as a whole, can only lead to a limited and temporary contribution. For example, it is possible to lighten the drudgery of a communal task by introducing an element of "competitive play", but, if the society allows a permanent division on the basis of wealth or status in the belief, that, somehow, society will profit from such a class-division, the competitive groups begin to fight seriously for a share of this wealth, and, these fighting groups tear society apart in the process.

Anyone, who thinks that society benefits if the winners are able to keep the spoils in perpetuity and bequeath them to their offspring, is just not able to evaluate realistically the psychological consequences of such divisive social trends.

Occasionally, we see a free-enterprise society develop fairly harmoniously, by lucky co-incidence, and, by virtue of the possibilities of rapid territorial expansion and economic growth. Then, the philosophy of free-enterprise remains a popular dream amongst large segments of society. However people fail to appreciate the specific circumstances that made the perpetuation of this myth possible; the myth of "rags to riches", obtainable by everyone, who makes a serious effort.

The newly arrived settlers from Europe could, for a long time, expand their territories on the North-American Continent, because it was sparsely populated and the native population was no match for the technologically more advanced settlers. Those settlers, who, initially, lost-out in the game of free-enterprise, could always "move-out". They could "move West", and, they had another chance to carve-out an empire of wealth and power for themselves, and, when the process of territorial expansion came to a halt, the possibilities of economic expansion provided a similar outlet to those, who failed in their first attempt to "make it big".

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Chapter 6

Content

Why the dream of "rags to riches" could persist.
The limitations of ever-rising expectations.
The affluent society; a powder-keg of frustrations and tensions.
The strange fascination of affluence.
Envy, an appeal to basic instincts.
Social cohesion should be based upon a measure of benefit for every member of society.
The dangers of all-out competitiveness for the forces of social cohesion.
International behaviour-patterns.
The rising expectations of the poorer nations.
Tensions resulting from the inability to expand economically or territorially.
The allegiance of the poor.
Indiscriminate slaughter and destruction.
Free-enterprise blinds us for the dangers of egocentric motives.
The real meaning of the division of tasks and chores.
A review of what has been discussed.
The role of inflation, or, the devaluation of a currency.
What is money?
Limitations of the process of barter; the "matching problem".
The problem of standardising value.
The expression of value in terms of a quantity of a standard commodity.
The system of credit, and its role in society.
The birth of the coin; conditions and limits for its usefulness.
The requirement to guarantee a stable value for any currency, or system of credit.

Because of fortunate historical circumstances, it was possible on the North-American Continent to enter into a period of rapid economic expansion and a perpetuation of the free-enterprise dream, after the period of territorial expansion had come to an end. The increasing rate of economic growth accelerated the consumption of energy and resources, and caused an increasing problem of environmental deterioration and pollution. This last concern is, however, still not shared by most people, and the successful periods of economic expansion in the recent past, made it possible to maintain the spiral of rising expectations.

The possibilities for a significant further expansion of economic growth have now been virtually exhausted, and, the realities of a more long-lasting division between the wealthy and the poor, together with a tendency for wealth and power to cling together, will sharply increase social tensions in the near future. Eventually, ordinary people will wake-up from their spurious dreams, and the affluent society will become a powderkeg of frustrations and tensions. The disparities in living standards together with the break-down of social justice, lead to further alienation between large groupings, and, in spite of their affluence, these societies are ready to blow-apart.

The attitudes and practices of ruthless opportunism and exploitation, as well as the short-sighted philosophy of consumerist objectives, make the affluent society a shallow dream-world, whose glamour and glitter has, however, a strange fascination for peoples all around the world; probably, because it appeals to such basic and primitive human instincts.

Consumerism has become a disease, because technological advancements steadily enlarged the ability of human beings to consume, without having to work harder for this increased rate of consumption. Life always evolved under conditions, where there was a strict balance between the work that had to be carried-out to obtain a source of energy, and, the magnitude of this energy-source. With the help of external energy-sources, the human being was able to increase the rate of consumption almost indefinitely, as long as these natural, external sources of energy remained abundant, and, as long as social conditions permitted most members to participate in this enlarging flow of consumable energy.

Logically, the tendency towards unbridled consumption is now rapidly spreading to all nations, because vast improvements in the speed and quality of communications also increased our knowledge about each other's way of life. Of course, if I see my brother and sister living in luxury, while I am poor, I will be envious, and, I would like to emulate their flamboyant life-style. I would care little about the problems they may be facing as a result of their affluence, and, if they are not willing to share voluntarily some of this abundance with me, I will be waiting for an opportunity to take-away, whatever they have, by force or deceit.

The unavoidable divisiveness associated with the free-enterprise system of economic development, has shown itself to be incompatible with the requirements of an enduring social structure. Competitiveness and ruthless egocentricity can only break-down the fragile bonds of cohesion and mutual understanding, which are the hall-mark of people who have learned the value of cooperation. The philosophy of free-enterprise can only cloud the awareness, that the end-result of an attitude of all-out competitiveness is a loss of viability for us all, because, in spite of the rising tensions of envy and mistrust, the bonds of inter-dependence are growing ever stronger, and, the results of violent strife will become ever more devastating.

Even as national entities, we still behave fiercely competitive, in spite of the fact, that we may share many social mechanisms and concepts with each other. Our emotions are apparently more easily aroused by differences in wealth, than by the shared ideals of essential equality and human dignity. Many smaller nations have, only recently, become independent, and, they are fiercely clamoring for a share of the wealth, but, the limitations of ever-expanding economic growth are rapidly becoming apparent, even, for those, who have just acquired the dream of rags to riches. As a result, their aspirations of affluence and consumerism are being frustrated from the start.

As a society of nations, we harbour, collectively, the same dreams as those of individual members, and, the circumstances that determine the outcome of our dreams, are very similar as well. There is no room for further economic or territorial expansion to pacify the rising expectations of our expanding awarenesses, especially, when these awarenesses are primarily coloured by consumerist expectations.

We will have to face, squarely, the consequences of our ideas and ideals about justice and equality, and, we will have to learn to curb our consumerist instincts. We will have to learn to go back to the basic principles of existential requirements, because the basic necessities seem to be all we can collectively afford on a world-wide scale. Unless we, who are born by lucky accident into the seat of affluence and influence, are willing to really work towards an essential equality of existence in a just, frugal and sober life-style, we are going to face the prospect of self-extermination as a result of unbridled competitive strife and acts of violent warfare.

What allegiance do you think the poorer classes have towards the exploitative upper crust of their societies? History shows us, time and again, that these classes are willing to sacrifice their lives in a violent struggle against their oppressors. If the citizens of a country have no hesitation to sacrifice their own lives and execute thousands of their own compatriots, do you think, that the poorer, non-white nations of the world would have any hesitation to annihilate those, who have exploited them for centuries?

Of course, such a course of action would not be anymore justified than the practices of colonialism and ruthless exploitation, but, the point is, that, any human being will, eventually, resort to acts of violence, including murder and execution on a gigantic scale, if frustrations and a wounded sense of justice reach a boiling point. Unless we learn to recognise and control these destructive and suicidal tendencies by designing social conditions with a much greater degree of essential equality, and a higher level of justice, we will slide into an uncontrollable drift towards mass-suicide.

"Is this all the fault of free-enterprise", you will ask with some astonishment. Certainly not, because we have been discussing behaviour-patterns that are instinctive and antedate, by far, the concepts of free-enterprise, but, we have to learn to recognise these trends, and, we have to recognise the many undesirable side-effects of free-enterprise mechanisms. Free-enterprise tends to blind us, because, those of us, who believe in it, are always those, who have been successful and have been rewarded for our hard work and willingness to engage in risky initiatives. We tend to assume, that, everyone has the same chances, and, that, anyone with intelligence, hard work and tenacity, will be able reach the same objectives. We fail to realise, that these assumptions represent a dangerous illusion, because they blind us for the fact, that such conclusions are completely irrealistic, and may hide exploitative practices and egocentric motives.

So far, we have discussed the accumulation of wealth into the hands of an elite, if society allows such a natural mechanism of polarisation to take place. This accumulation is, indeed, a natural "break-through" because, once it has taken place, the flow of natural events favours the process of accumulation, just like the flow of energy favours the larger channels because of their lowered resistance to this flow of energy. We have discussed the fact, that the process of task-division in a social context should always serve the purpose of increasing viability for the entire community, benefitting all its members. The real meaning of the process of task-division is, therefore, the enhancement of collective strength and viability, and, the division of a complex task into segments that can be handled by one individual, or a small group, has the purpose of accomplishing a task that would otherwise be out of reach.

We have also discussed the unavoidable temptation for those who are powerful, to exploit the labours of those in a lower hierarchical position, whenever the lower placed individuals lose the ability to "move out of the way" as soon as they are not satisfied with their living conditions. These factors play a role in the increased levels of exploitation that manifest themselves with a depressing regularity, whenever a population becomes more concentrated as a result of the fact, the "break-away" mechanisms have been lost.

We have discussed the idea, that the accumulation of wealth enhances the possibilities for a further increase in the level of assets, because "money makes money", and, those, who are rich, have the possibility to acquire more assets, whenever the opportunity presents itself. We have seen, that the myth of rags to riches for everyone can be sustained, for a while, as long as a society can expand territorially, economically, or both. Whenever this expansionist drive comes to a halt, the class-divisions become accentuated and perpetuated by inheritance.

There are many other mechanisms that play an important role in fueling the hopes, aspirations and expectations of the ordinary people, while, at the same time, contributing to tensions, social injustice, frustrations, anger and despair. Before we can discuss the role of "inflation", as well as the robbery of the poorer, wage-earning segments of society by this process of "currency devaluation", we will have to consider, first, what money really is. What is this "currency"; this commodity that can flow so readily and persuasively from hand to hand, and buy anything the human mind can fancy? What is the nature of this commodity, that seems to be based, partially, on trust, but, which may deteriorate so rapidly, whenever it becomes an instrument of manipulation in the hands of the ruling elite? What is this "power-tool" of influence and prestige for which countless millions of people are willing to enslave themselves for years on end?

When social conditions made the process of a more or less voluntary exchange of goods and services possible, a few formidable obstacles came quickly to the fore. The first problem was the difficulty of exchanging goods, whenever one of the partners did not have anything of value to offer to the other. This did not necessarily mean, that the goods offered in return for a desired commodity would not be of value to someone else, but, it would require, then, a third person or party to execute a satisfactory exchange. The "matching" of the goods to be exchanged, proved to be, indeed, a formidable obstacle, which was not really solved, until the principle of a "currency", or a "letter of credit", was introduced.

The other major problem had to do with the evaluation or pricing of a product. Items that were being exchanged, would constantly fluctuate in value, since the exchange would constantly involve different items. As a result of this lack of standardisation, an item could be obtained by one person for a certain item of exchange, and, by another person for a different item, and people would find it very difficult to determine, how much an item would be worth in relation to another.

One of the earliest solutions to these problems was found in the practice of expressing the value of an item as a part of, or a quantity of a well-known commodity, perhaps, a measure of grain, a weight of a valuable metal, or, some other commodity that would serve as the standard against which the value of all other items could be measured. Eventually, this system of evaluation would evolve into a "system of credit", where a member of society could exchange a certain item in his possession, or, something he had manufactured, for a specific portion of a communally stored item of value.

The final step in this development of facilitating a voluntary exchange of goods and services, was the issuing of a note of credit . This did away with the need for an individual to go to the central treasury and exchange his item for a certain amount of the "standard commodity", and bring this commodity to the vendor of the item he desired to have. The buyer would receive from the treasury a note, indicating the portion of the commodity he had title to, after he had sold his produce to the treasury. This bill of credit could, then, be parcelled-out in units, and, it could also be represented by a specifically forged piece of metal, clearly indicating the nominal value it represented in terms of the standard commodity.

The coin had been born, but, it became clear, that, any currency, or, any item that could "flow" from hand to hand, as well as any standardised item that would greatly facilitate the exchange of commodities between the members of a community, had also certain limitations. These limitations were, first of all, the requirement, that, every member of the community would accept such a representative coin, or letter of credit, as a measure of value. Secondly, it is obvious, that the treasury would have to honour every coin or letter of credit, regardless, who would have it in possession, and, regardless, how many coins or letters of credit would be offered for an exchange. The treasury of every goverment that introduced the tools of money, would have to be able to exchange the monetary unit for a fixed quantity of a standard commodity, as promised by the coin or the letter of credit.

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Chapter 7

Content

The rights and obligations of the Treasury.
The principles of the "gold standard".
With the invention of the monetary system, a whole new field of fraud and deception opened-up.
Abuses by citizens, as well as the overall political leadership.
Mushrooming bureaucracies and military adventures.
The enormous costs of a failed, as well as a successful military adventure.
Inflation, or currency-devaluation occurred, as soon as the monetary system had been introduced.
Inflation, the harbinger of social decay.
The devastating effects of a loss of trust in the currency, the leadership, or both.
An official robbery.
The many consequences of inflation.
An erosion of the attitudes of saving and frugal living habits.
Cynical spending habits.
Inflation increases the disparities between the rich and the poor.
The propaganda of advertising.
Credit to the masses; a desperate measure to stimulate economic growth.
The entrapment completed.
Why inflation stimulates debt-financing; some examples.

In order for a monetary system to work properly, it is clear, that the treasury of the State should have the sole right to manufacture and issue coins and other forms of money. It is the primary task of the treasury to safeguard the currency by guaranteeing its value, because a currency loses its meaning completely, unless the value of each and every coin or letter of credit is guaranteed. This can be done by making sure, that all the currency that has been issued, is covered by the promised amount of the standard commodity.

Until recently, most developed societies would, indeed, guarantee the value of their currencies by promising, that it could be exchanged for a specified amount of gold. This is the principle of the "gold-standard". Long before the recent abandonment of the gold-standard, we see, that, throughout history, even, the most tentative steps towards the development of a reliable monetary system, were quickly spoiled by a variety of trends, which we will only discuss in general terms. These trends are all related to common human temptations and practices of fraud, which come to the fore, whenever an opportunity arises. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of a monetary system, where a currency facilitates the transfer of goods and services between the members and institutions of society, proved to be so valuable, that, in spite of the numerous failures, incidences of fraud and bankruptcy, as well as a host of other problems, it always survived or was revived, in one way or another.

What are the problems that can beset a monetary system? There is, first of all, the unauthorised manufacture of coins and letters of credit, (bank-notes), or, there may be a tampering with the standards of weight and purity, which are essential for the effort to give the coin its intrinsic value. Then, there is the ever-present temptation to issue more coins and letters of credit than is justified by the availability of the standard commodity in the treasury.

We should remind ourselves, here, about the essential differences between the coin, the banknote, and the personalised letter of credit. In the coin, an attempt is made to give it an intrinsic value. This means, that the coin has a quantity of metal in it, representing, or intending to represent, its nominal value. The bank-note and the letter of credit have, of course, no intrinsic value and depend, entirely, upon being covered by a standard commodity. However, in actual practice, there is little real difference between a coin and a bank-note, since most people use the coin, exclusively, as a means of payment, and, they have no opportunity to extract the intrinsic value of the coin in any other way. Interestingly, if, for one reason or another, the coin becomes more valuable than its nominal value, it disappears quickly from circulation as people begin to collect and hoard these coins.

Mushrooming government bureaucracies and expenditures, especially, military adventures or extravagant building projects, would pose a severe drain on the treasury of society, and, the race was on to replenish the treasury by levying taxes. The practice of taxation by the State or local authorities gave rise to a whole new dimension of corruption, fraud, bribery and injustice, as well as a cumbersome and expensive bureaucracy.

Military adventures were often launched with the goal of securing lucrative resources or trade routes, but, a failed military expedition was extremely costly, not only, in monetary terms, but, also, in terms of lost credibility and instability of the leadership, or the society as a whole.

The invention of the coin as a standard for value was paralleled, therefore, by the invention of printing and issuing worthless monies in an attempt to deceive, and gain an unfair advantage during a business transaction.

The phenomenon of inflation was born, as soon as the monetary system had been introduced, and, we see a long succession of empires, nations and political entities of one sort or another in a state of disintegration and inflation, as a result of their unwise tinkering with monetary standards. The death and decay of societies, and, even, entire civilisations, were always preceded by a disturbing rise in inflation, where the value of their currency was falling disastrously, followed by a loss of confidence in the monetary system and the leadership as a whole.

There is nothing more unsettling for the members of a society than to see their trust in government and its institutions being eroded. People feel continuously deceived and cheated by a steady erosion in the value of an official currency, and, the leadership devalues with it, because the people blame, rightly, their leaders for failing to maintain a stable currency. Devaluation is an officially sanctioned robbery, because, every time the members receive their pay in the nominal value of the currency, the value of their pay has diminished, sometimes, by an astonishing amount.

Quickly, the value of all merchandise is priced upwards. People and companies are experiencing the same problems. Raw materials and energy costs, rents and taxes, all these costs are going-up, and, people, as well as corporations, have to increase their prices. Besides, the real value of profit-margins declines with the devaluation of a currency, and, manufacturers begin to increase their prices by as much as they get way with. People's resistance to buying higher priced goods is disappearing rapidly because of the fear, that, tomorrow, they may have to pay even more.

The savings of ordinary citizens are always held in money or bonds with a fixed monetary value, and, these savings are being eroded, day by day, as inflation continues its destructive work. Any incentive to save disappears, as the people are being robbed continuously. Any attitude of frugality or cautious wisdom, anticipating a "rainy day", such as an illness, the los of a job or old-age, is abandoned in a desperate spending spree, which is not an occasion for joy, but, the expression of a cynical realism. They might as well enjoy the fruits of their savings now, while they can still buy something with it; tomorrow may be too late.

Inflation always hits the small saver or investor the hardest. The ordinary, average, industrious citizen bears always the brunt of a process of monetary devaluation. The wealthy have their assets in real-estate, land, durable goods or manufacturing plants, and, the devaluation of the currency is compensated for by an increase in the monetary value of their holdings. Inflation always benefits the rich and hurts the poor, fueling resentment, as well as an angry clamor for higher wages.

The clamor of labour unions with their militant strikes and demands for ever higher wages are often cited as a major cause for an inflationary spiral, but, in reality, the pressures for higher wage-demands and militant tactics of collective bargaining have been spurred in response to an ever-widening disparity between the rich and the poor. Even in times of economic prosperity, the lower income groups, such as unskilled and unorganised workers, always lose-out, unless governments protect them, at least, to some extent, by a minimum-wage legislation and social security programs.

During the last few decades, the continuous advertising propaganda of the corporate world, chasing the spending power of the consuming public, has created in most affluent societies an atmosphere of continuously rising expectations, and, indeed, a large segment of the affluent population has now been programmed to believe, that happiness is not possible without an ever-rising level of spending. This has created some justification for the observation, that worker-demands are now out-stripping the rate of inflation. However, inflation will outpace, once again, the wage-gains made over the past few years, whenever it resumes its devastating work, (and it always does), even, if its course and intensity are difficult to forecast.

We should ask ourselves, why we all are so pre-occupied with the drive to spend. One fact is, undoubtedly, the programming of attitudes through the mass-media, where the people of today have learned, from childhood, that happiness and success are measured in the ability to possess, or rather, to spend ever more money. Our desires have been cultivated, carefully, by various corporate interests, to make sure, that we spend every penny we earn, and, when this was not sufficient, the corporate world came-up with the idea to extend credit to all working people.

We are now back to the situation we have sketched before. A large portion of the population in the affluent societies has been trapped for the rest of their lives in a treadmill of worries and financial obligations, trying to pay-off numerous, and, sometimes, gigantic debts. People have become enslaved, and, they have to meet a large, fixed and recurring expenditure. Failure to meet these expenditures will mean a total collapse of the world they live in, with the loss of their home, car, furniture and other belongings, and, often, with the loss of their job and health as well.

Of course, inflation helps to perpetuate this attitude of buying on credit, because it is one way of compensating for the erosion of the buying power of a currency. By buying now, and paying later, people pay-off their debts in a currency that is valued less and less, and, eventually, the debt is repayed at the nominal value of the currency, but, the value received by the creditor is, actually, much less.

Therefore, the only way the credit-system can work in a social environment with a high level of inflation or devaluation, is to make the consumer pay a price, often a high price, for the credit he receives. The borrower pays, then, much more for the same item than he would, if he paid cash. However, how else is a young couple, just starting-out and not heir to a significant amount of capital, going to live in the city, where, frequently, both husband and wife have found work?

In our modern, Capitalist societies, the only way this can be done, is to buy a house with a large and, sometimes, expensive mortgage, and this method has been universally adopted. The expectation is, that, in twenty or thirty years time, the house will be paid-for, or, that it is possible to sell the house for more money than it was bought for, whenever one has to move, before the house has been paid-off. Here, we see another example, how inflation encourages the borrowing of money on a large scale, since real-estate, as a rule, will appreciate in value to compensate, at least, to some extent, for the inexorable decline in the value of a currency.

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Chapter 8

Content

Borrowing money and paying interest-charges.
A comparison with borrowing a tool from a neighbour.
Borrowing money to generate an income; priming a pump.
The need to shift a small part of the available cash-flow through one's enterprise or personal existence.
The factors of competitiveness; a superior product; a lower price. The monopoly.
A return to the imagery of energy-dissipating rivulets.
A large rivulet becomes more dependent upon a large, continuous influx of energy.
Money, seen as a form of energy.
The long and heavy investment in acquiring skills.
Money is a tool to facilitate the exchange of goods and services.
The consequences of mechanised production processes.
The break-through of mass-production.
Man became a "regulator" rather than a provider of energy.
Mechanisation removes the linkage between human labour and the level of consumption.
Competitiveness in the world of business; comparisons with the primordial protoplasm.
The margin of profit.
Mechanisation, commercial gigantism, and the "monopoly".
A dependence upon the cash-flow and employment opportunities created by large enterprises.

Let us look, now, at these complementary practices of extending credit and charging interest on borrowed monies. If I borrow a tool from my neighbour, and, if I can plow my garden or carry-out a repair on my house or property with this tool, I feel, that I owe my neighbour, at least, something, when I return the tool to him. Borrowing the tool has made it possible for me to improve my situation; to improve the value of my home, or, to exploit the productive capabilities of my garden, and, I have been able to do this with much less effort and energy than would have been required, if I did not have this tool at my disposal.

If I had to buy this tool, a certain portion of my earnings or savings would have been invested in it, and, I would have to cut-back on some other expenditure. There is, therefore, no question, that it was valuable for me to borrow this tool, and, I would not feel at all averse to the idea to pay my neighbour a rental fee, or, give him something else in return.

Is borrowing money exactly similar to the above situation? Most people would agree, without any hesitation, but, let us look a little more in detail at the consequences of borrowing money. Let us look, first of all, at the intention of borrowing money with the purpose of earning more money. In this sense, money would, indeed, function as a real tool, since it would improve my situation, raise the level of my earning- and spending-powers, and, it would, therefore, benefit me. Again, I would feel, that it is perfectly justified to pay the lender his money, the borrowed sum, plus a certain fee that would still leave me with a net surplus, compensating me for the time and effort spent in working with this money.

How do we use money to make money? If we borrow money to set-up a plant to manufacture a product, or, to provide a service, we hope, that, eventually, after we reach a satisfactory level of production, the product will sell sufficiently well to provide us with a net inflow of cash, after all the costs of borrowing money and paying-off the capital have been deducted. In a sense, money is then used to "prime a pump". We invest the money in some sort of activity with the hope, and the expectation, that, eventually, a larger flow of money will be coming in.

We often forget in our dreams about getting rich, (or, the more modest dream of just being successful as an entrepreneur), that we have to entice people, at least, some people, to change their spending from another item to the item we are offering. We have to compete for the spending monies of the public, and, we have to persuade them, that we offer a better value for their money than someone else. This can be done by offering a product that is competitive, either in quality or in price, or, we may be merely trying to convince the public that our product is worth buying; by advertising our product and presenting it in the best possible light. In a "closed system", with a constant supply of spending monies, the success or growth of one product or service, must mean, the decline in income for another product or service, since the flow of cash is merely shifting its path, but is not increasing.

We see, how closely this imagery is related to the rivulets of biological energy, competing constantly for the available energy-potential and establishing a drainage-area by siphoning-off the surrounding energy through a larger and more efficient, less resistant pathway. In this imagery, a system of energy-dissipation, such as e.g., a cellular organism, has a tendency to become larger, thereby lowering the resistance to the dissipation of the energy-gradient. We have seen, how such a dissipating system becomes increasingly dependent for its existence on the availability of an adequate energy-flow.

The flow of money is very similar to the process of dissipating a biological energy-gradient, and, it may be useful, as well as illuminating, to elaborate these similarities further. Money also flows from a level of "high potential" to a lower level, because it is much "easier" to spend money than to acquire or "earn it". The acquisition or accumulation of money requires energy; work, at least, for a large majority of people. Once an individual has acquired money, it functions as a substitute for the biological energy which every living system has to utilise in order to stay alive. Each individual has to spend some of his or her money or earnings to provide for the basic necessities, but, what is left-over can be spent on "growth", or luxuries.

The existential drive of cellular organisms leads to the accumulation or enlargement of protoplasmic constituents, and, eventually, to a process of reproduction. We can see a parallel in the psychological drives of the human being, which are now fueled by the accumulated or acquired monies, or energy. The human individual will spend this money, after the basic requirements have been taken care of, on items that are wanted or desired. These are things one has taken an interest in, or activities that seem interesting, challenging or exciting, just as any living organism will spend surplus vital energies on exploratory and accumulating activities.

Money also provides the basic security and attributes to attract a mate, to set-up a household and prepare oneself for a secure opportunity to keep accumulating this commodity, money; by selling one's skills and services from a position of comfort and good health. Here, we see a parallel between physical and psychological mechanisms in the area of reproduction and specialisation in function.

In the more complex societies, a long period of time is spent to develop the skills necessary to generate an income. Often, a considerable cost in time and effort is incurred by the individual, as well as by those who support a young adult in the process of becoming a qualified specialist in one function or another, or by the society at large. Time, money and effort are invested in order to make it possible to tap, at least, a small portion of this flow of energy, or money, which is such a characteristic feature of a modern society.

We see, now, clearly, how similar the functions of a biological energy-flow and those of a man-made flow of monies have become. What was the currency of excited electron-potentials in the primordial protoplasm, is mirrored by the current-flow of money in the social protoplasm of society. Money became the tool, par excellence, to acquire all that is necessary, desirable, or both.

The construction of a manufacturing plant requires a large number of skilled people, as well as complex machinery, and, all these tasks have to be accomplished, before we have a system that is able to transform a piece of raw material, (not consumable in such a raw state), into an item that is necessary or desirable, but, above all, "consumable".

Before the introduction of non-human energy sources to fuel the processes of production, the construction of manufacturing plants was limited and could only be accomplished, if it was possible for an owner to exploit the labours and skills of a large number of people who were living in conditions of actual or near slavery. However, with the introduction of machinery that can be fueled by the energy of natural resources, the possibility to mass-produce goods, changed the balance between human labour and human consumption. Man-power receded into the background and started to function, primarily, in a supervisory capacity, checking and guiding the flow of energy that was taking place through the man-made machinery. Man's functions shifted from providing the driving force, to being a "regulator", correcting, steering or repairing the production processes, whenever necessary.

Now, a few people, equipped with a suitable energy-source, raw materials and proper machinery, can transform enormous quantities of raw materials into useful and consumable products, thereby siphoning-off a significant portion of the currency-flow through society. Similarly, a few people with properly destructive machinery, or weapons, are able to revert whatever man has made consumable, into useless rubble, making life, not only, miserable, but, perhaps, impossible.

The ability to see and look for commercial possibilities to make money, together with clever advertising techniques and a measure of control over competitors, the availability of proper machinery, resources and energy-sources, all these factors determine the viability of an economic or commercial enterprise, and, these activities and properties are protected in Capitalist societies by laws encouraging such entrepreneurial activities. Just as the energy-rivulet of the primordial protoplasm had always a tendency to enlarge itself at the expense of its smaller neighbours, so is the corporate rivulet of natural energy and raw materials always tempted to search for an increased viability by swallowing-up its smaller competitors.

Success means, that, it is, indeed, possible to obtain a larger inflow of cash or money than has to be spent on the production of these items. If this surplus is continuously re-invested, the size of the plant, its production capacity, its versatility and efficiency could be steadily improving, making the range of products more attractive for the buyers, and more difficult to equal or surpass for its competitors. The result is growth, and, the larger and leaner a company or corporate structure has become, the geater its viability and ability to grow, and, the better it is able to withstand set-backs and to control the market.

With the introduction of the non-human energy-source as the driving power for the manufacturing plant, the road to gigantism was inevitable, in spite of the fact, that governments recognised, at least, to some extent, the undesirable consequences of such a trend towards commercial or industrial monopolies.

At the present time, there is a vague awareness of the reasons, why corporate gigantism is undesirable and harmful, but, the dependence of governments on the tax-revenues of these large corporations, as well as the dependence of people on their jobs, led to a situation that resembles, in many ways, the economic background of the Roman Empire. We just do not know, how we can exist without this large network of corporate structures and their insatiable need to grow and spur consumption, just as the people of the Roman Empire had no idea, how they would ever be able get along without their slaves.

Societies and people become quickly dependent upon a certain characteristic or structure, and, our affluent societies have not, as yet, been able to recognise, clearly, their dependence upon the large corporate structure and the phenomena of economic growth, in spite of the many undesirable effects associated with such a state of dependence.

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Chapter 9

Content

The large commercial interests, and their escape from social or governmental controls.
The parasitic nature and detrimental consequences of corporate gigantism.
The energy-rivulet, and the phenomenon of corporate gigantism.
A corporate structure, growing fat, lazy and vulnerable.
The logic of the search for market-controls and a monopolistic advantage, seen as an alternative to vigour and competitiveness.
A powerless population, entrapped in poverty and dependent on a job with a corporate giant.
Why governments became also dependent on corporate giants.
A closely-knit world of business interests.
Corporate power represents the most pervasive influence in contemporary, affluent societies.
The myth of the need for economic growth.
Stimulating "the economy" by infusing new monies into circulation; a review.
Expanding economies, increasing mechanisation, and a rise in the gross national product.
The demise of the gold standard.
The effect of synchronised emotions and anxieties.
Some aspects of the Great Depression.
People have to be able to remain as consumers in the market-place.
Artificially elevating the level of buying-powers.
Increased automation and the growing anxieties of the labour force.
The contradictory trends of automation, and the rising expectations of an increasingly under-employed public.
The changing role of money in the phenomenon of chronic inflation

If the large corporate structures escape from governmental guidance and scrutiny, the people lose control over a very important, and, perhaps, the most dominant influence in their affluent societies. We do not have to look far to see, that the existential requirements of the large corporations are detrimental to the needs of a healthy society, and, it does not seem unreasonable to conclude, that the affluent societies are adversely affected by the parasitic behaviour of these large concerns; at least, we come to this conclusion, if we believe, that a society exists for the benefit of all its members, and not only its ruling elite.

We should go back to the imagery of the energy-dissipating rivulets of the primordial protoplasm. We have seen, how the growth of such a rivulet into a large river, leads, not only, to gigantism, but, also, to the existence of an energy-dissipating system that became quickly dependent upon the availability of such a large flow of energy. There is an exact parallel with corporate gigantism. Initially, the healthy, growing, lean and flexible corporate structure has a well-developed ability to withstand temporary slow-downs in its activities, but, when it reaches gigantic proportions as a result of continued growth, a complex bureaucratic structure with a large number of parasitic or non-productive positions comes into being, increasing, constantly, the costs, or "overhead", for such a company.

These bureaucratic "super-structures" are a result of the fact, that a lot of people have "found a job", and, they are, of course, very reluctant to let go of such a job, let alone, aknowledge, that their work could be done more efficiently without their presence. Therefore, an increasing number of jobs or positions in a large and sprawling corporation do not enhance its productivity, and, often, make its functions more sluggish and more difficult to oversee.

All non-productive forms of growth contribute to the ageing processes of these corporate structures, and, these non-productive forms of growth contribute, also, to the increasing dependence upon a continued and sustained flow of cash or energy. Therefore, the search for market-control, monopolistic advantages, and political influence becomes ever more important to maintain viability, because a lack of serious competition secures a flow of cash-income and will be life-saving for these corporate dinosaurs. However, the public has, then, no alternative sources to purchase their goods and services, and, it has become captive to these large monopolies. This is one example, where we see, clearly, that the existential needs of corporations and the members of society, diverge.

In the mean time, the public has become financially burdened by heavy credit-buying, and, people have become will-less and undisciplined slaves to their desires, because of a relentless advertising propaganda encouraging the self-centered and immediate gratification of primary drives and desires. Society has then become powerless to change the system politically, because a majority of people depend for their income on the status-quo, in spite of the fact, that there may be a vague anxiety about the unhealthy and deteriorating conditions of social and individual existence.

It is fair to say, therefore, that most affluent governments have become captive to the spirit of corporate dominance. While it is certainly true, that, rarely, a single corporate giant has complete control over a government, we see a remarkable uniformity in outlook, life-style and attitudes throughout the corporate world, and, we may consider this world as a gigantic, but closely-knit network of corporate people and their interests, excercising an incredible amount of power and influence, while making a mockery of the principles of universal suffrage.

The entire corporate world is starting to fuse into a single conglomerate, where the various corporate structures hold each other's shares, sit in each other's board rooms, and, share the same information and way of life. This segment of society is, undoubtedly, the most powerful stratum or "upper class" of the Capitalist structure, and, the philosophical outlook and attitudes of the elite dictate the life-style of the ordinary people in these, still, somewhat affluent societies. There is a dangerous and fallacious myth that is propagated throughout the affluent world as a result of corporate self-interests, and, unfortunately, this myth is accepted as a truth by almost everyone involved. This myth is the conviction, that we have to perpetuate economic growth, and, that the solution to affluent problems has to be found in the ability to rekindle and sustain this elusive goal of "economic expansion".

Before we go into the reasons, why such a philosophy or goal is a dangerous and erroneous myth, we should, first, go back to an analysis of the flow of cash or money through a social system. So far, we have assumed, that the manufacture and printing of coins and paper-money is carefully controled by the State, and, that it is fully backed by a centrally held stockpile of precious commodities, allowing the holder of a coin or bank-note to exchange, at any time, this token of possession or property for the "real thing". We are all too aware, how far we have slipped from the ideal monetary system, backed by a gold-standard, and, we should examine some of the disastrous results confused economic thinking has been responsible for.

Ever since the invention of the monetary system, governments have been tempted to tamper with the value of the coin by introducing less valuable materials into it, or, by printing more paper-money than could be justified on the basis of the available coverage. Yet, the idea, that money had to be covered by some sort of value, never lost its hold completely in the minds of the people and their governments, until quite recently, when chronic inflation seemed to have become accepted as "the norm".

We have seen, how the processes of industrialisation and mass-production radically altered the basic principles that determine the value of a product. Before the introduction of fuel-driven machinery, the labour or energy-content of any product or service represented a certain amount of human labour, even, if this energy was often extracted under exploitative conditions. With the introduction of mechanised production methods, a large number of products could be manufactured with little or no effort on the part of the human operator. All that was needed, was the setting-up of a factory with an initial investment of capital, or "effort", and, then, the manufacturing plant would produce an almost endless series of products at little cost, as long as the supply of non-human energy and raw materials remained rather inexpensive.

Quickly, it became apparent, that a far larger cash-flow was required to fuel the consumption of all these mass-produced products, and, gradually, the various governments started to produce more money, cautiously lowering the degree of coverage by gold-reserves. However, governments and people remained aware of the fact, that all monies should, at least, be partially covered, and, the value of a currency remained fixed and was pegged, officially, to a certain amount of gold. In theory, therefore, every citizen could, at any time, exchange the currency for a specified amount of gold, and, the reasons, why it was thought to be permissible to lower the percentage of coverage by gold, was the assumption, that, at any particular time, only a small fraction of the outstanding currency would be offered for an exchange into gold.

So far, so good, but, various crises occurred, which shook the confidence of the members of society. The quick spread of news events, made possible by the rapid development of modern communications techniques, tended to synchronise the moments of anxiety, and, time and again, banks would be besieged by a large number of people, wanting to exchange their currency at the same time. This accentuated a measure of caution excercised in expanding the money-supply, yet, the very rapid proliferation of industrialisation created an ever greater demand for currency in order to keep the mechanisms of trade and production "oiled".

Certainly, the reasons for the Great Depression of the industrialised world were complex, and, protectionism or trade-barriers, as well as unsound practices of credit-buying on the stock-markets, also played a major role in provoking a crisis of confidence in the stock-markets during the early decades of the twentieth century, but, there can be little doubt, that a significant factor of this economic collapse was a scarcity of money, aggravating the "frictions" caused by the mechanisms of trade and industrial production. Large sums of money had been sequestered by those who became wealthy. The population still received only very low wages, and, the public's buying power was insufficient. Many industries collapsed, leading to bankruptcies, chaos, confusion and a high rate of unemployment.

Slowly, governments learned, that they had to provide their people with some income, in order to make it possible for them to remain consumers. We see, then, the introduction of large "public works programs", providing an income to the people by creating, more or less artificially, a number of more or less productive jobs. Gradually, the hardships and poverty in city slums, the problems of worker exploitation, unemployment, poor health and low educational standards, came to the fore, and, these problems were given more attention, when the negative side-effects of large-scale industrialisation were recognised and Socialist ideas and ideals became widely known and supported. This led to social assistance programs, unemployment insurance schemes, progressive taxation, the legislation of working conditions, as well as the right of labour-unions to carry-out collective bargaining with the right to "strike". The latter is a collective work-stoppage that is used as a power-tool in the collective bargaining process.

People were becoming more aware of the fact, that industrialisation had led to enormous disparities and inequities, and, that the division between the wealthy and the poor took place, not only, along the lines of land ownership, but, also, through the mechanisms of accumulating industrial assets, or "capital".

The militancy of the labour unions rose quickly, as they were becoming accepted socially, and, their activities were protected by legislation. Labour costs became, then, an important factor in the production process, and, the forces of competitive existence forced a general rush into automation. Temporarily, costs were reduced, corporate viability increased, but, the problems of giving the people buying powers were increased also. We, in the Capitalist world, still have not solved this dilemma between the drive to automate the production processes in order to reduce labour costs, and, the need for people to find work and generate an income.

The increasing reliance of the industrial world on automation and highly mechanised production processes made working conditions also more difficult and stressful. People were forced to work at a high tempo and under extremely monotonous conditions, because assembly-line techniques were designed to extract maximum worker's output or "productivity". Wages became high, and are still going higher, as frustrations and tensions mount.

By and large, the management of industry was forced to extract an ever greater degree of productivity from the workers because of economic and competitive pressures, as well as the wage-demands of organised labour. As a result, little attention was given to considerations about the quality and type of work-environment, nor, to the need to lower the level of stress for the workers, who were constantly confronted with each other and the noisy, demanding industrial machinery at the place of work.

Yet, as a result of ever increasing automation and computer-guided machinery, the bulk of the work-force will, eventually, have to find employment outside the primary industrial production processes. Society will increasingly have to take care of the problems of "creating jobs", and governments will have to increase their efficiency in running their own bureaucratic structures, as well as their ability to tax the production processes and re-distribute income amongst a large work-force that is not immediately involved in this production process, but, still, has to fulfill its existential needs as consumers and members of society.

Certainly, it is always tempting for government bureaucracies to enlarge and absorb a part of the work-force into themselves, but this leads, nearly always, to a deterioration in performance. Even so, governments and government affiliated institutions became, quickly, the largest employer in society.

In spite of a pre-occupation with the problems of unemployment, governments still have to ensure the continued viability of the currency system, because, without a high level of confidence in the economic soundness of society and its monetary system, a society becomes quickly unstable. The people need money to buy the things they need and want, and, the corporate world needs consumers, even, if they are reluctant to employ workers. The governments need, therefore, the ability to tax those, who have an abundance of monies and give it to those, who need, at least, some spending powers to fulfill their basic needs and wants.

Then, the economists hit upon an ingenious idea. They had vaguely noticed the lubricating effects of bringing extra money into circulation, because it is always less painful to increase the money-supply, rather than to collect taxes from those, who became successful and wealthy. The experiences of the Great Depresion helped them to formulate the idea, that it would be advantageous, and, to some extent, justified, to increase the supply of money regularly, but cautiously, as a reflection of the rate of economic growth that was taking place in the country or the society at large, rather than as a reflection of an increase in gold-reserves held by the Treasury. The concepts of the gold-standard were gradually abandoned, and, one by one, the countries of the industrialised world relinquished the guarantee to exchange their currencies at a fixed rate. In other words, currencies became just like other commodities, and their value was now determined by the mechanisms of supply and demand.

From a role as a "symbolic representation" for a certain value in terms of a standard commodity, the currency has become, almost exclusively, a tool to determine relative values of goods and services in relation to each other. These relative values are determined by the processes of supply and demand. This means, however, that everyone, who holds assets in the form of a currency, a savings account or a bond, a letter of credit, or cash, bank-notes, etc., has lost the security of a fixed value. Earnings, too, lost their fixed value and people would experience that their buying powers could change from one month to the next, and, in extreme cases, from one day to the other.

The money-supply in the large, industrialised nations is now being increased steadily, frequently out-stripping the accumulation of available goods and services, and, as a result, workers, as well as producers, are constantly watching what they can do with their income. As soon as there is a hint that the buying power of their income is dropping, vendors will increase their prices and workers will step-up the demands for higher wages.

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Chapter 10

Content

When a currency becomes abundant.
The politician's willingness to spend public funds.
Inflation is here to stay, since so many people profit from it.
A limit to the mechanisms of economic expansion.
The injustice of small, wasteful pockets of affluence in a sea of poverty and misery.
The inability of affluent people to sense and respond to the rising tensions of social injustice.
Another look at "money making money".
Borrowing "good" money, and, repaying it with money that is worth less.
The results of decades of wasteful affluence and reckless credit-buying are finally coming home to roost.
The irresponsible fiscal policies of many governments and their institutions.
An unfair burden for future generations.
A short review of what has been discussed.
Increasing awareness and understanding may change the current trends; the influence of the "collective will".

When a currency becomes abundantly available, it means, that it flows quicker and easier than before, especially, when its value may be eroded at any time. Then, it is tempting for people to exchange it for a product with a somewhat enduring value. As a result, industrial and commercial activities boom, corporate profits zoom, and enterprises embark on ambitious expansion programs. Wealth accumulates for the business community, and, the rapidly expanding economy serves as a stimulus for the labour-unions to demand a share of this economic prosperity by pressing for higher wages.

During periods of high economic growth, labour unions become increasingly successful in negotiating substantial wage gains, and, as a result, production costs begin to rise. Of course, labour costs are not the only factor driving-up production costs, as management practices become lax and the corporate bureaucracy becomes "top-heavy" with non-productive positions. Then, enterprises see their profits decline, in spite of an increase in the price of their products. Nevertheless, the general rise in affluence and spending powers by the public, means, that people are willing to spend more money on the necessities and luxuries of life, and, eventually, regular price-rises become an accepted feature of life in an affluent society.

Governments like the ability to infuse more money into circulation. This is done by borrowing, and, sometimes, by just printing more paper-money or government securities. In addition, governments like to create jobs, and, they are easily tempted to enlarge the bureaucracies of their institutions, and to initiate a variety of public works and social assistance programs. These policies make them look good in the eyes of the electorate. Revenues increase, whenever the people, the commercial enterprises, as well as government institutions are spending a lot of money.

Since the currency has, primarily, become a tool to determine relative values, it has no meaning as a vehicle for saving for the future, because it loses steadily its value through a complex process of "inflation" or devaluation. Inflation is here to stay, because nearly everyone profits from it, at least, in the short term. Governments see their revenues expand, as people and businesses enlarge their taxable incomes.

Anti-consumerist habits and attitudes, such as saving, are curbed by the gradual erosion of the value of the currency and other fixed assets, like bonds. Therefore, the currency is likely to continue to flow back into society by being spent, and, this is what governments want, because they have come to depend for their revenues, or tax-income, on this economic momentum, generated by the spending habits of ordinary wage-earners, as well as the corporate sector.

Certainly, as long as the economy is able to grow with a steady acceleration in the use of natural energy-resources and raw materials, the living standard for most people will rise, slowly, and, this rising living standard blunts the impact of a continuously devaluating currency. However, as we have outlined so many times before, this process of continuing economic expansion has run into several major difficulties. The earth has a limited suppy of fossil fuels and raw materials, and, the terrestial eco-systems are unable to keep-up with the pollution pressures generated by such a feverish rate of economic growth, especially, if it takes place on a world-wide scale. The level of toxic waste and damaging pollution is already becoming intolerable in many industrialised areas of the world, and, it is not difficult to acknowledge, that such an affluent, consumerist life-style would be totally out of reach for humanity as a whole.

In addition, the rapidly rising living standards for a small segment of the world population, as well as their introvert and neurotic obsession with affluence, have become an intolerable source of anger and frustration for those, who are aware of the wasteful use of resources and the increasing damage to the terrestial eco-systems. A growing number of people are becoming aware of the fact, that the quality of human life for future generations, as well as for those living in poverty and deprivation at the present time, are being destroyed by this selfish and unconcerned, affluent elite. Unfortunately, the most common origin of anger and frustration is not caused by an awareness of the essential injustice of these pockets of feverish consumption, but, the rather primitive attitude of envy by those, who want to obtain a similar status of affluence and abundance.

Even in our affluent societies, those, who are well aware of the problems of pollution and who have been well-educated in the mechanisms of social affluence, pay little heed to these tensions, because, most of us feel too helpless to do something about these problems, and, we are caught in a self-sustaining vicious circle of existential anxieties about the consumerist life-style. We, affluent consumers, are trapped in a life-long habit of credit-buying, as well as a chronic, fatalistic atmosphere of bewilderment and confusion, because we are brain-washed by the many conflicting commercial interests in our environment, and we have given-up hope, that there are rational answers and practical solutions to our dilemmas.

However, let us come back to the main point we would like to emphasise, here. This is the fact, that the role of a currency shifted from being a representation of value to a yardstick for determining relative values of commodities in relation to each other. Let us look, again, at the role of money making money, including the rate of interest charged on borrowed monies. We have seen, how money makes money, when invested into a successful business enterprise, because it initiates another channel for the dissipation of consumable biological energy, after inorganic raw materials have been converted into consumable items with the help of mainly non-renewable fossil fuels.

The simplest way to make money is to borrow money at a certain rate and lend it out again at a higher rate. This is a highly successful, relatively safe and common practice, because it is the life-blood of all banks, trust companies, credit unions and other financial institutions, requiring only an administrative staff to make wise investment decisions, and, to keep the books in good order. Borrowing money has become such an integral part of life, practiced by governments, enterprises and individuals alike, that the commitment to repay capital and interest has faded somewhat, as it seems more profitable to keep borrowing "good" money and repay it, later, with money that has become less in value or buying power.

Governments, especially, have practiced debt-financing on a gigantic scale, and, they have contributed heavily to wasteful spending habits, as well as a large influx of unnecessary monies, leading to a high rate of inflation, as well as a low level of confidence in the currency. The fact, that the value of money is constantly eroded by inflation, has finally resulted in the practice, that this expected loss in value has to be tagged-on to the rate of return, which is, traditionally, only a few percentage points per year. Even so, inflation, often, outstrips the returns in interest, and, then, it discourages anyone, expect those with large amounts of surplus monies, to lend money.

As we have discussed before, the individual members are continuously prodded by commercial interests to borrow money in order to satisfy their wants and needs. "Consume now and pay later". This attitude and practice raises the level of cash-flow artificially, by extending credit to the working public on a massive scale, but, it means, that a larger percentage of earned income has, then, been committed as "fixed costs" to meeting existential needs. This benefits the financial institutions, because they profit from the difference in the rate of interest they lend money to the consumer and borrow from the private investor.

Governments have set the example, how to spend now, and pay-back later, and, we do not have to repeat the observation, that, governments are able to exhibit long-term spending habits that would totally cripple an individual, who has to balance his budget at some time in the near future.

It is remarkable, how little consideration the public usually gives to the inflationary and near-bankrupt practices of their governments. Most people look only at the immediate results, and, they demand the numerous benefits rashly promised by their politicians during elections. Only a few people are concerned about the disastrous, long-term effects of severe deficit budgeting and astronomical national debts. "Let the future generations carry the burden! Who cares? Let us have now, whatever we can get". These attitudes are re-enforced by the knowledge, that inflation will continue to erode the value of their savings and earnings.

If people would be able to sit-back and think for a while, they would be able to acknowledge, at least, intellectually, that such a course of action must lead to disastrous tensions and frustrations, untold hardship, and a catastrophic collapse of the economic machinery of an entire nation, but, all of us, even our elected representatives, feel unable to do anything about the situation. Anyone in a position of authority or leadership seems unwilling to face the people with the unpopular belt-tightening measures that may slow-down the rush towards a financial and social collapse.

In summary, then, we have seen, how the break-through of the Industrial Revolution has made mass-production possible, and, how it has allowed the emergence of an affluent, consumer-oriented society. We have seen, also, how a change in the role of money, (from a vehicle representing value to a vehicle measuring relative values between commodities), has introduced the phenomenon of inflation. We have discussed the inexorable growth of enterprises towards large, multi-national corporations, becoming, frequently, monopolies. We have seen, how these large corporations are driven to control the markets of society, as well as the minds of the people, in order to satisfy their own existential requirements for long-term security and an easy way of life. We have discussed the ever increasing dependency on a large cash-flow by enterprises, national governments and individuals alike.

We have considered the need for income redistribution, as well as the maintenance of a buying power for the public. The latter has to be accomplished by a transfer of funds into such programs as social assistance, unemployment insurance, a variety of government services, public-works programs, tax-credits, grants and subsidies, etc. We have reviewed the need of affluent societies to keep expanding their economies, either by increasing territorial control, (colonialism), or financial control, (neo-colonialism), and, by increasing the rate of consumption and an artificial expansion of economic growth through credit-buying by their own members.

All these mechanisms are showing their limitations, and frustrations and angry sentiments are building-up because of the increasing disparities between the rich and the poor. We have discussed the reasons, why it is so difficult to change course; how we all have been caught-up in this economic momentum, and, how helpless we are to change anything, if we happen to understand some of the limitations that are associated with our affluent existence.

Some of us know, now, why we have become entrapped and introvert, and, why we are hardly able to recognise the web of problems we have spun around ourselves. We are incapable of significantly altering, voluntarily, the increasing discrepancies between the rich and the poor, and, we hardly realise, to what extent the commercial interests are controling the mass-media, our opinions, outlook and ideas. Is it hopeless, then, to even try to analyse these problems, if we know, from the start, that we are powerless to do anything about them?

I believe, that we do not have to come to such a fatalistic conclusion, because the powers of awareness and appreciation are still growing. We have hardly begun to realise the powers of a well-informed, collective opinion, and, it is still possible, that, collectively and deliberately, we will be able to reverse an ever stronger dependence upon the myth of economic growth and affluent happiness.

.......

Chapter 11

Content

The speech to affluence; a monologue with affluence as a silent listener.

"Affluence, your time has come. You are being crowned with victory, now, and your weapon of success has been the colossal "rip-off". After physical slavery was abolished, you certainly learned how to use mental slavery! You have been very clever, very persistent and very devious, because you have been able to orient almost everyone in your societies to the worship of money.

After the quick success of making a desirable product, a toy of idleness, or a surrogate for power and excitement, you were able to draw the attention of your disciples to the lure of instant riches with the lucky fortune of a win in the lotto, the commercial give-away game, the lure of a popular song, or a piece of pornography. You have been able to sell the image of your pop-artists, carefully packaged in glamour, publicity and drab mediocrity, but, the only artistry you have been able to create, affluence, is the art of instant exploitation.

Everything is measured, now, in money, and, you have been quite efficient in your attempts to sooth chronic tensions and frustrations with the ability to capture, be it only for a moment, a small portion of this gigantic cash-flow in society. Only a few weeks, a few months, perhaps, are sufficient to create instant celebrities; instant millionaires, who will shortly rest in ruined despair and chaotic anonymity. Nevertheless, they will serve, for a moment, as an idol for the gullible, restless and confused public, and, after the idol has disappeared, another will be eager to take its place.

You are clever, affluence, and your commercial masters have taught you well, how to manipulate and galvanise the egocentric instincts of the people, but, you have forgotten one thing, and, your masters have forgotten it, too. You have educated or manipulated, now, several generations into believing, that the only matter of importance is to "make it big"; to become rich, a big spender, a glamorous, if temporary focus of public attention. How are you going to defend your societies against adversity and attack? How are you going to withstand the pressures from the envious poor of the world? They are now quite well aware of the extravagant luxuries, the empty egocentricity, as well as the fashionable goals of the affluent societies. The poor of the world are now beginning to realise, how wasteful and unjust it is for a small, privileged elite to live in scandalous, irrelevant, sickening and drug-ridden conditions? Do you think, affluence, that they will continue to observe this scene of affluent waste with a detached complacency?

No, resentment is building rapidly, and, with a certain glee, the under-privileged spectators are beginning to see possibilities for a change. The massive fortress of defense and resolve is crumbling, because you have forgotten, how to teach the people to be loyal to their country and their society. What else can you expect? If you teach the people, continuously, that only personal gain is important, you can not expect them to have any inclination to fight and die for their country? After you have glorified, for generations, the clever rip-off, the power of deception, the gain of unscrupulous manipulations, how can you expect the people to believe their leaders, when the call for an armed defense has come?

If the resources of society have been used unscrupulously for personal gain by those who had the power to exploit, how, then, can you expect people to believe their leaders, if they tell them, once again, that they have to sacrifice for the good of society? If you have taught the people to care only for their own pleasures, how are you going to persuade them to accept hardships in the name of society as a whole?

A feeling of loyalty towards others in society has to be taught, and, what is more important, it has to be earned. It has to be taught by giving the young people a clear understanding that social cohesion is a quality we all have to work for. It has to be taught, that, we, as a society, exist together for the benefit of us all, and not for the benefit of those who have the power to exploit us. Loyalty has to be earned, and, the only way it can be really earned, is by an inspiring example. If we have failed to teach our youngsters the meaning of a social unit, how are they going to know, that society has to be safeguarded and defended against the forces of exploitation and decay?

If you teach your members, from the cradle to the grave, that all their skills are to be used for carving-out as large a slice as possible from the pie of affluence, how can you expect them to believe, that it may be necessary to make sacrifices? If you teach your youngsters that the only really successful people are those, who make it big, how can you avoid a sense of deep failure and frustration amongst the many millions of people, who will never make it big, regardless, how hard they try?

You see, affluence, the only people who really care, whether or not you remain alive and well, are those commercial interests, because these interests would collapse, as soon as the cash-flow of public spending would diminish or dry-up. Yet, people representing commercial interests are not going to man the guns and fight in the front lines. No, they still believe, that they will be able to manipulate the minds of the people to do the fighting for them, whenever it becomes necessary to do so. They still believe, that they can alter the orientation of the people at will and change the outlook of people into an attitude of altruistic patriotism, after they have indoctrinated these same people for decades to look after their own egocentric interests and pleasures.

How naive, affluence! Your crown of success is made of decay and deceit. Your glamour shines with the stench of corruption, mistrust and mutual alienation. Your stability is only due to a precarious economic momentum, and, the price of your continuing reign is going to be ever more strident sentiments of frustration and resentment. You may have brought people the ability to lack nothing of the physical necessities, but, in doing so, you have exploited the credulity of the people, and, now, you are starting to lose control over them, as they slide into a state of mental oblivion because of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as a neurotic pre-occupation with their own undisciplined instincts.

Even your ministers of the Faith, affluence, have learned to use the fear and confusion of the God-fearing and frightened members of society for the purpose of monetary gain and mind control. Affluence, you are a fraud; a deep, sad, rotten fraud, and, you have prepared a mass-grave and a mass-suicide for the members of your cult. How will you abdicate affluence? In a foreign invasion, a massive blood-bath of internal upheaval, or, will you, eventually, beome dethroned by the slowly accumulating powers of a collective reason and a global conscience?

It is probably naive to hope for such a peaceful and constructive transformation of your essence and identity. It is, probably, naive and irrealistic to believe, that it would be possible to transform a long-standing accent upon egocentric satisfactions into a global sense of responsibility and togetherness. Yes, we know, affluence, that people have to be reminded, painfully, time and again, about the need to work and belong together. In the absence of such reminders, we forget, quickly; very quickly; too quickly.

Let us examine the possibility, whether or not we can, at least, begin to see a potential for change. In every society, the roots of future developments arise long before the actual changes are becoming visible. Most, if not all these roots die or change, long before they become an established part of the new order, and, it is difficult, if not impossible, to be sure, looking at them from the inside of a contemporary society, which roots, eventually, will gain a magnificent viability, and, which will never make it. It is like trying to predict the outcome of an evolutionary experiment with the criteria of viability, before the actual test has taken place.

Contrasting and contradictory trends can always be seen in any social structure, but, who knows their significance, their tenacity and potential for growth, or, their vulnerability to exploitation? We have seen a beginning in your affluent societies, where a small part of youthful members turned-away from you, rather suddenly, in utter disgust. Unfortunately, they were young dreamers, inexperienced and confused, and, they were totally unprepared to do without your blessings. Most of them returned to the fold, sadly disillusioned, and, even more confused than before, after they experienced the hardships of trying to make a living without you.

We are not going to make the same mistake. If we dethrone you, affluence, we will keep many of your inventions and improvements, because they will be necessary to help us secure individual and collective survival, but, we are not going to let you preach, any longer, the gospel of ecogentric consumerism. We are going to teach our younger generations what life really is; how it developed; what forces played a role, and, how the human species and the human individual fit into this gigantic web of existence possibilities.

We are not going to make the same mistakes that most of the ministers of the Faith have made. We are not going to say, that all egocentric concerns and anxieties are evil; that they are the work of the Devil; that these trends and instincts have to be suppressed at all costs. We have learned to see, that such an attitude is, not only, impossible to maintain for any length of time, but, we know, now, that all attempts to adhere to such doctrines have led to disastrous fanaticisms, inhuman relationships, as well as a blind and narrow conviction in the reality of an Absolute Truth.

No, affluence, we will teach our people to recognise the evolutionary mechanisms of life, as well as the reasons for the existence of primary drives. We will show them, how we are heir to a complex and somewhat contradictory biological heritage of instincts, drives and emotional behaviour-patterns. They all have a role to play in this complex web of forces and counter-forces, which will, eventually, determine our individual and collective viability"

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Chapter 12

Content

The inter-relationships between money and inflation, and the attitudes of hope and despair.
A beginning of more sensible attitudes.
Lingering suspicions about a voluntary cut-back in consumption.
Accepting, intellectually, that limits on consumption are inevitable.
Difficulties translating an intellectual acknowledgement into a practical reality.
The lessening of absolute sovereignty.
Pressures upon governments to carry-out more responsible fiscal policies.
Persistent problems for the poorer nations.
The gradual evolution of the quality of leadership.
Learning to see the limitations of our own societies.
The need for widespread public ownership in future societies.
The changing role of the corporate dinosaur.
The large corporation may become a nucleus for improved living conditions in the lesser developed nations.
The need to accept free-trade on a world-wide scale.
Socialist societies, and the economic giants of free-enterprise.
The justice of letting someone compete, who is willing to work hard.
Towards a more equal distribution of material prosperity.
An essential equality in the quality of human existence.
Corporate greed and bureaucratic bungling.
When work will be seen as a privilege, and not as a necessity.

We have strayed somewhat from our discussion about money and inflation, but, it is worthwhile to see, how these forces of money and inflation relate to the drives and needs of our own existence. There are many other developments, which may, eventually, lead towards a healthier, more controled and less exploitative atmosphere within the affluent societies.

Many of us are working hard to emphasise the limitations of our natural resources and the fragility of the earth's atmosphere and eco-systems. We are becoming more aware of these limitations, and, intellectually, it is not difficult, for most of us, to accept the wisdom of a frugal, less consumerist life-style. However, we do not know, how to extricate ourselves from the entrapment we have been goaded into, and, we do not trust our neighbours. If I accept a cut-back or a sacrifice in my life-style, how can I be sure, that my neighbour is not secretly profiting from my act of good-will?

Most of us are beginning to realise, that we will have to accept some restrictions in our expectations and incomes, and, we learn, painfully, how costly the stress is, which we have to endure for the sake of these consumerist aspirations and trappings of affluence. Most of us have looked with disbelief at the wasteful and careless spending habits of our public leaders and officials, and, we realise, now, that, we, as an individual, can not afford the style of spending and debt-financing which our politicians still seem to get away with. We have learned to disbelieve, and, to ignore, to a large extent, the barrage of commercial propaganda on the public media, and, we are beginning to realise, how pervasive these commercial influences and interests really are.

Lately, our national leaders are waking-up to the fact, that they are, after all, not completely sovereign in their ability to print or spend money. Because all the major currencies are being traded as commodities in a free inter-play between supply and demand, irresponsible fiscal attitudes and practices of ignorant governments are immediately reflected in a lowered value of this currency. While some competitive advantage may result from the devaluation of a national currency, the generalised impoverishment of the people and the sky-rocketing prices of desired and needed imports, make such irresponsible practices a liability for the leadership, as well as the society as a whole.

Ever increasing economic inter-dependencies between the countries of the world have, at least, one beneficial effect, because national governments are now beginning to act as somewhat more responsible members of a larger community. The heady, ego-inflating attitudes of total and complete national sovereignty are disappearing in this web of increased financial inter-actions and inter-dependent markets.

Still, many nations have a difficult time distributing their national incomes more or less equitably amongst their people. Too often, the profits, or, at least, a large part of the profits that arise from the export of raw materials, a few crops, or, a number of manufactured products, are skimmed-off by a wealthy elite that is closely associated with the political and military hierarchy. Many nations are also hit hard by a crippling burden of national debt, because they have been goaded to go deeply into debt, a few years ago, when money was plentiful and the dream of rags to riches had a powerful grip over the poorer nations of the world. Besides, foreign, multi-national concerns are usually in control of the few commodities or products that can be exported by the lesser developed regions, and, they too, skim-off the national income, leaving very little for the indigenous peoples of these under-developed regions or nations.

Crippling debts, the powers of multi-national concerns, and the influence of a ruling elite are the main reasons, why poverty and disparity still persist within and between nations, often, on a gross and horrendous scale, because any attempt to change the status-quo upon which the wealthy elite has become so dependent, will be ruthlessly suppressed. Many regions of the earth still suffer from a low level of education and public awareness, and, the mechanisms of free and fair elections are not easily implemented, as the people and their leaders still tend to settle conflicts and disputes by brute force or along ancient, tribal loyalties.

In the socially polarised areas with their sharp disparities and strong feelings of mutual hostility, the leadership is, most often, obtained by a military coup d'etat and the support of a powerful outsider. It is still too rare an occasion, that social leaderships reflect a genuine concern for the well-being of their own people. Leaderships are, either obsessed with the trappings of power and glamour, or, they become pre-occupied with the need to woo the electorate with facile promises for the next election.

Unfortunately, violent strife is, often, still necessary to dislodge remnants of dictatorial powers and elitist exploitation, whenever introvert and corrupt regimes that depend on an unjust status-quo, are unwilling to give-up, voluntarily, their hold on power. However, as soon as the people have become reasonably well educated, and, as soon as they have been given work and a sense of self-esteem, there will be an increasing pressure to elect truly representative leadership through a process of fair and honest elections, without the acts of intimidation and fraudulent practices that still marr, so often, those elections where people are not accustomed, as yet, to accept the voice of the ballot-box.

It is a hopeful sign, that so many of the lesser developed nations are, indeed, showing a trend towards the establishment of truly representative government. Often, the legitimacy and independence of such popularly elected leaderships are not appreciated by the more powerful nations with imperial or neo-colonial aspirations, because these popular leaderships are "too independent" for their liking. Certainly, popularly supported leaderships are often quite different from a Western democracy, but, then, we should learn to accept the fact, that useful popular representation may be achieved in many different ways, and, we should, also, see the limitations and short-comings of our own social and electorate systems, especially, in view of the increasing polarisation between the rich and the poor within these free-enterprise, industrialised democracies.

The idea of public ownership for all major industrial enterprises, as well as all large tracts of land, is, in my opinion, inevitable, in order to achieve a measure of stability and well-being for future societies. Public ownership is nothing more than a consciously accepted realisation that all activities of a densely populated society are matters of public concern. Therefore, it is an error to believe, that we all should have the right to do as we please; that we have the right to accumulate as many assets as we can, and, that we have the right to use the power of wealth to live under privileged conditions and shield ourselves from the disadvantages, which the poorer segments of the population have to deal with.

All activities of construction, consumption and manufacture, including the use of all sorts of natural resources and the clean-up of waste-products, are matters of public or national concern, and, these matters should not be left to private initiatives. In the affluent societies, there is an understandable hesitation to accept the ideals of public or collective ownership, because, apart from ideological qualms about such an approach, the governments of the Capitalist societies have, by and large, a poor track record of running business ventures efficiently and competently.

We have outlined, on several occasions, the many steps that are necessary to prepare ourselves, and our governments, for an effective control over all large corporate structures and socio-economic events. We will not repeat these ideas, here, except to say, that it can be done with the build-up of a truly effective, transparent, computerised system of information gathering, which classifies and monitors, as well as retrieves and displays everything that is of common concern.

At the present time, the corporate dinosaurs dominate the world economy; at least, in the world of the free-enterprise societies, and, there seems to be a temptation for the Socialist societies to let the multi-national corporations develop markets and technology within their borders as well. However, it seems safe to assume, that such "branch-plants" of these corporate giants within the Socialist societies will never reach the level of social control and influence on governments, as they have been able to obtain in the Capitalist world.

This branching-out of the larger corporations into the under-developed and developing, Socialist as well as free-enterprise societies, may also have interesting and beneficial side-effects, and, these side-effects may represent the first tentative steps towards a reversal of the ever-widening gap between the rich and poor nations. These corporations will be able to make use of a very large source of man-power; people, who are willing to learn and work hard, and, their products will be competitively priced in comparison with those made in the more affluent nations, where high wage-demands and other costs make these products, inevitably, more expensive.

Finally, we have, here, a mechanism, whereby the lesser developed nations may be able to compete successfully with the affluent nations, once the large, multi-national corporations have built their branch-plants and have shared their expertise with the lesser developed nations and regions of the world. Undoubtedly, the bulk of manufacturing will shift towards the more densely populated and less affluent areas of the globe, where people are still relatively unspoiled by the trappings of affluence. Corporate profits will be scrutinised closer than in the affluent nations, and, if the leaderships of the Socialist and developing nations manage to remain relatively free from corruption and true to their ideals of essential equality, a very powerful economic order could be built.

This is already happening, at least, to some extent, and, we see, that the affluent nations are increasingly tempted to use protective trade-barriers against the developing nations, because the developing nations have a powerful ability to produce more economically compared to the affluent societies. If such protective barriers are indeed raised more frequently, the consuming public in the affluent nations will have to pay a price for the policies of protectionism, and, people will become resentful of their slide into an expensive mediocrity.

True, people in the work-force will realise, that, unlimited imports will make the economic viability of their employers much more difficult, but, hopefully, people will also recognise the justice of letting someone compete, who is willing to work hard for less money. Hopefully, the affluent nations will recognise, that this mechanism represents one of the most natural and least painful ways to, finally, re-distribute wealth and well-being a little more evenly around the globe.

Even, if the affluent nations will have to come-down from their high standards of consumption, they will not starve under the conditions of a liberalised, world-wide, free-trade, and, if there is any danger of losing-out, the people can always work a little harder for less money and become more competitive on the markets of the world, if the appropriate social mechanisms are in place to do so. A natural balance may, eventually, establish itself all over the world, where labour relations, standards of living and consumption, working conditions, as well as the relationships between industrial enterprises and government institutions are more or less the same; with the same sort of laws and regulations applying on a world-wide scale.

Public control and ownership of all the major industrial institutions is inevitable, and, such a development will also change, slowly, the ruthless objectives of financial gain and the acquisition of assets, as the multi-national corporations adopt, gradually, a more socially constructive role. They may well become institutions that function for the benefit of society as a whole, while remaning a model of efficiency and productivity.

However, let us not forget, that it is, not only, corporate greed that harms us. Bureaucratic inefficiency, a bungling of public spending, corruption, or, the egocentric posturing of leaders and others in a position of power, will always be detrimental to the interests of the people. We have outlined, before, how we visualise to overcome these problems, and, how we can foresee the emergence of a government bureaucracy that is far more efficient, far leaner and much more transparent than even the best corporate bureaucracies of today. We have shown, how this can be done by a network of computers with universal access to all relevant data for everyone, and, by the removal of existential anxieties; by removing the need to hold-on to a job in order to survive.

If we are able to make work a privilege, and not a necessity, we will introduce a measure of flexibility in planning these gigantic communal tasks, which still have to be accomplished, and, which are completely beyond the capabilities and conceptual grasp of contemporary political leaderships and their institutions. In our present societies, any major restructuring of the bureaucracy leads to the hardships of unemployment, as well as the insecurity and resentment that go with it. Until we have introduced a system of guaranteed minimum income with proper incentives to work hard and achieve something, it is unlikely, that we will be able to make much progress in our efforts to reform the social and bureaucratic structures of our complex societies.

It would be ironic, if those corporate giants, which are largely to blame for the pernicious obsession with consumerism in our affluent societies, would, as yet, hold the key for a successful transition towards a more equitable distribution of well-being in the future.

.......

Chapter 13

Content

Exhortations.
The possibilities for social stability and a reasonable quality of life.
The dangers of economic protectionism.
We all support our puppet-regimes.
The need to educate our leaders and ourselves.
The cloak of "national interests".
Towards a more honest statement of motivations, as well as an enlightened discussion of ethical principles.
The reasons behind the feelings of hatred and resentment.
A plea for honesty.
The attitude of non-interference in each other's affairs; a hypocrisy at its worst.
Rising levels of awareness and education.
Towards a representative government from the people for all social environments.
A return to monies and trade-deficits.
Interest-rates and inflation.
A web of international inter-dependencies.
The need to control corporate giants, and stamp-out corruption and inefficiency in government bureaucracies.
Money has to be restored to its original purpose.

We have to learn to make use of the natural mechanisms that promote and regulate the growth of living organisms, including those forces that create business enterprises and giant corporations. Let us learn to control these giants by studying them. We should study their methods of operation, as well as the way they exert influence and control. We certainly should study their lean bureaucracies. Let us encourage in them what is good for our societies, but, let us watch, carefully, for any tendency to corrupt the leadership or the people.

Once we have some control, it will be possible to change these corporate structures, slowly, from egocentric, dominating and corrupting institutions of power and waste, to instruments that are useful and, perhaps, even, essential in the task of securing long-term viability for mankind as a whole. They already provide nuclei of development and expertise that make the lesser developed nations formidable economic competitors in the developed world. Besides, they may well play, in the future, a different role in the developed nations; by providing the organisational and technical expertise to help us cope with the problems of affluence, pollution, social decay and over-crowding, which can be summarised as a search for social justice and a better quality of life for everyone.

We have to encourage the peoples of the affluent nations to accept the economic challenge from the developing nations, and work harder to compete with them. If we succeed in opening-up the flow of international trade and let the developing nations compete freely on our markets, we will, indeed, see, that the standards of living and education are beginning to equalise, all over the world. If we fall into the temptation to close our markets and borders, once again, we will remain introvert enclaves of consumerist obsession and moral decay, and, internal revolution or external attack will be the eventual outcome.

We will have to help the under-developed nations to form governments that are truly representative of the interests of the people, and we should stop supporting the corrupt puppet-regimes that only perpetuate the inequities of neo-colonialist attitudes and practices of hidden exploitation. We are not that far-sighted as yet. We still support those regimes, who are "friendly" and comply with our spheres of interests and dominance.

We, the people, have to learn to educate ourselves, as well as our present and future leaders, because we have to become a wise and concerned electorate, choosing wise and far-sighted leaders. It is remarkable, how quickly a decent human being with a genuine concern for the well-being of the social environment, (including the people of his own country), becomes a narrow nationalist, when elected to a position of political significance. The concerns of the nation, the power, prestige and influence of public office become, quickly, a personal obsession. Certainly, the leader is, usually, genuinely concerned about the attitudes and practices of those regimes he can not influence, and, he raises, eagerly, a clamor about alleged violations against the principles of human rights, but, this same leadership is suddenly silent or looks the other way, whenever similar violations occur in his own society, or, by a regime that has been a loyal ally.

Why would this same leadership that is so concerned about human rights, support a regime that is corrupt, non-democratic, and a constant offender of human rights? How is it possible, that criticisms suddenly cease and support is maintained? The reason is "National Interest", my friend. The economic, military and strategic interests of the supporting nation are the dominant factors determining its attitude towards other nations, and, as long as we remain so blatantly egocentric in our attitudes and opinions towards other people or other nations, we are only aggravating the resentment against ourselves and our societies, and, we will, in the final analysis, be accelerating our own down-fall.

We have to educate ourselves, as well as our leaders, to be more open and honest. We have to be willing to acknowledge that our actions and opinions are, often, guided by narrow self-interests, and, we should show our leaders, and each other, how often these narrow self-interests over-ride lofty principles and moral standards.

The irony is, that it is often not necessary to hide the interests of a nation. It would be quite acceptable to the public, if a leadership would openly say; "We support so and so, because we have major interests and investments tied-up in this country, and, we want to secure a leadership that is friendly to us". Such an attitude is not just, nor is it justified, but, at least, it is honest, and, at the same time, it will provide us an opportunity to start thinking about what we are doing.

When do I have to sacrifice my interests in order to be true to my principles and beliefs? Unless we practice such an honest debate and are reminded, time and again, that, we have to make this choice, we do not understand the real reasons for conflict, and, we will never understand the resentment of those around us. We will remain blind and deaf for the factors that underlie the desperate acts of international terrorism.

There has to be honesty in analysing the motivations of our actions and opinions. Let us dare to say; "I defend so and so, because it is in my interest to do so". Then, we will have a much more solid basis for understanding and debate. Imagine, how far such honesty and transparence, competence and awareness would go towards overcoming the problems of crime, corruption, ignorance and fearful self-centredness!

The free exchange of trade-products and financial transactions, technology and other goods and services, will help to start the process of global equalisation, which, in turn, will facilitate communication and mutual understanding. This will then provide the basis for a much better awareness of our limitations, and, this atmosphere of honest and open debate will help us formulate the long-term policies necessary to secure the continued survival of mankind.

We do not need to give charity in a patronising attitude towards the poor and under-privileged. All we have to do, is to give them a real chance to have a truly representative government; a government for and from the people, and, not just for the benefit of the elite and their foreign supporters. All we need, is to give these hard-working poor a chance to sell their goods to us, and, we will help them more than all foreign-aid programs can do. Now, we are like a rich man, who likes to give a few alms to his poorer neighbours, but, who prevents them from working effectively, because he is afraid of losing his position of monopoly and power.

Let us stop using the hypocritical attitude of "non-interference in each other's affairs", as long as a nation has a regime that is dependent upon us! The moment we see a country and its regime turn-away from friendly relationships with us, we cry-out against the alleged "foreign intervention" from our competitors.

We should realise, and acknowledge, that, everyone is becoming more informed and educated. It is relatively easy and inexpensive to educate and inform with the help of the many mass-media and communications links that have already been established. There is a general rise in the level of awareness of the people. This awareness is reflected in an ever greater pressure upon governments and leaderships to take the will of the people into account, and, to govern with a mandate from the people, under the guidance of a globally acceptable set of Constitutional Guidelines. This is the only way to secure the rights and obligations of the individual members, as well as those of society as a whole.

We see, now, increasingly, that the arbitrary growth of the money-supply by an irresponsible leadership is punished, or, at least, curbed by a rapid drop in the value of such a currency. A severe devaluation hurts and angers the people, and, the consequences of irresponsible policies are becoming much clearer for the ordinary people, because there is a better understanding of the relationships between economic competitiveness, the balance of trade and financial transactions, and the value of money.

Marked trade-deficits lead to a large surplus of the currency of the importing country in the hands of foreigners. Since the exchange rates of currencies are now determined by the forces of supply and demand, this excess currency drives the value down, just like an individual's credit becomes tarnished, if he or she buys more than can be paid-for. International pressures require such a country to take corrective action by improving the balance between exports and imports; by restraining its spending; by increasing productivity; by cutting-back on all sorts of expenditures, and, by increasing the interest rates for government bonds.

If it is necessary to support a currency, or make other expenditures, it should be done by borrowing money, rather than by an indiscriminate issuing of paper-money. Interest rates have to be increased in order to attract investments and borrowings have to be made, primarily, on foreign money-markets. This means, that any further drop in the value of the national currency will make the foreign loan even more expensive to pay-off and to finance, since the value of a national loan and its interests charges are, nearly always, measured in the value of the creditor currency, or, at least, in terms of a stable, international currency-unit.

This web of international relationships in trade and monetary matters creates a pressure on each nation to solve the problems of over-spending by "conventional" and more responsible means, such as restraint in spending and a restoration of the balance between earnings and expenditures, and, fortunately, this international pressure has made the route of unlimited expansion of the money-supply, thoroughly unacceptable.

A gradual but steady decrease in tariff-barriers will, eventually, reward those, who are willing to work hard at a reasonable price. A gradual decrease in the discrepancies of living standards, levels of education, Constitutional Guidelines, systems of government and social provisions and safeguards, will help to create a climate of greater understanding. A gradual increase in the openness, effectiveness and Constitutional Guidance of leaderships and their organisations, will help to control the profits of large corporations and the influence of their powerful bureuacracies. It should be possible to transform, eventually, these economic dinosaurs into socially responsible members of the world community of nations.

The corporate giants could become nuclei for social change, and, they may become valuable catalysts for a world-order of harmonic relationships, if they are gradually nudged into this direction by the public pressures from the societies in which they exist. Certainly, we will have to possess the technological and ideological capabilities to control and guide these powerful institutions. We will have to secure the competence and determination to nip corruption, crime and inefficiency in the bud, before we can earn the trust and respect of the members of society, and, in particular, the trust and respect from the future generations of mankind.

Perhaps, we should mention, briefly, the idea, that the entire practice of supplying long-term loans or credits on a gigantic scale has to be abolished. The role of money should be restored to its original purpose; to facilitate a transaction in the exchange of goods and services. By succumbing to the temptation to mortgage, either individually, or as a society, all our earning-powers or resources for a large number of years, we may buy instant affluence, but, at the price of a prolonged period of slavery for ourselves and our children.

The acquisition of assets, or, the accomplishment of large projects, needed for individual or collective existence, should be brought-about by a period of intense, hard, pioneering work; by people, who are working together, in order to make sure, that they own what they have built, whenever it is finished. Just as a family can build a house, if it is willing to accept the help of a few friends and neighbours in return for a promise to reciprocate the service, so can a society make sure, that every large project can be owned outright by this society within a time-span of maximally five years. The slavery that results from huge borrowings and investments has to end. Generations have now been trapped into the obligation to work hard for a life-time, only to pay-off a debt, or, to pay the interest charges on this debt.

These are intolerable situations that have to be abolished and out-lawed. Money is a currency; a quick way of establishing mutual credit; a quick way of facilitating the exchange of goods and services, but, money should not be used as a lure to quick riches, nor, as a tool to exploit inexperienced and gullible people. No large debts should ever be incurred; neither by society, nor by an individual, and, the whole problem of devaluation and inflation should become a phenomenon of the past.

These phenomena have to be studied and examined, carefully, in order to understand what went wrong; to see, how slavery was only partially abolished, when physical slavery was prohibited; to see, what the instinctive practices of exploitation and abuse can do with money, if its role is not safeguarded by Constitutional Guidelines. We have to learn to see, what happens, if the use of money and the powers of its accumulation are not carefully understood and regulated.

.......

Summary

1. Money, seen as a form of energy.
   Barter; the voluntary exchange of goods and services.
   The importance of mutual agreement and equality in power.
   A review of the mechanisms of task-differentiation and inter-dependence.
   The need to understand fundamental mechanisms, before a grasp over social and economic phenomena is possible.
   A confusing complexity, and the tendency to hide behind it.
   A prayer on the altar of economic recovery.
   The universal lure of affluence, reflecting a strong appeal to our biological heritage.
   A thin veneer of ideological and religious beliefs.
   The dangers of success.
   The versatility of the tool of money.
   Money can buy everything.
   Modern problems in living off the land.
   The chicken-coop.
   The dangers of dependence, poverty and entrapment.
   Social phenomena resulting from population pressures.
   Money; a "cheque", or a "letter of credit".
   The primary mechanisms for the rise of class-divisions.
   The practice of psychological exploitation, and the need to obtain "money-energy".
   
   
   
2. A remarkable dependence on money, when living in an affluent social environment.
   The modern "job".
   The pressure to spend; fashionable opinions about social success.
   The lure of an affluent life-style; a gradual entrapment into financial obligations.
   When existental needs merge imperceptibly with the pleasures of consuming luxuries.
   The urge to display wealth and power, or the ability to spend money.
   The far-reaching implications of being in debt.
   The role of financial entrapment in the build-up of chronic tensions and anxieties.
   Reckless borrowing, and the temptation to engage in unscrupulous short-cuts.
   The existential anxieties of commercial interests; advertising.
   Mergers and monopolies through price-fixing.
   The "Age of the Economic Dinosaurs".
   The still unfathomed impact of affluence and economic pressures.
   The conflicting interests between saving and spending, investment and consumption.
   The growth-cycle of an economic enterprise, and the need to remain viable.
   Financial institutions, and their fees.
   
   
   
3. The logic of wealth; the richer you are, the easier and cheaper you can borrow money.
   The "gravitational" pull of money, and the forces of social fragmentation.
   The territorial needs of a living organism.
   The nature of multi-cellular existence; symbiotic, as a colony of cells, but competitive in relation to other multi-cellular organisms.
   Socialisation, seen as a parallel of cellular symbiosis.
   A look at symbiosis, parasitism and predation.
   Basic biological mechanisms provide a solid foundation for the interpretation of human behaviour.
   The main reason for social integration; a benefit for every member.
   Pre-human social developments.
   The temptation to exploit.
   When the mechanisms of hierarchical ordening go astray.
   The reasons, why the processes of social integration come to a halt.
   The vulnerability of mutual inter-dependence.
   Natural selection shaped the qualities of social leadership.
   The a-sexual and sexual modes of social pro-creation.
   Limitations of the social unit.
   Cultural innovations and tools form the foundation for the much larger social entity.
   The integrated nature of leadership in small social units.
   Intuitively intelligent leadership.
   
   
   
4. A review of the mechanisms of early, large-scale, social integration.
   The beginnings of a cultural code and its artifacts.
   An easing of living conditions, but, social mechanisms remain organised around basic existential requirements.
   Social stratification; the low status of the "providing classes".
   Rulers and their conquests.
   The concept of an increased energy-flow; facilitating existential chores through coordination, cooperation and task-divisions.
   Increasing the availability of energy-sources.
   The drive to make more intensive use of natural resources because of increasing population densities.
   The fragile nature of the voluntary exchange, and its decay into an act of robbery.
   The birth of slavery, and its exploitation by an upper crust.
   The Industural Revolution, harnassing extra-human energy-sources.
   The break-through of generally shared affluence.
   The relationships between power and wealth, land-ownership and military service.
   The likely resurgence of inequities after a revolutionary over-throw.
   The principles of trade and profit; work, made possible by an energy-gradient.
   The temptation to "colonise", or control trade and natural resources.
   The ever-recurring practices of exploitation.
   
   
   
5. Conquest and colonisation; "neo-colonialism".
   Supporting a friendly puppet-regime.
   The fragile nature of voluntary agreements.
   The importance of maintaining a position of essential equality.
   The principles of free-enterprise.
   Failures of the free-enterprise system in actual practice.
   Sketching the developments in a social environment, starting from a set of hypothetical, free-enterprise conditions.
   The inevitable divergence between people or groups of people.
   The never-ending game of free-enterprise.
   Sanctioning class-divisions by property laws.
   The accumulation of wealth.
   The gradual development of dependence and enslavement of a majority of the population, resulting from unbridled free-enterprise mechanisms.
   Worker-eploitation during the early phases of industrialisation.
   The practice of collectively bargaining for a work-contract.
   Enslavement resulting from a chronic burden of debts.
   Measures to re-distribute wealth, and slow-down the emergence of disparities.
   A tendency for the smaller enterprises to disappear.
   Why free-enterprise leads to class-divisions.
   The naive belief, that the losers are willing to continue to play the game of social differentiations for the rest of their lives.
   Difficulties associated with efforts to harnass egocentric instincts for the benefit of society as a whole.
   The "competitive game".
   The myth of free-enterprise lingers-on, as long as territorial or economic expansion provides another chance to those, who, initially, lost-out in the game of free-enterprise.
   
   
   
6. Why the dream of "rags to riches" could persist.
   The limitations of ever-rising expectations.
   The affluent society; a powder-keg of frustrations and tensions.
   The strange fascination of affluence.
   Envy, an appeal to basic instincts.
   Social cohesion should be based upon a measure of benefit for every member of society.
   The dangers of all-out competitiveness for the forces of social cohesion.
   International behaviour-patterns.
   The rising expectations of the poorer nations.
   Tensions resulting from the inability to expand economically or territorially.
   The allegiance of the poor.
   Indiscriminate slaughter and destruction.
   Free-enterprise blinds us for the dangers of egocentric motives.
   The real meaning of the division of tasks and chores.
   A review of what has been discussed.
   The role of inflation, or, the devaluation of a currency.
   What is money?
   Limitations of the process of barter; the "matching problem".
   The problem of standardising value.
   The expression of value in terms of a quantity of a standard commodity.
   The system of credit, and its role in society.
   The birth of the coin; conditions and limits for its usefulness.
   The requirement to guarantee a stable value for any currency, or system of credit.
   
   
   
7. The rights and obligations of the Treasury.
   The principles of the "gold standard".
   With the invention of the monetary system, a whole new field of fraud and deception opened-up.
   Abuses by citizens, as well as the overall political leadership.
   Mushrooming bureaucracies and military adventures.
   The enormous costs of a failed, as well as a successful military adventure.
   Inflation, or currency-devaluation occurred, as soon as the monetary system had been introduced.
   Inflation, the harbinger of social decay.
   The devastating effects of a loss of trust in the currency, the leadership, or both.
   An official robbery.
   The many consequences of inflation.
   An erosion of the attitudes of saving and frugal living habits.
   Cynical spending habits.
   Inflation increases the disparities between the rich and the poor.
   The propaganda of advertising.
   Credit to the masses; a desperate measure to stimulate economic growth.
   The entrapment completed.
   Why inflation stimulates debt-financing; some examples.
   
   
   
8. Borrowing money and paying interest-charges.
   A comparison with borrowing a tool from a neighbour.
   Borrowing money to generate an income; priming a pump.
   The need to shift a small part of the available cash-flow through one's enterprise or personal existence.
   The factors of competitiveness; a superior product; a lower price. The monopoly.
   A return to the imagery of energy-dissipating rivulets.
   A large rivulet becomes more dependent upon a large, continuous influx of energy.
   Money, seen as a form of energy.
   The long and heavy investment in acquiring skills.
   Money is a tool to facilitate the exchange of goods and services.
   The consequences of mechanised production processes.
   The break-through of mass-production.
   Man became a "regulator" rather than a provider of energy.
   Mechanisation removes the linkage between human labour and the level of consumption.
   Competitiveness in the world of business; comparisons with the primordial protoplasm.
   The margin of profit.
   Mechanisation, commercial gigantism, and the "monopoly".
   A dependence upon the cash-flow and employment opportunities created by large enterprises.
   
   
   
9. The large commercial interests, and their escape from social or governmental controls.
   The parasitic nature and detrimental consequences of corporate gigantism.
   The energy-rivulet, and the phenomenon of corporate gigantism.
   A corporate structure, growing fat, lazy and vulnerable.
   The logic of the search for market-controls and a monopolistic advantage, seen as an alternative to vigour and competitiveness.
   A powerless population, entrapped in poverty and dependent on a job with a corporate giant.
   Why governments became also dependent on corporate giants.
   A closely-knit world of business interests.
   Corporate power represents the most pervasive influence in contemporary, affluent societies.
   The myth of the need for economic growth.
   Stimulating "the economy" by infusing new monies into circulation; a review.
   Expanding economies, increasing mechanisation, and a rise in the gross national product.
   The demise of the gold standard.
   The effect of synchronised emotions and anxieties.
   Some aspects of the Great Depression.
   People have to be able to remain as consumers in the market-place.
   Artificially elevating the level of buying-powers.
   Increased automation and the growing anxieties of the labour force.
   The contradictory trends of automation, and the rising expectations of an increasingly under-employed public.
   The changing role of money in the phenomenon of chronic inflation.
   
   
   
10. When a currency becomes abundant.
    The politician's willingness to spend public funds.
    Inflation is here to stay, since so many people profit from it.
    A limit to the mechanisms of economic expansion.
    The injustice of small, wasteful pockets of affluence in a sea of poverty and misery.
    The inability of affluent people to sense and respond to the rising tensions of social injustice.
    Another look at "money making money".
    Borrowing "good" money, and, repaying it with money that is worth less.
    The results of decades of wasteful affluence and reckless credit-buying are finally coming home to roost.
    The irresponsible fiscal policies of many governments and their institutions.
    An unfair burden for future generations.
    A short review of what has been discussed.
    Increasing awareness and understanding may change the current trends; the influence of the "collective will".
    
    
    
11. The speech to affluence; a monologue with affluence as a silent listener.
    
    
    
12. The inter-relationships between money and inflation, and the attitudes of hope and despair.
    A beginning of more sensible attitudes.
    Lingering suspicions about a voluntary cut-back in consumption.
    Accepting, intellectually, that limits on consumption are inevitable.
    Difficulties translating an intellectual acknowledgement into a practical reality.
    The lessening of absolute sovereignty.
    Pressures upon governments to carry-out more responsible fiscal policies.
    Persistent problems for the poorer nations.
    The gradual evolution of the quality of leadership.
    Learning to see the limitations of our own societies.
    The need for widespread public ownership in future societies.
    The changing role of the corporate dinosaur.
    The large corporation may become a nucleus for improved living conditions in the lesser developed nations.
    The need to accept free-trade on a world-wide scale.
    Socialist societies, and the economic giants of free-enterprise.
    The justice of letting someone compete, who is willing to work hard.
    Towards a more equal distribution of material prosperity.
    An essential equality in the quality of human existence.
    Corporate greed and bureaucratic bungling.
    When work will be seen as a privilege, and not as a necessity.
    
    
    
13. Exhortations.
    The possibilities for social stability and a reasonable quality of life.
    The dangers of economic protectionism.
    We all support our puppet-regimes.
    The need to educate our leaders and ourselves.
    The cloak of "national interests".
    Towards a more honest statement of motivations, as well as an enlightened discussion of ethical principles.
    The reasons behind the feelings of hatred and resentment.
    A plea for honesty.
    The attitude of non-interference in each other's affairs; a hypocrisy at its worst.
    Rising levels of awareness and education.
    Towards a representative government from the people for all social environments.
    A return to monies and trade-deficits.
    Interest-rates and inflation.
    A web of international inter-dependencies.
    The need to control corporate giants, and stamp-out corruption and inefficiency in government bureaucracies.
    Money has to be restored to its original purpose.

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