To: Christoph Reuss, Deputy, Swiss Ministry of Foreign Relations and friends
on several mail lists.
Hi Chris,
I was delighted to receive your late reply. It allowed me to put the new
post I was struggling to complete on hold, and continue our "Who Cares?"
inquiry into why the Swiss example is not being copied around the world.
Indeed, it is not even being discussed around the world. All the Internet
discussion is about a Basic Income, the Tobin Tax, Local Currency Systems,
and Anti-WTO demonstrations. None of which will have the slightest effect on
the on going process of globalization, because these initiatives do not reach
to the root cause of the hateful consequences which result from the
globalizing process. For the enlightenment of the innocents and the DDotSQ
on several mail lists, your entire reply follows, with my observations below
it.
>>>>>>>>>>>> Begin Chris' late reply <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Subj: Re: yours of 11/15/1999 (private note), Re: Who Cares?-4
Date: 11/26/1999 10:13:16 PM EST
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Christoph Reuss)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Hi Wes,
Sorry for my late reply...
On Mon, 15 Nov 1999, you wrote (in a private note):
> My historical data on GNP per capita puts the US at 170% of Swiss in 1949,
but
> only at 70% of Swiss GNP per capita in 1994 and probably lower today. Are
the Swiss
> holding out on the rest of the world to preserve some competitive advantage?
Well, I tried to "unveil the secrets" in my posting of 30-Oct-99 (repeated
below) from a non-economist's view. I thought these things were pretty
obvious and no news to anyone who has spent some time on the subject (e.g.
the economists on your lists). As you see, there are few "intrinsic"
factors (country size and geographical position) and many "adoptable"
factors which could be adopted by other countries if only their ruling
classes would want to do it. This seems to be the main problem...
And it seems that their "solution" is to make the Swiss system disappear
so their own citizens can't refer to that "shining example" anymore.
The WTO surely helps to make it disappear...
Kind regards,
Chris
________ Begin repeated excerpt (from Who Cares?-3, 99-11-01) _________
First let me give you those "hard to get" ;) data: As of September 1999,
the official unemployment rate in Switzerland is 2.7% (down to 0.3% in some
cantons), and the inflation rate is about 1% IIRC.
How is this achieved ? (a) Jobs are where the money is, and
(b) low inflation is where stability is.
(a)
The money mainly comes from industry (strong exports), banking and tourism.
Industrial export is facilitated by high-quality products and a good
educational system, banking is facilitated by stability, and tourism is
facilitated by a nice landscape with quality infrastructures and a secure
social environment.
(b)
The stability comes from a unique political system of consensus (broad
coalition gov't), federalism, direct democracy, armed neutrality /
nonalignment, and minority rights.
>(WSB)
> Should we not conclude that the establishments in the US
> (Labor Department), the UK, and Switzerland find their Common Cause in
> keeping the public everywhere either indifferent to, or oblivious of, the
> role of the market mechanism in determining the performance of nations as
> plotted on Figure !? Why should this be? What advantage is there to any
> faction of any society to run their economies at 2 to 3% inflation and 4 to
> 10% unemployment with ever growing deficits and debt service, when there are
> nations operating at 0% inflation and 1% unemployment to serve as examples?
Point (a)-1 (exports) is harder to achieve for a large country like the US
simply because it would take several planets to buy the same per-capita
amount of export goods. Also, the public school system seems to be a problem
in US and UK Also for point (a)-2 (banking), the size of the pie is
too small for the same per-capita banking, and the internal stability is
lower. For point (a)-3 (tourism), the landscape would be fine but the
secure social environment seems to be a bit of a problem in a country
where some tourists can't even get from the airport to the hotel before
being shot (OK, OK, a rare case, but you get the idea..).
Point (b), the political system, should be easier to copy, even for large
entities like US or EU, and would definitely be desirable for the vast
majority of citizens in these entities, but alas, their oppressive and
antidemocratic ruling class does not like the Swiss model.
_________ End repeated excerpt (from Who Cares?-3, 99-11-01) __________
>>>>>>>>>>>> End Chris' late reply <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Please forgive me, Chris, if I gave you a demotion by the title of Deputy,
above. All I know about you and my Devil's Advocate, Mark Measday, UK
subject, is that both of you have a better liberal education than I have and
have thoughtfully replied to my posts. You did not copy list Futurework on
your recent posts, and I wonder why? Such copies might have encouraged
frequent posters Tim Rourke, Pete Vincent, Thomas Lunde, Brad McCormick, Ed
Weick, Ian Ritchie, D. P. Wilson, J. Matthieu, Viggo Andersen, Steve Kurtz,
John Courtneidge, and others to declare where they stand on this inquiry into
why the Swiss example is not being copied around the world.
As long as this subject is kept in the realm of philosophy, and debated in
millions of words, there will be no resolution of the global problematic
because skillful defenders of the status quo will work both side of every
question to keep the public functionally illiterate about the Law which
enables
cooperation, conservation, and justice (as enjoyed in Switzerland) in two
ways.
First, by withholding from the free market a vital 30% of human affairs to be
funded from the public revenue and administered according to the Law.
Second, by decentralizing the other 70% of human affairs to be regulated
by the competitive action of two free markets, a local free market for labor
and a global free market for goods and services, as illustrated by the macro
model, Figures 1 through 6, of the ten figured global model at URL
<http://www.freespeech.org/darves/bert.html>. Other URLs showing parts
of the model are: <http://plaza.powersurfr.com/Usalama/economics.html>
and <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/3142/IR/items/19990119
WesBurtSustainableFuture.html>.
At the first and third web site, Figures 7-9 constitute a one page micro
model
of any population of productive capital or human assets, showing the life
cycle
of each capital or human asset (Figure 7), the total cost of the output of
each
capital or human asset (Figure 8), and the unit cost of the output of each
capital or human asset in the population (Figure 9). It is Figure 9 which
most vividly illustrates why American public policy, as visited on the former
Colonies of Spain since the 1890s, kept those nations from rising out of the
third world, even after attaining their independence.
Figure 10 shows the consumer price index (CPI) of the United States and
the major milestones which marked the Great Transformation of the US from
the nearly perfect agrarian society described by Bastiat in THE LAW, 1850,
to the "The Great Satan" of 1999 with its hundred year old public policy of
2-3%/year inflation and 4-10% unemployment.
Chris, your sincere efforts in recent posts to "unveil the secrets" from a
non-economist's view are certainly necessary, but they are not sufficient.
The
attributes you ascribe to the Swiss society are on the wish list of people
everywhere in the world. Those attributes might as well be on the far side
of the moon, as in Switzerland, they are so far removed from the reach of
the great majority of people, because our prophets, poets, and philosophers
will not condescend to apply basic graphical methods of analysis to the
problem of selecting The Optimum Policy (TOP) for sustained human
development, at every stage of development.
England, Northern Ireland, Sweden, Russia, Israel, and many other nations
have "Welfare Systems," so It is not sufficient for you to write in your
99/11/13 note:
>> BTW, Switzerland doesn't have a BI system -- it has a welfare system. <<
For the rest of the world to converge, eventually, on the Swiss condition,
the masters of those nations must be able to see their advantage in copying
the Swiss total tax rate, the Swiss ratio of direct to indirect taxes, the
Swiss
fraction of GNP devoted to universal public education, and the Swiss fraction
of GNP used to subsidize parenting households and put them on a competitive
footing with Gay, Lesbian and Celibate households. Nothing less than a
technically valid global model will suffice to convey that vision to the
masters
and persuade them of their advantage in putting their people on that
converging path. If anyone has a better global model than mine for this
task,
I would be happy to adopt it as my own.
In slave societies, the cost of raising or acquiring an additional slave was
at the expense of the masters. Can modern (Capitalist) society charge that
cost of acquisition to the slave or his parents? And then call the slaves
freemen?
Looking forward to receiving more of that "hard to get" Swiss data. I remain,
Sincerely yours,
Wesburt
