Keith wrote: > Let's forget about the "greed" of bankers or hedge funders in the present > financial fiasco.
Of course the perps wish that we forget about the cause of the crisis, but why should we do them that favor, to let them off the hook? (In this context, Arthur's note about the Glass-Steagall Act is very important and insightful -- it basically shows that the 2008 "repeat" of the 1929 crash was planned and manufactured, not an "accident".) > They are just as greedy as the rest of us. Given the same > opportunities, almost any other group of people would act exactly the same > as they have done and will continue to do. Even if that was true (it may be true in imperialist Britain, but not in civilized parts of continental Europe), it still wouldn't absolve the perps, because they have the power to do it, UNlike "the rest of us". When it comes to prosecute a murderer, it doesn't matter at all whether Keith sometimes dreams of killing a neighbor (just making this up as an example) -- only the actually perpetrated acts count. > Bankers are just as greedy as > the early industrialists of the early 19th century. You cannot absolve one crime by citing another (by someone else). What matters in this debate is that it was Predators every time. > Choosing the greed which must take first place as the main cause of our > present misery, today's bankers are just as greedy as the politicians of > Western Europe were more than a century ago -- British, German, Belgian, > French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian -- who saw opportunities for > rich pickings in much of Asia, Africa and South America. These politicians were Predators too -- but with this example, you cannot make the case either that EVERYONE is a Predator. But you may have a point that this attitude is still very common in Britain, which still has a monarch as head of state (and a medieval caste system) and is still waging imperialist wars today, not content with already having an empire where the sun never sets. But this is an argument for introducing progress even in that backwards country -- NOT for the claim that everyone in the world is a Predator. > (Not North > America, however. The Brits had already received a bloody nose there But the _British_ Petrol oilspill is going on in North American waters... Your head of state is a billionaire and major shareholder of BP, but the poor gal couldn't even afford a safety valve! Now it's the environment and innocent sealife that receives a bloody nose there. > Despite the fantastic prosperity of the industrial revolution and the > increasing ease of raising lumps of taxation from year to year, the cost of > military weaponry raced forward at an even faster rate. So European > governments had to go into debt. Yes, the Predators destroy and invert the progress made by Producers. Producers can develop all kinds of safety valves -- it's no use because greedy Predators won't install them, just to reap even more money. Producers can produce and develop as much as they want -- it's no use because greedy Predators will steal billions, driving whole economies into bankrupcy, and implementing their self-fulfilling prophecies of doom, to get rid of the masses. > But then they discovered that it was > becoming difficult to pay those debts out of taxation, so they hit on > another dodge. They had very deferential, manipulable electorates (after > all, they had been willing to die in their millions on jingoistic pretexts) > so it was a relatively easy matter to pretend that printing more and more > bank-notes (nowadays called Quantitative Easing) was doing no harm even > though they no longer had any underlying value. How can you accuse the masses of falling for Predator PR when you are falling for it yourself? But still, falling for Predator PR doesn't make one a Predator. > Politicians even conned many economists (from the time of Keynes onwards). ... or vice-versa. > So that's where we are. We -- starting with the European Monetary Union -- > are now on the verge of chaos and also with every single advanced > government in debt. Japan is leading the way with a debt that's twice its > total annual economy. There's not a hope of Japan's debt or any of the rest > ever being paid off without a massive bouts of hyperinflation to follow at > some stage. > > It's about time economists started teaching themselves some basic history > and, then, maybe, telling politicians that it's time to start all over > again with sensible currencies that always existed until imperialistic > greed took over a century ago. Soros&Co.'s personal greed has little to do with imperialism, except that they are taking advantage of imperialism (such as the EU neo-imperialism that insisted that Greece be part of the Euro zone, although Greece didn't meet the economic criteria from the start.) But that still doesn't absolve their acts. Btw, as for the "greedy EU": Did you know that your billionaire head of state is reaping millions of EU subsidies every year? Nothing of what you wrote makes your case that we all are Predators. We aren't. Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
