It is an interesting thing to find out how much
capital for the current world is based upon former deals with Nazis, or being
the Drug Lords that conquered China and made addicts of millions to open the
market for tea. So the Iraqi oil is the future capital for the
work in the 21st century. Of course we don't like the current
drug Lords very much and so have to kill and make destitute with Chemical
warfare the peoples living in the Rain Forest. If the 1491
article that I posted on the list earlier from the Atlantic Magazine is true
then we are destroying the last great Garden of the pre-Columbian builders
because we can't control our own addictions. Baghdad is
next. That Judeo-Christian Ideal is amazing. Makes you
understand burning the Alexandrian Library.
Today I'm watching the current dance around tax
structures and Dividends, which we didn't discuss when I posted the Cramer
article earlier, but George Bush listened to and proposed
yesterday. And furthermore, reading the NYTimes article
this morning, how the States are going to be ravaged even further by
the Dividend deal because it will stop their taxes on Dividends tied to the
Federal Government and the rise in purchasing tax exempt dividends will make
Municipal Bonds raise their rates to compete which makes less money
for State programs. All for Capitalism.
And for the people who "pay most of the Taxes."
Actually since most of that money is earned and
taxed already those complainants could avoid taxes all together if they
would just say no to investing. In that case the only taxes
they would pay would be the same as anyone else and less than the workers who
are still paying income tax. They would only be
consumers. If you only have wealth but no "Income" then you
have only sales and property taxes.
The same sort of deal that they have with the
French where the Socialists have maintained a lovely retreat for the super
wealthy with a terrific job market in culture and fine things (compared to the
US) and a good standard of living for the average Frenchman making them
comfortable around the super rich and not like the immigrant servants here who
wash their dirty linen.
Its interesting how the propaganda here says that
Socialism is the old Communist tyranny that had to create the perfect human to
exist while France knows better and speaks of Liberty, Equality and the
Fraternal order of all French people. Even the English run to
the South of France once they get money. Who wouldn't rather
live there even though their "Tongues hath become their
enemies."
From the CIA Factbook:
The Socialist-led government.... remains committed to a capitalism in which they maintain social equity by means of laws, tax policies, and social spending that reduce income disparity and the impact of free markets on public health and welfare.
The Socialist-led government.... remains committed to a capitalism in which they maintain social equity by means of laws, tax policies, and social spending that reduce income disparity and the impact of free markets on public health and welfare.
What other Socialist countries are there that
succeed over what is happening here as far as attracting the Super
Wealthy? Here in the US no one wants to immigrate to Oklahoma
or South Dakota and Wyoming has so few people that they have more Senators than
Congressmen. Yes I know, but Houston is only
for the "on the way" with the exception of the fundamentalists wealthy who love
rattlesnakes. By and large the Super wealthy here prefer
the Northeast, Florida, and Palm Springs in California. None
of these places, with the exception of Florida, are bastions of classical or
even neo Classical Liberal thought.
New York offers a very Social Liberal welfare
stance when compared to the rest of the country. We could make the
same claim to the Republicans as they "make on" about how America is doing
things right because people want to come here, or at least poor
people. However, most of those Immigrants and plain old
Americans who want a sensible, liberal, culturally rich environment come here as
well as the poor folks who want a social safety net while they are doing service
jobs. A large number of immigrants from the old Iron Curtain
Countries come to NYCity because it alone gives the kind of cultural environment
and educational system that comes close to the quality of what they knew to be
Russian. Then there are those who go to California for the warm
weather which must seem like heaven, but they don't brag about the culture or
the schools.
As for the social safety net found here, it could
be argued that a penny spent for a government program will save a dime or
even a dollar when individual companies have to do such things. How
much lost productivity is there when people will not do tricky or dangerous work
because there is no disability or health societal safety net.
I remember a relative in Ohio saying that he couldn't get
minimum wage folks to do any of the difficult tasks like climbing on top of a
rickety pile of drain pipes to take inventory. The management
had to do it. I replied when he called that "Lazy" that
he was the one who had the health care and not the minimum wage
folks. That they would have been irresponsible to their families to
endanger themselves and not be able to report to work with no disability and no
health care. The relative said "You have a point, I hadn't
thought of that." To which point I replied "Why in hell
not?" The judgment came easy but it showed a lack of
care and knowledge of the people they hired and what the limits of their
usefulness could practically be considered.
So why do the Super Wealthy abandon their classical
and neo-classical Ideals when faced with not spending the "season" in
Paris? One would think that the Socialist Civil Service
mentality would make them queasy and uncomfortable?
How much would Cuba resemble other successful Socialist countries and compete
with the poverty in Jamaica or other Caribbean Islands many of whom are now rife
with Shistomiasis along with their poverty? Take away the
embargo and let the market of ideas decide. Remember that it
was the World Bank that said that Cuba had better literacy and health care per
capita than the US not so long ago. Take away the embargo and
let Cuban "Socialism" compete with the rest of the systems of the
world. Cuba could very well leave Communism and evolve to another
type of Socialism.
Sounds like just the type of place where the Super
Wealthy would want to live. But why?
Because they are so abused by having to do their share relative to what
they take out here.
REH
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 8:59
AM
Subject: RE: [Futurework] My second
hypothesis
> all the industialized economies are addicted to oil and in so many ways we
> have created oil dependent consumer needs as well (witness, SUVs). It
> seems hypocritical for all the Pogos (we have seen the enemy and it is us)
> in the world to consume oil on the one hand and then complain about invading
> another country in order to maintain the oil supplies.
>
> May be able to maintain an air of righteous indignation, but that won't go
> far when oil prices spike and the economy tanks. What might be bothering
> people is that the move in Iraq, if oil really is the key, reveals just what
> our economies are all about. And this is making people feel uncomfortable.
>
> Faustian bargains and all that.
>
> arthur
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Keith Hudson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 6:47 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [Futurework] My second hypothesis
>
>
> My first hypothesis of three or four months ago regarding US policy on Iraq
> was that it was designed to exert pressure on the whole region but mainly
> on Saudi Arabia in order for the royal family to curtail the power of the
> Wahhabi mullahs, so preventing an insurrection and take-over by Islamic
> fundamentalists which might put oil and gas supplies to America in danger.
> And pressure has certainly been applied over the past two or three months.
>
> For example, only last month it was alleged that the new Saudi Arabian
> ambassador to Britain helped to fund the Taliban regime in Afghanistan
> while it was sheltering Osama bin Laden. Also, it has been alleged that the
> wife of the Saudi Arabian ambassor to the US was also deeply involved in
> funding charities linked to the Al Qaeda. The American government has not
> gone out of its way in refuting these allegations. Indeed, the pressure
> has been so considerable that the policy advisor to the Crown Prince (the
> current ruler in the absence of King Fahd due to ill-health) has denounced
> the criticisms as maligning his country.
>
> This is not the sort of response that the Americans would welcome from
> their largest oil supplier. Because they didn't control it, my first
> hypothesis must fail. The Americans might well be worried by Islamic
> fundamentalism in Saudi Arabia, and indeed in the all the oil-rich Emirates
> surrounding the peninsula, but they don't intend upsetting the apple-cart
> out there.
>
> A second hypothesis has been occurring to me lately. This is that the
> Americans (and Bush's gang behind the scenes) were becoming upset about the
> oil development contracts that Saddam Hussein was making with Russian and
> French corporations. These were large contracts and America might have been
> afraid that further contracts would tie up a great deal more Iraqi oil for
> decades to come. While America might have preferential prices from Saudi
> Arabia, it would feel much less secure if US oil corporations were totally
> excluded from Iraqi oil (the second largest oil reserves in the world after
> Saudi Arabia).
>
> My second hypothesis was born when I learned that, about a month ago,
> Saddam had reneged on his contracts with the Russian and French
> corporations. And yet, there was no outcry from any of their politicians!
> On the face of it this was amazing. Indeed, what has happened since is that
> both the Russians and the French have become less critical in public about
> the American threats to Iraq.
>
> The inference might well be therefore that the Americans have been secretly
> negotiating with Saddam all the time. At the same time as they are issuing
> threats in public, they are negotiating in private. (And also, at the same
> time the American negotiators have been reassuring the Russians and the
> French that all is not lost, and that something will be restored to them
> when the main negotiations are over.)
>
> So the question is: Who or what is the American negotiating team? It cannot
> be an official State Department team, or else the news would have leaked
> out by now. It must be an ultra-secret team consisting of the big American
> oil companies -- together with (in my view) a few hand-picked members
> chosen by Bush Senior and Cheney who can force themselves onto such a team
> because Bush Junior has war-making powers -- that is, he is able to issue
> threats to Saddam for, seemingly, patriotic reasons. (It must also be
> remembered that Enron might have been involved in the very early days of
> this policy -- say two years ago -- because it is known that they were
> having secret discussions with Cheney, which he refuses to release. And
> he's got away with it! At that time Kenneth Lay publicly expressed his
> ambitions for Enron to become the largest energy company in the world --
> they would certainly have wanted a piece of the action in Iraq if this were
> possible.
>
> So, my second hypothesis is that Bush Junior is now screwing up the tension
> as high as possible while Cheney's private team is negotiating with Saddam.
> Maybe an item of news in today's FT might give a clue here. Yesterday
> Saddam replaced Amer Mohammad Rasheed, his close confidant and Iraq's
> long-time oil minister. it is said that it was because Rasheed was too
> close to Iraq's secret weapons programme. But it may be that Saddam can't
> trust Rasheed any longer as the negotiations reach very sensitive points.
> Maybe Saddam is on the point of agreeing to bind the largest part of Iraqi
> oil interests to American corporations (and Cheney's team! -- but giving
> back the previous smaller contracts to the Russian and French corporations)
> and, maybe, with the usual paranoia of dictators, he couldn't trust Rasheed
> to see this through secretly.
>
> "Saddam Hussein is now consolidating his power and putting those around him
> who can be fully trusted to carry out his orders," says Muhammad-Ali, an
> Iraqi energy analyst at the Lonbdon-based Centre for Global Energy Studies.
>
> Also, what was very interesting yesterday is that the UK Foreign Secretary,
> in an important speech to UK Ambassadors recalled home for a get-together,
> volunteered that oil strategy is one of the most important planks in UK
> foreign policy. In other words, he was speaking coded language for: "You
> may have thought that Blair was off his rocker, but believe me he has
> Britain's true (oil) interests at heart." In other words, the ambassadors
> can get back to their embassies abroad having been persuaded that there
> *is* something sensible behind Bush's otherwise inexplicable Iraqi policy.
>
> Maybe, despite all the troops and aircraft carriers and goodness knows what
> else that are going to Iraq at this moment, we are now close to the
> end-game. The whole issue could just simmer down very quickly. (If the
> American negotiators have included someone from British Petroleum, then
> this would account for the poodle support of Blair.)
>
> Keith Hudson
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------------
>
> Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com
> 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England
> Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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