Globalization is Poverty

 

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  • #36516

    Marc Riboud Zazou, painter of the EIffel Tower 1953   Central bankers have never done more damage to the world economy than in the past 10 years.
    [See the full post at: Globalization is Poverty]

    #36517
    Hotrod
    Participant

    Definition of free trade: The ability to steal labor and natural resources worldwide. Also, the ability to move capital and use as a weapon worldwide.

    I have learned to enjoy the benefits of cheap, poorly made crap.

    #36521
    seychelles
    Participant

    Zioglobalism is closeted usury on steroids. The game never changes, only the anti-Logos words. The sooner the peripheries revolt, the better.

    #36522
    Dr. Diablo
    Participant

    If critical resources are all out-of-country, be it food or shoes, then to survive, they must be imported — at least in any proposed transition period. For them to move, it requires the middlemen.

    So if you annoy the international middlemen, well, then you may not get your critical goods. This is your globalization. The opposite of which is nationalism and sovereignty.

    #36525
    Patricia
    Participant

    Yes, it is a most peculiar World we live in when the only way you can buy stuff you do not need is by borrowing the money you do not have!

    #36528
    Chris M
    Participant

    Again, for an economy to function, it must be in balance. The income of producers must be in balance with the income of consumers. Producers need consumers to provide the labor needed to bring their products to the marketplace, and for the demand to consume that product. Consumers need producers for the products they need to live, and for the wages to buy those products. It’s circular.

    Income is product X price. The product can be a physical good, a service, or labor. The important factor is price. You CANNOT cheapen your way to prosperity. If cheap is good, cheaper is better, and cheapest (free) is best. We know that’s ludicrous. The price of anything must be at parity, or in balance, with the cost to produce or the cost to consume.

    Trade is fine, especially if you can’t or don’t want to be self sufficient. But trade is not free if it is not fair. It is simply a form of tyranny. The value of my labor must be respected just as much of yours in the transaction, or the trade.

    What happens when income is not in balance? People go without, or borrow to consume. The problem with borrowing is that it throws the economy even more out of balance. Income that could be used for today’s consumption is siphoned away to pay for yesterday’s consumption, plus interest.

    #36529
    Nassim
    Participant

    ” Corbyn’s idea of a local cooperative to replace Uber is the kind of thinking it will need”

    I have developed a website that can go one better – to allow people to share lifts to and from work/school with their neighbours. That way the same roads/bridges/tunnels can carry far more people. In the cities of Australia, the average car can seat 4 passengers (plus driver) and only one out of 20 cars has any passengers during the rush hours.

    To try out my website, press the “Simulate” button. You can plan routes, waypoints and search for passengers or lifts. It runs on mobiles as well as PC’s.

    QBusters.com.au

    Uber is a crap idea as it cannibalises regular taxis – which are limited by statute and the medallions rationed and sold in an after-market. Many Uber drivers borrowed to buy cars they cannot afford and have no idea of the real costs of running the service. Additionally, Uber take something like 30% of the gross while my concept if for free.

    Uber Gets Run Over by its Own Subprime Auto Leases

    My website is based on an entirely different concept – the marginal cost of sharing a car that is going to travel the same route anyway. People can always walk 5 minutes at each end anyway. I can make it pay its way because I sell car parts online and if I know who has what, I can offer German car parts at an excellent price to them.

    #36531
    Nassim
    Participant

    A nation in decline: A ten percent increase in people seeking food relief across the nation

    Not only can Australia export vast amounts of coal and essentially bank the building of new coal-fired power stations, but it seems that we are also a large exporter of food – with masses of hungry families partly due to electricity prices that are almost 3 times as high as those of the USA.

    It is truly amazing what a bunch of idiot lawyers (Turnbull, Gillard etc.), crap scientists (Finkel) and social scientists (Hanson Young) are capable of achieving.

    #36532
    Nassim
    Participant

    Here is some of the nonsense the government-controlled ABC of Australia offers:

    Drought bites hard and drought maps questioned (22 September 2017)

    BOM says deluge across Queensland at levels not seen since Cyclone Debbie (17 October 2017)

    Please note how this classic “Queenslander” house is built on stilts and can easily handle another 2m (6ft) or water. 🙂

    #36541
    SteveB
    Participant

    Chris M,

    If you could get past the belief that it’s “ludicrous”, you might be able to see that the logical conclusion is that “cheapest” is not “free” but exchange-less. Not that anyone you were referring to sees it that way, but let’s not limit our thinking on their account. The way out can be through in that sense, though it doesn’t have to be. Instead, from here, now humans can simply choose to abandon exchange belief. To believe that that’s not true is to believe a lie. Can you overcome the lie?

    #36543
    regionswork
    Participant

    It wasn’t easier to pay bills in the 1950s and 1960s, but a ten cent raise was real money. Because the Cold War proxy wars were run on credit, not national sacrifice like WW-II and not-winning was part of the military-industial complex game, a false economy began to be built. Closing the gold window gave a boost to use of the petro-dollar as the world reserve currency. When inflation ensued and production in the U.S. began to get competition as other nations rebuilt from the WW-II ruble, credit had to expand to make up for stagnating income and industry moved away from their founding cities to get away from old technology and old labor relationships. First to the South and then overseas. Easy credit paved the way. Too bad there’s no easy repay. Turtles all the way down are remortgaged to their appreciating values, all because that is the game. An era of great emotional suffering lies ahead when the economy shrinks to what is sustainable.Ringmaster Donald entertains with an occasional truth, winking to vendors in the crowd as the fleecing proceeds.

    #36544
    Chris M
    Participant

    SteveB,

    I’m not familiar with your type of economy. If you would be able and willing to expound upon it, I’d greatly appreciate it.

    #36555
    SteveB
    Participant

    Chris M,

    It’s not an “economy”, at least not in the usual sense that we conceive of that concept. It’s life. Just like all other species. They live their lives. Humans could do similarly without this flawed belief in a concept (that doesn’t ever live up to its definition). Having large brains and other advantages only means that we would do so differently, not with the same limitations that other species have. The thought experiment: Assume that humans HAD TO live without the current belief in the concept of exchange–how would that logically proceed? Set aside preconceived notions and the horror stories about “savages”, “barbarians”, “uncivilized”, “primitive”, etc., and imagine a world that starts tomorrow with all existing technology, knowledge, skills, infrastructure, etc. but without a universally held belief. Don’t assume any other change to beliefs (like about government, private property, religion), just imagine the logical consequences of abandoning that one belief as a species/culture. Helpful hint: the good aspects of the world as it currently exists is possible tomorrow by subtracting the unnecessary layer of transactions and accounting (‘score keeping’) in the name of exchange belief, because all the transfers of surpluses *actually get done*! Meanwhile, the vast majority of the societal dysfunction would no longer be driven by profit seeking. Leverage goes away, as does accumulating (because how many houses can you live in, and how many do you really want when you probably have to maintain them yourself?). That should get you started.

    #36557
    Chris M
    Participant

    SteveB,

    I would like to live in this life you describe where everyone is charitable and gives away the excess of the fruit of their labors.

    But what do you do about greed and sloth?

    These questions are eerily similar to the ones I have after reading the article about George Bernard Shaw and universal basic income.

    #36558
    casamurphy
    Participant

    Raúl,

    Thank you for such a well written and insightful article.

    #36561
    SteveB
    Participant

    Chris M,

    Greed and sloth are nothing to do anything about in a post-exchange world. Greedy? Too bad. Slothful? You’ll get over it when you get hungry enough. That’s not to say that people would generally treat others uncaringly if they’re struggling, but no one would be unduly rewarded either. Theft would still be a crime, and people would need to ask for what they want and understand (or not, I suppose) that they might not get it. People are naturally active, creative, productive, cooperative, caring, and many other positives that get overshadowed by profit seeking behaviors and the stresses that come with them (about getting scammed, about not having enough money for an uncertain future, etc.).

    UBI would just temporarily adjust the playing field, but the game would continue, only to once again inevitably march toward inequitable distribution (the condition, not the action) of “wealth”, all the while polluting, extirpating, and despoiling as we stress, distrust, exploit, and kill each other. Starting another round of an unwinnable game must be in that definition of insanity that Einstein (or whoever) spoke about.

    Similarly, I’ve pondered every question that has been presented to me or arose in my own mind over the past six years about ‘what if?’ or ‘how?’ with regard to ending exchange belief as a global society. I’ve yet to come across one that’s not answerable. Not that most people ‘get it’. They (mostly men) mostly don’t. We’re not taught to suspend disbelief in this culture. I wonder why not?

    If you’re on FB you might check out “The Money Choice” page, which proposes ending exchange belief on October 15 of the upcoming year (or the next if it doesn’t happen this time, as it didn’t this year). The choice exists for all humans. Choosing en masse on a specified date (after adequate consideration) is perhaps the only way to go about it. Only a critical mass, not necessarily a majority is needed to get to a tipping point.

    #36589

    This article in Italian:

    La Globalizzazione è Povertà

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