Capital

Capital

Capitalists are the scum of the earth. They are selfish. They are greedy villains. They should be banished from all societies and replaced by upstanding empathetic socialists. Socialists will take your pieces of silver and swap them for a promise, not a promissory note, a promise. They take everyone’s pieces of silver and gold and pool them. After helping themselves to a few, they exchange what is left for food and fuel. They intend to keep all warm and well fed, especially those that are less inclined to work enthusiastically. They promise that everyone will be bestowed a home to live in. They promise food will be freely available to nourish all. They guarantee employment for everyone too. Those promises are usually kept. However, the devil is in the detail.

The socialist leaders and their families will get the prime locations. Their mantra for the rest: sufficient quantity over quality. The homes will be built to a low standard. Many homes will be ones that you share with other families. Separate bedrooms, but shared kitchen and bathrooms. Your behaviour will be strictly monitored. Those that follow the socialist commands correctly, to the letter, will get rewarded a better home, a home with a few more frills. The food will be bland and often stale. The choice paltry. The job that you will be assigned will be arduous, tedious and unrewarding.

Lucy is, to put it mildly, quite attractive. She is the first out of bed in the mornings. She is ambitious. She has more brawn and muscle than three quarters of the men. She has plans. She has spoken to people that are willing to give her a bag of silver, twenty pieces of silver, if she would erect a fence for them. The sheep are a nightmare. They wander off and fall into the creeks. They eat the food growing in the fields. They need containing to some degree. She has the willpower, the strength, the eagerness, the good looks. She has everything one could possibly need except a tool to dig the holes and a saw to cut the wood. She fluttered her eyelids at the man who forges the steel hoping that he would lend her what she needs, but alas no joy. She needs ten pieces of silver to swap for the tools.

The dependable grifter offers her a bargain. He loans her the silver in return for, no not for sexual services, but for a cut of that bag of silver that she will get when the job is complete. She agrees. She is happy. The cut is relatively small. Is this a fair bargain?

There are two ways of building a business, using capital from the start or growing organically. To grow a business organically one sells/produces/manufactures something. The profits are re-invested so that over time one sells/produces/manufactures more each month. You have more money to buy more raw materials, more stock, more tools and thereby have more to sell. To fast track the process, one can borrow money to buy more supplies and increase what you make and sell. The borrowed money enables you to increase your output and therefore your profit. From that extra profit one compensates the lender. You share in the bounty of extra production.

As people get old, they lose agility, strength and stamina. They are neither able to work as hard nor for so long as they once could. Many amass a bundle of metal pieces since joining the workforce. They can put this money to work. It can be used to sustain a humble existence until they become very frail and pass away. People like Lucy can benefit from the excess funds held by the dependable banker on behalf of the old. It is quid pro quo. It is beneficial to all. Positive capitalism: borrowing for tools, machinery or supplies. The borrower gets more back than they spent, including interest. Negative capitalism: The borrower will pay interest on top of the purchase price and not get back more than they spend. Borrow to spend rather spend what has been saved up. Borrowing to buy a new bed is negative capitalism. Unless you are a prostitute and use the bed for work, it will be used then dumped. No money will be made from it.

The dependable grifter is seen about the town drinking, getting fatter by the day from over-indulging in the finest food. This has not gone unnoticed by some that want to emulate his lifestyle. They call themselves the union of socialist workers group. They are a group. They conspire in union. They have written a manifesto outlining socialist principles. Their work is not so much back breaking but time consuming. They will live comfortably by exchanging the silver pieces given to them by those joining their union. They demand a membership fee to be paid not once, but periodically. Namely, when the silver has all melted away. In return for that membership fee, true workers will get bargaining power with those that employ them.

No system of society is perfect. No system is fair for all. Some systems will suit some a lot more than others. The collective system: What if the tool fabricator made tools as required, to be used by those that need them. What if the shepherd looked after the sheep. What if the farmer, miller and baker made enough bread for all. What if we all worked together in lovely harmony. Collectively, joyously. If we did, we would have no need for the dependable grifter and his promissory notes.

At the start of this book, I made one thing very clear. We are all selfish. We must be selfish. We can be co-considerationally selfish at times. We will always be more productive, more ingenuous, more creative, more hopeful if what we do is mainly for us and our close family.

Farmers have been set quotas. They meet the quotas. Everyone is happy. Year after year with little change. Until. Farmers have been offered an alternative arrangement; meet the quota and everything else that you produce is for you to keep. They met the quota and handed it in to the central government and produced extra for themselves. Did they produce ten percent more you may ask? Did they produce double. They produced five times as much. Astonishingly so. Five times as much. One could argue. One could debate for eternity for reasons why this occurs. We could meddle and mess and fiddle and discuss. The truth remains. We are selfish creatures. And that is not a bad thing as such. The selfishness leads to development of new technologies. It leads to new discoveries. It leads to much greater innovation. It leads to extra consumption and chaos at times, but it leads to more having a more gratifying life.

Some systems will suit you personally. You have preferences hardwired into the fibre of your being which may be conducive with the system you are bound up in. Your preferences might however be ill-disposed towards the economic political system in your region. The least worst system is what we can strive towards. The least worst system is the best, best for the most number of people. Extreme ideologies lie at the bottom of the chasm, far below the least worst. Some want maximum economic efficiency. They believe disabled people, certain ethnic groups, the workshy and roaming folk have little utility. Those with little utility are unwanted, undesirable and best got rid of. Equally extreme are those that support community-based doctrines. They selectively choose who to help. They want people to conform. They do not like wealth passed down the generations. They do not want some people earning significantly more than others. They do not believe in personal freedoms. They most certainly do not have a live and let live attitude. They interfere with your affairs, intrusively. These sets of people sit side by side at the bottom of the chasm with those that seek to rid the nation of less desirable people. Socialism. Community focused doctrines. Ideologies that put utility first and foremost. All of these are good for a small number of people but not at all good for the rest.

There will always be groups that push for change. They want change that suits them. They want to enforce that change on those that are largely happy with the way things are. They demand change in a rude, obnoxious way. They have little evidence that can show that any of the changes they want to make will improve things for most. Their ideas are based on obscure beliefs. Inconsiderate selfishness. They do not consider what other people prefer. Their demand for change is done with menaces. The fungal evil that has gradually eked within, amongst us.

The best systems have the least corruption, the most freedom, the most opportunity. A balance is stuck between helping others though sharing the spoils of our individual labour and enabling the individual to shine. It is a difficult balance to achieve, lots will always complain. Many will be pleased to see the level of tax rise, so long as those tax increases are only placed on those richer than they are.

Wealth is relative. If a taxi driver who used to charge three pieces of silver for a typical trip came into a fortune and had tens of thousands of pieces of silver stored in the bank, I doubt they would continue to charge the same amount. If they, like everyone, else was equally rich, they would raise the fares to thirty pieces of silver to make it worthwhile. If we all had lots of money, then we would want more for our services. Although some might continue to drive for the fun of it, most would either sit back and relax or explore other non-money-making adventures. Wealth only counts if you have more than other and can therefore afford to offload all the menial jobs to those willing to be paid comparatively small sums.