Quote from darkhorse:
Hey Lobster do you really think there's a secret cabal of WORMs (white old rich men) behind all this?
If you count Jews as white, then I do, but it does not really matter what color, age, or sex our masters happen to be, does it?
Quote from darkhorse:
I only ask because plain old greed and short sightedness seems to fit the bill perfectly. We don't just have these messes foisted upon us, we deliberately create them by electing the politicians who do whatever it takes in order to get votes. Most people can't be bothered to understand basic economics, so the politicians play to that ignorance. If it means disaster, who cares- that's what the people want.
The austrian school of economics traces the root cause of boom and bust to simple human folly in the form of misguided government intervention. As a believer I would go a step further and call it sinful human nature. People are looking for a free lunch, governments promise it to them in a million different variations, and this is the end result.
If we wanted sound economic policy, we could have it. But people would have to stop wanting something for nothing and develop some common sense first. Unless they've perfected the art of mind control, I don't think we can blame this situation on a secret society. [/B]
While I don't disagree with your post, my personal "big picture" is a little different. You are 100% correct that human nature is what makes the world such a bad place, and in particular, what causes us to be (50%) slaves. But what most people call "governments" are really the same idiots as those who max out their credit cards when they first get them and spend the rest of their lives trying to keep up with their interest payments. The two differences between Joe Schmo and Senator Moron are:
1. Joe will eventually die and take his debt with him, while the country would not die were it not for its debt. Death will come to Joe anyway, and it will be a relief for him. Death will come to our (and any other "modern" country made from "sophisticated consumers") BECAUSE of our debt.
2. Joe does not really have a way to avoid paying the interest on his debts for the rest of his life, while Senator Moron gets paid a high salary and a lot more than that in bribes and eventually retires to huge benefits for which he did not have to pay a dime. The only danger to him is that the country could collapse before his term is over (or, if he plans to retire in the US, before he expects to die). That is why all the "solutions" to our public debt problem are aimed at pushing the due date just a few years into the future. This, in turn, is very similar to what the "sophisticated consumer" does: Why pay $1000 now when I could pay $0 for 18 months and then only 500 easy monthly payments of $19.95?
I believe you will pretty much agree with all I have said in this post so far. Therefore, we seem to have an understanding that human lazyness, stupidity, and greed are the underlying cause for our problems. Just like my own actions would be the reason for my death if I painted myself with blood and jumped into a pool full of hungry sharks. But that does not change the fact that there are the sharks. And in real life, there are the bankers (be they old, young, white, green, male, female, or bisexual). By bankers I don't mean the moron sitting in your local branch who chuckles when someone "jokes" about investing in gold. I mean those people who discovered centuries ago that if they could get everyone to use their bills as money and charge interest on them, they would be richer than anyone else could ever become; and that often times kings are just as short-sighted and "human" as Joe Schmo. Actually, the people who rule the world now are, of course, the descendants of those who had this knowledge and decided to abuse it and enslave us.
The distinction I make between governments and bankers might not be as clear everywhere as it is in the US. It's just when you look at our congressmen questioning Greenspan, you can't help but notice that they are just as stupid and trapped as the rest of us, but Greenspan is not. (There is at least one congressman who knows what's really going on; It is unfair of me to generalize.) When you listen to their questions, it's really sad: They don't ask "As you know, Mr Chairman, 40% of all income taxes paid in America goes directly into the pockets of a few wealthy individuals who collect interest on every dollar in circulation anywhere in the world. Couldn't we eliminate all income taxes and have the same prosperity we enjoyed throughout the 19th century, when we had absolutely zero inflation and zero income tax, by simply enforcing the US constitution and use only gold and silver instead of debt as money?" No, they ask him "Well, don't you think it's soooooooo unfair that those bad, bad [Democrats/Republicans] want to raise this tax bracket by 1.2% and lower that one by 1.7%?" This is not a shark asking this question, this is a moron lifeguard ordering everyone into the water when he sees the sharks approaching.
The way I see it, the governments are responsible for making us 50% slaves, but they have done it not out of evil intent, but mostly because of stupidity. We also have to keep in mind that the politicians are nothing but fellow slaves who get a few extra privileges and are in charge of keeping the rest of us working quietly and efficiently.
The other 50% of our slavery is caused by every individual for himself. I am 50% free. Most others are not. They prefer 20 pairs of shoes, a couple of shiny new cars (to poison the whole planet with exhaust fumes), and a meal at a restaurant every night (to poison themselves with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and sugar) to the freedom and independence they could attain by saving up their money.
The truth is always somewhere inbetween. But if you research how the (clearly unconstitutional) Federal Reserve Act was passed, you can't help but notice that there were a few people who had a very clear agenda and pushed it through against nontrivial resistance. It's not like the mess we are in "just happened" because we are all lazy and stupid. It happened because our weakness has been deliberately exploited by a few people. Kennedy didn't shoot himself. (If you don't know enough about this, just look up Executive Order 11110)
