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I recently had a conversation about the Money & Profit Addicts with a friend, an Oxford-trained economist who is in the process of writing a book about the present state of affairs in the financial world.   His book, titled: "The Horse-Drawn Corvette" is about how to adapt the economy to the world's changing conditions and circumstances.  

The title symbolizes the present economic conditions -- A beautiful, powerful, highly-useful automobile has the engine turned off and is being pulled along by a horse and buggy mentality.    

We highly recommend you read this book.   We'll announce its availability here as soon as it's available.   In the mean time,  I'll share with you my interpretation of of the content of our conversation.

The Huge Technology and Efficiency Jump: 

With the arrival of the computer and several other technological innovations, there has been a phenomenal increase in the ability of the nation to produce tangible goods.   We can now produce the same amount of good (goods with a much higher quality) and do so with about half the labor.  

These changes have significantly widened the gap between labor and management, and as technology continues to advance, the gap is getting wider.   The Super-wealthy see this as a way to increase profits.   The workers see this as a threat to their livelihood and a threat to their families.  Is there a way reverse this trend?   Yes, and there's a way to completely eliminate the gap.   We'll share that solution with you in a moment, but first, lets continue to set the context and find out where we are at the moment.     

With the advent of super-computers, the ability and ease of planning and coordination has also jumped dramatically.   This gives us the ability to remove much of the present risk of blindly producing products and then attempting to sell what has been produced.   We now have the ability to do short term production on demand which significantly reduces the need for  the huge warehouses and the need for very expensive middlemen.  

The God In The Sky Mentality:                God In the Sky Mentality...

The ultra-conservative, right-wing mentality of The Powers That Be is being publically expressed through the Republican Party.   The party leaders are dead set against anything that will help the people.  

Have you noticed that education, health care, and other social services are the prime targets for extinction by the Republican Party?  Why?   Because they believe that to help someone is to destroy their ability to help themselves.  

According to the accepted ultra-conservative beliefs, helping someone will give the person helped some leisure time, and leisure time will destroy the compulsive, ultra-conservative, work ethic.   And this relief from misery and suffering will surly cause debauchery and result in the people to burning in hell forever.   

This antiquated, Ultra-Conservative, Religion-Inspired Thinking says that without the strict authority of father-figure leader demanding obedience, without sever discipline, and without pain and suffering, the people will become lazy and drift hopelessly into, idleness, indolence, and sloth.   And, according to ultra-conservative way of thinking, sloth is one of The Seven Deadly Sins which leads a person into the hands of the devil and to an eternity burning in hell.   Their beliefs are based upon several unprovable assumptions -- assumptions such a Earth is a one-time-only, proving ground to see if you are good enough to get into Christian heaven.    

The bottom line belief of those promoting this mind-set is that misery and suffering are good  (as long as someone else is doing the suffering and the living in misery.)  

Ego-Atheists  --  Sociopaths:                God In the Sky Mentality...

You might also note that the above-described mental mind set is not the only belief system that runs the present social and business structures.   Ego-atheists, technically known a sociopaths are also major promoters of the ultra-conservative beliefs.   These men are modern versions of snake oil salesmen.   They use religion and/or anything else availble to con the gullible and further their own personal interests.   

If you take the time to look, you'll find them hidden among the legitimate corporate executives.  You can find them by watching what they promote and produce and by noticing the company they keep.  Here's just one example:   

Jeffrey Skilling, former Enron CEO is a classic example of a corporate executive that was a completely out of control con artist.   He was also addicted to Money & Profits at any price.   He was addicted to High-stakes gambling, and he was addicted to the trill of physical risk taking.   See the notes on  the Enron Scandal.   

The Warlord Mentality:   

This belief system dates back at least to the days of Machiavelli and his famous book, "The Prince."   This mentality says that war is good for the leaders because it keeps the people in fear which makes them much easier to control.   In our present-day society, war is also good for The Powers That Be because it makes huge amounts of money for the super-wealthy.  

The war lord business leaders can take in huge profits without having the problem of what to do with the products.   They simply destroy whatever they produce and then make even more money replacing the destroyed products which they, in turn destroy, causing them to make even more money replacing the destroyed replacements.   And the cycle goes on until everything is destroyed, including the environment and weapons makers, themselves.  

Outsourcing of American Jobs: 

The Powers That Be are outsourcing American jobs to foreign countries --  countries where there are no labor protection laws and where desperate people will work under deplorable condition for very little money.    

What to Do with the Excess Labor: 

Those in control (The Powers that Be) have both the The God-in-the-Sky mentality and  The Warlord mentality.   This leaves them with a huge problem and only a partial solution.  

The Technology and Efficiency Jump has left them with a need for only about half the previously-required work force.   Not only that, both their anti-birth-control campaign and their forced motherhood (anti-abortion) campaign have significantly contributed to the rapid jump in the human population.   What do they do with the excess labor pool?  

They can't use the most appropriate and fairest solutions because that would lead the people away form poverty, suffering, grief, and misery and surely lead them to an eternity in hell.   (We'll get to that solution in a moment.)  

The Military:   The first place to put the excess labor is in the military.   This is a huge benefit to the those with the warlord mentality.   They get free labor (the taxpayers pay the bills) and they get the workers needed to destroy the products produced.   This has led to a gargantuan increase in the military-industrial complex.  

An Enemy -- An essential Ingredient:   Without an enemy, there is no need for a huge military, so men with the warlord mentality have created dozens of enemies -- all in the name of maintaining control and feeding their addiction to making a profit.  

The war in Viet Nam is classic example.   Even some of its staunchest supporters have later admitted the Viet Nam war was a mistake.  

You may also remember that in the 1991 Gulf war, The Powers That Be left Saddam Hussein is control of Iraq.   That gem of insanity has cost millions of lives, trillions of dollars, and set the scene for a holy war with Islamic extremists  --  a war in which there is no end in sight.  

You also might note that an enemy doesn't need to be tyrants in another country.   An enemy can be anything on which one decides to declare war.   The goal is to create an enemy and then make money fighting the enemy.   Marijuana was declared an enemy in 1972, and a huge multibillion dollar war has gone on for 38 years.  The forced motherhood war (anti-abortion) is another example of a war that has produced billions of dollars for its promoters.  

Police and Prisons:   The second mop-up strategy is to create a huge police-prison-parole industry.   With only five percent of the worlds population, the United States presently has twenty-five percent of the world's prison population.   In 1972, the date former President, Richard (I'm not a crook) Nixon railroaded anti-marijuana laws  (and anti-other substance prohibition laws) through congress, the prison population was 300,000.   Today the American prison population is 2,500,000.  That's an increase of over 800%.  

You might also note that U.S. prisons no longer belong to the government.   They are now owned and run by private corporations, so not only are the taxpayer paying for warehousing prisoners, they are also paying huge profits to the private corporations that own and run the prisons. 

When you add to that the courts, the lawyers, those in or running the parole system, the huge need for police, and the large labor force required to repair the damage produce by the crime that's a significant source of more money, and a big dent in the excess labor pool.  

Keep Crime in Place:   In order to support such a huge police and prison industry, crime is an essential ingredient.   Even in the face of absolutely no credible evidence to support continuing marijuana prohibition and in the face of  massive evidence as to why it should end, there is still an extensive propaganda campaign against legalizing marijuana.   Why?   Because seventy percent of all crime is drug related and over half of that is marijuana related.   When marijuana becomes legal, this will dramatically alter the entire economy.    

The Red Tape Nightmare:   The third disposal process is to put people on the government's payroll.   Government bureaucracies have grown like weeds with both a significant reduction in efficiency and a reduction in the services provided.   (This is still another example of the mentality that says: "Let the taxpayers pay the bills.")  

Welfare:   The fourth major disposal of excess labor is welfare, which simply gives people survival money as long as they stay in the ghettos and/or in other situations where they are financial prisoners.   This also provides the labor necessary to peddle the mind-deadening drugs that prevent people form realizing what's really going on.  

What to Do with the Increase in Profits? 

As you must have guessed by now, the combined effect of all the above listed factors has resulted in significant increases in profits.   Another source of the dramatic rise of profits is the strategy of outsourcing American jobs to foreign countries.  

This raises the question: "What are the super-wealthy doing with all that new money?"   Real wages (wages adjusted for inflation) have remained steady to decades.   Intentionally produced inflation has caused the prices consumers pay for goods and services to rise dramatically, further milking money form the public, so where has all the money gone?   Because the money and profit addicts are in control, you already have the answer.   Into the vaults of the super-wealthy!  

Now that we know what isn't working and why it isn't working, let's ask, "Are there any alternatives?"   We're too old for the military,  too smart to peddle drug, not desperate enough to sell our daughter into the sex-slave trade, too ethical to become politicians, so what's left?  

What about caring, sharing, mutual support, cooperation, coordination, and a little common sense?  The Powers That Be are not going to provide us with any of that.   If they aren't, then who is and how do we translate these values into tangible, doable, measurable activities?   

Sharing, Planning, and Cooperation: 

Now that we see  the context and the present circumstances, how do we find the fairest, most efficient, most useful, most productive, and most environmentally friendly solution to the excess-labor problem.   Here's an all-but-blatantly-obvious answer:  

Instead of trashing workers, stealing their homes by foreclosure, or killing them by withdrawing health care, suppose in most places of employment, we divided the labor.  Suppose we had two workers each working only twenty hours per week instead of only one worker working forty hours and the others in financial desperations, struggling to survive.   This incredible simply change would double the number of people with jobs.  

Suppose all that new revenue from increased efficiency and productivity were directed to the workers instead of into the vaults of the super-wealthy.   People could earn in twenty hours the same amount of money that those still working now earn if forty hours.   The people would have time to spend with their families, they would have time for vacations and other Pleasurable Activities.    With leisure time some people will begin to educate themselves and that could lead to an opening into the world of new possibilities.  

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For a description of the real, long-term, permanent solution to our financial problems, please go to:   
http://www.TrueCorporateDemocracy.com/mpa-corp-dem-2-dem-takes-over.html#gr

This mentality is a holdover form from the master mind behind Christian theology,  Saint (anti-sexual) Augustine.   This self-righteous, reformed sinner's belief became the basis of present-day Christian theology.   Augustine's prime message was "The more you suffer the closer you are to God."   As you probably know, the puritan /Christian mentality say that: 

1)   God is a superhuman being who lives in the sky. 

2)   You and I and everyone else were created by god at conception by way of God's Instantaneous, Supernatural, Transcendental Conception Magic Act.  

3)   We each have only one life on Earth. 

4)   Life is a test to determine if you worthy of God's love.  

5)   Every human must prove him/her self worthy of getting into heaven by following God's rules - rules dictated by the church leaders.   Those who fail the test burn forever in hell.  

Those who fail to take the test (even if they did not know that the test exists) also burn in hell forever.   Why?  Because God created them inherently evil and they didn't get saved by an already-saved Christian.  This is why the Christians are such adamant invaders of the minds of those who follow other religious traditions.   They (the Christians) believe that they are saving souls for God.

6)   Sex is evil unless its used exclusively for making babies.   Any other kind of sex is lust and lust is one of Christianity's seven deadly sins. 

7)  Because a long-dead ancestor ate fruit form a forbidden tree, God now creates everyone inherently evil.  

8)   God murdered his son to show you that He loves you.

Is that enough or do you need more?   Need more:   YAn Interview with the Devil -- Part three -- The Cruise of Fiction 

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Pleasurable Activities like smoking(or ingesting) marijuana and having sex, and heaven forbid that they just might have sex while high on marijuana.  

And then there's the ultimate sin, questioning authority.   The hippies of the 1960's questioned authority, and look what that got us -- a highly-repressive authoritarian crack down orchestrate by the powers that be and administrated by our political, so called leaders.  

Nixon ushered in an era of prohibition insanity that is a thousand  times worse than the alcohol prohibition the 1920's and early 1930's.   In the 1980's , Mr. Nice Guy got hired to play the role of president, while the Republicans raped the public treasury.   Then along came born-again George. who oversaw the rape of not only the public treasury, but the rape of anything and everything that could be turned into short-term profits for the Money & Profit Addicts.    

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