THE RECORD
July 05, 2000

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

Although the corporate propaganda machine has been hammering us with the great benefits of globalized economic competition forever, the real pressure started about 30 years ago. That was the time when the would be rulers of the world decided that we have "too much democracy and freedom" and something had to be done about it. So they went ahead and bought up whole university economics departments to ensure the exclusive teachings of neo-classical theory, commonly known as capitalism, and political parties to ensure the execution of the theories.

Although the USA has had corporate branch governments for decades the Mulroney Tories were the first corporate subsidiary government in Canada. They were followed on an even bigger scale by Chretien's Liberals, with Manning's Reform painted Socreds desperately trying to climb on the bandwagon to sell the country out faster.

Very few Canadians know that our federal government is now engaged in the negotiations of two major treaties, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, right down to the Southern tip and the Milleneum Round of the WTO. The promise of all this is the usual "creation of wealth through free trade and the free movement of capital." The Chair of the Milleneum Round on services is our former Trade Minister, Sergio Marchi, and "everything is on the table." If they succeed, the rules will overrule all national or subnational government laws to make "privatization irreversible." "Goodbye democracy and welcome fascism!", eagerly endorsed by the majority of our Parliament.

As usual, the results of this wealth creation by competition are always, exactly the opposite. Wealth is gathered by a very few, but the majority are pushed deeper and deeper into poverty and destitution. The cold, hard fact is that the promised creation of overall wealth by economic competition is an physical and mathematical impossibility. It may have started off as an error, but now it has become a fraud.

My definition: "Wealth and property are the temporary control of resources." Wealth can not be created, because it has existed in a variety of forms since the beginning of time and will also exist in other forms forever. What we are doing with our economic activities is the conversion of resources into other forms, which is not the creation of anything.

We have been brainwashed into believing that the word "economics" means business and money. Not so. It has nothing to do with either. The word was coined from the Classic Greek "oikos", meaning "household." In modern connotation the word "ecology" means the "study of the household" and "economics"is "household management." Management can not exist without some form of study and if management ignores the findings of studies the household may, or will go bust. Therefore "ecology" and "economy" are the same and neither can exist without the other and money has little to do with it, because there are many ways to distribute resources without money.

We all learn in the laws of thermodynamics in highschool that we can neither create nor destroy matter. We also learn that any action will cause an equal reaction. Then some go to universities and learn in their economic studies that the power of the neo-classical monetary system overrules all physical and human laws. We can do anything to destroy systems and the ecology, because the wealth our actions will create will solve all problems. What about the reactions to our actions. They don't exist. The Money God will look after all those problems. Anybody who doubts this statement should read the books and writings of the chief gurus of neo-classical economics Milton Friedman and Julian Simon, then follow the advice of the Fraser Institute, built on these huckster theories.

The definition of economics in first year textbooks claims that it is: "The science for the distribution of resources." Then the students learn for the next four years that the best way of distribution is through competition and those who can beat all the other pigs to the trough deserve all the blessings of the Money God. Modern economics have been distorted from a science to a crude and brutal, fundametalist pagan religion.

As I wrote in a previous column, economic competition is the same basic concept as war and crime: "The taking of resources against the owners' will." The big difference is that in a war soldiers fight and kill others in different uniforms. In crime the victims are usually innocent bystanders, but in economic competition there are no uniforms, no loyalties, no friends or families. Everybody is an enemy out to get you. There are no families, no homes, no security, no relaxation but permanent war and theft.

So, pray tell me, how is this kind of life going to create wealth and prosperity and where? Why are our politicians permitted to shed crocodile tears over the graves of the people who were killed in war in defence of democracy, then go and sell it for a few silver plated directorships.
Copyright (c) 2000, West's International