What's In It For Me?

I spent fifteen years working to understand what was happening to us as a state and nation. As a part of that process, I asked those who should have known, but they had few answers and little understanding. It turns out we live in a system that certifies, recognizes and awards people who are unwitting parrots. These are often very nice people with good intentions...

I also spent time learning how to teach others. Teaching others is an extremely challenging task because the truth is so contrary to what people are conditioned to believe. Not only are the ideas contrary, but there is a chain of events that must be followed in order to understand what is happening to our once free society.

I wrote and organized Know Stealing as a package of all the best examples and ideas I discovered in communicating the truth about what our generation is facing. If one aspect of the story doesn't resonate with you, perhaps another will. Nearly anyone who will take time to read the book will learn profitable things that are not commonly known.

3.2 Money Is A System

Chapter 3, Section 2, Know Stealing

3.2 Money Is A System

Money is not what people tend to think it is. General confusion about money opens the door for the earnings of producers to be silently stolen - in broad daylight.

Are Coins and Dollar Bills Money?

  Coins and dollar bills are part of a money system, but they are not money. They are money tokens. Being a money token is like being a car tire.

  A tire is not a car, but it is part of a car.

  The definition of money based on practical reality prevents us from calling coins and dollar bills money. A token is not money. A token has no meaning outside of a money system. At the same time, the money system depends on money tokens to interact with people.

  It is the token along with all other parts of the system that when combined together are money.

Tokens

  Think about some of the tokens we regularly use...

  If a quarter is twenty-five percent of a dollar, what does that mean? How can a metal token be twenty-five percent of a paper token? Is a sledgehammer twenty-five percent of a book? The question doesn't even make sense.

  Is a quarter twenty-five percent of a silver dollar? A one ounce silver dollar is lately worth between $30 and $50. Does that mean that a current US quarter is worth between $7.50 and $12? No.

  Why is the ounce of silver in a silver dollar worth a different amount than the value stamped on the coin? How can a 2011 silver American Eagle have $1 stamped on the outside, while the coins sell every day for $30 or more?

  If you deposit a silver dollar in a bank your account will be credited $1. If you take the same dollar to a buyer of silver he will pay the silver price, which currently ranges from $30 to $50 an ounce.

  Why is a one dollar bill valued differently than a five dollar bill, when they are just alike except for the number printed on the bill?

  Tokens are ever-changing tools of plunder which are a small part of a money system.

Money Is Not...

  To understand what money is, we need to first understand what money is not.

  Money is not a substance. If it were, then it could be weighed. If you were going to weigh money, what would you weigh? Would you weigh the paper or the coin? What would the weights mean?

  Money is not an element. If it were an element, it would be defined by protons, neutrons and electrons.

  Money is not an object. Most units of money are ledger entries or data on a computer hard drive.

  A ledger entry can point to a cow or an acre of land. In that case, the entry is an item on an inventory list. But with money, the inventory is out of balance from the beginning.

  If too many people come for their silver at the same time, the lie is exposed. That is known as a bank run. Eventually there is no inventory. That is known as Central Banking.

  Magnetic bits on a computer hard drive store all data for a computer. So which magnetic bit is money? And when the bit is set for some other file, is that bit still money?

  Of course the hard drive bit never was money. It is a part of the record of an obligation known as a debt. On one side of the obligation is your home or car or business. On the other side of the obligation is a bit on storage media that last week was an email or a picture of some banker's fishing trip. Today it is a record of your commitment of real property in exchange for a banker's commitment of nothing but a record keeping system that churns out money units from nothing.

  Money has no clear definition. Money is loosely and deceptively defined as anything the bankers and government can convince people to use as tokens in a record keeping system. Remember the list of synonyms for money?

Money Is A System

  Money is not an object.

  Money is a system.

  Money is a system of record keeping that is designed to capture wealth, centralize power, centralize authority and rule people. The objects we sometimes refer to as money are actually tokens in a record-keeping system. Without the system, the token would be worthless in exchange, except in terms of the tiny usefulness of the cheap material from which the token is made.

  National currencies are tokens in a monetary system. A token from one country is rarely accepted in daily exchange for goods in other countries. Canadian dollars would not be accepted at McDonald's in South Carolina. The Canadian tokens only have meaning within the Canadian money system.

  Only a small percentage of the trillions of US dollars are ever in the form of coins or paper bills. The tokens are only a small part of the overall money system.

  Banks issue loans which create new units of money from nothing. These loans are entries on a ledger that indicate a borrower has agreed to either pay back the money units plus interest, or else forfeit his property which is pledged as collateral.

  When checks are written or debit cards are used, the ledger entries change from bank to bank and customer to customer, but no tokens are ever involved. This is sometimes referred to as checkbook money.

  What we tend to think of as money are only worthless tokens. The real power and nature of money is in the system.

  Money is a system that uses an ever-changing combination of tokens and ledger entries to plunder productive people who are forced to use the system through illegitimate law.

Robbed and Ruled

Care to learn how you are robbed and ruled? In January 2013 an evening class will begin in Statham Ga where we will explain precisely what has happened and precisely what must be done to preserve life, liberty and property in America. 

What people believe guides what they think, which determines their actions, which have immediate consequences and lead to certain outcomes. 

Our beliefs have been in error, and our leaders in the church, business and state have either been deceived or complicit in propagating misunderstanding which has led to our current "fiscal cliff", moral decline, etc., etc.

In this class we will review many proofs that show specific error in translation of a few specific passages from the Bible. This error has twisted and corrupted key aspects of our belief and causes Christians to behave in most un-Christ-like ways. Christians undermine themselves daily because they are deceived and work on behalf of that which they despise.

If these comments seem extreme or offensive, perhaps you are satisfied with where we are. If you are not satisfied, unless you know and can prove (but not in generalities and platitudes) what has put us where we are, then maybe it would be worth your time to come and see what will be covered in this class.

Know Stealing Class - Statham, Ga - January 2013

Know Stealing Class - Statham, Ga - January 2013

After several years of work and patience in developing credible standing, and as I am rotating out of church leadership, I presented the deacon leadership of First Baptist Statham with a proposal to teach a class based on the contents of Know Stealing. They took one month for consideration and then, with encouragement, approved the proposal. I am thankful and appreciate their position and courage.

This class will be open to all. The expense will be a few dollars to cover materials. We welcome anyone who would like to come and participate.

The length of the class is to be determined as the discussion unfolds, based on the interest and merits of the material being covered. A workbook will be developed in the process which will eventually be made available for others to teach the same material.

The tentative times are either Tuesday or Thursday at 6PM and the class duration will be 1 hour. For those interested in participating, if other times are better for you, please convey those to me either here or by email.

Since this is a discovery process with regard to how best to organize the material and time, we will consider extending the class duration according the wishes of the class members and effectiveness of additional time. The overall length of the class will also be discovered in the process, based on interaction with the class.

Your feedback is welcomed and will be appreciated.

Introduction to Know Stealing

1.1 Introduction

A people or nation that does not understand liberty cannot defend it.

I work late and rise early thinking about liberty, production and the nature of things. The stakes are high. Your time is valuable. Please permit me to be direct. We have been deceived, and I know how it was done.

The reader with an open mind, who actively questions everything including the ideas recorded here, will get the most out of Know Stealing. When you reach the last page, it is my hope that you will have demanded, and that I will have delivered, solid arguments capable of standing under scrutiny and pressure.

Consider the following brief statements:

We have problems that do not have to exist. They can be resolved.

Western civilization is crumbling financially at the level of the individual, the family, the business and the government. This is no small issue. Why is there a uniform worldwide collapse of economies?

We all know of some bad ideas that the other guy accepts. But it turns out that there are a few simple, important, highly destructive ideas which have been commonly accepted by most people for several hundred years. This confusion and error is causing us serious problems.

Certain commonly accepted ideas are measurably and objectively wrong. These ideas encourage destructive actions, which lead to bad outcomes.

Just like in a garden, we are reaping what we sow. It is time for us to clear away centuries of brush and debris, and it is definitely time to stop planting more bad seeds.

Consider these outcomes:

Job loss

Home foreclosure

Business bankruptcy

People have debt not savings

Retirements grow and disappear on paper

Big government

Government bankruptcy

Worldwide economic meltdown

The list goes on.

Ideas guide actions which have outcomes. Therefore, if society as a whole has common problems, then whatever ideas are commonly accepted about the world are suspect. There are several institutions that people claim are essential to modern civilization because of the good they do. It is true that there are institutions that do good work and have significant influence. However, if an institution is considered to be genuinely influential in society, then it must also be open to scrutiny and critical review.

In other words, how can a person say that institution A is all that is holding things together, and then suggest that the problems that exist are not the fault of the institution? Either the institution is weak and really not very influential, or the institution is influential and has a share in the blame for the global economic, moral and social wreck we are in.

There was a time when I would have argued against certain negative claims about my religion, my country, our marketplace and our government. But I knew something wasn't right, so I went on a journey of sorts to discover the truth about things.

Please accept the following short story as an allegory.

###

I once went on a journey seeking answers. After many years I found an old chest in a forgotten place that was overflowing with good things, including lost knowledge. I studied the contents carefully.

Once I understood the reality, cause and nature of the problems we face, I looked back to tell my friends what I had learned. But they were far away and there was a great wasteland between us. No matter how hard I tried, people could not understand, unless they were able to go back with me over rugged terrain to see what I had found.

What a strange predicament to be in. I loved my friends and people in general and I was sitting before a treasure that would benefit us all. In fact, the value to each individual is much greater if this treasure is shared.

But I couldn't tell people about it, I was too far away. I couldn't show them because the trip over the wasteland was too long and difficult. I had learned enough to understand what was happening in the world, but that is an altogether different thing from showing others. So I set my next goal.

I determined to learn how to effectively share a more complete understanding of the world with others. I set about building trails, roads and bridges. I started drawing maps for the journey. I labored until a dangerous, expensive, painful, fifteen year journey was turned into a few days of safe travel. That travel guide is in your hand.

Come with me. You will never see the world the same again.

###

So how does this trip begin? We need to look for common ground.

By training, our thinking is dangerously twisted so that we learn to perceive friends as enemies and enemies as friends. Our first step is to genuinely put all persons into one big category. Propaganda shouts about differences between people everyday. Is there anything that all people have in common?

Attributing Creation to God, the Bible states the obvious.

“for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:45b, NASB95)

We are all subject to a common enemy. For fifteen years I have studied to understand why American families and businesses are being pushed from savings and prosperity toward debt and loss. Besides the sun and rain, it turns out people have much more in common than many of us realize.

The course we are on as a nation is unsustainable. No great civilization expects to collapse, yet they all have. There are specific reasons for their collapse, which are discussed in these pages. The good news is that the powerful tools for restoring our individual wealth and prosperity are recorded here. The bad news is that the powerful tools for restoring our individual wealth and prosperity are not automatically clear and correct in the hearts and minds of people. In order to establish and maintain a free and prosperous society, each person must understand how the world actually works, and then teach others. Businessmen, pastors, politicians, professors, blue-collar, white-collar, young, old, wealthy, poor… We are all together deceived. I will prove this.

Understanding the simple idea that people depend on production is required to restore our liberty and personal wealth. When that idea settles in alongside a few others, a new and valuable framework of understanding comes into view.

The Bible verse above observes a simple fact about the world. The sun rises and the rain falls on every perspective, attitude and religion.

What if there is a small bit of common ground between all people, regardless of worldview?

For instance, I may not know you, but I still know the sun rises and the rain falls on you.

People have different religions, but religion should not be a test for public office, except from the voting booth where it should always be a test. Even though Romans 13 is often poorly translated and wrongly applied, it does state that a Christian must be subject to higher authorities, regardless of religion, political affiliation or worldview. At the same time, the power and actions of authority must be limited based on just law. Getting this basic relationship right in our thinking is essential.¹

Perhaps there are other similar basics that can help restore our freedom. In fact, I am pleased to report that there are. I found these treasures by rejecting the false teaching commonly dressed in peer review, conventional wisdom and “it's always been that way.” For example, we all eat food and use things. Since food and things must be produced, we all have at least that in common. Oppressive power comes primarily from control of production. Power structures cannot exist without the labor and property of producers. A clear understanding of these and a few other essential ideas may forever change the way you perceive the world.

I hope those who already understand these ideas will find this a useful teaching tool. I am thankful for the centuries of great thinkers, writers and teachers who have produced more detailed work on liberty, production and wealth than any one person will ever exhaust. Even so, there may be important ideas here that are genuinely new to most people, regardless of education or worldview.

I labored to make this very basic writing as short as possible, while still being careful to cover essential ideas, so that these ideas can travel quickly. Restoring our liberty and prosperity depends on the speed with which these misplaced old ideas become commonplace again in our society. Every chapter has a purpose and role supporting that end.

One of the great challenges is engaging the audience. I want to engage the economist, scientist and pastor. I also want to engage the cattleman, mechanic and truck driver. I want to draw in the grandfather and his grandchildren. I am hopeful that these ideas will become the buzz in middle school, high school and college. I want mothers and daughters to be informed and encouraged.

In order to genuinely engage such a diverse audience, there must be a common denominator. One would think that an interesting common denominator that speaks to the educated man and the working man, as well as the young and the old would not exist. But it does.

In some ways I am uniquely qualified to present these ideas. You will see from my biography that I am at home with young and old, formally educated or not, grease and dirt or suit and tie, chewing the fat or presenting formal testimony. At every opportunity, I gladly advance the ideas of liberty and openly debate those who hold a different view, whether around the campfire or in the classroom, boardroom or in some public venue.

One of my challenges is to explain where we are wrong in our thinking without unnecessarily offending people. At the same time, I would debate any citizen, businessman, pastor, professor, teacher, leader, political activist, elected official or journalist on these ideas at any time, in any place. The bottom line is that our thinking is extremely mixed up and, in many important areas, just flat out wrong. The errors in our thinking and understanding are costing us our liberty, our homes, our jobs, our retirements and our children's future.

Liberty and prosperity are always at stake in every nation for every generation. Eventually bad decisions in the past force a generation to come to terms with the truth about what is necessary to sustain a free society. We are one of those generations. In our case, we can no longer naively depend on past production, new land, old-style immigration, industrialization, available cheap energy and paper wealth to maintain our standard of living.

We must learn how the world actually works.

We must learn to identify root causes.

We must learn how to defend our individual rights and personal property.

We must understand how power is developed and aggregated.

We must understand how nations are built and how they fall.

We must understand liberty, production, and the nature of things.

These pages contain keys to understanding which will enable a person to see through the errors that surround us daily. We have the power to overcome destructive ideas that exist in business, politics and religion.

My single objective is to share the very best of what I've learned with those who are willing to open their minds and think, in order to understand how to restore and preserve our great nation as a land of liberty and production. I welcome all challenges with regard to these ideas.

Of course the reader will find in these pages opinion, preference, analogy, anecdote, hyperbole, allegory and other literary devices which aid in conveying ideas and communicating meaning. When I claim that something is objectively true, it will be clearly stated as such.

The Bible is referenced as a guiding document for those to whom the book is Holy and as literature for others. Since Christian beliefs significantly impact the culture for both the Christian and non-Christian, understanding how the Bible influences society is useful for all. While there are significant sections which deal with typically misinterpreted Bible passages, the main case can be made using math, reason, logic and history. The Bible passages and teaching are necessary to help resolve certain problematic conflict in Christian teaching and thought.

The material in this book is powerful. It will teach a bold middle school student all that is necessary to debate and defeat a formally educated economist or an experienced politician. Imagine a magnificent skyscraper that is built on a lie. If a person, even a child, can show that the foundation is a lie, then the whole building has to be an illusion. Many things we believe are true are no more than illusions. Children who study the ideas presented in this book will have a better understanding of the world we live in than most successful and formally educated adults.

Sadly, we will discover that for the past 1600 years the Christian community has maintained at least one specific error in Christian thought which makes Christians largely responsible for the disaster we currently face as a nation. Amazingly I've been unable to find any person or literature that makes the specific case that you will read here. Neither have I met anyone who would even make the effort to present a reasoned argument against these claims. I'll be most appreciative if a reader can connect me with literature on any of these uncommon topics.²

The goal of this book is to restore sound thinking about liberty, production, and the nature of things so that a growing number of people may experience the blessings of liberty. In order to do that we have to cover a lot of ground without getting bogged down on any one point. This is a slow-starting, then faster-moving book of ideas which will point the interested reader to a wealth of literature which goes deeper into related theory and detail.

Liberty and prosperity are the prizes. So let's get started.

1Romans 13:1-7 is quoted and discussed in significant detail in the section on Authority.

2My argument here is multifaceted. First, these concepts are critical and basic which means they should be common knowledge. No search should be necessary. Second, I have physically and electronically searched many resources where these ideas should be present, and they are either not present, or at least not obvious enough for me to find. Third, I have asked many well educated people from various disciplines and have met no one who has been previously aware of these facts and ideas. Fourth, the commentaries and writing I have found include error which the information presented here illuminates as error.

Bernanke and the Illusion of Wealth

On the September 15, 2012 edition of the US Farm Report on RFD TV, John Phipps talked about the FED decision to create $40 Billion a month from nothing to buy our home mortgages. In discussing the event, he states what he called the short version of Bernanke's public announcement in the preceding week, then Mr. Phipps adds his own analysis.

The short version: "We're going to worry about inflation once we gets jobs back, not before."

This is very good news, I think. If our whole economy could pick up steam, the possibilities that open up to ag are enormous.

You can see his comments the video on the www.agewb.com/usfr page, shortly after the middle of the program. 

I sent the following email to Mr. Phipps that same day.

Mr. Phipps,

On Saturday September 15, 2012 you mentioned the FED's decision to create more new money as being a good thing for agriculture. This thinking is hailed by conventional wisdom as sophisticated and smart, yet it is objectively illogical and based on measurably false assumptions. It is especially shameful for people who are involved in agriculture to be confused about the effect of any government interventions, especially the act of creating new money from nothing.

If we are to prosper again in agriculture, or as free people in the US, we must stop government interventions on all fronts. In few words, I explain it in this way:

Have you ever noticed that people eat food and use things? Food and things must be produced. Government produces nothing, wastes much and interferes with production. Therefore every promise made by government has to be kept by a producer. Government intervention makes us all poorer than we would otherwise be.

The only way for anyone to increase wealth in the current system is through wealth transfer, not wealth production. The American producer provides the wealth to those at the top of the system. Bernanke cannot produce wealth with entries in a ledger. He can only transfer it.

My question to you is this: How does the creation of new money, which today is simply an electronic ledger entry, add to the wealth of a nation or individual?

$0.99 In May 2012

I am pleased to report that thousands of copies of Know Stealing have been downloaded. The May 2012 promotion began with two days that Know Stealing could be downloaded for free.

The purpose of the book is to get information in the hands of those who would defend liberty if only they had good information. So I want to make it easy for new readers.

Now for the rest of May, to say thank you and to help keep the ideas moving, the eBook is specially priced at 99 cents.

Please share with others that Know Stealing is available for 99 cents during the rest of month of May.

And remember that if you don't have a Kindle, you can download the free Kindle reading app to your Mac, PC, iPhone, Android or Windows mobile device.

Of course the print editions are good for the bookshelf too...

Chapter 6.4 - Know Stealing

There are 8 Chapters in Know Stealing, with 65 sections. Following is one of these sections.

6.4 Institutions

Any government that grows, eventually kills; first productivity, then wealth, then people.

There are good institutions in every category, but they are rare.

I define a corrupt institution as any organization whose survival depends on coercively receiving someone else's labor, property and production, usually for institutional self-preservation or in pursuit of legal plunder, particularly while effectively ignoring or working against the interest of those providing the resources.

A few examples are trade associations, cooperatives, religious associations, religious ministries, political groups, subsidized business, and of course government. When these institutions are funded through a chain of events that are dependent on plunder and deception, bad things happen.

Of course these institutions have member benefits or do some good things, but the benefits are often like buying a thousand dollar hamburger. It is a bad trade. Over time the institution becomes focused on itself, rather than those it was originally organized to serve.

Institutions Are Net Consumers

With rare exceptions, institutions are net consumers. Institutions depend on producers in order to survive. Within a social order that prevents stealing, if producers willingly and freely contribute resources to an institution, then that institution is valuable to society. If the survival of an institution depends on forcefully confiscating profits from production, then that institution is a parasite that is draining valuable life from the society.

Institutions Outlast Individuals

With rare exceptions, institutions outlast individuals.

Institutions which are part of the network of plunder in a society have effectively unlimited resources.

Since an offending institution is supported by the plunder of producers, when resources are transferred, there is a two to one power transfer between the institution and the producers who support it. In other words, because there is no exchange of production, the transfer of resources moves in one direction. For example, every time one unit of money is transferred from the producers to the institution, there is a relative change of two units. If there was an exchange of production, like corn for wheat, both parties would benefit. Without mutual benefit, why would anyone ever exchange one thing for another?¹

Most often, one or only a few producers attempt to resist a particular institution at any one time, which means that through the institution the resources of many neutral producers are focused like a laser on one or a few resistant producers. For example, a farmer or manufacturer may be unwittingly helping crush his neighbor.

In addition, if producers lose their profits to plunder and are at risk of losing their capital, they are in no position to fight the institution. Even in an honest system of exchange, most of a producer's capital is tied up in his productive enterprise. In a costless money system, the producer's real property is subject to loss because he is out of balance on paper, in terms of the money system. A farmer will lose his farm because of ledger entries at the bank. Productive land, buildings and machines are wealth and capital. Ledger entries are not wealth or capital.

On the other hand, the institution's access to resources, in terms of the money system, is liquid, refreshed annually and not dependent on the productive thought or labor of those who operate and receive salaries from the institution.

If one million producers annually contribute $100 each to an institution, then the producer who resists is facing an opponent funded annually to the tune of $100 million dollars. The institution influences producers who do not yet see the problem. While producers are out producing, the institution gives gifts, hires lawyers, gains experience in using an unjust legal system, lobbies government for more resources and generally outlasts the producers who have the gall to complain about being plundered.

Since authority is power and power comes from production, institutions are able to easily overpower the supposedly insubordinate producers.

Institutions Force Producers To Fight Themselves

Because institutions are fueled by production confiscated from producers, producers are in effect forced to fight themselves. To draw a simple analogy, in World War II the United States was at war with Germany. Of course there were many other countries involved on the sides known as the Allies and the Axis, but for the sake of analogy we will focus on the United States and Germany.

Imagine if the United States was required to gear up engineering and manufacturing to supply military gear and soldiers for our own army, and also was required to do exactly the same thing for the German army.

Even worse, we would be required to multiply the relative strength of the enemy. For every one military resource we produced for ourselves, we would have to give ten resources to Germany.

It sounds dumb to supply the enemy at a rate of 2 to1 or 10 to 1, but that's what we do with most institutions. Who in their right mind would provide any resources to an enemy which was trying to establish or maintain a relationship based on force?

Institutional Conflict Breeds More Institutions

Resisting one institution with another institution is a worthless exercise. While resisting an institution with an opposing institution is effective, the end result is not an improvement.

Suppose Institution B is created to resist Institution A. The problem is that over the course of time producers go from Institutional Oppressor A, to both Institutional Oppressors A and B, and finally to Institutional Oppressor B. The process consumes their time, energy and resources in exchange for no improvement in their condition.

In other words, the situation goes from bad to worse, and then if you're lucky enough to defeat Institutional Oppressor A, in the end you just go back to another version of bad under Institutional Oppressor B. Institutions by their very nature engage in internal and external self-preservation at the expense of producers who unwillingly provide the resources for the institutions to exist. This is especially true because the general systems of plunder depend on institutions to control producers and keep the people fighting amongst themselves.

Institutions Are Defeated By Behavior

The most important thing to understand about institutions is this: The only way to defeat unlawful plundering institutions is by individual behavior.

Let's identify flaws in the two typical ways in which we are trained to resist institutions.

The first method is to support an opposing institution which, as mentioned previously, is a waste of time.

The second way is to encourage movements.

Movements absorb the energy of the particular individuals who are actively resisting because they are currently upset about some aspect of the systems of plunder and oppression to which they are being subjected.

Movements come and go because movements are expensive, and producers do not have the time or energy to stay involved in movements indefinitely. They have work to do. The producers who are upset with the plundering institutions are not supported by theft like the plundering institutions are, so these producers have to keep working.

It is worth noting there is the artificial movement that is externally sustained by institutions within the system of plunder. For example, the Soros Open Society Institute was one of the major contributors to the media campaign that was designed to play to an audience of 535, meaning the US Congress². This was an artificial movement designed to project itself as a mass movement on the part of various voting constituencies which would influence congressmen to vote a certain way on a certain issue.

In this case, the artificial movement was populated by those who were deriving their livelihood from the system of plunder. Workers in the artificial movement were sustained by institutions and favored business whose resources are derived from plunder, based on differing weights and measures which enable the manipulation of labor and property on paper.

Sustained Cultural Impact

But producers who are trying to protect their property rights have no such support. This next statement will seem very oversimplified, but it helps to explain why movements are not sustainable. The first order of business for a producer is to secure food, shelter and clothing for himself and those for whom he is responsible. Unless the movement will put food in the stomach, a roof over the head and a shirt on the back, the movement is not sustainable.

The only way for anything to have a sustainable, long-term impact on society is for the thing to be tied to the stomach. There are two pieces to this puzzle.

The first piece is required and will always be present in every society. It is quite simply some level of production. A society that defends individual life, liberty and property will be highly productive, which leads to abundance and prosperity. A society that is highly oppressed will produce what it can under adverse conditions. The greater the oppression, the greater the poverty, disease, hunger and death.

The first puzzle piece, noted above, is about work which leads directly to some level of production. The second puzzle piece is not production in a direct tangible sense.

The second puzzle piece secures the ability to produce without interfering with the ability to produce.

This is different from a movement, which is expensive, time consuming and takes people away from their productive work. To overcome the corruption and plunder of institutions, we need a tool that lets us keep working so that we are able to continue producing. Otherwise resistance leads to our poverty, not liberty and prosperity. Finally, this tool must also be inexpensive and easy to use.

It may sound like the tool I am describing is too good to be true, but it is not. What I am describing is a collection of behaviors which are driven and shaped by belief, which is founded on truth.

If, as a community of free people, we are all willing to actively confront stealing in all forms, at all times, and we are willing to set a standard that says if anyone is not willing to work then he is not to eat, we will completely separate the connection between the producer and the stomach of those who plunder.

Think of separating the connection between the producer and the stomach of the plunderer with this allegory. Suppose you were king of the United States and you called in the head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to give him new powers. You inform him that the IRS may use any resources, any new systems, any laws, police force or any other thing they desired without limits, except one. No person who works for or supports the tax collection, investigation or any other aspect of the IRS work, directly or indirectly, is allowed to eat any food, drink any water or take any form of nutrition ever again, no exceptions.

By disconnecting the stomach from the plunder, there remains no one to do the plundering. They either quit and produce, or starve. Either way, the IRS is no longer a problem. This is a picture of what happens when stealing is outlawed. No honest system of funding a government which defends individual life, liberty and property depends on theft. Without theft there remains a balance of power in society, which is a balance of authority, which is distributed based on production.

I guarantee that if free people will stand together and say “No more!” the institutions will try to regain their position by force. The thieves and their minions will use all manner of propaganda, violence, force, and threats of impending disaster to frighten people into submission. I would expect what are sometimes called false flag operations. But if producers know the truth about how the world really works and are committed to liberty and righteous law, the thieves will not succeed. The thieves will be overcome.

Once the thieves understand that the producers will stand together on the principle that the individual has the right to his own life, liberty and property, then they will become producers, or they will perish.

According to the Bible, God has given able-bodied people the right to choose to work and eat or not work and die. Far be it from me to deprive them of their God-given right to choose life or death.

Footnotes

1 This is a great truth in economics. Exchange does not occur because two things are equal in value. It occurs based on what can be called a double inequality of value. From some combination of a variety of reasons, item A is more valuable to me and Item B is more valuable to you. I may give up a few bushels of corn, from the tons that I produce, in exchange for a few bushels from your tons of wheat. We both gain from the trade.

2 http://www.renewamerica.com/analysis/vernon/061002 Will George Soros rule America (with a little help from his friends, McCain-Feingold)?

Big Lies, Big Crowds

I meet people who ask if Ron Paul is still in the race. The media would have Americans believe he isn't. The media is telling lies. It is their nature and purpose. 

As Thomas Jefferson wrote, If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

So who tells you what to believe? Or do you engage in critical thinking so you can detect absurdities and lies?

Learn How To Be A Crook

Goodreads.com Book Giveaway

Goodreads.com Book Giveawy

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Know Stealing

by M. Shane Coley

Giveaway ends April 09, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Popular Highlights April 5, 2012

These are popular highlights from Know Stealing as presented on the Amazon.com website April 5, 2012.

Popular Highlights

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it is the right and responsibility of each individual to defend his life, liberty and property. Furthermore just government is established to assist the individual in defending his life, liberty and property. 

Highlighted by 7 Kindle users

Understanding the simple idea that people depend on production is required to restore our liberty and personal wealth 

Highlighted by 6 Kindle users

We must always remember that people depend on production. People eat food and use things. Food and things must be produced. Government produces nothing and wastes much. Every promise made by a government official has to be kept by a producer. 

Highlighted by 6 Kindle users

The course we are on as a nation is unsustainable. No great civilization expects to collapse, yet they all have. 

Highlighted by 5 Kindle users

“whenever someone got something he didn't work for, someone else worked for something he didn't get.” 

Highlighted by 5 Kindle users

The people and institutions whose wealth depends on these systems of theft say that economics is beyond our reach. 

Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

“The few who understand the system, will either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on its favors that there will be no opposition from that class. The great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantages will bear its burden without complaint.” 

Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

Our large, intrusive, destructive government exists because the people have been deceived and robbed. It exists because we have unwittingly permitted legal plunder. 

Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

Ideas guide actions which have outcomes. Therefore, if society as a whole has common problems, then whatever ideas are commonly accepted about the world are suspect. 

Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

If we subsidize bad behavior, we will get more of it. If we penalize production, we will get less of it. 

Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

Know Stealing at Amazon.com

Search Inside The Book

Search Inside The Book is now available for Know Stealing at Amazon.com!

Please share this with others and encourage them to consider reading. This material will teach you what your pastor doesn't know, which happens to be what every child in Sunday School should know.

767 Copies In A Day

Thank you to all the readers who have taken time to pick up a copy of Know Stealing.

On Tuesday March 20, 2012 767 copies of Know Stealing were downloaded during our latest free promotion.

If you have read Know Stealing, please take the time to give your feedback. I am interested.

Also, consider encouraging others to take a moment to check out the reviews at Amazon.com or here on the Know Stealing blog.

And please drop by and LIKE the Know Stealing facebook page if you find the material in the book useful!

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FREE eBook Friday March 2, 2012

FREE eBook available Friday March 2, 2012

Read Know Stealing with one of the FREE Kindle reading apps for PC, Mac, Android, iPad, iPhone and more.

Print editions may be ordered from the Know Stealing web site or from most book sellers.

In exchange please take the time to read and give your feedback.

Also, consider encouraging others to take a moment to check out the reviews at Amazon.com or here on the Know Stealing blog.

And please drop by and LIKE the Know Stealing facebook page if you find the material in the book useful!

Know Stealing at Amazon.com

Order Print Versions of Know Stealing

Know Stealing may now be ordered online at the following locations:

http://www.knowstealing.com
http://blog.soundmoneycafe.com

A Collection Of Know Stealing Reviews

Following are reviews or parts thereof which are included in the print edition of Know Stealing:

"If you are wondering where we have gone wrong as a country, then read this book. Shane Coley does a great job of getting to the very core of the problem. The media and talking heads we hear every day are so fixated on the symptoms that we forget to search for the root cause. This book peels the onion back layer by layer and explains in detail where the problem is. This book is a MUST read for anyone interested in restoring individual liberty in America!" 

Clay Ortiz 

"Rarely does a book not only challenge, but revolutionize the manner in which you view the world. Upon finishing such works, it’s as if you’ve been given a lens to better identify the functions of society that are right in front of you, but have been too small to see. Frederic Bastiat's classic, The Law, comes to mind. Know Stealing is one such book. Shane Coley takes on the daunting task of explaining some of the most complex issues facing our world today and succeeds with concise and astute brilliance. His solution, rooted in historical, economical, and Biblical foundations is a single rule: No Stealing. His insights on the significance and protection of life, liberty, and property are desperately needed and a pleasure to read." 

Drew Martin

Columnist, RevoluTimes.com 

"Shane Coley has succeeded in methodically correcting the most dangerous errors modern American society has in understanding economics, politics, government & Christian theology. A 15 year project with more to show for it than most entire lives. Transformational!"

Jimmy Norman

Executive Director

Georgians For Constitutional Government 

"Armed with wisdom, knowledge and an aptitude for teaching, Shane Coley skillfully disperses the fog of economic, political and moral complexities which tend to make our nation's problems seem insurmountable. Shane brings to light long ignored principles which must be understood if we are to have any chance of restoring the liberty, peace and prosperity which our country enjoyed in former times. Information contained in this excellent work is invaluable."

Linda Morrow 

"I'd buy a copy for all my friends if they had Kindles… Lots of ideas in this book that I have had in my head for a while but don't have the skill to convey to others the way Mr. Coley does (and there's plenty here I hadn't thought of or didn't really understand too.) As a previous reviewer stated, this book does an excellent job of getting to the core of our problems, and leaves me hopeful they can be solved."

Luke Albers 

In response to Luke Albers statement "I'd buy a copy for all my friends if they had Kindles", Valerie James wrote: "I was just thinking the same thing after reading Know Stealing this morning. Previously, I was familiar with sound money principles, but have had a difficult time 'translating' these concepts to my friends and family. Thank you for writing in a simple manner, with straight-forward analogies that can be more easily passed on."

‎"Know Stealing" should be passed along to every library, school, neighbor, pastor, family member, and friend - this book may just open their eyes, give them hope, and save our children. 'Bastiat's "The Law" has been my #1 book to gift, but not everybody "gets it" who gets it - Shane Coley's book will now be #1 to gift, and is much simpler to understand.'

Valerie James 

"If Know Stealing were written in the 1840s philosopher, economist, and author Frederic Bastiat would be the perfect person to write the foreword. This book is excellent reading for anyone from the high school student to the would-be-politician. If this book were required reading in high schools, we could restore our Nation in a matter of a generation or less."

Walt Holton 

"Rarely is the written work able to methodically unravel centuries of deceit and to lay the thieving emperor bare for all to see. Know Stealing accomplishes this and more, offering a necessary corrective to the theft at the root of modern society. Such is the power of truth simply stated. Arm yourself with the ideas herein to become a true defender of liberty."

Christopher David

Candidate for Congress [CA-33] 

"I am forced to say that in all my years of formal education, I had never learned of the Austrian School of Economics. All of those good 1970 era dollars spent in vain sitting in micro and macro economic classes, principles and theory of banking, all culminating in a degree in accounting, and I never heard of Ludwig Von Mises until I met Shane. […] Complete with charts and illustrations, readers are led on a journey to rediscover the elementary fact that words have meaning, or, more specifically, accurate meanings! I was pleasantly surprised that even an old goat like me could still discover some words with a nuanced meaning a little different than what I had thought. Who knew? Once the foundational understandings of the key words are in place, topics are explored to weave together the knowledge that will allow you to KnoW Stealing."

Rick McQueen 

"Shane Coley's Know Stealing is a breakthrough, must-read work which uncovers hidden causes of America's "boom and bust" economic cycles, as well as generational economic and societal decay. Know Stealing provides keys to how "We the People" will be able to save America from the brink, while creating a solid, stable foundation of both individual behavior and just government, resulting in economic and individual prosperity. Shane clearly, factually, and meticulously demonstrates how our costless fiat money system, along with other systems of state control, like energy policy, media, regulation, and taxation, are designed to pillage America's citizens and the broader economy, leading to certain tyranny and destruction. Know Stealing reminds us that stealing violates the 8th Commandment, and that, as a nation founded upon Judeo-Christian principles, we must confront stealing head on and return our financial and governmental systems to an honorable, Constitutional, truth-based foundation before we will ever be able to avoid financial catastrophes, let alone ensure America's liberties, freedoms, and prosperity are maintained into the future. I highly recommend Know Stealing as a foundational work for those involved in economic, industrial, and public policy, as well as for all who desire to restore America to her foundational roots and greatness."

David M Chaney 

CEO

Role1 CEO/CxO Solutions 

President and Founder 

CEOs for Liberty 

Know Stealing should be in everyone's library and should be discussed and taught regularly in our homes, churches, schools, and businesses."

Cody Murray

A Few Words About Know Stealing

A few words which have been used to describe Know Stealing: 

Transformational. Rare. Breakthrough. Must-Read. Simple To Understand. Scholarly. Hopeful. #1 to Gift. Wisdom. Knowledge. Understanding. Original Research. Methodically Corrects Dangerous Error. Disperses Complexity. Challenging. Revolutionizes One's Worldview. Concise and Astute Brilliance. Desperately Needed. 

Know Stealing is the culmination of 15 years of research and 5 years of writing, learning more, digging deeper; always searching for the root causes of our problems as a state and nation. Know Stealing will replace preconceived notions with clear and precise knowledge capable of driving restoration in our American Republic. Because we live in a system designed to steal from every U.S. citizen, it is imperative that we KNOW stealing when it happens and learn what steps can be taken to prevent systemic theft from continuing into our future. Know Stealing provides the essential knowledge necessary to identify and understand the theft that is occurring in our nation every minute of every day. It also provides the solutions that we, as ordinary citizens, can utilize to begin enforcing a policy of NO stealing that will enable us to reclaim our Life, Liberty, Property, and Prosperity. We can no longer afford to tolerate the lies and the deception that are eroding our national economy and our freedoms. Armed with knowledge and the tools necessary to restore our nation, we can change the course of history.

Know Stealing at Amazon.com

Do You Know Stealing? [A Book Review]

By Drew Martin:

I’ve recently had the privilege of reading the fantastic new book by M. Shane Coley, Know Stealing. The title’s clever play on words provides more than an intriguing clue as to the book’s contents, but gives rise to a seemingly obvious yet neglected truth: Without the knowledge and understanding to identify theft when it occurs, we are powerless to stop it. Coley begins the book with the most widely used form of theft in history: deception. Specifically, the early chapters discuss the deceptive origins of what we commonly refer to as money. The average RevoluTimes reader is likely somewhat familiar with the differences between fiat money and “honest” money backed by a commodity. What you may not be familiar with however, is the argument that the very term “money” is not a thing at all, but a system. Coley contends that the bills of credit and coins we use in our daily transactions are not money in reality but money tokens, and part of a larger system designed for legal plunder. Writes Coley:

“Being a money token is like being a car tire. A tire is not a car, but it is part of a car…A token has no meaning outside of a money system.”

Through dozens of well-documented examples, Know Stealing makes the case that what we falsely perceive to be real money is nothing but a sophisticated scheme devised to not only rob us of our productive capabilities and thus the power we hold over ourselves, but to also perpetuate the further transferring of wealth from the producers of society to the non-producers. In short, by permitting the use of costless or fiat money, we are enabling our own enslavement. Coley identifies that natural money is a medium exchange derived from the marketplace that holds intrinsic value beyond any money system imposed by the State. Coley further explains this saying:

“The easiest way to identify natural money is to ask the following question: If this thing that claims to be natural money stopped being used as money immediately without warning, would it still have other useful purposes?”

He goes on to note that natural money in the form of gold, silver, salt, butter, etc. must be produced by human labor. Whereas time and energy must be used to mine gold or silver, costless money or fiat money is simply derived from nothing, and a bill printed with any denomination costs only a few pennies to produce. In other words, there is no greater cost in the production of a one dollar bill versus a one hundred dollar bill, and yet we are told, (and forced) to accept them as vastly different measures of wealth. Founded upon a keen understanding of economics, history and particularly original Biblical translations, Shane Coley illustrates that though such systems of plunder have developed throughout man’s existence, this is only due to our own ignorance. A devout Christian, Coley demonstrates that due to multiple misinterpreted or falsely translated verses in Scripture over the centuries, we have lost sight of the warnings of “differing weights and measures” and the destruction that they cause. The author tirelessly labors to prove his argument that all of the workings of a truly free, peaceful and prosperous society have been laid out for us long ago. 

Read the rest of the article at RevoluTimes.