Soil and Liberty

Our nation is at a crossroad. We are facing the potential collapse of our currency and the following disintegration of our society. There are technical reasons this is true. Some mainstream financial advisors take this position. Certain economists take this position.

Our security depends on knowledge. Please consider the following ideas.

Dollars

Imagine a Wall Street hedge fund manager who has acquired millions of dollars in the previous year. Imagine if he sold everything of value he had, including house, clothes, cars, etc. and only held dollars. Imagine that he never traded those dollars for anything. He just held his dollars.

Is he wealthy?

Or is he hungry and cold?

He cannot eat, wear or be sheltered by his dollars. Unwilling to part with his dollars and having no other property, he is a man in poverty.

This would also be true if he held a currency that no producers would accept in exchange for goods and services. This is the current situation for Zimbabwe Dollars.

Soil

Let’s say our Wall Street banker finds this situation to be untenable.

He is hungry and cold.

So he buys food, shelter and clothing. These are all directly or indirectly based on products which come from the soil.

The people who produced these things live in houses, wear clothes and eat food which are dependent on soil.

So, even the Wall Street banker has nothing if he only has dollars. And even the Wall Street banker is directly dependent on soil.

All nations are agrarian or have agrarian dependencies, whether they know it or not.

Only a fool believes a nation can survive without a strong agricultural base.

Only an enemy would undermine a nation's agricultural base.

Our agriculture and industry have been undermined.

Production

Have you ever noticed that everything we do or use relies on production?

Consider the following questions:

Can we agree that if a person stops eating, he will die?

Can we agree that if a person is dead, he no longer thinks, at least temporally speaking?

Can we then agree that thought relies on food?

Can we agree food must be produced?

Can we then conclude that thought relies on production?

If thought relies on production, can you name even one thing that you do or use that does not rely on production?

Teachers

Teaching can be edifying or destructive. One can be taught to build or to tear down.

If teachers have a desire to promote and support the teaching profession or society as a whole, they must teach production.

If a teacher simply wants to be guaranteed a certain quantity of paper tickets, like dollars, perhaps they should move to Zimbabwe. People in Zimbabwe have plenty of paper tickets. Of course the people starve, but even the poorest person has vast quantities of worthless paper money.

Perhaps teachers actually want valuable incomes so that they can enjoy food, shelter, clothes, relationships and leisure activities.

If food, shelter and clothing are what the teachers want, they should NOT lobby the government for guaranteed quantities of dollars. Instead, since everything we do or use relies on production, they should teach the students how to be productive.

Anything that interferes with the freedom to teach students how to be net productive should be considered an enemy of the teacher, student and society.

Fundamentals

I have noticed that people eat food and use things.

The government produces nothing and wastes much.

Government has nothing to give.

Everything we do or use relies on production.

Through taxation, regulation, litigation and inflation, government reduces the quantity of production, which makes us all poorer.

The things we use must be produced.

I have noticed producers exchange with producers. Paper money which has been devalued and made worthless will not be accepted by a producer. Our dollars will soon be worthless, which means producers will not accept our dollars in exchange for what they have produced.

We have destroyed agriculture and industry in our nation.

We are losing generational knowledge and trade skills.

We can no longer produce adequate quantities of what we need and want.

Conclusion

Paper money is poverty. Electronic money is death. All nations which debase their currency have collapsed.

Unless we learn the truth about production and the truth about money, we will lose our liberty and prosperity. Unmistakable poverty and tyranny will take its place.

Dollars are worthless and useless in their own right. We must understand the true foundations of liberty, beginning with soil and production. Otherwise, when dollars can no longer be exchanged for production, we will witness the disintegration of the United States as we know it.

Every man, woman and child must learn and teach the truth about production and the truth about money.

If we do that, the United States of America will again be strong, prosperous and free.

Economic Terms in Scripture

Normally I would read the following list and ask the hearer to consider possible labels for the category.

So far, I have found agreement that economics is a suitable heading for the list.

Next I ask where the list was sourced. The answers are always reasonable and sometimes correct, since it really is just a guess. Some say economics books, dictionary or Scripture.

The answer is Scripture.

The third question follows the list.

Profit
Gain
Exchange
Bought
Price
Forfeit
Repay
Costly
Redeem
Ransom
Redemption
Cost
Inherit
Calculate
Enough
Wealth
Sell
Buy
Value
Debt
Certificate
Cancelled
Talents
Possessions
Debtor
Gift
Free
Forgive
Credited
Account
Due
Wages
Treasure
Deposit


What are the subtopics within Scripture from which these terms were drawn? Please read the list and answer for yourself before advancing.

The subtopics are salvation and the relationship between God and man.

Matthew 16:26-27 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds. NASB95

1 Corinthians 6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. NASB95

1 Corinthians 7:23 You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. NASB95

Psalm 49:5-9 Why should I fear in days of adversity, When the iniquity of my foes surrounds me, Even those who trust in their wealth And boast in the abundance of their riches? No man can by any means redeem his brother Or give to God a ransom for him— For the redemption of his soul is costly, And he should cease trying forever— That he should live on eternally, That he should not undergo decay. NASB95

Revelation 21:6-7 Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. NASB95

Colossians 2:2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, NASB95

Luke 14:27-29 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, NASB95

Matthew 13:44-46 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. NASB95

Colossians 2:14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. NASB95

Matthew 6:12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. NASB95

Matthew 25:14-15 “For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. “To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. NASB95

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. NASB95

Romans 4:3-9 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, And whose sins have been covered. “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” NASB95

2 Timothy 1:14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. NASB95

2 Timothy 1:14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. ESV

Much can be said about this economic correlation to spiritual and eternal things in Scripture. The implications are far reaching. It seems to me that in order to understand God's view of economics in spiritual matters, we must have a correct temporal view of economics.

I will save other commentary and illustrations for another time.

How to spot Natural Money

Natural money has at least the following two attributes:

1. If the substance or thing were never again used or accepted as money beginning right this instant, it would still have at least one other practical, productive use.
2. The Productivity Filter CANNOT be bypassed in bringing the substance or thing to market.

For instance, if US Dollars (which we know are costless to produce) were not accepted as money any longer, they would be useless.

Even though Gold and Silver have been outlawed as money, they continue to be mined and used.

Great nations are built and stand on natural money.

Costless money is a burden, indeed a cancer, no nation has the strength to bear.

Costless money causes us to fund our own destruction.

When we support costless money or fail to understand and defend natural money, we actually have chosen to give up Liberty in exchange for certain tyranny.

Benefits of Natural Money

Following is a simple but powerful chart that explains a key difference between the Austrian School of economics and the Keynesian School of economics. (I cringe when using the label "Keynesian School of economics", since it is actually a political ideology with no basis in economics, except in terms of destruction.)

What we are looking at is the way that each system views Private Property and Time.

Note: To be more brief and direct, I will ascribe positions to the Austrian School based on my own interpretation. To get a full spectrum of Austrian views, refer to the vast library of materials on the subject.



First let's briefly look at Private Property.

Austrian View

The Austrian School holds that Private Property is inseparable from Liberty.

Therefore, a just economic system will not include any scheme that forces a person to work in order to retain his private property.

Keynesian View

In the Keynesian system, property tax essentially makes a person a tenant on government property. If the present owner does not produce enough to pay the tax, the government takes the property away and assigns it to a serf, I mean citizen, who will produce enough to pay the tax.

The Keynesian system is designed to allocate property based on production. The state is to be the beneficiary of the productivity of the property manager.

(We sometimes think of the Keynesian property manager as an "owner", but a true Keynesian never does. A Keynesian knows a serf when he sees one.)

Next let's briefly look at Time.

Austrian View

The Austrian School recognizes that people are more prosperous based on quantity, quality and efficiency of production. The more people produce, the more prosperous the society becomes.

It really is a simple idea. Produce more, have more.

In simple terms, to be more productive, we use machines.

Machines enter the production system through innovation, engineering, testing, manufacturing and deployment.

In order to bring a more efficient machine into the production process, one will need to use capital. The capital will come from real savings of real property which has been produced and collected in the past.

In simple terms, if my new machine makes everyone ten percent more efficient, then our purchasing power will increase by ten percent. We will all benefit from the extra production.

If the producer's project fails, then the producer will lose his collateral.

The investor will gain or lose based on the value of the collateral.

However, since everything we spent was a result of actual production in the past, every vendor was fully paid and society is essentially unaffected. (There are effects, but the effects are positive and not important for this discussion.)

Keynesian View

On the other hand, the Keynesian approach is based on consumption. The idea is that if we increase spending, the economy will prosper. A sophisticated argument can be made, but I will keep the explanation very simple by noting two things.

First, the Keynesians explicitly state that the purpose of their system (which we have used for over 100 years) is to destroy capitalism and therefore to destroy liberty.

In other words, the consumption model is bad, to put it lightly.

Secondly, because the way the "economy is stimulated" is by borrowing against future productivity in the form of costless money, this approach is like an individual attempting to borrow his way out of debt. That doesn't work.

The Keynesian model is anti-liberty, anti-capitalism, anti-prosperity and leads to destruction. Keynesianism is about instant gratification and promises the bill will be paid with future (read "kids and grandkids") production.

The Austrian model is in agreement with Biblical principle and leads to liberty, justice, prosperity, and personal accountability. The Austrian School is about good stewardship of work that has been completed in the past.

Shane's Ship Story

We have so many problems. Which problem is most important?

Someone says: Well clearly, my problem is the one we need to fix first… We must solve the thing that is most important to me first. After all, I am working on the thing I think is most important. Otherwise I would be working on something else…

May I encourage you to think with me on this?

What if there actually is a way to solve 95% of our problems by working together to solve a certain root cause of all our problems? I know this can be done.

Join me in recognizing that problems should be prioritized. Let’s see if there is such a thing as a highest priority problem.

Let’s use a ship analogy.

Suppose there is a large, sophisticated, 4,000 passenger ship designed to sail from one continent to another over the course of three months. Suppose this ship has a several problems, including a rude captain, four thieves, a murderer, a pirate, a lazy crew, poorly prepared food, severely damaged dishes, crumbling paint and lumpy mattresses.

Which problem would you address first? And when would this happen?

Suppose there are three groups who each identify the problems they consider most important. Suppose they divide their energies and go to work. Let’s say that they all succeed or that some succeed or that none succeed. You choose the outcome you prefer.

Let’s also suppose that there is one other problem. The ship has a large hole that takes on water at a rate of 500 gallons per minute. Using every available resource, only 250 gallons per minute can be pumped out of the ship. At this rate, the ship will sink somewhere over the deep ocean about halfway to its destination.

While all the issues are important, only the hole in the ship affects every person on the ship. Only one problem absolutely must be solved or all is lost for the passengers.

The same problem will provide gain for the pirate and his associates. They like the hole.

The pirate who drilled the hole will have a vessel waiting to collect the loot and carry him on to the next adventure. He knows that the mathematical reality of water flow guarantees the ship will sink.

The only hope for the passengers is for them to know about the hole in the ship and plug it.

While they cannot remove the water fast enough, there will be no need to remove any water if they simply plug the hole before they leave. If the hole is plugged along the way, then once the hole is plugged, they have time, resources and opportunity to save themselves and the ship.

If they have knowledge of the hole and understand its effect, they will plug the hole and the remaining problems will matter again.

If for any reason they do not plug the hole, nothing else matters because good food and soft mattresses are not needed by people who have been looted and left to die.

Now let’s see if there is such thing as a root cause.

Suppose the pirate offered safe passage and part of the loot to the captain, part of the crew, the murderer, thieves and the ship owner.

Now we see clearly that the passenger’s loss is their gain. We also see that the danger we face, this group does not face.

We can also see that the reason this group of people has gathered on the ship is to steal, kill and destroy.

If the passengers were aware of what was coming, they would patch the hole and deal with the pirate.

But let’s just suppose that the passengers patch the hole and don’t even realize that this plan was in motion.

With hope of success gone, the pirate, murderer, thieves, captain and lousy crew would leave. Since now there will be no insurance settlement, the ship owner would again need to provide a valuable product and service to stay in business. To prevent loss, he would ensure that the food and other comforts were at least adequate and he would hire a dependable captain and crew.

Now we see that the hole in the ship was part of a plan to capture wealth. When the hope of gain through theft was gone, the criminals disbanded, the owner protected his property and employed his capital to gain a return. The passengers were safe and recipients of good service.

The Lesson

Some problems make all other problems meaningless and unimportant. Some problems are a higher priority.

Some problems are the hidden cause of other problems. The secondary problems divert our attention and keep us busy while our ship is sinking.

The United States is like this ship. We are nearing the deep waters. We must plug the hole. If we plug the hole, the problem you are most concerned about will probably disappear.

Do you know what the hole is?

Ban guns and only the criminals will have guns

The second amendment is not about hunting.

A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government. - George Washington

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. - Thomas Jefferson

The State is Wise and the Market is Stupid

George F. Will recently wrote:

In his wise book "Capitalism, Democracy & Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery," John Mueller, an Ohio State political scientist, notes that John Maynard Keynes's central theme, according to his biographer Robert Skidelsky, was that "the state is wise and the market is stupid." Mueller continues: "Working from that sort of perspective, India's top economists for a generation supported policies of regulation and central control that failed abysmally -- leading one of them to lament recently, 'India's misfortune was to have brilliant economists.' " Many of them were educated in Britain, by Keynes's followers. In America today, everyone agrees that the president-elect's economic team is composed of brilliant economists.

I don't know anything about John Mueller, but he is correct in noting John Maynard Keynes' central theme: the state is wise and the market is stupid.

In other words, Keynes operated as though government, politicians, bureaucrats, laws, regulations, favored elites etc. are wise.

And likewise, Keynes believed the market (if you are a producer, that means you) is stupid.

Maybe Keynes was right. Clearly the free market is more productive, efficient, just and stable than any economic order government will ever be associated with engineering and thereby perverting and destroying.

However, someone, working on behalf of "government", has made choices which enable an elite few to pillage the producers. Maybe Keynes was part wrong; "the government" is certainly not wise. Interventionist government is sly, coercive, deceptive and destructive. But Keynes may have been right that the market (that's us) is stupid.

Even if you are one of those persons who know how the game is played, meaning you know how to operate so that you are pillaging your neighbors rather than being pillaged, your knowledge is useless unless you keep playing the game. When you stop pillaging, you are pillaged. Even as you go about your business of accumulating wealth, you participate in a system that can only move closer to destruction. Anyone who knows the truth and remains silent is helping to produce for their children and fellow citizens a legacy of doom and destruction.

I am an ardent supporter of capitalism and wealth. I strongly oppose theft through currency debasement, otherwise known as inflation. I strongly oppose forced income redistribution.

Benchmarking by the ravages of inflation and burgeoning government, we are productive, efficient and stupid.

Not to speak poorly of mules, but we seem to just bear up silently under the load like an old mule.

What happened to men and women of honor?

Where are our leaders?

Why have the citizens of this nation (and many other nations) been silent for nearly one hundred years while our homes, businesses, property and heritage are pillaged and destroyed through the process of inflation?

It makes me angry to think about those questions.

What is the goal?

The greatest temporal challenge we face as a nation is our monetary system.

Destruction and Robbery

We labor under a monetary system which is designed to destroy.

Lenin plainly stated that the system we now operate under would end in our destruction as a free society. The Five Guys Analogy illustrates that the process of inflation causes a wealth transfer. Keynes, speaking about Lenin as well as Keynes own views, stated the following:

Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some… Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.

The Economic Consequences of the Peace, John Maynard Keynes, 1919

Our nation is being robbed. You are being robbed, or you are robbing others. There is no middle ground. We must understand this as a nation. It is true.

The Printer and the Producer

In terms of money, consider this very simple illustration. We will remove all the middle men and rules in order to have a clear picture of what is happening to us.

Imagine you own a house, which you worked hard all your life to pay for. Let's say it cost $100,000.

Now imagine that you are going to sell that house. There are two buyers who are interested in purchasing your home. One offers you paper money and the other offers you gold.

The paper money is identical to the dollars you use every day, but was printed in the garage of the first buyer the same morning he came over to make an offer.

The gold was mined from the ground and refined by the second buyer. The gold came from property the second buyer worked for and the mining and processing was done using labor and equipment he owned or leased.

To which one will you feel better about handing over your house keys?

Would you sell to the producer or the printer?

If you sell to the printer you are exchanging your labor and productivity for an illusion of value.

If you sell to the producer, you are exchanging labor for labor, productivity for productivity.

Further analysis will follow in another post to illustrate how fractional and fiat money provides for transfer of property into the hands of persons who have no right to the property.

Crisis Pregnancy and Planned Parenthood

Suppose you have a desire to protect unborn children. Maybe you hold the view that those female fetuses, young ladies who are a few days old, also have a right to life. Maybe they should have a choice. The fifth amendment states:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Our first property rights are for our own person. It seems that abortion would be illegal based on the fifth amendment, if for no other reason. Surely an unborn baby has broken no law worthy of death.

In any case, suppose you hold the view that abortion is wrong, as I do. If that is the case, then you want to work to protect the unborn.

The current environment we operate under is as follows:

Local Crisis Pregnancy Centers are under-funded and staffed by volunteers. They are strictly limited with regard to presenting the pro-life position in schools.

On the other hand, Planned Parenthood is provided with millions of dollars each year by the government, in order to promote the practice of abortion. They have open doors in the schools. In some places school officials can assist young girls with an abortion without parental notification. Their cause is promoted in the media and by the government.

Best Protection

The most effective action we can take is to cut off their funding and keep our own productivity. In this way the crisis pregnancy centers are strengthened, the propaganda is dramatically decreased and Planned Parenthood will have to raise money based on merit, rather than coercion of the people by government.

So... What is the goal?

Ideally we want to abolish the federal reserve and return to a sound money system. However, that is an enormous obstacle to overcome.

Here is what we can do now: We can tell the truth. We can educate our citizens. We can help people understand what government has done to our money.

Once we do that, let's see what follows. Maybe people will object to being robbed and demand real change.

The Purpose of Inflation

Some forms of increasing a money supply are ethical, while others are not ethical. Here we will offer a few comments and definitions which will help describe key features of an inflationary monetary system.

Inflation

Working definitions of inflation often include reference to money class and ethics of production, in addition to quantity. Here we will offer three definitions of inflation, including the most basic definition possible.

The first definition addresses only the quantity attribute in defining inflation.

Definition 1: Inflation is any increase in a money supply.

The next two definitions of inflation take into account the following three attributes:

• Money class
• Relative money quantity between money classes
• Ethics of money production and use

Definition 2: Inflation is defined as “an extension of the nominal quantity of any medium of exchange beyond the quantity that would have been produced on the free market" - The Ethics of Money Production, Jorg Guido Hulsmann

Definition 3: Inflation is defined as “the process of issuing money beyond any increase in the stock of specie” - (Man, Economy, and State, 3rd ed., 1993, p. 851, Murray Rothbard)

Purpose of Inflation

When inflating with costless money, the purpose of inflation is to use NEW MONEY to purchase REAL ASSETS at OLD PRICES, thereby causing a wealth transfer from the people who get the new money last, toward the people who get the new money first.

In other words inflation is a sophisticated form of ROBBERY made possible by legalized “money” creation ex nihilo.

Sound Money

Sound money is a commodity that is costly to produce and which has been voluntarily accepted by market participants for use in indirect exchange.