but that could be just a moral fable to dissuade behavior.

It’s true. It was studied in Chicago at a housing project. I’ll slander the guy by saying that I think he gained the trust of the dealers by being a steady customer (judging by his picture).

The people at the bottom make big chunks of money in small spurts. Their days worked are interrupted by frequent stay in jail which cuts their overall wages.

I see it at work too. If you use a lot of creativity and take big risks to steal $100,000 but spend five years in prison you earned $20,000/year. You are now a convicted felon and are being supervised by a probation officer for the next three (or so) years.

the movement of money is a delicate game in that it is a representation of effort. whenever the supply of money increases to the point where it exceeds the amount of effort that created it there is going to be an adjustment.

i agree that it isn`t a zero sum in that if one person has a hundred dollars it`s somehow diminished your ablity to get a hundred of your own….but there certainly are a finite amount of man hours available in a labour pool.

interestingly i was reading an article recently about beach bums in california in the sixties selling dope so they didn`t have to work, though the effort to grow or otherwise find dope to sell is work…..though the position pays better that selling happy meals.

I’ll have to look into that. One brightside of this fact that the poor simply need to become entrapreneurs, is that people in the first world can go into business with them. Foreign aid never really works. Its demeaning.

People in the devoloping world want to do business with Americans and make money. Its commerce on equal terms that way.

We need poor people to learn to create wealth.

That’s what Gandhi did with his whole spinning wheel thing…

They made it possible for wealth to exponentially increase in the world and for private people to accumulate it.

All we really need to do is get everyone on the planet on board with those ideas. Not a redistribution of wealth. We need poor people to learn to create wealth. The supply is not limited.

But I think the Pope hearkens back to monarchy. Monarchs existed not simply because they were able to con everyone, but because people wanted a figure head to give them a sense of identity. A central figure around which to organize society.

So thats what that is all about.

But that is a common argument about, why, when there are people starving, do Catholic churches, the Vatican etc. need to have so many gold decorations. The two aren’t really connected. Wealth isn’t a zero sum game. There is no finite amount of wealth in the world that is being hogged by a few people and kept from many others.

I was hung up on this kind of thinking for a long time, but I don’t think it is true. That’s also why I no longert think the dollar would have been better off being backed by gold. I think its better to have a money supply that increases with the increase of wealth. If the money supply was static the way Ron Paul advocates wealth would be more of a zero sum game.

i always contend that we are still living in a fuedal autocracy, it`s just that the pesants have hi-def tv and broad-band internet.

we still have to use the king`s roads and so on….and pay per use. and the king`s men cruise around amongst us to enforce thier position.

For more on that subject:

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2008...16/carnival-culture-06-peace-keepers/

i was in a cab when the pope gave a speech and the little italian cab driver became so distracted that he slowed to a crawl for several minutes as he listened.

regarding mass starvation, it makes sense from a commercial standpoint that if labour costs become prohibitive (thanks unions….) then capital will go elsewhere, and so the redundant labour force will have to fend as best they can. if the capital crunch becomes large enough and long enough then inflation will over-run a sustainable economy and then civil unrest will ensue over time.

the movie i am legend touches on that.

one good bio fuck-up and there goes the majority of the population.

i always contend that we are still living in a fuedal autocracy, it`s just that the pesants have hi-def tv and broad-band internet.

we still have to use the king`s roads and so on….and pay per use. and the king`s men cruise around amongst us to enforce thier position.

I totally agree that mass starvation might be a goal of many powerful interests.

What happens next is my real question, I guess. Even if there’s no food shortage, but it’s being made to appear as though there is a shortage, then what’s the next stage of the game, what’s the outcome, how do people prepare?

“If there was a food shortage the commod[i]ties being grown for fuel would be confiscated and turned into food where possible.”

I detect a flaw in your logic.

You assume some entity will automatically confiscate non-farmed land and turn it towards farming every time there is a food shortage. This would only be true if such an entity would be interested in preventing food shortages, rather than enabling them.

By some entity, I mean the “government,” whatever that is.

Historically, governments have frequently told their subjects to “Eat Cake!”

Of course, there is no real reason that “we” would need ethanol, any more than “we” would need say, Britney Spears, an iPod, or other manufactured wants. But that doesn’t stop such wants from being manufactured, because such wants produce the necessary leverage for control.

Ethanol has to be one of the deadliest, “dumbest” ideas, bar none. There are so many other ways to make energy, aside from exhausting the land supply, a limited resource, to grow something that will be combusted. I mean, this is about as dumb, if not more dumb than burning up all of the petroleum, a resource that is probably limited, when said petroleum could at least be made into plastics, which are somewhat recyclable, reclaimable, and have a longer shelf-life.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid...&sid=aKuLB8TWqrBo&refer=india

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssCon...dsAndRetailNews/idUSN2229775120080422

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europ...22/trinidad_inflation_causes_concern/

This is ok too.

http://www.agribusiness-mgmt.wsu.edu/E...etters/price-cost/Price_Inflation.pdf

This seems to be the general consensus of thinking, humane libertarians. The other kind are nuts.

http://www.dailyreckoning.us/blog/?p=790

I’m at work now so I can’t provide you with any links. You’re right on about the religious aspect.

Inquiring minds want to know!