To fix the money system, we need to return to a high level of ethics. Whilst we live under the laws of a nation state, this will be difficult. With the laws of a nation-state, the people try to avoid getting caught or they work around the law. The nation state imposes new laws on a regular basis, yet people still get around them. A value system operates a little differently. I usually say to people “Do the right thing”. Jesus basically said to the people: “You people are doing things wrong. You must start being good to each other.” It does not need a big rule book for “Do the right thing”. It is already inside us. Inwardly, we know what is right and wrong. Most of our value system appears to be given to us by our mothers in our early years. Later it may be enhanced by our fathers. A return to a value system backed by a religious system is difficult because Christianity is progressively being destroyed in the ‘West’. The value system remains and is taught to the children by their mothers. You will still hear people shout: “That is wrong!” They are referring to the value system that they were taught by their mothers in early age and reinforced by fathers. This statement will carry no weight in the courtroom of a nation-state. The laws of the nation-state override the value system. In this chapter, I shall discuss many aspects of the value system as taught by mothers, the ethics system as encouraged by the various religions and the legal system of the nation state. The aim is to see if we can rebuild a system where ‘Doing the right thing’ can be used to influence the laws of the nation-state. This is complex and you will need to search parts of your mind that you don’t utilize much. If you went to a school and then to a university, you have been trained to be logical and reason through everything. You will quite likely have lost your intuition and instinct. You will have become obsessed with personal success. This chapter might be difficult for those that have had their mind altered by an education system. All through our upbringing, we were taught not to say what is on our mind, buts appropriate. We don’t actually say what we are thinking, we say appropriate words. We say “Pleased to meet you” when we are thinking ‘I would rather talk to a person on the other side of the room. How can I get out of this conversation?’.

When we went from being hunter-gatherers to being civilized, we needed various changes.

• We needed food to come to us. We now call this agriculture.
• We needed a set of rules.
• We learned that if we tied one man to one woman, we harnessed the energy of the males. This was a big change. Before civilization, males were troublesome. They eventually became trained by their mothers to be respectful to girls and care for them.
• We invented the money token. After civilization occurred, humans lived by trading with each other. The token enabled the trade to become efficient. The strange thing is that the token itself has no intrinsic value. The token value comes from the goods or service for which it can be exchanged. If more can be purchased, its value is up and if less can be purchased, its value is down.

Those that created the rules, were called the religious people. They tied the rules up with all the crazy stuff that goes on in our heads. We have been trained by our mothers, fathers, and teachers to say only appropriate things, not what was happening in our heads. We are told that if we are good, we go to heaven and if we are bad we go to hell. This occurs after we die. The judge is ourselves and we are the best judge. We know everything that we have done. We operate on a simple rule which approximates to ‘Do the right thing’. It operates on one single rule and various guidelines. You will hear people discussing these guidelines in conversations involving right and wrong. The nation-state does it differently. It has great piles of books of rules that even legal eagles don’t fully understand. The individual no longer worries about whether an action is right or wrong but whether they will get caught. They also try to get around the existing laws or try to influence the composition of the law to tolerate their actions. If something is tolerated by the law of the nation-state, they consider their action to be acceptable even if most would consider the action ‘wrong’ or unethical. Thus it is possible to have actions that are acceptable under the law of the land but might be considered wrong under a traditional value system.

The religious people also recognized that there was a place in our brain for a god-like figure. I set a little project for myself each year when traveling. One was to find out who god was. I asked people in many countries what they perceived god to be. Many told me that he is like a real person. Some say they ask him questions. When we have a difficult question to solve, we often think: “What would so-and-so do in this situation?” So-and-so might be a favorite aunt or uncle. It might be the mother or a favorite school teacher. There appears to be a place for a god-like figure in our heads. The religious people understood this and wrapped it into the rule system.

Moses

The old testament has a lot of nasty stuff in it of the ‘smite thee down type’. Find a copy of Deuteronomy and open it at random places. It is not nice reading. Moses said the following:

  “You shall not charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest. You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your countrymen, you shall not charge interest, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to possess.” [Deuteronomy 23:19-20]

He is suggesting that you should not lend money and expect more in return from those in the community but you can lend and expect more in return from people from other parts. This allowed economic subjugation of an enemy. He is also saying that his people are to enter a new land and possess it. This is not acceptable. He is condoning theft of land. As Christians, this is not acceptable. Moses also said:

  “For the Lord thy God blesseth you, as he promised you: and you shall lend unto many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.” [Deuteronomy 15:6]

Moses said similar here:

  “The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.” [Deuteronomy 28:12]

Here, Moses gets really nasty:

  “But of those cities that shall be given you, you shall suffer none at all to live. But shall kill them with a sword, to wit, the Hethite, and the Amorrhite, and the Canaanite, the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite, as the Lord thy God has commanded you. Lest they teach you to do all the abominations which they have done to their gods: and you should sin against the Lord your God.” [Deuteronomy 20:16 to 18]

Here Moses says that land shall be given to his people and the incumbents should be slaughtered. This is not a recommendation. This is an instruction. It is not optional. You must kill them. We need to abandon the laws of Moses. The laws of Moses contain the formula for oligarchy and genocide and they should be rejected.

Jesus arrived and, although he suggests that he came to keep the rules, he clearly suggests that people need to be decent to each other. His teachings appear to align with the thinking of the Essenes. It might be better to say that the Essenes were a strong influence on Jesus. By the time of Jesus, the society in Palestine had split up into three distinct sects. The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. The Essenes were community based in the country and in towns. They studied numerous religions and it appears that they picked the best parts of the many religions. They were highly regarded for their virtue. They ran healing centers in their communities which were open to all. The teachings of Jesus appear to align with the thought processes of the Essenes.

Jesus preached peace and cooperation and stood against wrong-doing. The stand against wrongdoing may have had a violent element. The new testament written in his name is a somewhat like of a book of riddles but I always say “his message can be interpreted as ‘do the right thing’.” Over three centuries latter, Emperor Constantine chose Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. There are advantages in only having one religion in a nation. When people are operating on different value sets and different interpretations of right and wrong, problems occur as splits appear in society. Aggravation develops amongst the various groups within society. Gadhafi said that it was better to only have one religion in a nation. The Quran is a very good guide book.

It is difficult to tell how close the New Testament is to the teachings of Jesus. How much was put in there to make the citizenry easier to control by the state apparatus and by oligarchs that may from time to time control the state apparatus. The church states that Jesus died to “Save our souls”. This approach makes people feel guilty for his death. That was not the intention of Jesus as he prepared to die at the hands of the Romans supported by the local ruling elite. He died trying to prevent the ruling authorities and their henchmen from oppressing the remainder of the citizens. We need to realign our Christian thinking in line with the example of Jesus as backed up by the approach used by the Essenes. In our general value system, we support that which is ‘right’ and stand up against that which is ‘wrong’. There is only one rule: ‘Do the right thing’. There are guidelines and discussions on what is right. Taking nations to war as advertised on news systems that get their news from oligarch-funded think tanks is not included. The ‘making of money from money’ is not included. Humans live by trading with each other using a carefully managed supply of tokens. Manipulation of the tokens in any form is not the ‘right’ thing. The Essene approach to religion with its value system will take its concepts from the best of each existing religion. What clearly will not be part of an Essene type solution is the rules of Moses.

There appears to be about sixteen years missing from the life of Jesus in the New Testament. It is possible that Jesus travelled on the trading routes through to India and learned of the teachings of the Buddhists, about Krishna, and possibly about other religions. The Buddhists of Thailand certainly have a good outlook on life. They are always happy and enjoy making others happy, but they don’t put up with any nonsense. I also teach people that the way to be happy is to make others happy. When out with my big groups of young on eighteenth or twenty something birthdays, I get many questions. I am often perceived to be a happy person. I get asked the secret to happiness and I explain: “The way to be happy in life is to make others happy.” This takes further explanation: “Happiness is not doing self-indulgent things like racing your motorcycle. Happiness comes from making those around you happy. Sometimes that means ‘kicking their backsides’.” Sometimes I trying to get someone to stop frowning or give up cigarettes or kick a bad habit. Other times I teach a girl to smile at people. This is all in my next book.

If Jesus did not go to India, he appears to talk like a Buddhist. He gives a new view on religion. In effect bringing in a new way. Effectively rejecting the ways of old that were the ideas and rules of the Old testament. In Matthew 5:38-39, he rejects the Old Testament ‘Eye for an Eye’ philosophy which accepts the concept of vengeance. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” Jesus is saying that vengeance is not appropriate. If we seek vengeance we are displaying hatred. The approach of Jesus is closer to the compassion of a mother for her child. She admonishes them, but does not destroy them. The mother does not use vengeance.

The modern equivalent of the voice of Jesus would be to reestablish Christianity with an approach that takes some guidelines from the best components of other religions. This fresh approach would be composed of the concepts that a ‘good’ person would deem to be ‘good’. Thus, the guidelines become fluid enough to change to our modern society. We must remember that an essential component of the creation of a society was to limit individual demands, urges and whims and create a culture of community responsibility. We cannot let demands for ‘individual’ rights override the cooperative efforts required to maintain a sustainable civilized society. I sometimes say, in a joking manner: “God invented night so that people would sleep. Some clown invented the electric light and now we stay up all night. Some even sleep whilst the sun is shining.” Cities with airports tend to be the most affected because the international planes have inconvenient timings. Back to the sleep part. As most people sleep at night it is a community responsibility for others to keep the noise level down in suburban areas. We don’t keep the noise down because the police might knock on the door. We keep the noise down because we have a responsibility to the community. I get frustrated at the volume of litter I see in all places as I travel around the world. Yet there is no way it can be stopped by regulations alone. The will of the people demanding that all do the ‘right’ thing by not dropping litter establishes a new guideline in the value system. It is quite different when people state: “It is ‘wrong’ to drop litter” to a law stating that a fine will be imposed on those that litter. A law is something where people avoid getting caught. A person violating the value system is a pariah to the society.

By the time of Jesus, the abuse of the money system had become more sophisticated. The money changers were manipulating the exchange rate for distant coins. Jesus objected to the manipulation of money for gain. We can assume that the general theme was that money system should not be abused for personal gain and that the money system should not be used to disadvantage other people. The Essenes were progressive in that they studied numerous religious texts to develop a better religious system. So a modern interpretation of Jesus and the Essenes is to consider any manipulation of the money system for personal gain is wrong.

Jesus was preaching against the money system for personal gain and impoverishment for others. It was not the usury that Moses ruled on. Moses promoted usury for the subjugation of foreigners. It may have been ‘legal’ for the moneychangers in the temple to exchange half-shekels at an extortionate exchange rate, but it was not ethical. By law, the moneychangers were not breaking the law of the land. Neither were they breaking the laws of Moses. The religious leaders did not stop their activities. Jesus just declared them to be a “den of vipers”! This was not backed by nation-state law, nor religious rules, nor any interpretations by the religious leaders. Jesus was operating on a value system of right and wrong. This value system is essential for the success of a society. Jesus never got around to writing a book of right and wrong. We have to interpret it.

This makes those trading in derivatives to be doing ‘wrong’ by society. To operate a money system for personal profit is ‘wrong’. The money system is a human creation to add efficiency to the way humans trade. It was not invented for any group to monopolize or manipulate. It was a gift from the inventor for the benefit of all mankind. To make a living from an activity is acceptable, but to impoverish others whilst doing so is unacceptable, irrespective of the laws of a nation-state.

We need to adapt our religion to meet modern times. Although many may claim to reject religion they still talk about heaven and hell and say “My god” The church schools are still full and they accept the value system which is based on Christianity. They are taught not to hate and are often more righteous than the regular church-goers. They are strong with their statements about something being ‘wrong’. They say “That is WRONG!” Their analysis is not based on any religious edict or any nation-state law. They simply deem it to be “WRONG”. Such a system needs strong support from the mothers that are the first to imbue the value system into their children. This is mostly what happens anyway. It is possible for some mothers to imbue their children with hate for some class or creed or other religion. This must be guarded against and discouraged in the strongest way possible. It cannot be assumed that mothers of every religion would support this approach. I remember an Aunt that proclaimed that “British was best”. At that age, I was well aware that the British could not currently make a motorcycle that would compete against those made elsewhere. It is not acceptable for a group to teach a value system that contained the concept that members of their religion are superior to members of another religion. It is not acceptable to teach that a crime against a member of another religion is not a real crime. It is not acceptable that the young should be taught that members of another group or religion may be tricked or defrauded. It is not acceptable to teach that stealing from certain other groups is acceptable. It is also not acceptable to go into a war advertised by media using reports generated by oligarch-funded ‘think tanks’.

We need to reestablish the norms of society with a strong accent on values and ethics. This includes standing up against that which is wrong. Jesus stood up against that which was wrong in society. He was not standing on a principle of law as no nation-state law was being broken. He was not standing against a religious law as no religious law existed on monetary exchange procedures. He was standing on undocumented rules of right and wrong required to operate a harmonious society.

Jesus did not say: “You are breaking the law.” Jesus said: “You are a den of vipers.”.

Derivatives

The derivatives system moves money to richer people. It needs a constant supply of gullible investors for the derivatives traders to fleece. The derivatives system provides no benefit to society. It produces no product or service. The derivatives system has a zero sum total. Money is only moved from party A to party B. For every winner, there is a looser. It is a sum zero system.

The derivatives system will not work if all the vultures are only dealing with other vultures and those vultures are equally skilled. Vultures do not eat vultures.

Tax Laws

Tax laws deprive the young of homeownership. The young are not aware that the tax laws have been set up to disadvantage them. The vultures at the top of the feeding chain do not announce that they have encouraged nation-state tax laws to favor the vultures to the disadvantage of the young and unaware. Depreciation laws force expanding businesses into debt. Small-time entrepreneurs are not aware that depreciation tax arrangements drive them to the moneylenders. They just assume that this is natural. The same problem occurs with the trading stock of businesses. To the business it is an expense, because the business has spent money on trading stock. No income is derived until the goods are sold. Income Tax arrangements do not allow a deduction for money spent on inventory. This inhibits expansion and pushes small traders to the moneylenders. Companies sell off shares in their business to acquire the money to trade. The vultures that win from this arrangement fail to notify of their advantage. By our new code of ethics, they should do. Depreciation laws remove ownership of companies into the hands of the affluent. For a business to expand, it needs equipment, which it buys. Yet the asset value is treated as income when it is operational equipment. Those acquiring the ownership through share purchase take no part of the day to day stress of operation but make money on money.

Land Tax

The lack of a Land Tax system causes land prices to escalate property prices to unaffordable levels that eventually destroy the livelihood of businesses. Then the businesses close and manufacturing moves to a region or nation where the usury of land is not so prevalent. The new location goes through the same process until it also collapses. It is not acceptable that the young are deprived of the opportunity to a share of the land in a nation by a band of ‘real estate’ investors that outbid young couples because of tax loopholes. This band of ‘real estate’ investors provide no useful service to society and monopolize land to the exclusion of the younger generations.

I always remember reading a book, long long ago, about the dynasties of China. A new dynasty starts and an oligarchic elite builds up until it becomes so dominant that the citizens become so repressed that they rebel and tip the dynasty upside-down. Whence the process starts all over again. The cycle appears to last about three hundred years.

We must recognize that the Quran has many good components. Ignore the jihad components. Every nation and religion has a need to protect itself and stand up against foreign marauders and bad influence. In the limit, force is needed. Even Jesus resorted to the use of force against the money manipulators. The equivalent money manipulators still operate on the Foreign Exchange Market where they happily fleece nations. This is one of the components of Christianity that has been downgraded by the Church. Jesus took up arms against those that were doing wrong in the temple, even if the arms consisted of a whip. He also instructed his followers to obtain a sword and sell the overcoat to buy it if necessary. I don’t advocate violence, but gross wrongdoing has to be stopped. The current wrongdoers are prepared to set the gullible police, employed by the nation-state, against the people. The police are targeting the wrong people. There are numerous reports that you are more likely to get killed by the government than by a criminal. This has the name of “democide”. This suggests that government is becoming the enemy of the people as in the times of Jesus.

The church has put a spin on Christianity and we need to look past the spin. There are other documents that give information about Jesus. There are documents that suggest what happened after Jesus ‘rose from death’. There is evidence that Jesus traveled quite widely after his resurrection. It is quite likely that the Muslims are correct that he was not the one nailed to the scaffold and that he disappeared to preach elsewhere. Christianity should be more fluid than the rigid doctrine of the church and the blind faith that the church requires. The life of Jesus is the life of Jesus and not a construct of the organized church. Truth is truth. Truth cannot be decided by a committee nor a jury for that matter, nor the church. If Jesus traveled to India and elsewhere before his arrival in the New Testament, then that was part of the life of Jesus. If he traveled extensively after his resurrection, then that is part of the life of Jesus. Truth is truth, and we need more truth and we need confidence in the truth. Many people tell me that they no longer trust the mainstream media. They have good reason:

John Swinton was the former Chief of Staff for the New York Times. In 1953, this well-liked newspaperman was asked to give a toast at the New York Press Club:

“There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar weekly salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities, and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”

The distrust of the mainstream media is causing people to doubt things that most likely did happen such as the moon landing. It is not so much whether humans landed on the moon. People are doubting because the information came from a source that is no longer trusted. The fact that so many distrust what they are being told demonstrates a severe distrust of the power structure in our society. When it comes to religion, an item is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ on its merits and not a set of rules made by church officials in stone buildings. Right is right and wrong is wrong. If a priest does the wrong thing, he is wrong. No ifs or buts. He is a bad priest. The bad in our church must go. Wrong is wrong. The church has to wake up to the fact that we have a greater access to information. We must not let the Christian value system be overridden because there are a few rotten apples in the system. Nor must we let the Christian value system be ignored because it differs from a nation-state that tolerates the abuse of money. Nor must we let the Christian value system be undermined by Hollywood and New York media that encourages promiscuity, marriage breakup, friction between those of different gender, colour, race or religion.

‘Do the right thing’ is almost the only rule that we need. It must not be forgotten that we live in a society that needs a cooperative approach to people’s activities such that a person’s ‘rights’ are not impinged by another person’s individual ‘rights’. Community responsibility overrides individual rights. That is not to deny freedom but to ensure peaceful cooperation.

Applying this to the financial area, it is necessary to decide the purpose of money in civilized society. Humans live by trading with each other. Humans invented tokens to trade. Anything that hampers this is wrong. Hoarding of the circulating medium is the first main problem. It is worded in the Quran as:

Quran 9.35: On that day, it (that hoarded wealth) will be heated in the fire of Hell and, therewith, their foreheads and their sides and their backs will be branded (and they will hear): “This is the treasure which you hoarded up for yourselves; taste now what you were busy hoarding!”[1]

The Quran often gets it right but the interpretations by current commentators are not so reliable. On many of these money matters, it is useful to listen to the Islamic scholar’s interpretation of the Quran. Not that their advice should be treated as a rule but one should pick up their line of thinking. They are dealing with a very old guidebook written in times before modern finance. The Quran has no ruling on derivatives and short selling as they were unknown practices at that time. However, Mohamed had a good understanding of money matters because he was a trader and recognized that credit was required for business to operate. Business needs money before it can make money.

Hoarding prevents money from circulating. The problem lies in the hoarding of money by persons with ‘more money than they can spend’. Money is the medium of exchange between humans. When money is hoarded, the money becomes scarce. People are unable to obtain money. Exchanges are prevented due to hoarding. In the limit, as the exchange of money disappears, the economy comes to a grinding halt. When money is released from hoarding, the money resumes circulation and people can feed themselves again. Unfortunately, the old saying “save for a rainy day” is very harmful to the economy. The trick is to ensure that money loses value faster than goods lose value. Then people will keep goods rather than hoard money. Hoarding any other commodity is preferable to the hoarding of money. Every person’s income came from someone who got it from some previous person who got it from someone who got it from someone. If the money is pocketed by one of these for a significant time, you will have no income. It is the movement of money that creates an economy. Humans trade by trading between themselves. If anyone prevents the movement of money by hoarding they also prevent the trade between humans.

Money was created by humans to be circulated between humans to enable the trade necessary for human civilized life. The act of using ‘money to make money’ is a wrongdoing. Derivatives are a wrongful use of money. Derivatives do not involve the movement of goods and services and are thus an arrangement where money is moved from person to person without the movement of any goods or services. This is somewhat akin to betting on horses. It is a nil-sum betting arrangement. Those despised conspiracy theorists are prone to say that the financial system has been turned into a giant casino. Those that educate us with their news encourage us to worship those that make money from the gullible and despise those the become dispossessed. Derivatives are outside the purpose for which money was invented and should be banned. Islamic banking also forbids pure monetary speculation. Almost all money matters can be judged by remembering that: ‘Humans live by trading with each other.’ and ‘Tokens were invented to facilitate trade’. If any financial activity falls outside the spirit of those two statements, they are liable to be wrong.

Short Selling

A short sale is a transaction in which a speculator sell something that he does not own. The speculator borrows the shares from a stockbroker and sells these borrowed shares in anticipation that the price will decline before a final date. When he has sold the shares that he does not own, he waits for the anticipated price fall, whence he purchases the shares and returns the shares to the stock broker. Short selling should be considered ‘wrong’ simply for the reason that the seller is selling something that he does not own and never did own. The action has no gain for society.

Credit for business is essential for expansion of the business. At the other extreme, credit card interest rates of fifteen to twenty percent are excessive, exploitative and unnecessary. Student debt is an abomination. It is our duty to train the next generation to continue our system.

Land was originally provided to humans at no cost to share with all living things. Land ‘ownership’ started. Land was now owned by those that could purchase or obtain ‘rights’. Those that monopolized the land can then charge rent for the use of that land that was created for all to share. For some strange reason, even those that will never get to own land accept that the land that they have been deprived from their day of birth can be owned. They do not demand a share of that which was created for common ownership by plants, animals, and humans. We consider it normal to exclude animals, plants and other humans from nature’s gift. We buy a piece of land, chop down the trees build a fence, spray it with chemicals, and sometimes destroy its usefulness to future generations. Land is popular where employment is available. Land may have no practical use for growing food, but its proximity to facilities is the feature that gives value to land. The value of land is not intrinsic to the land but is strongly related to facilities built by others. The landowner has an asset whose value is dependent on the efforts of others including the government. The government built the roads, bridges, hospitals and schools that gives the value to the land. The rents for the use of this land should completely or partially flow to the government that gave value to the land. Land is popular and rents rise to the maximum people are prepared to pay. In a competitive environment, the rents will rise to the limit of what a person is capable of paying. The limit on what they are prepared to pay as rent rises to take the bulk of their income leaving them with just enough to feed the family. Land is thus monopolized by the sum of the group called ‘landlords’. When land is transferred for money, credit is created for the purchase by a bank. The bank creates credit and debt in equal quantities in a nil-sum double-entry-accounting procedure. It is thus able to create as much credit as is required by potential purchasers. Thus the bank creates as much credit as the real estate market can absorb. Thus the credit to purchase is rented to purchasers. The value of property is limited by the earning power of the borrowers. The value of property id entirely dependent upon what the bank is prepared to create as credit on its books. The price of the property rises such that the borrower is only left with sufficient to feed the family. In both situations, rent or interest rises to take the bulk of the income of an area where businesses are making money and employees are employed. Those most recent on the scene are the most disadvantaged. Their total income is taken as rent and the remainder as food. If this group starts to earn more, the rents rise. They need to work to remain housed and fed. The work they do is not an opportunity for economic advancement but an exercise in survival. They have no choice to take whatever work is available to pay the rent to those that have monopolized the land. Even when working, their total income is taken in rent and sustenance. This is quite close to the definition of slavery. Traditional slavery with slave masters was abandoned, not because it was unfair, but because the English system of the working poor was better. As people are driven off the land by those with better access to finance, the dispossessed take work wherever they can find work. They have to match the standards required or they get no money for board and keep. They pay rents to the same class of people that run the factories. The rents devour their income leaving little to feed themselves. This system requires no whipmasters, the workers do not need to be purchased and they do not need to be fed and housed. They turn up to work and work harder than a chain-gang slave. In the modern world, the money available to push up house prices and land prices is available in any quantity from the bank. The bank finishes up with a high proportion of the income of the businesses and the employees in interest for the land on which they labor. The profit allows them to buy shares in successful expanding businesses. The citizens have effectively become land renting debt slaves to the owners of the finance industry.

The Sets of Rules

As humans, we appear to operate under four sets of rules. The most obvious is the laws of the nation-state. The nation-state has decided that these take precedence. The second is given to us by our mothers when they are pushing us around in the pram. This appears to be my strongest set of rules. The third is the rules of the religion. These are set down in religious documents such as the bible and the Quran but are interpreted by the church or current religious leaders and the person themselves. If you think of your daily life, you don’t push in at the food queue because it is ‘not appropriate to do so’. This comes from your mother’s rules. There is no law that says: “do not push in”. In some countries, you find people do push in. I was watching Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean in this little hotel room in Tromso, Norway, and realized that he was constantly breaking these ‘mother’s rules’ that we might also call ‘social norms’. We find him utterly hilarious as he acts like a little boy that has yet to comprehend the ‘mother’s rules’. If you push into a traffic queue, you may be breaking some nation-state ‘dangerous driving’ law. You may also have an accident and be punished with insurance paperwork, insurance excess, personal unhappiness from a damaged car and social stigma of having an accident. Religious law governs other parts of our lives. Sometimes this covers items that we may not realize. Wrong doings under religion are called sins. If you are good, you will go to heaven. If you sin, you may go to hell, although repentance and forgiveness may occur. The origin of religions takes us back to our change from a hunter-gather life to a life in communities. The makers of laws were called the religious people. They created a set of rules that matched the hocus pocus that goes on in our brain and allowed a sustainable society. If they did not create an appropriate set or rules, that society disappeared along with its religion. A religion creates a sustainable society. In modern times, religious guidance has lost touch with reality. The big books used in religions are often thousands of years old and do not match the new world with its greater understanding of science and the formal education received in the schools operated by the nation-state. The religions emphasize moral and ethical codes that can be very beneficial to society. Religion was created at a time when there was little understanding about the world and how it works. We need to update it.

There is also a fourth set of rules. These are rules that you make yourself. One of mine is: “Never lie”. I usually word it like this: “Never lie.”. “But that does not mean that you have to tell the truth every time.”. Sometimes we avoid telling an ugly truth to avoid upsetting a person. However, falsehoods are to be avoided.

Other sets of rules may apply such as school rules, library rules, and company policy (rules). Others might be termed etiquette, such as restaurant etiquette and bulletin board etiquette.

Mr. Putin defends Christian values:

Putin 2016: “Many Western states have taken the way where they deny or reject their own roots, including their Christian roots which form the basis of Western civilization. In these countries, the moral basis and any traditional identity are being denied - national, religious, cultural and even gender identities are being denied or relativized.” [1]

Vladimir Putin continues:

“Without the moral values that are rooted in Christianity and other world religions, without rules and moral values which have formed and been developed over millennia, people will inevitably lose their human dignity.” [1]

And

“We think it is right and natural to defend and preserve these moral (Christian) values.” [1]

He suggested that the West was succumbing to secularism and was trending toward “chaotic darkness” and a “return to a primitive state.”

He even went as far as suggesting that the West is promoting a concept that “Faith in God is equal to faith in Satan.”

And

“Christian holidays and celebrations are abolished or ‘neutrally’ renamed, as if one were ashamed of those Christian holidays. With this method one hides away the deeper moral values of these celebrations.”

“And these countries try to force this model onto other countries, globally. I am deeply convinced that this is a direct way to the degradation and primitivization of culture. This leads to deeper demographic and moral crisis in the West. What can be a better evidence for the moral crisis of a human society [in the West] than the loss of its reproductive function?”

“Today nearly all ‘developed’ Western countries cannot survive reproductively, not even with the help of migrants.”

“Without the moral values that are rooted in Christianity and other world religions, without rules and moral values which have formed and been developed over millennia, people will inevitably lose their human dignity.”

Putin clearly wishes to defent Western values which are rooted in the teachings of Jesus. These moral values are taught by mothers and are the underpining of Christianity. The church sometimmes strays from Christianity. The church must be brought back in to line if it strays from Christianity.

The current methods have people thinking that legal means right.

Part of the problem is that laws are written to be complied with under punishment of a fine or prison. To many affluent people, the fine is treated much like a parking ticket. The affluent engage smart lawyers to evade punishment. Predatory business activity continues as usual. The emphasis is put on not getting caught. The justice system is being use for gain. The last thing to expect from our justice system is justice.

President Andrew Jackson 1832: “It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes” [1]

The current intake of economics students are being taught that it is the bottom line that is all important. ‘Greed is good’ is being accepted as a norm rather than a social sin. Business ethics is not run with the ideas of Jesus where one would treat workers as you would have the workers treat you. Business ethics is run with the concept that “If you treat the workers well, they will work harder which will help the bottom line. Otherwise, don’t worry about them.” Rationality and efficiency override the human needs of the employees. Morality is avoided and guidance is taken from law and what one can get away with.

Alexis de Tocqueville 1835: “Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation; and manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.”

I had to read this a few times to understand what he was talking about. You may come to another comprehension. I would like to think that he means that laws will not remain in place if they are not supported by the underlying ethics of the nation. There needs to be a moral basis for laws to be effective. Laws are only effective in an area where people are prepared to obey them. If laws are disobeyed widely, it is difficult for an authority to restore the compliance. If it is considered acceptable to circumvent laws, then the application of the law will be tiresome. If it is considered acceptable to have laws that discriminate against the poor, then the poor will be discriminated against. Inappropriate property tax laws come to mind such as the negative gearing of speculative purchases of land and property. Payroll Tax is an additional tax on sweat and toil income. No similar tax is imposed on unearned income.

Hamilton Nolan 2013: “The payroll tax is the most unfair tax in existence. Any raise in the payroll tax represents a burden on the poor and middle class that specifically does not impose an equal or greater burden on the rich, who are more able to afford such a burden. This is asinine. ...

The type of income that flows overwhelmingly to the rich is taxed at a lower rate than is the first dollar of the paycheck of the person who cleans bathrooms at Burger King.” [2]

The ‘making of money from money’ does not have any moral basis. Turning people out of houses when they lose a job has no moral basis. Doubling a farmer’s interest rate causing bankruptcy, eviction, and sometimes suicide, has no moral basis. Moving a bank headquarters to a different state so that credit card rates can be doubled has no moral basis. These things are commonplace because the law allows it. Cigarettes kill people, but big tobacco is concerned about its bottom line. The bottom line appears to be more important than the deaths. Student demonstrators marched against Dow Chemical, but it did not stop the manufacture of napalm and Agent Orange. Plastic bags and bottles are doing immense harm to the world. It will not stop anytime soon whilst plastics companies are concerned about their bottom line. It is considered acceptable for companies to fund the very politicians that make the laws that govern their activities. This has no moral basis, yet it is legal. Only with a return to a strong moral basis will we be able to create and support a set of laws that match a strong moral code.

Land

Australian Aboriginals are taught from before they can talk about the importance of the relationship to the land. The interdependence of humans and land is crucial for the sustainability of the society. Westerners are taught about success, which means beating others, when we should be cooperating with others.