My first post to the list was a month old. Today's post is only three days
old. In between, there were four other posts, as tabulated below, which
approached the TEFLON TOPIC from several points of view. This is one topic
in which each of us has an interest.
97-08-20, A Conceptual Framework For The TEFLON Topic (to list extropians
97-09-20)
97-08-26, Re: TIME FOR A NEW ORDER IN WORLD AFFAIRS
97-08-27, "Our Global Neighborhood"
97-08-29, A Flow Diagram to define THE TEFLON TOPIC
97-09-03, The "English Disease"
97-09-18, The General Theory of Reproducible Productive Assets (to list
extropians 97-09-21)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Subj: The General Theory of Reproducible Productive Assets
Date: 97-09-18 16:30:58 EDT
To: Burt's list
Dear Proponents of Opposing Ideologies: Anarchy or World Government
Neither faction had anything to say about the "present condition" of the
United States regarding the six questions I asked in two previous posts.
1, Why does the U.S. economy use only $1,020 billion of M1, if the banking
system controls the money supply? Why not $2,040 billion with twice the
interest?
2, Why are the U.K. and the U.S. withholding their capital investments?
3, Why is this Nobel Prize winning work (INPUT/OUTPUT ECONOMICS, 1966 by
Wassily Leontief) as seldom mentioned in the public dialogue as Thomas
Paine's 1797 work, AGRARIAN JUSTICE?
4, Who benefits from this mass of transactions in, this churning of, this
buying and selling of our existing wealth? A vital economic function? Or, a
wealthy person's sport?
5, We can get serious about this TEFLON TOPIC by asking the members of the
President's 1983 Commission on Entitlements what they intended to accomplish
when they established the present Social Security Payroll Tax of 15% on
earned income below $63,000/year, without any exemptions for dependents, and
a zero% tax rate on all income above $63,000/year?
6, I wonder who will be the first prominent American to address the topic
since Henry Carter Adams last addressed it in his 1887 essay, RELATION OF THE
STATE TO INDUSTRIAL ACTION?
Here is a way of looking at the "present condition" of the United States in
relation to the most important eleven other industrial nations in the world
economy.
[- U.S. Dept. of Labor -] /\ [--------- World Bank ATLAS
----------]
-------------- Unemployment CPI GNP GNP/capita Investment
% of W.F. %/yr. $billion/yr. $/yr. % of
GNP
Swiss ? 3.0 ? 0.6 265 37,180
22
Japan 3.4 1.8 4,321 34,630
30
USA 4.9 2.5 6,737 25,860
16
Germany 7.8 1.3 2,075 25,580 22
Sweden 10.8 0.3 206 23,630
13
France 13.0 0.9 1,355 23,470
18
Canada 9.6 1.7 569 19,570
18
Italy 12.7 1.8 1,101 19,270
17
U.K. 7.0 2.6 1,069 18,410
15
Russia n/a n/a 392 2,650
28
China n/a n/a 630 530
43
India n/a n/a 279 310
23
TOTAL GNP of Twelve Nations ---- $17,645 billion /year -----------------
Notice that the U.K and the U.S. are the engines of inflation in this
laboratory of nations.
If the U.K. and the U.S. reduced their inflation rate to the 0.6%/year rate
that the Swiss have achieved, would that new condition reduce the Liberal
establishment's drive toward world government? I believe that such a new
condition would enable the nations to find valid alternatives to world
government, that is, nations could enjoy the benefits of a world economy
without world government.
It seems that seven of the nine western nations have formulated and reduced
to practice a "General Theory of Reproducible Productive Assets" that works
for them and allows them to stabilize their money systems. Remember, in 1949
the U.S. GNP/capita was 171% of the Swiss GNP/capita. Today, it is only 70%
of the Swiss GNP/capita.
As James Madison once said: "We have staked the whole future of American
civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked
the future...upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to
sustain ourselves, according to the Ten Commandments of God." Ten
commandments were adequate for the agrarian society that Madison lived in.
Today he would have to say "the Twelve Commandments of God" to keep the
United States in step with the other seven industrial nations.
We should think about it, or try to keep Russia, China, and India from
thinking about it, or both.
WesBurt