Printer Friendly Version
A Grim Fairy Tale
IV
King Libertas was sitting in the garden. Although he was deep in contemplation, he was aware of the fragrance emanating from the early spring blossoms. This was the garden of his father's former chief advisor, Mundus Vult Decipi. Libertas had survived the coup d'etat attempt and Brutus, Cassius, Mundus and over 90 percent of the king's advisors were in the dungeon. He had survived thanks to a warning from one of the advisors and the loyalty of his personal guard. The night before the impending coup d'etat the plotting advisors were arrested, one at a time, while they slept.
Since he had been reading the ancient scrolls and making public pronouncements about individual liberty, the King had expected some attack on his authority. He wasn't surprised that Mundus, even though reluctantly, had been involved. It had taken some time for Libertas to develop a clear picture of the diabolical deeds done by Mundus. He had struggled to develop this picture that was distinct from his admiration for the old man's intelligence. It was bad enough to rob people of their freedom, but to plot to make them like the resulting condition of slavery was monstrous. It had worked. Over the last 60 years the people sat idly by as, one by one, the government usurped their freedoms. Yet you could hear not only the government media, but also the people saying that they lived in the freest country in the world. If only the schools had taught them how much freer their parents and their grandparents had been!
He remembered that the scrolls had described hundreds of wars fought for freedom over the centuries. Each time, however, the people lost what they had fought for very quickly. It seems that they didn't really understand what freedom was all about, and were easily moved in the opposite direction by scheming politicians.
Ahead of him lay a truly daunting task. It was almost impossible to identify one realm of a citizen's life that was free from interference of government bureaucrats. A significant proportion of the kingdom's entire population was employed making sure that the rest did what the government had decreed. The basic morality of the people had greatly declined as the size of his father's government had grown. Libertas knew that it was inevitable. The expanding government had to take more and more from most citizens, and all had to acquiesce, participate in the theft, or go to jail.
Given the acquiescence and participation that took place, it was not surprising that he had very few allies among the professions. A list started to form in his mind:
- Many lawyers, who should be defending the people's rights against the state, were busy extracting income from those who earned it. Much of this extraction was for clients whose every lack of self-responsibility was now rewarded in court by taking the assets of others. The rule seemed to be "Did you do something stupid? Then let's look to make somebody pay for your stupidity."
- People in the social sciences were given money, extracted from their fellow citizens, to perform many of the most useless research projects imaginable. There were many investigations that would conceivably not be funded if the "donors" had any choice. One of his "favorite" funded social science projects, dealt with uncovering which race preferred automobiles to motels for their sexual encounters.
- Those in occupations which were labeled "Public or Community Service" largely favored the government taking from part of the public to give to the other part. The other part being those deemed worthy of receiving the services of the Public Service bureaucrats.
- Journalists had long since given up their role as informers of the public and had adopted a "save humanity" role with missionary zeal. Reporting had become almost indistinguishable from editorializing. Not only did the contemporary schools of journalism attract such students, but also their teachers rotated back and forth from the university to government positions. It was not surprising that the majority of journalist favored government "solutions" to the problems of the human race. Their selection of topics that were reported, and the descriptive terminology used, reflected this bias.
"Oh enough!" he thought. "I could sit here all day and add to the list."
Even the most basic freedoms had been compromised. It had been, for example, a custom of law that no citizen's property could be seized without a trial and the right to face his accuser. Now there were police agencies that proceeded on anonymous tips, investigated, and confiscated property all without the accused being tried and facing his accuser. These procedures could take place with respect to citizen behavior ranging from so-called financial crimes all the way to spanking one's own child.
The Universities were a disaster. They had accepted so much government funding that they became, in effect, controlled by the related government regulations. It had always been true that there were prevailing concepts in each discipline. One risked possible ridicule by expressing thoughts out of the main stream. But, all in all, a certain amount of civil deference was present for out-of-the-mainstream ideas. Currently, however, there are many ideas that cannot be freely expressed. Faculty members who try to make such expressions are vilified, ostracized and even fired. Only guest speakers who represent the views held by those in power are allowed to address students. Unofficial student newspapers are banned from campus.
Student achievement was at an all time low. Every objective measure of reading and mathematics reflected it. Scholarships have long since ceased to be rewards for being scholarly. Various "victimized" groups (groups who surprisingly supported the government policies) had been identified for "favorable" treatment with respect to university admissions. The presence of these groups has been so large or so high profile, that actual achievement standards have been altered to insure their success. If, in some courses, actual requirements were not altered, a group of new "studies" courses was created. This permitted a student to go through an entire four-year program without being exposed to courses with rigorous cognitive requirements.
Invasion of privacy was at an all time high. The banks maintained a list of over 50 data items about their customers that were regularly provided to the kingdom's taxing and policing agencies for "fishing expeditions." Computers contained all sorts of personal information about where a citizen eats, what videos he rents, where he shops, who are his favorite friends and businesses. Every time a citizen enters or leaves the country he is tracked. One of the most recent tracking devices is marketed by government agencies as a convenience to avoid long toll lines. If he uses this device, the citizen's location and time is recorded every time he passes over a bridge or uses a toll road. This in combination with credit card and phone records can provide a complete picture of the citizen's whereabouts and business without direct surveillance being required.
From among all of these problems, Libertas had finally decided to tackle what the ancient scrolls had identified as the problem of honest citizens earning and keeping money. Of course, no one issue could be dealt with without influencing others, but the scrolls had made it abundantly clear that all areas of moral decay seemed to accompany a corruption of the currency. It seems that the first lesson in economics is about scarcity. On the other hand, the first behavior of politicians is to forget the first lesson of economics. Even though there is a limited amount of all things, when politicians observe a person not having something that the person desires, they just provide it. How do they get it? Why they just rob Peterus to pay Paulus. Along the way to Paulus much of what Peterus had winds up in the hands of the politicians and their associates. Once this scheme is under way it isn't long before they are robbing Tomus, Dicus and Harius to help out Peterus. Libertas remembered one of his many conversations with Mundus on the subject of money. Mundus had pointed out that there are basically only three ways to get money:
- Find someone who'll pay you in exchange for some service that you can provide.
- Use a gun and rob people.
- Print the money yourself.
The government, being an agent of coercion, uses methods two and three. Most citizens are familiar with the straightforward second method. The government requires citizens to submit an ever-increasing proportion of their income to its coffers. There are all sorts of levels and varieties of taxing agencies, so that many citizens are paying as much as 1/2 of all of their income to the government. One of the psychological ploys developed by Mundus and his collaborators at the universities was to refer to the tax payments as voluntary. Yes voluntary, in return for valuable services! The fact that most citizens neither asked for nor received many services of any value, seemed to escape them. It was in fact about as voluntary as an encounter with a highwayman. If after taking all of your money the highwayman happened to shine your shoes you would certainly not view what happened as a fee-for-service encounter. Citizens who do not "voluntarily" submit the taxes find that liens are put on property by the government. If the property owner does not submit to the theft he is carted off to jail. Finally, if he dares to strenuously resist the theft he might even be dispatched on the spot.
The third method, reserved by force of law to the kingdom's banks, was to counterfeit money. Mundus had reviewed the history of confiscating people's gold and substituting paper with a picture of the king and a number on it. The ancient scrolls had in several places identified this process as one of the great evils perpetrated on a people by its government. His father had accumulated almost all of the gold and given his subjects paper! It was, of course, colorful paper with numbers that could contain many zeroes. But the people could not change their minds and give the paper back for their gold. By clever misuse of the education system few people ever realized that they had been duped. That is, not until now….
It seemed that even confiscating over one-third of all of the income produced by the kingdom's hard working citizens was not enough. The kingdom's bankers had expanded the money supply well beyond any amount that could be justified by the productivity of the people. They had confused having more paper money with having more resources. But the government had important things to do and couldn't wait for real productivity to create wealth! There was paper money everywhere. It was so easy to get a loan to buy almost anything. The term of the loan could be very long. The amount often exceeded the value of what the borrower wanted to purchase. The government forced the banks to ignore their credit scoring formulas to lend more money to favored groups. But the banks were having a good old time and didn't mind that much. The government guaranteed many of the banks' foreign "development" loans. These loans were made to groups and governments of well below average credit worthiness. But the citizens, not the banks, were on the hook for these loans, since the kingdom's treasury guaranteed them.
For the last 6 months prices were climbing. Oh the government reports adjusted their statistics so the increases wouldn't show. But, citizens were defaulting on their loans, foreign projects were failing and the banks' balance sheets were showing considerably less profit.
Libertas had made up his mind that a bi-metal standard of honest currency was required. A given amount of gold and silver would be required to be held by the kingdom's central bank. This amount would have to be increased before any more paper money could be printed. The paper money would be fully exchangeable by all citizens. This meant that at the first sign of monkey business, citizens could start to demand the gold and/or silver from the treasury.
It wouldn't be easy to accomplish this goal. It would be like withdrawal from a drug for the bankers and many others. There would be pain for many in order to get freedom for all.
He was on his way to a meeting of the advisors to present an outline of the plan. Already there were calls in the press to reinstate Mundus and the other advisors. They were, after all, "just trying to make things a little more equitable." So many had a vested interest in the system that took the income and property of others. So many feared the responsibility for their own behavior that would come with freedom. Would he survive his attempt to make the people free?
January 1, 2001
Thanks to the writings of Harry Browne and Walter Williams
for some of the Ideas expressed here.
Harry J. Clawar Ph.D.
HJC@angelfire.com
