Entries in the 'Economy' Category

It’s Time To Transition

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Reuters): “More than 100,000 people packed Lisbon’s vast Palace Square on Saturday [February 11, 2012] in the largest rally against austerity and economic hardships since the country resorted to an EU/IMF bailout last May, and organizers vowed to step up protests and labor action.”

My Comment: Instead of budget cutbacks, we need to approach the education of the citizens and build a new form of society, a society of reasonable consumption, when we do not just cutback but eliminate all the surplus, transition to balanced distribution, unify all citizens in a single system of education, and reduce all but essential services and positions. If all of this is executed simultaneously, society will feel much more comfortable than it had in its past good years.
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Europe’s Rating Continues to Decline

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Forbes): “Moody’s was last to the downgrade party, announcing on Monday it was axing the sovereign credit rating of six European nations including Italy, Spain, and Portugal. At the same time, the credit rating agency put three triple-A rated nations (the U.K., France, and Austria) under negative outlook, signaling they too could lose the precious, yet arbitrary, seal of approval.”

My Comment: Now, it is only a matter of time: either the crisis will change the EU or the EU will become smarter, reject the old system, and take the course toward full integration.

They will need to do the following:

  1. Introduce a system of integral education and upbringing across the EU,
  2. Develop a new economic system of reasonable consumption and equitable distribution,
  3. Plan gradual implementation of points 1 and 2 in all EU countries.

Surely until the EU leaders and a new single EU government begins to attend to these questions, the systemic crisis will begin to weaken.
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“Economic Models And The Apologetics Of Greed”

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (John Kozy, PhD, professor): “Offshoring production to underdeveloped nations gives needy people jobs, increases their incomes, reduces poverty, and expands their nations’ GNPs. It also enables people in developed nations to purchase products produced offshore at lower prices enabling them to consume a wider range of things…

“Yes, the wages were better than those that could have been earned before, but they weren’t much benefit. Why? Because when the paychecks began to arrive, the local landlords and vendors increased prices on everything, so just as before, all of their incomes went to pay for basic necessities. The landlords and vendors got the money; the workers were not better off… But, of course, the country’s GNP was better, which is all that matters to economists who still claim that economy is improving…

“Two conclusions follow from this scenario: employment alone is not a sufficient condition for prosperity; full employment can exist in an enslaved society alongside abject poverty, and an increasing GNP does not mean that an economy is getting better… Those numbers mean nothing.

“Economists build models by what they call ‘abstraction.’ But it’s really subtraction. They look at a real world situation and subtract from it the characteristics they deem unessential. The result is a bare bones description consisting of what economists deem economically essential. Everything that is discarded (not taken into consideration in the model) is called an ‘externality’… Since externalities are excluded from all economic models and can be expected to change after any model is implemented, all economic models necessarily fail.”

My Comment: We are in the process of exposing this system and due to our realization of the laws of nature and the law of business opposite to it, we will understand the system in which we want to live. Such a system can be only one: a society with equitable distribution of reasonably limited goods and services.

Fulfillment is achieved by integrating and understanding the meaning of life and raising the whole society to the next level: an integral society in which everyone feels the next level of existence in total unity.
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The Unemployed Must Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Huffington Post): “Republicans in the U.S. Senate want the long-term unemployed to volunteer for 20 hours a week in order to receive unemployment insurance.

“A bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) would also require claimants drawing benefits six months or longer to search for work at least 20 hours a week.

“’Engagement in volunteer service will encourage unemployed workers to maintain job skills, marketability, and a sense of self-worth while providing for the betterment of their communities,’ Burr said in a statement. ‘Even more, the active job search requirement will enhance the integrity of the unemployment system and its ability to identify and serve those most in need.’”

My Comment: There is no need for workers to occupy fictitious positions; there will be no need for them anymore. This will only deepen the crisis, putting unnecessary strains on the budget. What we need for our survival is to organize for everybody a course on integral society in order to become similar to the unified system of nature.
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“Europe’s Woes Worsen”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “Greek gross domestic product fell 7% in the fourth quarter from the year-earlier period, the country’s statistics agency said, bringing the total GDP drop since the end of 2007 to more than 16%. Greece’s statistics service hasn’t issued quarter-to-quarter data for the past several quarters because of methodological problems adjusting for seasonal swings in activity….

“The steep contractions are fueling criticism of the strict austerity policies adopted across Europe’s periphery in response to the debt crisis. A number of economists argue that continued government spending cuts will make it even harder for the most vulnerable countries to recover.”

My Comment: Economics is not a science, but assumptions and hypotheses, but are not enough to see the logical following consequences.
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“The Financial Collapse Of The West Is Coming”

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Giulietto Chiesa, Italian journalist and politician): “I believe that now dominates the chaotic state of society and all this in a huge crisis that is unprecedented. There are forces who seek to destroy the States. The more fragmented populations, the more money they can make. …

“They have their own country, which has no borders, and two capitals-Wall Street and the City of London. This is financial, they were not more than 500 people. In person we know at least one of them. But we know the names of some of their organizations are big banks…They control the Government, could appoint a Prime Minister. …

“The main feature of the crisis is the accumulation of debt. Over the past 10-15 years ‘they’ created a daring financial system. Wealth is increased in accordance with the amount of money that they produce. Over the past 10 years they have produced 15 thousand trillion of virtual money, which are essentially. None of the States could pay that debt. All the banks will soon collapse because their assets-only paper. … Financial collapse of the West. This crisis is approaching. … What’s next, nobody knows.”

My Comment: The next will be the enlightenment of humanity, planned from Above.
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The Powerlessness Of Billionaires And Governments

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: One of the Russian millionaires proclaimed that if a person wants to live adequately, then instead of working eight hours a day he or she should work twelve. So people who have the power and resources are heading in a completely different direction.

Answer: Business owners will not be able to do this anymore because they won’t be able to sell goods produced by workers who are engaged in manufacturing for twelve or even eight hours a day. Nobody will buy them! There is a crisis, people come out into the streets, and purchasing power is falling. They will be laying off people and won’t expand their operations further. There is no and will be no need for that.

Question: What will ultimately compel a person to pay for integral education courses?

Answer: The government must do this. We will have to work only to furnish ourselves with all necessities, and everything else will have to be directed towards upbringing, towards rising to the next degree. This is a law of nature.

Look at what’s happening in the Arab countries. 100,000 people are marching onto the streets and the government cannot do a thing. What will these governments do? They have nowhere even to run, they’re killed right on the spot. Even a billionaire, where will he run to? Right now there isn’t a place in the world where one could escape to. All transactions, banks, and enterprises, everything is in the open. Today, any person stands before everyone as if naked. Everyone sees everything, everything is photographed everywhere—it’s no longer the way it used to be.

Suppose you will escape somewhere into the tundra, will live with some old lady in some little hut. Is this your future? Here is the catch.

Look at all the rulers of the Arab countries. They have armies, money, and power—everything. And where do they end up? And because of what? How many people are heading out onto the streets? They can no longer quell them because a different time has come. Governments don’t have the ability to do as they wish even with the help of the army and secret police. It’s impossible!

And how did the Soviet Union fall apart? This is entirely incomprehensible. Where is the army, the KGB, and the enormous masses of people that were engaged in preserving the regime? Suddenly it was gone. Somehow, it’s not even clear how, it disappeared. Who is to blame? Nobody, only time and the development of society.

And the same thing here. It is expected that within the next year about 500 million jobs will be eliminated. Do you understand what mass of people this amounts to around the whole world? They’ll simply force their governments to unleash a nuclear war because there won’t be another way left.

We need to explain to these millions about what nature is demanding from us. We need to provide them with necessities, while they will receive satisfaction from integral upbringing. It’s simply a necessity that stems from objective laws of nature.

Question: So in the integral education groups we can discuss what’s happening in the Arab countries, can’t we?

Answer: Not only in Arab countries, but everywhere. We can bring these events as examples: Look at how this isn’t helping; see what’s happening with dictators, with the suppression of people. And what could happen with the others? Berlusconi left already. What will happen in Spain? In all countries? Hence the conclusion that on the whole, the number of disgruntled people is growing, even if they live on unemployment.

In America unemployed people are standing in lines for free lunches. Many cannot feed themselves to the end of the month. There are problems with financial aid, with healthcare—with everything. Everything is coming apart at the seams. It’s impossible to just continue printing money.

Soon it will resound in China because China is a manufacturer of goods. Who will buy them now in America, which is its core market? Literally all countries are drawn into this process, and in all the countries much of the workforce is being let go.

Can you imagine if 100-200 million is laid off in China? Today they are living in cities with populations numbering in the millions. You won’t be able to drive them back into villages. You can’t once again turn them into uneducated peasants satisfied with a cup of rice a day. In China, in one factory alone up to 50 thousand people are working away. This is a terrifying problem.

There is no other choice. To prevent the unleashing of wars and annihilation of “excess” people, we need to show that integral upbringing is in harmony with nature and that precisely this is our salvation and the correct path. Even after a war you will remain in ruin and will have to do the same thing nevertheless, except now suffering will urge you towards it.

Therefore we need to unfold and show this entire picture to people.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #8, 12/14/11

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Pay Debts By Changing The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Mikhail Delyagin, Director of the Globalization Problems Institute): “The world has been teetering on the brink of depression for several years, and sooner or later it will fall into it. Indeed, global monopolies have developed on the global market—and naturally began to rot. It’s impossible to improve them since the market is global and there is no external competition. Demand shrinks due to their decay, and the only way to compensate for this shrinkage … is to increase the demand from the part of the state. That is, to infuse the money into the economy. And this leads to an increase in debt, which is impossible to repay. This is the situation everywhere: in the USA, EU, and China.

“The easiest way to solve the problem is to write off bad debts. However, this will lead to a global depression. Another way to solve the debt problem is to wash the debt out with high inflation. However, the measures of its subsequent suppression will plunge us into depression as well.”

My Comment: The world is artificially held from collapsing. But time should be devoted only to preparing humanity for the transition into a new social and economic system—a balance between us in all social structures and between the entire society and nature because balance is the fundamental law of nature, and we will be led to this state either by blows or our realization of it leading us.
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Predictions For 2012

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Gerald Celente, Trends Research International):

“1. Economic Martial Law: Given the current economic and geopolitical conditions, the central banks and world governments already have plans in place to declare economic martial law … with the possibility of military martial law to follow.

2. Battlefield America: With a stroke of the Presidential pen, language was removed from an earlier version of the National Defense Authorization Act, granting the President authority to act as judge, jury and executioner.

3. Invasion of the Occupy: … protests will hit Wall Street in the early years of the new millennium and will spread nationwide.

4. Climax Time: The financial house of cards is collapsing…

5. Technocrat Takeover: “Democracy is Dead; Long Live the Technocrat!”

6. Repatriate! Repatriate!: It took a small, but financially and politically powerful group to sell the world on globalization, and it will take a large, committed and coordinated citizens’ movement to “un-sell” it.

7. Secession Obsession: Winds of political change are blowing from Tunisia to Russia and everywhere in between…

8. Safe Havens: As the signs of imminent economic and social collapse become more pronounced, legions of New Millennium survivalists are, or will be, thinking about looking for methods and ways to escape the resulting turmoil. Those ‘on-trend’ have already taken measure to implement … 3 G’s: Gold, Guns and a Getaway plan. Where to go? What to do?..

9. Big Brother Internet: The coming year will be the beginning of the end of Internet Freedom: A battle between the governments and the people.

10. Direct vs. Faux Democracy: The only viable solution is to take the vote out of the hands of party politicians and institute Direct Democracy.

11. Alternative Energy 2012: Even under the cloud of Fukushima, the harnessing of nuclear power is being reinvigorated by a fuel that is significantly safer than uranium and by the introduction of small, modular, portable reactors that reduce costs and construction time. In addition, there are dozens of projects underway that explore the possibility of creating cleaner, competitively priced liquid fuels distilled from natural sources. Plan to start saying goodbye to conventional liquid fuels!”

My Comment: May all this happen, but only peacefully and in a good way.
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What Nature Holds In Store For Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Globalization 101): “The number of old people (over 60) is expected to grow from 600 million in 2000 to two billion in 2050. Eighty percent of this population will be living in developing countries. The number of ‘older old’ people (over 80) will be unprecedented in the developed world.

“While these stats are not new, the issue of global aging has been brought to the forefront because of the financial crisis. Cities across the U.S. are realizing that for some, within five years, retiree health care will cost more than employee healthcare and will consume nearly 1/3 of the cities’ budgets. Some US states want to declare bankruptcy to alleviate debt, including pensions. Europe’s rapidly aging populations may be the seed of a new financial crisis.”

My Comment: Crises will not recede until we assume the correct social form: a society of equal members, of reasonable economic consumption, consciously integral and globally interconnected, as required by nature.

Crises are a demonstration of our imbalance with global nature, and until we reach balance, we will not be able to avoid them; moreover, they will accelerate and become more severe to the extent of our development. We must stop being stubborn and face the truth—to understand the nature of crisis and the only method to overcome it.
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