Dollars, Gold, And Diamonds – Laitman Unplugged
Posted on April 29th, 2014
In the News (from BBC): “Later this year, the UK economy will get a £10bn boost from illegal drugs and prostitution, writes Anthony Reuben.
“The Office for National Statistics, which has to calculate the figure, confirmed it at an economic forum last week and will publish more details next month. It will be £3bn from prostitution and £7bn from illegal drugs.
“The European Union has declared that illegal activities need to be included in national accounts so that comparisons can be made between countries. … Knowing how much has been spent on illegal activities is important because otherwise there is a great deal of money that has been legally earned, but you don’t know how it has been spent – creating a mismatch between figures for earnings and spending or saving.
“Similarly, it would mean there was a lot of money being spent on legal products and services, of which you did not know the origin.
“In other words, money from illegal activities, if its origin can be hidden, circulates round the economy just like any other money, and EU statisticians have decided it’s important to be able to account for it.”
My Comment: That is the way the economy gradually absorbs the entire money turnover because it makes absolutely no difference for it how income was obtained. And who cares? The main thing is profit! No one measures moral damages although it is many times greater than this dubious income.
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Opinion (Marc Faber, Swiss investor): “Marc Faber says the stock market is setting up for a decline more painful than the sudden crash of 1987.
“‘I think it’s very likely that we’re seeing, in the next 12 months, an ’87-type of crash,’ Faber said … ‘And I suspect it will be even worse.’
“Faber, the editor and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, has recently called for growth stocks to decline. And he says the pain in the Internet and biotech sectors is just getting started.
“‘I think there are some groups of stocks that are highly vulnerable because they’re in cuckoo land in terms of valuations,’ Faber said. ‘They have no earnings. They’re valued at price-to-sales. And this is not a good metric in the long run.’
“But it’s not just momentum stocks that Faber is wary of. He says that investors are coming to a stark realization.
“‘I believe that the market is slowly waking up to the fact that the Federal Reserve is a clueless organization,’ Faber said. ‘They have no idea what they’re doing. And so the confidence level of investors is diminishing, in my view.’
“As investors adjust to this fact, and valuations shrink, he predicts a massive decline in the market.”
My Comment: Ahead of us there are more surprising, abrupt, and painful crashes of illusions, funds, and states—in general, of the world order. It will go on until together, we begin to solve the global problem of humanity: its transition to a new stage of its development, meaning until we wish to become integrally interconnected, not involuntarily, through markets, but on our own accord.
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Opinion (Vardan Baghdasaryan, Russian historian and political scientist): “Dollars and Euros collectively comprise 85.4 % of the world reserves. The dictate of the West is established de facto. The exit of a dead end is in changing the very paradigm.
“The challenge of the communist alternative was not to seek the ways of optimizing the system of monetary transactions, but to raise the question of rejection of the very idea of money.
“The parasitic chain “money – commodity – money” was, according to Marx, the programmed evolution of the “commodity – money – commodity” system. The introduction of money was a key historical moment of the genesis of the world parasitism. Accordingly, the return of the system “commodity-commodity” on a new level of development seems to be a practical solution.”
My Comment: In the book The Last Generation Baal HaSulam writes about the future society producing only what is necessary for a normal existence, since the earth’s resources are limited. What is required is calculated on the basis of equal distribution for everyone. Participation in the production of the necessities is also equally distributed among everyone.
The time remaining after the production of necessary goods and services is dedicated to studying and the realization of the method of integral connection between all the people. It is estimated that everyone’s participation in the production of essential goods and services will be reduced to a few hours of work per week.
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Opinion (Nikolay Kobelev, PhD (Economics), Professor at the Russian Federation Financial University): “The development of production forces has reached the level that the 10 percent of the workforce is sufficient to provide for humanity. The agricultural production and industry of Argentina with a population of 40 million people can feed the whole world.
“Industry and technology can receive all the necessary materials and products from natural elements, found in abundance in the earth’s crust and air. Energy resources (oil, gas, coal) can be substituted (atomic energy, wind, ocean waves, the sun); lack of energy and limits of resources do not threaten humanity.
“But political and social control mechanisms conducted according to the inadequate old models and theories hinder the management of the world as a whole. The rapid growth of the political influence of transnational corporations and financial-industrial groups led the government to losing control over the world economy.
“Global world processes are managed by money, large corporations, and a handful of people who own enormous financial resources. Each of them takes care of the object of his interest. Money has become the equivalent not only in economy and production, but also in education, science, medicine, which cannot be assessed by an amount of money.”
My Comment: If mankind doesn’t change, using the method of the Upper Force, of the Light, of course, the skeptics would be right. But precisely the same Ohr Makif, the Surrounding Light, produced our egoism and it will correct it. Therefore, there is no place for any other method.
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In the News (from Business Insider): “Big changes are coming to the labor market that people and governments aren’t prepared for, Bill Gates believes.
“Speaking at Washington, D.C., economic think tank The American Enterprise Institute on March 13, Gates said that within 20 years, a lot of jobs will go away, replaced by software automation (“bots” in tech slang, though Gates used the term “software substitution”).
“This is what he said:
“‘Software substitution, whether it’s for drivers or waiters or nurses … it’s progressing. … Technology over time will reduce demand for jobs, particularly at the lower end of skill set. … 20 years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower. I don’t think people have that in their mental model.’
“In January, the Economist ran a big profile naming over a dozen jobs sure to be taken over by robots in the next 20 years, including telemarketers, accountants and retail workers.”
My Comment: There is only one way out: to reduce excess production completely and to replace the remaining by automation. Those who become free should be sent to open universities where they have to learn the method and practice of integral interaction, up to the point of unity in the common humanity.
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In the News (from The New York Times): “We are beginning to witness a paradox at the heart of capitalism, one that has propelled it to greatness but is now threatening its future: The inherent dynamism of competitive markets is bringing costs so far down that many goods and services are becoming nearly free, abundant, and no longer subject to market forces. …
“The first inkling of the paradox came in 1999 when Napster, the music service, developed a network enabling millions of people to share music without paying the producers and artists, wreaking havoc on the music industry. Similar phenomena went on to severely disrupt the newspaper and book publishing industries. Consumers began sharing their own information and entertainment, via videos, audio and text, nearly free, bypassing the traditional markets altogether. …
“Thousands of hobbyists are already making their own products using 3-D printers, open-source software and recycled plastic as feedstock, at near zero marginal cost. Meanwhile, more than six million students are enrolled in free massive open online courses, the content of which is distributed at near zero marginal cost.
“Now the phenomenon is about to affect the whole economy. A formidable new technology infrastructure — the Internet of Things — is emerging with the potential to push much of economic life to near zero marginal cost over the course of the next two decades. This new technology platform is beginning to connect everything and everyone. …
“Nowhere is the zero marginal cost phenomenon having more impact than the labor market, where workerless factories and offices, virtual retailing and automated logistics and transport networks are becoming more prevalent. Not surprisingly, the new employment opportunities lie in the collaborative commons in fields that tend to be nonprofit and strengthen social infrastructure — education, health care, aiding the poor, environmental restoration, child care and care for the elderly, the promotion of the arts and recreation. …
“We are, however, entering a world partly beyond markets, where we are learning how to live together in an increasingly interdependent, collaborative, global commons.”
My Comment: Our entire development brings us to the need to move to a new level of communication, a world without borders; the general dependence, the virtual network of the material world will be parallel to the spiritual network of the higher world.
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In the News (from MoneyNews): “The number of Americans on food stamps climbed to an all-time peak last year, according to data released by the Department of Agriculture.
“An average of 46.6 million people received the benefits each month last year, with the average number of households that received them totaling 22.3 million. In 2007, just 26.3 million people received food stamps.
“Among states, Texas topped the chart with an average of 4.04 million food stamp recipients per month. California came in second with 3.96 million, and Florida was third with 3.35 million. …
“In the Weekly Republican Address Saturday, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., ripped the Agriculture Department for what he called its aggressive program to put more people on food stamps, Daily Caller reports.
“Sessions voiced disdain for the Agriculture Departments’ claim that ‘each $5 in new [food stamp] benefits generates almost twice that amount in economic activity for the community.’
“Sessions offered a response to that. ‘Isn’t a better goal to help more Americans find good-paying jobs, to have the pride and self-respect that comes from that?’ he asked. ‘Isn’t this a superior form of compassion that has a more solid moral foundation?’
“But President Barack Obama won’t let that happen, Sessions says.
“The U.S. government spent a record $80.4 billion on food stamps in fiscal 2012 — up $2.7 billion from fiscal 2011.
“According to the Monthly Treasury Statement by the U.S. Treasury Department, the government spent $77.6 billion on food stamps — formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — in fiscal 2011.”
My Comment: We are approaching a state when due to the huge number of unemployed, people will understand that it is necessary to introduce a general program of equal distribution of essential goods and services to people. The term “unemployed” will disappear.
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In the News (from Forbes): “Last week a failure by Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy to meet interest payments on its debt became China’s first onshore corporate bond default, prompting some alarmed and alarming talk about a wave of defaults across China. …
“Here’s what’s happening. China’s economy is slowing down, and at the same time, Premier Li wants to increase the role of true free market behavior in China. Where companies would once have been bailed out either by banks or the government (or by both – most major Chinese banks are to some extent still state-owned), now there is a sense that small companies will be allowed to default on their debts in order to send a message to the markets. What Li wants is for people to understand that investment carries risk, that a bail-out is not automatic, and that markets must be able to accommodate failure and default. …
“The negative view is that one default must lead to another, and another, until a wave of defaults reduces investor confidence to the point that money leaves the whole sector and then prompts a whole other round of defaults, while also reducing the possibility for companies to raise new capital. But few who have watched China for long see any chance of the country letting that happen: if there was a sense of systemic crisis, it would intervene.”
My Comment: The entire world order is in default, and the sooner we recognize this, the easier it will be able to change it to the new world order: a rational economy.
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Opinion (Frans van Houten, Chief Executive Officer of Royal Philips): “Today, the world needs a similar paradigm shift. But this time it is the prevailing economic model that must be transformed. … The problem is that the world has long maintained a myopic focus on producing and consuming goods as cheaply as possible. The result is a linear economy based on the rapid use, disposal, and replacement of goods.
“Sustaining the current model would require unlimited, easily accessible resources and infinite space for waste – something that clearly is not possible. Indeed, the consequences of our disposable economy – skyrocketing CO2 emissions, unmanageable waste streams, and the increasing difficulty of extracting resources, to name a few – are already apparent.
“To find a sustainable alternative, one need only look to nature, where nothing is wasted. … This requires a new generation of materials, as well as innovative development and production processes. It also demands new business models, a redefined concept of legal ownership and use, new public-tendering rules, and novel financing strategies. Finally, a circular economy calls for adaptive logistics and a leadership culture that embraces the new system and rewards progress toward establishing it. …
“But businesses cannot transform the economy alone. In order to shift firms’ emphasis from minimizing initial costs to maximizing total value, while ensuring the protection of people’s health and well-being, governments should change their tendering processes by implementing requirements for circularity, thereby helping to drive demand for new solutions.
“At the same time, consumers must be open to using products that they do not own. Because the circular economy is inherently systemic, it can succeed only if all stakeholders co-design, co-create, and co-own products and services. …
“Like all major transitions in human history, the shift from a linear to a circular economy will be a tumultuous one. It will feature pioneers and naysayers, victories and setbacks.”
My Comment: Capitalists will never change their goal: maximum profit in any way. Our egoism cannot think about anything else. The transition to the integral economy, where only necessities are produced only in an environmentally friendly way, is possible only through the re-education of capitalists either voluntarily (by explaining its necessity) or against their will (through suffering and crises).
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