The wealthy won, by the way. They don't like to crow so you may not have heard, but the 1% gained total victory and they never had to fire a shot.
Some countries who came in late or who had strong government protection in place, through a fortunate twist of world economic history, found themselves able to regulate and control the invaders and protect their state and preserve themselves as a player. Other countries - especially America and Japan - have been left with their pants down. And the saddest part is their pants have been lowered by their own citizens working to gain personal power with a total disregard for the welfare of their people or their country.
The war is economic. It's a corporate war. Corporations versus everyone else; countries, people, resources - everything and everyone that can be mined for a profit has been. There is no patriotism left outside the quest for a dollar.
Right now in India a battle is being fought between the local people and their own government that sums this war up perfectly.
In India, tens of millions of people run small stores. Many are in markets on the side of the road or in an open area, where they throw up tarpaulins, tents, umbrellas - whatever they can find to give cover to the goods they source fresh and sell everyday to those who know the market and come to get what they need at the lowest haggled price.
The politicians have tried and failed on more than one occasion to allow the foreign behemoth companies, the world's largest in retail, to be given free entry to India's markets. The people protested on these occasions and won. Now the politicians are trying again. They are clearly going against the will of the majority. They are likely to rename the bill, to re-brand the legislation - maybe it will be called the 'good for everyone' bill out of pure desperation to get what they want against the wishes of their own people. The legislation is designed to allow open competition and development in what is a move that is clearly not wanted by the majority of the populous. Here is the crucial moment that every country and every person has or will face in their entry into this economic war - trusting that the powers that be are not working to vested interests.
Those with power want the corporations to be allowed to expand without government restrictions because it's good for them. The money coming in will go to the powerful. Many will end up working for or consulting to these companies and walking away with a share of the prize on offer. Many will become franchise owners or share holders in the companies. They understand just how much wealth these huge companies create and they are in the perfect position to make sure their snout is in the trough when the money starts flowing. The legislation will directly or indirectly make the rich and powerful more so.
The average citizen will be hurt by such monopolies being allowed to enter and instantly become 80% of the local market. Entrepreneurship will be reduced to new products, new markets or trying to compete directly against the juggernaut companies.
We have yet to find a solution to this. The Russian's came close. When their economy converted from state owned to capitalist they disallowed foreign investment. This meant any Russian citizen with cash could buy shares in companies or buy entire companies for kopeks on the rouble. This was inventive and incredibly smart in that it ensured Russia would stay in Russian hands. What they didn't foresee was the vast fortunes some would make and effectively thrust Russia and it's federated states and satellite states into the hands of a few oligarchs who now effectively rule as a government by proxy.
If India allows Carafour, Tescos, Walmart and others to enter their market, their huge warehouse styled supermarket multi stores and sourced goods from anywhere in the world at the very cheapest prices will kill the livelihood of the emerging classes and confine them to the lowest hourly wage possible.
When this happens the politicians and companies will sight the thousands of newly employed by these stores as proof of new jobs being created. They tout the goods being sold as meeting higher standards of production and quality and the companies set about making even more money for the shareholders of their companies as the ridiculous amounts of profit being made get funnelled back to glorify the company accounts as increased profit.
There is no mention of the millions of people who had been sharing in the profit before, as small businesses selling goods. They don't mention the huge buying power allows the companies to 'negotiate' down the lowest prices with suppliers.
In India and many other emerging economic countries many of these suppliers are going to be little more than share croppers working a small piece of land for their own survival. These farmers will now be held ransom by the large company who will quickly become their only buyer.
Corporations become so big they control governments and the people through ways that range from incredibly subtle to incredibly obvious. There is no giant conspiracy. There are no clandestine meetings keeping the agenda on track, it is the market forces at work and the theories of Milton Friedman that have sadly trounced the checks and balances provided under a Keynesian economic policy and allows the wealthy to grow their personal fortunes and undermine their own country and their fellow citizens in the ultimate demonstration of man's one true great failing - Greed.
Greed brought down every great empire in the past and it will do it again. Maybe not for another thousand years but eventually someone is going to lose their head because the majority of the population, who dutifully play their roles as consumers and are rewarded with just enough wealth to keep them wanting and buying, but never enough to be free of economics pressures, will finally snap and demand a bigger slice of the very rich pie.
It's also fascinating that the people who shout the loudest about being patriots are the same ones who allow their country to bear the economic debt by manipulating and demanding ever more favourable conditions to make higher and higher personal profits. Their insistence that they are vital players in the provision of welfare due to the trickle down economic theory, that if they are allowed to be become billionaires there will be money spilling down to those below them, is one of three things -
1/ Dishonest - in that they know they are at the top of the pyramid scheme and willing to say and do anything in order to stay there. It is true that money will trickle down from them as they spend and enjoy life, but it is certainly never going to trickle down far enough to help those who genuinely need assistance.
2/ Blindly Ignorant - Once again arguing that all a person needs to do is work hard to achieve success and financial freedom. This argument makes a person at best economically autistic in that they cannot empathise or understand the subtleties of what it means to be a coherent, caring society. A family who has a special needs child, an elderly person needing care or someone hurt in an accident, along with literally a million other cases where a person, family or community cannot cope without assistance, all call out for the need to tax everyone equally and redistribute the wealth both personally and towards community infrastructure to make lives not simply better, but in many cases manageable.
The fact that someone earning one million dollars a year can argue they pay more than their share of tax when they only pay ten percent is ludicrous. Yes, $100,000 is a lot to pay in tax - but if everyone pays 30% then you're $200,000 short on what you owe. Screaming that you already paid $100,000 is a smokescreen to hide the fact you're stealing $200,000 from the mouth of a citizen who needs support. You need to make a decision to live in the community you earn a profit from or declare your hand and live off the community you earn a living from. You cannot have it both ways.
3/ Stupid. You do not have to have a high IQ to make it in business these days. In fact, in many ways, having a little stupidity about you will make some of the tough decisions that hurt others less difficult because being stupid will mean a person genuinely cannot see how their decisions hurt or disadvantage others. This is why political leaders should be vetted. Not because we want to know if they believe in God or if they once inhaled at a college party - but because we need to know a person once elected won't press the red button thinking it's a doorbell to the world of Narnia.
I can't see any way to end this economic war apart from total surrender. The corporations are already too big and too powerful to be stopped. In America and almost every other modern democracy they have already shown they are willing to cripple a country financially, to force legislation that hurts many but benefits them, to fight judicially to absolve themselves of responsibility for land abuse, people's health and a general disregard for communities in their quest for profits.
They spend trillions on lobbyist to fight for them and gain an unfair advantage, against not just the average person seeking justice, but also governments and they spend money to cynically spruik how much good they do, making them sound like all their infrastructure and hard work is undertaken for altruistic purposes and not at all for profit. It took these international conglomerates forty years to gain the power they now have and they did it with a smile and a lot of money spent to convince us along the way they were our best friends and only doing what they do to help us and make our lives better.
Anyone still believe their existence is making our lives better? No - but you can but a plastic container for $1. That's got to count for something? It may only last a short time - but who cares - you can buy another one for just $1. Ka-ching!
It's fascinating to do a search for world debt and discover almost all figures are expressed as a percentage of GDP (The total worth of all goods and services produced in a country over a year). This percentage ratio makes it clear that a country's wealth is dependant on tax being paid on money earned from goods and services - and yet, the undermining of countries is coming from those determined to escape paying their fair tax on money earned, making this ratio yet another falsehood of statistics thrown up by the wealthy to stop the general public realising the problem until its irrecoverable.
I've never heard a reasonable explanation as to why the government's money, our money as taxpayers, why that wasn't spent to simply buy the companies involved. Almost everyone was given enough in 'free' money to exact a far purchase price at the time. If not buy outright, then they should have negotiated to buy 75% or 50% and then, when those big businesses came good because of the large injection of cash, the government and we the people, would then own a large percentage of the profitable business and we could recoup the money or continue to reap the profits as the company grew. But somehow the big business financiers and lobbyists convinced the leaders, who had themselves been the previous leaders of these big companies, just to hand over the money with no strings attached.
The result as everyone now knows is that the financial sector is back on its feet. In fact the DOW is currently back to levels that make the GFC seem all but forgotten, while the rest of us in the larger economy wonder why there's no one spending and no investment in jobs or infrastructure. Well played again big business - you even managed to label the 99% protesters as lefty crackpots intent on harming economic recovery.
Here's to the executives who lunch--
Everybody laugh.
Lounging in their pinstripes
And planning a brunch
On their own behalf.
Off to the gym,
Then to a fitting,
Claiming they're fat.
And looking grim,
'Cause they've been sitting
Choosing a hat.
Does anyone still wear a hat?
I'll drink to that.
So here's to the CEO on the go--
Everybody tries.
Look into their eyes,
And you'll see what they know:
A company never dies.
A toast to that invincible bunch,
The dinosaurs surviving the crunch.
Let's hear it for the fat cats who lunch--
Everybody rise!
Rise!
Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise!
Rise!
Everybody laugh.
Lounging in their pinstripes
And planning a brunch
On their own behalf.
Off to the gym,
Then to a fitting,
Claiming they're fat.
And looking grim,
'Cause they've been sitting
Choosing a hat.
Does anyone still wear a hat?
I'll drink to that.
So here's to the CEO on the go--
Everybody tries.
Look into their eyes,
And you'll see what they know:
A company never dies.
A toast to that invincible bunch,
The dinosaurs surviving the crunch.
Let's hear it for the fat cats who lunch--
Everybody rise!
Rise!
Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise!
Rise!
Reviews: From Amazon
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Posted December 1, 2012
Great read.
A story filled with with love, hate, violence, peace and so much more. 538 pages of wondering what will happen
next. A FULL story from start to finish. Thanks to the author for sharing a great work with the readers.
Posted July 8, 2012
Couldn't put it down...
For this to have been a free book, it was wonderful. The author keeps you on the edge of your seat. I couldn't
put this down. I think this would make a great movie!
Posted April 20, 2012
Amazing
Perfectly written with great detail it was thought provoking and asked the fundemental question of would you
stick up for what you believed was right even if you would be killed for doing so.
Posted April 5, 2012
This book is AWESOME! it keeps you wanting to read the entire ti
This book is AWESOME! it keeps you wanting to read the entire time. It tells of 2 worlds, and both are
extremely unique. One of the best books I've ever read!
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