As an Objectivist, it is a given that I believe in a Reality that is separate from my own perceptions and understanding of it. This is the very basis of what it is to be an Objectivist. What does this imply exactly? It means that the fact that I am unaware of an action taken for or against me, has no bearing on the fact that it did take place, and it did affect me. It means that if someone steals from me, with me unaware of the theft, that I am no less harmed by my ignorance. In fact it could be argued that I am in fact harmed even further by my ignorance, for because of my ignorance I cannot take any action to rectify the theft and won't be motivated to take measures to see that it doesn't occur again in the future. By this reasoning, ignorance is obviously causing me harm, even though I don't know it. That is the insidious nature of the thing. Your ignorant even of your own ignorance.
Here is a scene from a movie that sometimes comes to mind when I am pondering these things:
"Morpheus :It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth Neo : What truth? Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind."
Pretty scary thought huh? Sadly, and more than horrifying is that Truth is scarier than fiction. That is a brief excerpt from the movie 'The Matrix'. While I won't delve to deeply into the political aspects of the movie, or any of the other concepts it brings up, I did want to share this concept. The concept of something so integral to our existence we no longer have the capacity to truly recognize it for what it is. Something we were born into, something we have learned to take for granted, but ultimately something that was designed and currently used to enslave us. Just because we do not recognize our own slavery, our literal serfdom, just because the mechanism for theft is so subtle, does not mean it doesn't occur, that it isn't occurring even as you read this. What is the prime tool of our serfdom? Well many of you may already be familiar with it. It is an oft used term, but seldom understood; inflation.
Well what is inflation? Many others have attempted to answer this question. Economics professors, bankers, and politicians alike. They say it is the increase of the money supply. They say it is necessary for economic welfare, they say a lot of things about it, but what they never tell you, is the truth. The truth about inflation can be summed up in one word: THEFT. Inflation = Theft. That's it. That's all it is. All their posturing, all their obfuscation, all their theories, all their lies, are designed to hide this one fact. Inflation is Theft. And it isn't just any simple theft. It isn't a petty crime, and it doesn't just affect some people. It affects everyone currently holding dollars as money. That's pretty much everyone. This is where ignorance really sucks, because even though you may have been ignorant of the theft, does not mean you haven't been robbed.
The first thing most people want to ask when the discover they have been robbed is: How Much? Well, the damage is pretty severe. It's very severe in fact. Lets break down some of the numbers to give you an idea of how severe it is. From January of 1914 to January 2009 the total inflation rate is 2,011.43%. That's right, over Two thousand percent since the creation of the federal reserve cartel. So how much loss of value does that mean for each dollar? If something cost a single dollar in January of 1914, that same thing would cost you 21.12$ today. So what, you ask? What does it matter? Well in that intervening time the value of our money was de-valued. But where did that value go? Did it just evaporate into the atmosphere? Did it just disappear? No, it did not. Someone took that value, by increments, and by design. Someone is still taking that value. For that is the purpose of inflation. It is a hidden tax.
Production is wealth. This is true on the face of it. The country that produces more goods to be sold has more wealth. That is why America became wealthy in the first place. Wealth is not defined by how many dollars you have in your bank account. Wealth is how much of this 'stuff', the goods and products and planes trains and automobiles etc, that you possess. Since we know production is wealth, then it should be understood that if a countries production increases then so to should the wealth of its citizens. After all they were the producers of that wealth, should they not get the bounty of their production? Shouldn't the wealth of a nation directly correspond to how much it produces? Shouldn't those figures mirror each other almost exactly? That sad fact is that they do not. When we factor in that production in this country has improved year after year for nearly the last century, (despite terrible domestic and foreign policy and despite the continuous and over-burdensome taxation).
This increase in production is due to a number of factors, like improved technology, improved business practices, and in no small part because of individual innovators constantly striving to find a way to make the same things cheaper. This trend to find the most cost effective way to create goods and services, means that overall production increases. With an increase in production we should see and increase in total wealth right? Wrong! But why? Where has this increase in production and wealth gone? In actual value terms, we have not received the bounty of our increased production. The true value of that increased production has been taken from us, and the mechanism by which it is stolen is inflation. How much? The disparity isn't small. In the quarter century between 1980 and 2005, business productivity increased by 71%. Over the same quarter century, median weekly earnings of full-time workers rose from $613 to $705, a gain of only 14% (figures in 2005 dollars). This is to show you that even though our productivity rises, the ones doing the production do not see the benefit from this increase of production.
Just recently those who thought they were wealthy because they had some very valuable stocks, just found out when the stock market plummeted that wealth and money although closely related, are not the same thing. Wealth is not money. Just because you received a raise at your job does not necessarily mean you increased your wealth. Wages always trail behind inflation, that means if you were paid 10 dollars an hour in 2006, and you didn't receive a raise equaling at least .68 cents an hour or greater by 2009, you didn't even keep up with inflation. You are now less wealthy. Put another way, if you had an income of 50,000 a year during 2006, and didn't increase your income to 53,395$ by 2009, then once again you fell behind. If you actually took a pay cut as many are doing now, then that is on top of the lost value from inflation. That is just in three years. And that is just for one household. When you realize the literal mountains of money being stolen from from all of us each and every year, you have to begin to wonder why they even have income tax. The truth is, they could finance the entire government from inflation alone, and the income tax is small potatoes to them.
What does all this loss of value really mean for you. It means you and your family have to work that much harder, and that much longer every year, year after year, just to keep up with it. It means your on a treadmill. Your one of those rats in its wheel running for all your worth and the mad political scientists and money magicians sit back and laugh at you while they take all that effort and turn it into gold for themselves.
It terms of actual purchasing power, the average American wage is decreasing, not increasing. This is no joke, this is no lie. In '99 a report published by The Economic Policy Institute showed that the average American worked six weeks more per year than when the study began in '89. In that same year the average personal savings rate became negative. This means that despite working longer hours, we were actually going into debt to maintain our standard of living. Debt is voluntary servitude. We are becoming more enslaved by the day, and we are the ones putting on the shackles.
Now that we have at least some understanding of the tools used to enslave us, what is the Primary Cause? How do things like this happen? Why does a free people give up its freedom, seemingly without even a single protest. How could such a ruse be carried on for the better part of a century without nary a grumble from the masses. Simply put, it is because they are ignorant. Ignorance is your nemesis, for if you are ignorant of your serfdom, what need is there to complain. If your ignorant of the theft, why would you cry when it is taken. It is the most perfect serfdom in the history of the world. For the first time our rulers and elitist's can extort from you riches beyond count or measure and leave you barely enough to subsist upon, and their is no general outcry, there is no general revolt or rebellion. These things do not happen by accident, they happen because a bunch of very smart, very motivated and very evil people came together and concocted a plan that would make them beyond rich, and beyond powerful and they would do it with your governments help. The politicians would be bought and paid for with the bribe of being able to appropriate endless amounts of money from the masses for all the pet projects in the world, and the bankers would help them do it. Its the greatest fleecing and greatest crime in history, and nobody even talks about it. How does this happen? It happens because people refuse to become educated, they refuse to learn about money and banking and how the money magicians work their magic, in effect they refuse to learn about the prison they were born into. Which brings me back to the topic of this article: They refuse to remedy their own ignorance, and What you don't know, Can hurt you.
There is a quote that goes something like this "Those not interested in politics, will be forever ruled by those who are." Well I am going to change that to this, "Those not interested in banking, will be forever ruled by those who are." The federal Reserve act was created in 1913. Most people alive back then are dead and gone. Most of us were born into this mess, into this perfect mouse trap. But most of us just accept it as 'the way things are'. We take it for granted that banks can lend out 9 dollars for every actual dollar they have, in essence creating that 9 dollars out of thin air (inflation). We take it for granted that this is okay, and we never stop to question whether it is moral. Well I for one will continue to question them and their perfect setup, for I firmly believe that just because a thing is, doesn't mean it should be.
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