Money

Western governments appropriate around 35% of their citizens' earnings in the form of taxes - of one sort or another. But did you know that the numerous regulations and red tape that they also impose on businesses means that goods and services cost around 13% more than they would otherwise do?

In other words, western governments confiscate about 50% (not 35%) of their people's purchasing power.

Printing Money 

Printing money is what governments do (with the aid of banks) in order to con billions of dollars out of the people without them noticing.

Here's how part of the scam works.

Imagine that you want to be the mayor of the town and that you have to convince the people to vote for you to get the job. So, most secretly, you print some money with your printing press that you hide in your garden shed. And you use this money to pay some of the town's labourers and some of its businesses to build a new bridge across the river.

"Hurrah!" shout the voters. "What a wonderful man you are! You bring us such beautiful gifts. We shall vote for you!"

But what they do not realise fully is that it is they who have paid for the bridge, and it is they who have actually put their backs into building it!

You did nothing.

By printing the money to pay for the bridge, and putting that money into general circulation, you have simply devalued the money in everyone else's pocket to exactly the same amount as the cost of the bridge.

The people paid for the bridge with their own money, and with their own sweat. 

But you get the credit for it!

Neat, eh?

In the real world such political shenanigans lead to something called inflation. The money in your pocket, the money that you earn, and all the money that you have saved are simply devalued by this inflation.

In fact, it is just a well-hidden form of tax.

It eats away at your money, bit by bit, but over the years it amounts to a very considerable sum.

And most of the electorate does not really notice it happening.

What a great scam!

In the very early 1970s, here in the UK, old folks whose life savings amounted to, say, £20 000, could have bought a whole four-bedroomed house in London! Ten years later (and assuming that they invested this cash in a deposit account) they would have been lucky to have been able to buy an apartment less than half the size.

Basically, those old folk were just robbed of nearly half their life savings - often made throughout 40+ years or so of work.

And what could they do about it?

Nothing.

The central banks are also part of the scam.

So, let us go back to the town where you have just successfully been elected the mayor.

Hmm. Somehow you've got to make some money for yourself.

So you say to your brother, "I know what we'll do! You print the money in your garden shed, and lend it out at interest to the townsfolk so that you can make a profit. And I'll get a piece of the action!"

"What a good idea!" says your brother.

So he prints the money (devaluing everybody else's) and he makes a profit from the interest by lending it out to the people - i.e. from the very money that he actually stole from the villagers in the first place by devaluing their currency!

But you want a piece of the action too!

So you go to your brother and say to him. "Please Brother. Print some money especially for me, because I want to build a new hospital to sucker the electorate into voting for me again. Oh, and by the way, I would also like to propagate a war to help my friends in the oil and weapons industries. I will definitely need some money for that too."

(e.g. USA The US government also provided a $3.8 billion loan to Poland, on very favorable terms, to finance the purchase of 48 F-16s, which are manufactured in President Bush's home state of Texas.)

"I can print as much money as you like!" chirps your brother most happily. "But I will charge you a little interest on the deal."

"That's fine by me," you reply to your brother. "Why the Hell should I care? After all, it is not my money that I will be using to pay you back the interest. It will be those suckers who voted for me who will have to foot the bills. Besides which, I'll probably be doing a different job in a few years time - probably in the very oil and weapons industries that I have supported most handsomely with the money that you created. And so it will be some other mayor who will end up having to pay back all the debt. In the meantime, however, I also get the credit for building the hospital!"

It really is a terrific scam.

And it cost you nothing!

You and your brother created nothing - except paper - but you managed to spend a whole fistful of money, earn interest on it, and then, to top it all off, you manage to get elected into office by convincing the people what a jolly good fellow you are.

This is like sneaking into the back of people' houses, stealing some of their money, and then popping round to the front door and offering them a free gift if they vote for you - or offering them a loan with the money that you have just stolen from the back of the house!

But it's their money. It's what they worked for.

But  your government does this sort of thing all the time.

It steals your money by printing money.

And so it is that both central banks and governments are in cahoots with each other to take, by stealth, money from the people (printing money ->inflation -> devaluation of their currency) and to earn profits (from interest) on the basis of the money (equal to the devaluation) that they have sneakily stolen from the people in the first place! And then the government gets your votes because you have not seen what the politicians have been doing behind your back.

To get some idea of just how much larger than even this is the racket, bear in mind that if you take out a typical long term loan to buy a house or a business, the amount that you pay back in interest alone is usually much greater than the cost of the building that you are actually purchasing.

Putting this another way: The amount of blood, sweat, tears, effort and work that you have to endure in order to pay off the 'interest mongers' and the 'money-handlers' is actually much greater than that required to purchase the building!

In other words, you will spend more of your years labouring to pay off the people who did nothing but lend you the money for the property than you will spend paying off the people who actually sweated away to build it!

The bricklayer gets a dollar, but the bank gets three!

What kind of system is that?

And when you think of all the millions upon millions of properties and businesses around the world that are bought in this manner, you can surely see that we are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars every year going to those groups who create and build, well, nothing really.

They do nothing but lend you the money!

Well, OK. The above is an oversimplification because in dynamic economies people do need to be able to borrow money if they are going to jump on the housing ladder or set up new businesses. And borrowing mechanisms need to be put into place - and paid for.

Nevertheless, a significant percentage of the world's transactions is based on money that the banks and the governments in cahoots together simply created out of thin air - thereby devaluing (stealing) your money in the process.

And an example of the long term consequence of engaging in this sneaky form of theft can be seen right here ...

USA Social Security, Medicare: those two programs alone have created a $25 trillion unfunded liability. The people hoping for those benefits have to pray the taxpayers will continue to be chumps. That’s how all chain letters work. Sheldon Richman

Now, not only does the government sneak in taxation by printing money, it also does its best to conceal what it does with it. 

As just one example of this, every year, here in the UK, the Inland Revenue sends me its tax bill. It tells me what I have to pay and how this amount has been calculated. I am told that for seven years I must keep all my receipts and any documentation relating to my incomings and outgoings, just in case the Revenue decides that it wants to look at them.

But how come they don't send me a breakdown of what they're doing with my money?

For example, if I pay £5,000 in taxes, I would like to know how much of it is going on education, how much of it is going to pay for defence, and how much is going toward social security benefits.

Breaking down my £5,000 into 15 or 20 areas like this would empower me. It would empower everyone to know where their money was going. 

By doing this, taxpayers could see, every year, what went up and what went down. They could see how much they paid for this and how much for that. They could then vote at elections with more knowledge about the issues and so they would come to better conclusions.

And this would be such a simple thing to do! A tiny little subroutine in the Revenue's computer program could easily apply the relevant percentages for government expenditure to everyone's tax invoice and print out the figures showing people where their money was being spent.

So why doesn't the government do this?

When people hear our politicians talking about millions spent here and billions spent there, it doesn't mean anything to them. The numbers are too large and everybody pays different amounts. And so the taxpayers learn nothing about what it really means to them.

The government could solve this information deficit within a month. A few lines of computer program just before the invoice is actually printed, and away we go, it would print a simple breakdown for all of us. People would then know where their money was going.

And this really would inform and empower them. 

£1342 for education. £746 for defence. £1768 for social security benefits.

But, knowledge is power - which, presumably, is why the government does not want to give people such information.

Did you know that 'services' like those provided by lawyers make up part of a nation's Gross Domestic Product?

Yep: The more lawyering that there is, the better does a country appear to be doing!

And yet, the amount of legal activity going on within a country is partly a measure of how much its people are involved in fighting with each other.

The greater the number of legal disputes, the higher is the GDP!

Further, for example, the necessary legal costs - e.g. as imposed on businesses by government - actually get counted in the national statistics as a sign of wealth!

What a con, eh?

Of course, the same is true with regard to, say, the expense of using accountants. For example, if you have to pay $500 to an accountant to sort out all your tax details, then this $500 is not counted as being part of your tax burden - which, of course, it is - but it does count toward the GDP!

And, further, businesses and corporations also have to pay huge amounts to lawyers, accountants and various bureaucrats who deal with all the red tape, and you, as a customer, have to foot these bills.

All these extra burdens are forced on us by governments. But they do not count as 'tax'. They count as wealth!

Sneaky eh?

You see. If the government itself did all the jobs that it insists have to be done by citizens, then citizens would have to pay for this through the tax system. And taxes are high enough already. The people might object! But by forcing citizens to pay professionals who work outside of government to do these enforced things, then the government does not have to raise taxes at all. Indeed, it cleverly shifts what are, in fact, governmental burdens forcibly imposed upon citizens, into what appears to be extra wealth!

Other burdens such as monetary fines (e.g. for parking illegally and for speeding) and the costs incurred because of certain regulations (e.g. pertaining to buildings and, say, the money that employers have to pay to women who take time off work as a result of pregnancy) also do not count as 'tax', but given that these expenditures are imposed by governments, they most definitely should be.

It was also recently reported that the average US taxpayer spends 28 hours per year dealing with matters related to tax. This 28 hours per year is more than three working days. And yet, once again, the monetary value of this is not added to the figures when working out the burdens forcibly  imposed by the government on its people.

Indeed, when government-imposed burdens are taken into account, 'tax' rates in the western world are nowadays hovering around the 50% mark - and much higher in some places.

But, back to the legal profession.

The legal profession is a very powerful and influential 'organism'.

The activities of this organism mostly reflect the levels of disharmony and dispute that exist within a country. It is in the interests of this 'organism' to increase the levels of disharmony and dispute throughout the country.  And, unsurprisingly, because of its huge power and influence, it is extremely successful at doing this.

Indeed, the simple creation of a single law - regardless of its merits - just about always gives lawyers and government workers more power, more jobs and more wealth.

And, in America, the profession providing the biggest monetary contribution to the Democratic Party is - yep, you've guessed it - the legal profession.

Well. What a surprise, eh?

And guess from which profession most politicians are drawn.

The law. 

Yes indeed. The politicians and their cronies are a group of people who benefit hugely from the creation of more and more laws, increasingly complex rules, regulations and red tape and, also, from what is best described as 'disharmony' - e.g. the higher the divorce rate or the crime rate, the more do they profit.

Bankers: Some quotes by people who knew what they were talking about. ...

"The modern theory of the perpetuation of debt has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating." Thomas Jefferson

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs."
Thomas Jefferson

"You (International Bankers) are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out. If the American people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning." Andrew Jackson 

"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance." James Madison 

"Whomsoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce and when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate." James Garfield 

"I am afraid that ordinary citizens will not like to be told that the banks can, and do, create and destroy money. And they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of governments, and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people." - Reginald McKenna, Chairman of the Midland Bank in London.

"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson." Franklin D. Roosevelt

"The real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self created screen...At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both political parties." John Hylan, New York City Mayor, 1922

"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world, no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." Woodrow Wilson 

When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes...Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain." Napoleon