Economic Totalitarianism

[OROBTC]

...

To my knowledge, no one has come up with a better system than some version of fiat (standardized) money withing major jurisdictions.  Recall that the most commonly accepted definitions of money is that it fulfills all three roles:

1) Unit of Account (my car is worth $8000)

2) Medium of Exchange (give me $1.25 for that Twinkie)

3) Store of Value (will my $1000 next year still buy me approx. $1000 worth of Omaha Steaks as this year?)

The US$ (and almost all) and other currencies FAIL, as they must.  Doing all three of the above is very difficult, especially politically difficult.

We NEED currencies, to more easily buy & sell.

We need gold, perhaps other things, as a Store of Value.  If/when Bitcoin (or a later crypto) comes along re the Store of Value, and especially if ANONYNOUS, wow, then we will be in business (those of us doing stuff anyway).

[TPTB_need_war]

We need gold, perhaps other things, as a Store of Value.

Gold is hedge against government malfeasance but isn't a hedge against mad max failure of the government. In that scenario, gold becomes worthless and only food and ammo (and other supplies) are money. This has been backtested throughout all history by Armstrong.

If the government doesn't correct itself within about 2 - 3 years of the start of the crisis and it the crisis envelopes all possible safe havens globally (or the government blocks your escape), then gold is worthless to you.

Gold is a very, very risky store-of-value with very minimal utility.

That already minimal utility is declining drastically now that the technology has arrived to eliminate cash and control every nook and cranny of the globe with drones.

The Bible says they will throw their gold and silver into the streets. And that is precisely what is coming.

Gold might have some utility in a scenario where you can trade some coins (not bars) in exchange for some passage to a safer venue, or in exchange for some unregistered asset (such as an unregistered boat or plane if those things exist or perhaps a large box of ammo or guns). But it won't be something you can trade regularly for supplies. It will be something you will be lucky to trade seldom (and each trade you will be rolling the dice on your life). It is possible that there will be "resistance movement" that will trade gold for anonymous cryptocurrency, but these movements willl be infiltrated and you will risk life or imprisonment every time you risk a trade. You can have a runner do it for you, but TPTB can torture your runner and turn him against you. In short, gold will be a powder that hold and use only in desperation and sparingly. Thus it will be difficult to find anyone who will trade for it. It will have very low value in black markets, fractions of its "spot price". Liquidity will be horrendous.

All the reasons I can think why we desperately need reliable anonymous communications and currency.

[smfuser]

https://web.archive.org/web/20140225115823/http://www.coolpagehelp.com/developer3.html

That link doesn't seem to work.

[TPTB_need_war]

https://web.archive.org/web/20140225115823/http://www.coolpagehelp.com/developer3.html

That link doesn't seem to work.

https://web.archive.org/web/20020211183355/http://coolpagehelp.com/developer.html

[generalizethis]

https://web.archive.org/web/20140225115823/http://www.coolpagehelp.com/developer3.html

That link doesn't seem to work.

https://web.archive.org/web/20020211183355/http://coolpagehelp.com/developer.html

edited*

the sun sets over friends
their dreams--known and new

rise a world of concrete
double-yellow stripe where

God(s) swallow selves in love
cherish beauty mystery my

serene acceptance flying a kite
on a Sunday with you

[TPTB_need_war]

I must admit rpietila's HODL theme is one choice of "free money":

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1133160.msg11976538#msg11976538

Not content with making explicit attacks on Uber, AirBnB, and the “sharing economy” as a whole, Democrats have launched an even more egregious attack on something that rivals sex, alcohol, and food on Millennials’ “can’t survive without” lists: streaming entertainment. As of July 1, 2015, citizens of Chicago who enjoy their Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Prime, Xbox Live, and/or PlayStation Network subscriptions are now subject to the city’s 9 percent “Amusement Tax” for the privilege. Further, should you decide to digitally rent a movie or video game via these services, the 9 percent tax would be applied for every rental. In other words, Chicago now taxes its citizens 9 percent on their $99 annual Amazon Prime subscription because of its instant video/music service, plus 9 percent for each $3.99 digital rental through the same service. The same applies for rentals and music services offered directly from Microsoft and Sony. Fans of Sony’s PlayStation Network ecosystem are hit hardest: a 9 percent tax each on their PlayStation Plus subscription, PlayStation Music, PlayStation Now (videogame streaming), and Sony’s recently introduced PlayStation Vue live-TV service. Throw in other rental/subscription services such as Hulu, Gamefly, Google Play, HBO Go, iTunes, and Vudu, and you get a sense of the sheer breadth of this tax on Chicago consumers’ digital lives.

Fabulous. They are creating economic demand for a high-latency, high-bandwidth anonymity network.

Working on it...

[TPTB_need_war]

We are facing more of a prospiracy than a conspiracy.

Our proposed decentralized solutions are a rejection of neo-reactionary's corporatism, monarchy, or tribalism "anything but the Hoppe God That Failed Us" postulate, while embracing many of its criticisms.



P.S. generalizethis, I saw your rendition with poetic devices.

[rpietila]

We need gold, perhaps other things, as a Store of Value.

Gold is hedge against government malfeasance but isn't a hedge against mad max failure of the government. In that scenario, gold becomes worthless and only food and ammo (and other supplies) are money. This has been backtested throughout all history by Armstrong.

If the government doesn't correct itself within about 2 - 3 years of the start of the crisis and it the crisis envelopes all possible safe havens globally (or the government blocks your escape), then gold is worthless to you.

Gold is a very, very risky store-of-value with very minimal utility.

That already minimal utility is declining drastically now that the technology has arrived to eliminate cash and control every nook and cranny of the globe with drones.

The Bible says they will throw their gold and silver into the streets. And that is precisely what is coming.

Gold is needed to preserve your value over the time of crisis, precisely what OROBTC said. It will not be of much use during the crisis. Some items mentioned by you might come in handy.

Saying that gold is "very very risky" is very very stupid if no explanation is given. Furthermore, you should really think about my thesis of portfolio allocation based on the least intercorrelation of the total loss risk of its components. In this context gold is very nice risk profile.

[TPTB_need_war]

Many things that happen in the world are scripted for the media and public discourse. They are arranged solely to probe whether the members of the public continue to be as clueless as they have been programmed to be and are wished to continue to be.

You do not overthrow a regime by requiring a majority of society to become freethinkers simultaneously, rather by creating a scenario by which the CONFIDENCE in the regime is trashed in a dominoes cascade. And not thrashed under a controlled crash managed by the TPTB prospiracy of progressivism (i.e. where they can expropriate, tax, and force austerity), but rather one of decentralized communication and trade which pulls the rug from under them (or less ideally a military conquest and meritorious restructuring a la Genghis Khan but that seems highly unrealistic now). Noam Chomsky killed you by teaching to fight with the dull pitchfork of activism.

Here is a summary of Moldbuggery.

Wed, 2008-09-17 22:49by Martin Regnen
The man hiding under the odd pseudonym of Mencius Moldbug is certainly one of the more interesting anti-democracy thinkers today. It is unfortunate that his writings are not easily absorbed because they are long-winded and completely unedited. I am not aware of any presentation of Moldbug's ideas in a simpler form other than one guest post by Arnold Kling at Creative Capitalism. So, as a service to the public, I am presenting here my understanding of Mencius Moldbug's major ideas. I personally agree with most of them and think all are interesting. Some seem strange and extreme at first, but they explain a lot of otherwise insane things going on in the world today - from the absurd number of lawyers employed by the US military to the fact that National Socialism is far more unfashionable today than plain ol' socialism even though the latter killed a lot more people.
 
This piece is intended to serve as an easily digestible introduction to the Moldbuggian worldview and also as a convenient reference for when you're reading one of his essays and suddenly stop to ask yourself "What the hell is this Polygon he's talking about?" Of course, do read the original.
 
Progressivism
 
Progressivism (also called Universalism) is responsible for the vast majority of the world's problems today. It is a non-theistic religion descended in a direct line from the various Dissenter sects of England. Although the belief in God was dropped during the religion's evolution in order to improve its ability to spread, the core of progressive beliefs are very similar to the Quaker beliefs of a few centuries ago. In short, progressives are dangerous and creepy religious maniacs who don't need to believe in God but that makes them no less dangerous, creepy or maniacal.
 
The conflict between progressivism and conservatism
 
Progressivism always wins in the long run. Conservatism can at most slow down the implementation of selected progressive ideas. This is because progressives dominate the universities, media and non-governmental organizations which allows them to mold public opinion. Progressives dominate those institutions because progressivism is a far more attractive ideology for people who are intelligent, ambitious and status-seeking. In the US conservatives are largely members of Protestant sects of American origin (mostly Evangelical sects) whereas progressives are the spiritual descendants of the English dissenters, so this conflict is essentially a religious one.
 
The US government
 
The Presidency and Congress are mainly ceremonial. The US is governed mainly by the permanent civil service bureaucracy although the real decisions are made at elite universities and then spread by the media and by non-governmental organizations. The universities, media and NGOs are all essential elements of the de facto government, which is referred to as the Polygon or the Cathedral. There is no conspiracy involved - the system is self-organized and self-perpetuating with no need for central leadership.
 
The military
 
Militaries are the only institutions with any importance or power which is not dominated by progressives. Because of this progressives burden the military with rules of engagement which make victory impossible and then use left-wing insurgencies or adventures in foreign countries to defeat the military in proxy wars.
 
Political parties
 
In a democracy with two major political parties, the more progressive party is referred to as the Inner Party and the more conservative party is the Outer Party. Supporting the Outer Party in any way is not an effective strategy against progressivism.
 
International relations
 
The US essentially runs the world since the aftermath of World War II. Many military conflicts around the world are usually best understood proxy wars in the struggle between progressivism and conservatism. What progressives refer to as independence means total dependence on the US. The current system should be replaced by a return to classical international law with all non-nuclear countries becoming client states of nuclear countries.
 
Insurgency
 
There has never been a successful right-wing insurgency in the XX century with the possible exception of Franco. Left-wing insurgencies can succeed as progressive auxillaries in the progressive-conservative in another (more powerful) country.
 
Activism
 
Progressive political activism is directed against the elected government and supports the unelected civil service bureaucracy. Anti-American political activism consists of pressuring the US to live up to its own progressive ideals, and therefore is more accurately called ultra-Americanism. Both are effective methods of influencing US government policy in the progressive direction.
 
Castes
 
In an earlier version, the population of the US was divided into five castes: Brahmin, Optimate, Vaisya, Helot and Dalit. In the new, simplified version we have Eloi, Morlocks and Proles. A caste is a large social group with its own internal rules for ranking social status. The Eloi or Brahmin are the well-educated progressive elites. The Proles or Vaisyas are regular people who work for a living. The Morlocks or Dalits are the underclass supported by crime and/or welfare. The Optimates are the remnants of the old WASP elites and Southern aristocracy, but they no longer are of any importance - in the simplified version they have either joined the Eloi or become Proles. The Helots are unskilled laborers, largely of Mexican origin - they've been split up between the Proles and the Morlocks in the simplified version.
 
Crime
 
The criminal underclass is a military auxillary of the progressives. The criminals see themselves as taking what's rightfully theirs and waging war against an unjust society. Progressives enable and support this war by supporting ineffective crime policy.
 
Removing a democracy
 
The removal of a democratic government is called a restoration. It cannot be accomplished by forming a political party and winning elections. It can be achieved either by military coup or by making democracy sufficiently unpopular. The latter can be done by convincing sufficiently large numbers of the public that progressivism is a harmful and untruthful ideology.
 
Replacing a democracy
 
Democracy should be replaced by a temporary government headed by a Receiver with plenary powers which acts similar to what is done in a corporate bankruptcy - sells off assets and restructures. The future shape of government is left up to the temporary government but in order to prevent progressivism from taking over the new government, all parts of the Cathedral should be dissolved.
 
Neocameralism
 
The preferred alternative to democracy is neocameralism in which the government is a joint-stock corporation with ownership of the country and the goal of maximizing profits.
 
Recommended reading
 
If you are new to the world of Moldbug and want to dive in head-first, I recommend starting with the first part of the "Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives" series. Then you can go through the rest of the series: Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, and finally Part XII.
 
If you prefer to first dip your toes in something less massive and less overtly political, I suggest a post about how progressivism destroyed the arts.
 
Enjoy.
 
Note: The views of Mencius Moldbug are not necessarily those of Corrupt.

[TPTB_need_war]

We need gold, perhaps other things, as a Store of Value.

Gold is hedge against government malfeasance but isn't a hedge against mad max failure of the government. In that scenario, gold becomes worthless and only food and ammo (and other supplies) are money. This has been backtested throughout all history by Armstrong.

If the government doesn't correct itself within about 2 - 3 years of the start of the crisis and it the crisis envelopes all possible safe havens globally (or the government blocks your escape), then gold is worthless to you.

Gold is a very, very risky store-of-value with very minimal utility.

That already minimal utility is declining drastically now that the technology has arrived to eliminate cash and control every nook and cranny of the globe with drones.

The Bible says they will throw their gold and silver into the streets. And that is precisely what is coming.

Gold might have some utility in a scenario where you can trade some coins (not bars) in exchange for some passage to a safer venue, or in exchange for some unregistered asset (such as an unregistered boat or plane if those things exist or perhaps a large box of ammo or guns). But it won't be something you can trade regularly for supplies. It will be something you will be lucky to trade seldom (and each trade you will be rolling the dice on your life). It is possible that there will be "resistance movement" that will trade gold for anonymous cryptocurrency, but these movements willl be infiltrated and you will risk life or imprisonment every time you risk a trade. You can have a runner do it for you, but TPTB can torture your runner and turn him against you. In short, gold will be a powder that hold and use only in desperation and sparingly. Thus it will be difficult to find anyone who will trade for it. It will have very low value in black markets, fractions of its "spot price". Liquidity will be horrendous.

All the reasons I can think why we desperately need reliable anonymous communications and currency.

Gold is needed to preserve your value over the time of crisis, precisely what OROBTC said. It will not be of much use during the crisis. Some items mentioned by you might come in handy.

Saying that gold is "very very risky" is very very stupid if no explanation is given. Furthermore, you should really think about my thesis of portfolio allocation based on the least intercorrelation of the total loss risk of its components. In this context gold is very nice risk profile.

All I can fathom is you didn't grasp from my elucidation that if a crisis moves past the Overton window, the slide into a Dark Age outlives your lifespan; thus gold is useless. Thus gold has no utility in the center of the Overton window and only protects during ephemeral moves away from the center which revert within a few years. I think any one can see we are not facing a localized crisis.

I define the NWO as an ongoing crisis of unthinkables, because it is an inherently bankrupt paradigm thus will be a resource extraction paradigm. In a near zero margin industrial age economy, this means expropriating first all private wealth and then later moving on to extracting blood (wavelength blood red 666, the number of man) a.k.a. eugenics. So even though you might define a monetary reset as the end of the crisis, I expect this will include a "tax" on exchanging gold for the new "SDR" unit, i.e. expropriation. In other words, a continuation of the crisis in the form of fascist-totalitarianism where production is increasingly consolidated under control by a few.

[trollercoaster]

Unregistered precious metals, relics, art etc. Will be linked to terrorism which will render them worthless in that sense.

Germany has already made that connection, undercover tax spies, global surveilance and the terrorist boogey man paranoia fueled by the media has turned society against the individual, it will be very difficult to hide your precious metal stash.

[TPTB_need_war]

This query:

https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=site%3Aarmstrongeconomics.com+Windows+8+spyware

Returns:

Your search - site:armstrongeconomics.com Windows 8 spyware - did not match any documents.

Any other query on "site:armstrongeconomics.com" returns a slew of listings. I know for a fact that Armstrong wrote numerous times about how Windows 8 is spyware. But now I can't find a single listing via Google. So this tells you in whose back pocket Google is in.

I ran the same search again on duckduckgo.com and received many listings!

[username18333]

Unless pretty much all humans experience a drastic change in their constitution and way of thinking, luxury goods (of limited supply such as Champagne of a certain brand and a certain year) will always be coveted, valuable, priced, and therefore not free. Same goes for capital goods including land. The Rothschild-led corporatism is a very unequal system but my impression is that the Rothschild-led Soviet communism was an even worse one if environmental damage and sustainable land usage is considered. I would instead go for small farming (one farm producing food for 10-20 families), which was the norm in Old Testament Israel, the 1800s United States, Third Reich, postwar Finland, and still is in many developing countries, Japan, Switzerland, etc.

So even though you might define a monetary reset as the end of the crisis, I expect this will include a "tax" on exchanging gold for the new "SDR" unit, i.e. expropriation. In other words, a continuation of the crisis in the form of fascist-totalitarianism where production is increasingly consolidated under control by a few.

Your “poor” could appropriate a greater portion of the (monetary) value of the GEC economy to themselves.

Money (think: matter in general) is produced and distributed. In the case of money (think: non-dark matter), the production and distribution is "top-down" - begetting plutocracy. In the case of "anti-money" (rpietila et al) (think: dark matter), that production and distribution is "bottom-up" - preempting (second denotation) plutocracy.

Potential infinity refers to a procedure that gets closer and closer to, but never quite reaches, an infinite end.

The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.

Under "anti-money" (rpietila et al), "vain ideals" (Epicurus) experience, analogically, the "hard radiation" (McIrvin) of the economic equivalent of the "infinite blueshift" (McIrvin) of a Schwarzschild wormhole - acute hyperinflation in their markets.

Economy is the controlled implosion of conceived value, via the [“]infinite blueshift[” (McIrvin)] of idle want, within a social Schwarzschild wormhole that terminates with one’s person.

[TPTB_need_war]

rpietila, I moved our discussion about theory of change activism in money systems, and username18333 on the applicability of anti-money, to the Economic Devastation thread which is more apropos.

[minor-transgression]

There seems to be some doubt about the possible role of gold within
a total societal collapse. At a fundamental level, food, ie calories,
in a defined format are money. But this form of money is not very useful.
It does not assist communication of needs and wants across a network
to any great degree. In a near-total collapse therefore something similar
to the old trimetallic currency would quickly become a form of liquidity,
and though it could be cigarettes, or whiskey, of tinned sardines,
a mixture of gold and bitcoin could work together given enough
infrastructure is retained.

Which brings me to the subject of Liquidity: MA only partially understands
its importance judging from his posts. Put simply, once Liquidity goes,
we _will_  have to fall back to gold and bitcoin. Further, it will be very
difficult to re-create the liquidity once the confidence that supports it is
destroyed. (I hesitiate to judge - it is more of an assessment.)

I have been thinking about Hayek these last few days: I seem to recall
it was his advice that kept the UK out of the EuroZone. You have to wonder
why, despite all the warnings, did they go ahead with that? Perhaps
the present march to Fourth Reich is no accident.

Hayek had much to say in his "The Denationalisation of Money" that is
relevant today: not only for QE, but also for alternative currencies.
His argument [p93-106] is that Central Banks are, shall I say, barbaric
relics, whose existence is necessary because of government mandated
monopoly of issuing currency. Once alternative currencies are in place
and are allowed to compete on a level playing field, Central Banks
are an unnecessary encumbrance.

Much of the dysfunction within the money markets, the financial and the
political arenas can be traced back to Central Bank interventions - as
can be seen quite clearly in the control of Greece.   

[TPTB_need_war]

In a near-total collapse therefore something similar
to the old trimetallic currency would quickly become a form of liquidity,
and though it could be cigarettes, or whiskey, of tinned sardines,
a mixture of gold and bitcoin could work together given enough
infrastructure is retained.

Which brings me to the subject of Liquidity: MA only partially understands
its importance judging from his posts. Put simply, once Liquidity goes,
we _will_  have to fall back to gold and bitcoin.

Do not try to argue against MA on facts of historical outcomes, because he has 6000 years $1 billion of backtested data so he knows what happens. No theories needed.

What you apparently did not enter into your analysis is that in F.U.B.A.R. mad max collapse, if you attempt to spend gold, you become a target for marauding gangs and also in any government haven a target for expropriation by the government.

Anonymous crypto-coin yes, it might work (but will we be able to keep the network up and running?).

[tabnloz]

We need gold, perhaps other things, as a Store of Value.

Gold is hedge against government malfeasance but isn't a hedge against mad max failure of the government. In that scenario, gold becomes worthless and only food and ammo (and other supplies) are money. This has been backtested throughout all history by Armstrong.

If the government doesn't correct itself within about 2 - 3 years of the start of the crisis and it the crisis envelopes all possible safe havens globally (or the government blocks your escape), then gold is worthless to you.

Gold is a very, very risky store-of-value with very minimal utility.

That already minimal utility is declining drastically now that the technology has arrived to eliminate cash and control every nook and cranny of the globe with drones.

The Bible says they will throw their gold and silver into the streets. And that is precisely what is coming.

Gold is needed to preserve your value over the time of crisis, precisely what OROBTC said. It will not be of much use during the crisis. Some items mentioned by you might come in handy.

Saying that gold is "very very risky" is very very stupid if no explanation is given. Furthermore, you should really think about my thesis of portfolio allocation based on the least intercorrelation of the total loss risk of its components. In this context gold is very nice risk profile.

this makes sense to me; if governments begin failing (possible precursor to full scale collapse) then gold will regain its lustre, at least for the 'old money' / un-crypto-infected generation duri g such a transition.

[username18333]

this makes sense to me; if governments begin failing (possible precursor to full scale collapse) then gold will regain its lustre, at least for the 'old money' / un-crypto-infected generation duri g such a transition.

Default expands the jurisdiction of a plutocrat (e.g., one that has lent substantial quantities of capital to a national or regional government) for it may, then, collect capital more-than-less directly from the inhabitants of an entire nation or region.

[OROBTC]

...

username18333

One nice thing about gold is that it makes no claim on other assets (similarly it has no counterparty risk, a risk of theft, yes).  You sit there with your gold, you hurt no one.  Sit there with your silver or platinum, conceivably you are contributing to a scarcity of metals needed by industry.

tabnloz

Yes, it is interesting how so many of the young could care less about gold.

Gold, of course, is of interesting to bearing guys.  Must be a metals thing or sumpin'...

[americanpegasus]

...

To my knowledge, no one has come up with a better system than some version of fiat (standardized) money withing major jurisdictions.  Recall that the most commonly accepted definitions of money is that it fulfills all three roles:

1) Unit of Account (my car is worth $8000)

2) Medium of Exchange (give me $1.25 for that Twinkie)

3) Store of Value (will my $1000 next year still buy me approx. $1000 worth of Omaha Steaks as this year?)

The US$ (and almost all) and other currencies FAIL, as they must.  Doing all three of the above is very difficult, especially politically difficult.

We NEED currencies, to more easily buy & sell.

We need gold, perhaps other things, as a Store of Value.  If/when Bitcoin (or a later crypto) comes along re the Store of Value, and especially if ANONYNOUS, wow, then we will be in business (those of us doing stuff anyway).

 
 
That anonynous currency already exists my friend. 
 
And we are indeed in business.