Posted on 09/23/2002 8:08:25 AM PDT by vannrox
If I wanted to rule the world, where would I begin? Foremost, I would want to control the money supply, for if I could control the money supply, then I would control whole governments, whole populations, and whole economies. I would not want to own them, mind you, for that would give me a bad name, but to control them still. Lets say that four hundred years ago a clever man earned a fortune in financing merchant ships and wholesaling imports. He made so much money that the King came to him and asked him to finance a war. This, he discovered, was a whole new way to make money, and where was the risk? The King would tax the people to pay him back, with interest to boot. Ah, but the King might lose his war, so the smart thing to do was to finance the Kings enemy as well. This clever man brought others into the business, then moved them to other Kingdoms, where they became bankers to merchants and Kings. These expanded the business even further and they became powerful people wherever they went.. They financed Kings and their wars, and they harvested the taxes from the people. Then a newfangled thing came along, the American Revolution, and although there was no King on one side to promise to pay them, a committee of prominent people did promise to pay them, later, out of taxes. So they financed the war, but to be safe, they financed the King as well. The revolutionaries won their war, as we know, but they had not established a means to tax the people to pay for it. The bankers did not like that, so they pressed the leaders to change the rules, which they did with a brand new Constitution. Naturally these people were no secret, for they were the leaders of society, but who could keep track of them generation after generation? Names change, after all, and some promising young man with an unpronounceable name might marry into the business, and allow it to grow in a new direction unknown to the people in general. Some societies were easier to control than others, and the new republican forms of government sometimes spun out of control. People who believed that they were free and independent were particularly troublesome; unauthorized innovation could result in unimagined sources of wealth that could only be corralled with the greatest difficulty. Legislation was the solution, of course, but it always lagged behind new technology, and some of the wealth always got away for a while. The American Revolution was laid to rest easily, while the Industrial Revolution nearly escaped, but those who control the money always gain control of the rest in the end. Some bold and clever men saw that the key to controlling republican forms of government was a strong central bank that belonged to them. Impossible dream? The Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913, and the US State became their own. If I were the leader of this group, what would I want to do today? Corral innovation in information technology, and crush independent fledgling companies. Corral the Internet, and crush independent free flow of information. Entangle the whole population with rules and regulations and taxation, making true independence of thought and action nearly impossible for the common individual. Keep up the drumbeat of constant threats of war, terrorism, and financial failure to break the spirit of liberty and independence; strip that Bill Of Rights from the Constitution, and return it to its original intent. If I controlled the State, I would want the people to serve it, and to pay for it, diligently, and without complaint. Whew! What a mad agenda! I am so glad that I only want to rule myself.
September 20, 2002 Robert Klassen [send him mail] is a medical technician and writer. Here's his web site. Copyright © 2002 Robert Klassen
I got this far and stopped. The man has no clue.
I recall a WSJ article from the early '80s, discussing the Polish economy. The official currency of Poland was the zloty, which was worthless. The working currency was vodka and cigarettes. All real payments were rendered with these.
He'd never be able to control the money.
Once people have become dependent on a fiat currency, it takes an extraordinary effort to wrench themselves free of it. Granted that it happens now and then, when other commodities can be used in trade, but in many cases, including Weimar 1923 and China 1947, the suffering populace has had no choice at all but to try to work with a rapidly deteriorating fiat currency. The end is always ruin.
Fiat currencies are so dangerous to economic health and property rights that they should be Constitutionally forbidden. However, they're so useful to the cause of the Omnipotent State that they never, ever will be. Coin clipping is a lot harder than running a printing press, after all.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com
... I would have mandatory prison terms for fat people who wear spandex.
And given the resilience of the market, if you tried to manipulate the money supply in any striking way to achieve a particular goal, you would likely bring ruinous inflation or depression on your economy. So what you end up with in the end, isn't ruling the world, so much as managing the money supply in order to manage the money supply. If it's your desire to create havoc, you can do it by playing with the money supply, but that's not the act of a "world ruler." In other words, something -- the reason for or result of "ruling the world" -- is missing from the article.
And taxation probably has far more consequences than monetary policy. I can put my picture on the money and play with it as much as I like, I won't achieve the kind of real power to get specific things done that comes from writing the tax code.
Having said that, however, I do wish Al Gore would grow a purple ponytail, pierce his tongue, drop his drawers by 1/4, and get a Chelsea Clinton tattoo on his hairless chest. Now that would be an improvement. Not to mention, it would become increasingly difficult for the world to deny that the man is insane.
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