Money as opposed to the proceeds from productive effort - from Atlas Shrugged
The following passage from Chapter Two of Part II of 'Atlas Shrugged,' illustrates the pointlessness of most of the debate and proffered solutions surrounding the ongoing western economic crisis, particularly the emptiness of the grandstanding within the UK Coalition Government about bankers bonuses, involving as it does fictitious billions of sham and confetti-like, over produced and falsely printed pound notes.
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"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
"When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honour -- your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is the statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money. Is this what you consider evil?"
"Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions -- and you'll learn that man's mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.
"But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made -- before it can be looted or mooched -- made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced.
"To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labour that which they are worth to the men who buy them but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgement of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss -- the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery -- that you must offer them values, not wounds -- that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best your money can find. And when men live by trade -- with reason, not force, as their final arbiter -- it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgement and highest ability -- and the degree of a man's productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?......
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The above is one third of the passage on money and effort. It goes from page 410 to 415 in the edition quoted at the end of this post. There is enough here for readers to quickly realise the truth of what is written and perceive the fact that those who run the EU, the three main political parties in the UK and many of their counterparts in the West have destroyed the peoples' money by their own personal greed, they are the moochers and looters of the 21st century , they are easily spotted and they know who they are, to quote the concluding paragraph:
"Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonestly; the man who respects it has earned it.
"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bellk of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another -- their only substitute, if they abanon money, is the muzzle of a gun"
This blog has frequently made the case for a return to sound money, as things deteriorate hopefully this obvious fact will be more widely appreciated together withg the realisation that we must first remove the moochers and looters now in control. In the UK the voters at Oldham will this week have their chance to make a beginning!
Please read the book, it is available in Penguin Modern Classics, 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand, £10.99 ISBN 978-0-141-18893-5; It predicts where the policies of the leaders of the EU and particularly those of ALL the three main political parties in the UK, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Miliband Minor are taking the country under 'Progressivism'
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"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
"When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honour -- your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is the statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money. Is this what you consider evil?"
"Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions -- and you'll learn that man's mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.
"But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made -- before it can be looted or mooched -- made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced.
"To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labour that which they are worth to the men who buy them but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgement of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss -- the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery -- that you must offer them values, not wounds -- that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best your money can find. And when men live by trade -- with reason, not force, as their final arbiter -- it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgement and highest ability -- and the degree of a man's productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?......
+++++
The above is one third of the passage on money and effort. It goes from page 410 to 415 in the edition quoted at the end of this post. There is enough here for readers to quickly realise the truth of what is written and perceive the fact that those who run the EU, the three main political parties in the UK and many of their counterparts in the West have destroyed the peoples' money by their own personal greed, they are the moochers and looters of the 21st century , they are easily spotted and they know who they are, to quote the concluding paragraph:
"Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonestly; the man who respects it has earned it.
"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bellk of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another -- their only substitute, if they abanon money, is the muzzle of a gun"
This blog has frequently made the case for a return to sound money, as things deteriorate hopefully this obvious fact will be more widely appreciated together withg the realisation that we must first remove the moochers and looters now in control. In the UK the voters at Oldham will this week have their chance to make a beginning!
Please read the book, it is available in Penguin Modern Classics, 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand, £10.99 ISBN 978-0-141-18893-5; It predicts where the policies of the leaders of the EU and particularly those of ALL the three main political parties in the UK, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Miliband Minor are taking the country under 'Progressivism'
Labels: Atlas Shrugged, New Bretton Woods, Sound Money
posted by Martin at 9:14 AM
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