Cognitive Dissonance? Where does this thinking come from?

In 1927 Sigmund Freud visited the USA on a lecture tour. He came back to Europe vowing never to return saying that America was full of "savages". He seemed preoccupied by the concept of "dollaria", or the intense drive just to make money. He argued that Americans, through religion, had sublimated their 'eros', or sex-drive, and it had manifested itself as "making profit at all costs". Money replaced a natural urge for procreation! He may have had a point.

I've often thought about great sums of money and its 'meaning'. If I were to inherit, earn, or win £1million, it would solve all of my problems. I'd have no debt. I could take early retirement and travel. I could buy a new car. I could afford all the latest gadgets that I so covet. In fact one million pounds would really make my life comfortable. What more could I want? If I had £10million, would I do the same things ten times over? No. But it would mean I had the choice to do all of the above ten times over! But it wouldn't change my life in any discernible way. If I had £100million - then we cease talking about "money". At this level, and some point leading up to it, "money" becomes irrelevant. We're now talking "wealth". Wealth has no connection to 'money'. It has more to do with what wealth brings as opposed to what money brings. We reach a figure where being able to "afford" things never enters the equation. We never need question the "affordability" of anything. What we do question, however, is how do we protect ourselves against those who would want some of our wealth. Wealth brings a sense of power. With £100million plus, I can walk into any restaurant, five star hotel, or even airport in the world - and no-one would ask me to pay! They would assume that "my people" would sort these trivial matters out. I would never have to deal with the messy stuff we call money.

Two things might disturb my peace: Other rich people and governments. Other rich people have - in their power - the resources to take away what's mine. Governments might decide that my wealth should be taken down a bit! So there may be some conflict regarding my power - er, I mean wealth! - between myself and other rich and powerful people! There may be some consolation in knowing that those other wealthy people may suffer the same paranoia. So, many of them tend to stick together. There's safety in numbers, so the saying goes! If enough of us agree, then at least there's one fear alleviated somewhat. But what about governments? In Cyprus, they took up to 60% of residents' savings! That could happen anywhere! So I live with the fear that governments could take away my "money", or more accurately; wealth/power. (Because its not about 'money' at this level, remember?)

Freud's comments referred to wealth creation - not the "almighty dollar". Wealth replaces children. It becomes something to worship, to nurture and to protect. There's a point when one ceases counting their coins, or gold bullion, security bonds, or whatever, and start to 'worry' about how to make it grow and mature! And just watching the number of noughts increase in the 'value' of wealth is not about counting the amounts. Its about watching something grow and age. Something changes in the mind of the wealthy.

A couple of years ago, on British TV, there was a panel show where rich and famous people were asked to guess the price of everyday items on a shopping list. How much is a pint of milk? Or half-a-dozen eggs? Or a loaf of bread? A pair of shoes from Primark? Or a fridge from Argos? None of them got anywhere near a right guess! Ask them what the exchange rate is on the airport bureaux de change for sterling to euro, no idea! None of these things occurred to them because they never deal in cash. Ask them how much they're really worth - mind you own business!! The information that's available in the public domain is fine. But the real net worth is a private matter. It's a bit like me giving out too much information about my kids!

So, when the "lefties" begin talking about poverty and inequality the wealthy don't fully understand. It would be impossible for them to imagine what it must be like to actually pay for something like winter fuel, at the cost of food for a day! Wealthy people, with no knowledge of the price of a week's groceries and the cost of fuel, would not understand that £100 per week is not nearly enough! Not if one has to pay rent and council tax and water bills and clothing for the kids and bus fares and any number of other annoying living expenses that costs MONEY.

So how about those wealthy folk who donate vast sums of money to charity? Surely they have a handle on the realities of life for the ordinary folk below? Well, not really. This is more in line with the peacock's display of having some kind of conscience, but not for 'ordinary' folk. Its about training their minds to feel as though they are a bit altruistic. What they tend to give away are poultry sums comparative to their actual net worth. Its about being seen to care. John Lennon - that great "working class hero" - left England because of the tax system. (Keynesian progressive tax system that meant he would have been in the 90% tax bracket on his earnings). He bemoaned the fact that he was "down to his last million" (in the 70s, so times that by at least eight!) and had to go somewhere where his money wouldn't be taxed so heavily. He went to America! His fortune soon grew again. He spent the rest of his life telling everyone how much he cared! Gary Barlow does much for charity. He performs at events for 'free' in the hope of raising money for the poor and needy. Most of his fortune is housed in "off-shore" accounts to avoid tax. Seemingly unaware that taxation is what helps the poor and needy in the first place! (Well in a properly managed economy, anyway!) Artistes of the pop and rock world sometimes astound me! 'Live Aid' concert managed to raise some $50million+ across both sides of the Atlantic, yet every one of those artistes could have donated that amount and not changed their lifestyles one iota! Bono - that great champion of poverty issues - has his fortune managed 'off-shore' and hasn't paid taxes for years.

Its easy to forget one's roots! The acquisition of wealth is more than "earning" money. It can gather its own momentum. When one can 'swan-around', paying for nothing and having all one's needs and wants met, the whole seductive process can become totally entrancing. They can then tell themselves they're "doing the right thing" for the rest of the world, whilst nurturing their growing wealth!

Respect to (and for) the Professor.....

I've been thinking a lot, recently, about the state of the country and how we got here, how it's affecting us now, and how it'll destroy us in the near future if we don't do something now!

How we got here looks surprisingly simple: Bad banking practice, greed and no regulation or accountability in the financial sector. How long did it take? Around a hundred and fifty years!! It was obviously accelerated during Thatcher's years, but nonetheless, this has been a catastrophe brewing since industrialisation and globalisation. In the words of the (very) old song:-

          "Its the rich what gets the pleasure, its the poor what gets the blame.

           Its the same the whole world over, ain't it all a bloomin' shame!"

Taxes are for poor people! If you have a good accountant, you can be sure that no matter what the tax rate is in your country - you'll never pay it! Whether you've built your business up from scratch, (an extremely rare event!), or you've become a famous sports-person in a high-paying, commercial field, or entertainer whose manager has managed to secure high prices for tickets to your wonderful events, or you've inherited the family fortune, (a far more common phenomenon!),  you don't have to pay taxes anywhere in the world! And you can get helpful advice on how to invest your money, get the best returns and take all the profits "off-shore" paying little, or nothing, in revenue on those returns! Only the working plebs and peasants pay for national security, the NHS, education and the country's infrastructure. We pay and you stay for free! Great deal, yes?

So now you have to figure; what about these people in work you read about who are struggling to make ends meet and having to rely on government handouts and food banks for survival? They're taking up some of that valuable tax revenue that keeps this country safe for us to live in (for free) and must be forced to do more!! Those feckless types who live on those "sink-estates". (I've heard about them. They'll rob you blind, given half a chance!) How can we be sure to make them pay their way? Let's stop their benefits - I mean, tax credits, child benefit, 'top-up' benefits, social security benefits, housing benefits, disability living allowances, carers allowances and JSA, all of which only encourages them to stay 'lazy', don't they? Would you work if you were getting your rent paid and your food subsidised? No way! And they've all got plasma screens, iPhones, holidays in Benidorm and fancy cars, haven't they? I've read that in the Daily Mail - so it must be true. The Daily Mail is the 'voice of the people', isn't it? Or there's that Philpott bloke - didn't he screw the system by having a hundred kids to a harem of feckless women? They must all be doing that! Young women getting pregnant just to get child benefits. Its so obvious! Screwing the system is what they're all doing. Taking away our "hard-earned" cash! Bleeding honest tax payers. (Oh! Wait a minute - I'm not paying any!) Anyway, they have to be encouraged to go to work - or the value of my shares shrink! That could harm the economy - not me, just the economy! I mean, who would invest in a country's output if there weren't any profits to be made? My money's on Bangladesh! Workers there are happy to get something in their wage-packets, and they don't seem to complain as much as these whining "lefties" in this country! They don't know how lucky they are to be living in one of the richest country's in the world! Poverty - they don't know the meaning of the word! I'll bet they'd be more encouraged if we told them that the country's half-full of foreigners! And most of them are terrorists! Hmmm....!

Perhaps we could fudge the figures to make it look like this country's over-populated by immigrants! If we did that then they wouldn't be so concerned about the tax losses from my overseas accounts and investments, would they? That would encourage the ultra-right to shout their mouths off and cause enough of a stink for those feckless, uneducated slum-dwellers to focus on beating the crap out of foreigners! What a brilliant idea! Or better still - whilst we hide away somewhere safe and neutral, we could start a war! Just think of the investment opportunities then! No, maybe that's going a bit too far.......

http://www.poverty.ac.uk/report-developing-countries-wealth/super-rich-could-end-poverty-four-times-over

(Incidentally,  The Professor to whom I've "repected" is Prof. Richard Wolff - look him up!)

Fair Trade? Only If You're Rich....

More political ranting, I'm afraid!

Y'know, a lot of people believe in 'conspiracy theories'. Many sound totally absurd: 'Shape-shifting lizards', the 'Illuminate', the Anti-Christ bringing together the "One World Government", even the 'Bildeberg Group'. They know something is terribly wrong, but they can't quite put their fingers on what is actually wrong. They just know there's a conspiracy. Each try to explain it in a way that suits their passions. And each get publicly ridiculed and bamboozled. What's wrong is Capitalism. More precisely; the corporate dollar.

Neoliberal Americans are the force behind all that's wrong with the world! Upset their apple-cart and you face the full force of American aggression, whether you're friend or foe! They don't like "American Interests" being disturbed, even if the country 'disturbing' their interests faces bankruptcy! Starving millions across the world are of little concern to these corporate monsters who value cash more than human life.

The banking crisis baffled us all. I blamed Thatcher for deregulating the financial sector and allowing these greedy imbeciles free reign over the economy. In many ways I was right to be concerned. Ever since her tenure, we've lost our manufacturing base, we've lost our nationalised industries, we're losing our Royal Mail service and our NHS to private ownership. And, more importantly, we're losing our sense of social pride! Communities have been desecrated, families split, and constant media pressures to divide the whole of society by creating tensions that were only mildly worrying. Young blaming the old, old blaming the young, Muslims portrayed as potential terrorists, unemployed portrayed as 'benefit scroungers', pensioners, infirm and ill seen as an unnecessary 'burden'. We're all ready to kill someone for the mess we're in! But the mess we're in was created purely by greed. British and American greed.

It seems this problem has persisted for more than a hundred years and was started with the first flushes of industrial globalisation. Tax evasion and avoidance. (Apparently, there's a difference: Evasion is illegal, avoidance is legal!) The rich - and especially, but not limited to, the American rich - have found ways of avoiding tax in any country on the globe simply by claiming that they've paid their taxes elsewhere! It seems strange to me but, apparently, the best country in the world for tax avoidance (and evasion) purposes is not the Cayman Islands, or Switzerland, or the Channel Islands - its Britain! The City of London is THE place to offload your tax burden. We have such complex webs of deceit around the globe that we can attract money from global corporate giants, the USA, Russia, and any other criminal leviathan or country that wishes to hide huge sums of money from the prying eyes of governments who might have the audacity to claim some legitimate revenues from their ill-gotten gains! The City of London possesses its own internal governing body and appears to be above the law of ANY land! The "square mile" boasts an historical claim to this 'honour' dating back to William the Conqueror, apparently. Rather like the Vatican, it can claim an independence from the government yet influence government policy as it so desires. From private and shadow banking systems, the City has accrued a massive US$5.5 trillion! Untouchable!

As private banks suck in monies from all and sundry, they lend money which isn't really there. Then they discover that money is moved in great swathes, at a constant and rapid rate, and isn't available when governments actually need it! So WE all fill the gaps with "austerity" measures to ensure the country stays afloat. But it was never our problem in the first place! The IMF, OECD and other global financial "police" just shrug their shoulders and claim any 'internal' problem lies with the over-stretched mortgage borrowers and credit-card holders who are to blame. Rubbish!

Who was it said: "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely"? We need to wake up.

Politics... I Wanted To Avoid!!

I had hoped not to go too far into my personal politics when writing this blog. I thought it was controversial enough to talk about atheism! I was going to try to reflect life from my perspective only, basing it on personal experiences, and avoiding my general views on politics. However....

I am left-wing. In fact, during the seventies I was a card-carrying Marxist. But from the eighties, and from Maggie Thatcher's hatchet job of the country's assetts, I gradually gave up the fight. As did many other unionists and left-wing radicals. We were beaten. There were just too many right-wing rich people with a lot of money and power. And, for a while, it did seem as though most of us were doing pretty well out of these radical, neo-liberal policies. My father, another left-winger, actually bought shares in 'British Gas', as a nest-egg for the future. I bought a house! The 'Right-To-Buy' programme seemed to offer a chance of some upward social mobilty. Then it all went tits up! My dad had to sell his shares, I had to remortgage and the interest rates sky-rocketed. From boom to bust in six years! We struggled through and have managed - just about - to hold on to our property and get through the first of these "recessions". Then again in the nineties, another "recession". And now - yep! - another "recession"! And now we're struggling even more. The confidence trick has been revealed.

Working-classes can only afford to buy houses IF there is work. If work disappears, there's no money to pay the mortgage-lender back. So your house can be repossessed and a new owner, buying it at a discount, can add it to his/her porfolio and rent it out! The initial reasoning behind the 'Right-To-Buy' scheme was to prevent working men and women from striking. It's easier to negotiate rent arrears than a missed mortgage payment, or two! Following this scheme was a series of legisltaive attacks on unions. Now, unions suffer more legislative controls in Britain than anywhere else in the world! Some of them infringe Human Rights Laws!

So we've entered another "recession". Many people are losing their homes because of lack of work, or a decent living wage. Most people in poverty in this country are NOT benefit "scroungers" but people IN WORK!!

So what's going on? Workers losing their homes? Their cars? (Sometimes their only means of transport to and from their place of work!) They're having to pay for medical care, dental care, eye care, and ambulance call-outs? In BRITAIN? The birthplace of the "cradle-to-grave" NHS care system? "Too costly" says this unelected government. What?

Here's the lie I hated the most - "We're in this together!" How that rankles me! The richest in this country have incerased their wealth by more than £78 billion pounds!! INCREASED their wealth - in a "recession"! Notice I keep placing the word "recession" in quotes? That's because there IS NO RECESSION!! There never was, nor has there ever been one! All that word means is that the rich elite want to find more ways of screwing you and me!! Cameron and Clegg (both determined liars!) spelt out the "fact" that we had "Maxed out our credit card" as a nation! What? What credit card? The banks that had payed off a load of wasters and drained the coffers then began to collapse. Here's a funny thing - "we", or should I say "the government", shored-up the banks with several billion pounds of "borrowed" money. Where did they borrow this money from? The very banks that had "colapsed"! They "owe" us the money we "borrowed" from them! How does that work?!

Now we're determined to get people "back into work". The infirm and disabled. The so-called benefit "scroungers". WHAT WORK? Housing benefit cut from the most vulnerable in our society. The "bedroom tax"! They're screwing you and me.

I've finished my rant for today - but there will be more!!