“Whoever does not wish to render history incomprehensible by departmentalizing it – political, economic, social – would perhaps take the view that it is in essence a battle of dominant wills, fighting in every way they can for the material which is common to everything they construct: the human labor force.” – Bertrand De Jouvenel
“In essence, land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship encompass all of the inputs needed to produce a good or service. Land represents all natural resources, such as timber and gold, used in the production of a good. Labor is all of the work that laborers and workers perform at all levels of an organization, except for the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur is the individual who takes an idea and attempts to make an economic profit from it by combining all other factors of production. The entrepreneur also takes on all of the risks and rewards of the business. The capital is all of the tools and machinery used to produce a good or service.” – Investopedia
And Justice For All
These two quotes led to one of my biggest breakthroughs in understanding the current financial system. This led me to write in my Guinness World Record setting book And Justice For All (AJFA) on how the elites control the factors of production to control society’s wealth. Indeed, by reading the two quotes above and referring back to my chapter in AJFA on the factors of production and the Five Laws of Decline (FLD), one can clearly see how the elites have controlled the masses throughout history. Here is a segment I wrote on the factors of production in AJFA:
Although De Jouvenel didn’t use the terms FLD and SDS, but he certainly described the effects of both wonderfully. For if the FLD truly drives the elites to control the masses’ production, they must do so by exploiting the three inputs of all production (labor, land, and capital) as outlined by the “classical economists” like Smith, Ricardo, and Mill. One can confirm the validity of the FLD by realizing that the elites, in order to exploit the masses’ production, must exploit labor, land, or capital since these are the only three inputs for all production. As explained below, a person would be hard-pressed to find another example where theory matches reality any closer than the FLD theory matches the actions of the world’s exploiters.
The FLD exploitation by elites over the masses’ production originated with the elites controlling the masses’ labor (physical slavery) to control production. Indeed, for thousands of years, this was the preferred method of control. Over time, however, this method fell out of favor as Christianity permeated Roman society. As it became increasingly intolerable for Christians to enslave fellow Christians (regrettably, enslaving non-Christians was still tolerable), the exploiters switched to the second factor of production – land. Instead of physical slavery, the masses now endured land serfdom, as the elites owned and controlled the land. The elites’ direct ownership of the land gave them indirect ownership of the people. Fortunately for the people, however, as the free market system blossomed, they were no longer beholden to the land-owning aristocracy for survival, and were increasingly able to prosper through private enterprise and businesses of their own.
It is not hard to guess what the elites did next, given that there was only one input of production (capital) left to control. As predicted, when feudalism had run its course and private enterprise began to spread, the battle between State and society for the control of capital commenced. Although society at first successfully created a gold standard (which checked the State’s ability to control the monetary system), the elite statists eventually regained the upper hand. The State (always hungry for funds to increase its power) finally wrestled money away from the FLD-restraining gold standard and became capital’s sole creator, owner, and controller. They did this through the artifices of the central banking system’s centralized planning of the money supply. The elites, by directly controlling the monetary system, thereby indirectly control the masses’ production since nearly everyone uses capital (the third input of all production) in today’s money economies. The exploitation of capital by the elites confirms in practice what a study of the FLD and its interaction with the three factors of production predicted in theory.
The elites, throughout history have meddled with the factors of production to ensure control and plunder over the masses. In the modern world, slavery and serfdom are, for the most part, illegal; however, financial subjugation is alive and well. Today, the elites control the entrepreneur by controlling the capital he needs to perform his task. This, naturally, leads to indirect control of the masses who work for these “owned” entrepreneurs. More directly, however, today’s financial subjugation of the masses is accomplished by the elites enticing them into debt. Through offering them consumer goods on longterm credit plans, the masses sell themselves into bondage for the latest houses, cars, and technological gadgets.
In essence, a person is imprisoned within the Financial Matrix if, when he goes to bed at night, he wakes up the next morning owing more money than he did the night previous. Thankfully, it is possible to escape the Financial Matrix. In fact, one of my goals for 2015 is to improve LIFE Leadership‘s messaging on the Financial Fitness program to help people get free from the Financial Matrix enslaving them into the bondage of debt and stress.
I am not suggesting fighting the powers-that-be; instead, I am suggesting a grassroots movement of millions of people who take responsibility to clean up their own financial messes. Through this example of modeling and messaging, our politicians will learn the proper principles and we can create real change! Indeed, doesn’t it seem foolish to demand from our politicians behaviors we are unwilling to live in our own lives. This reminds me of a saying one of my early mentors told me, “Clean up your own bedroom before you attempt to clean up the world.”
Perhaps the best description of the modern monetary malady was written by financial reformer Michael Rowbotham in his impressive book The Grip of Death:
For example, every country in the world suffers from a massive and constantly increasing national debt. Britain has a national debt that is fast approaching £400 billion. Canada’s debt has reached $560 billion and Germany’s now exceeds 500 billion deutschmarks. So are these poor countries? No more so than Japan with a debt equivalent to two trillion dollars or America with a national debt now in excess of five trillion dollars. Since the poorer nations are crippled by their indebtedness to international lending institutions and foreign banks, the overall picture is of a world suffering acute and ever worsening insolvency.
But this is really quite illogical and absurd… The question almost asks itself. If all the nations of the world are in debt, who are they in debt to? Rationally, where there is a debtor, there should be someone else who is a creditor. If every nation is in debt, who, precisely, owes whom? In addition to the logical absurdity of all nations being simultaneously insolvent, such escalating national debts are a complete contradiction of the real and obvious wealth of these nations. This is underlined by the fact that the nations which run the largest national debts are those with the most advanced economies. What can we say to the developing nations struggling under the burden of their debt, nations who have copied our economic institutions and aspire to a life free from poverty? ‘Work hard, and one day your debt will be as small as America’s – a mere five trillion dollars!’
These are not the only contradictory financial statements to go virtually unchallenged by the majority of economists. In addition to mounting national debts, the level of private debt shouldered by people and businesses is also escalating. The total of loans, mortgages, overdrafts and credit card purchases is massive and in Britain stands at some £780 billion, £500 billion of which is borne by ordinary people. The Americans, supposedly the richest citizens ever to walk the face of the planet, are the most heavily indebted people of the world, carrying mortgage debts that currently total $4.2 trillion. They are said to go shopping with their credit cards bolstered. As with national debts, such escalating domestic debt is a complete contradiction of the wealth present in those nations.
2015 is the year to escape the Financial Matrix through learning the defense, offense, and playing field of finances. I plan on doing my part. Will you?
Sincerely,
Orrin Woodward
