[A-List] Riegel Explains the Foundations ...

[Bill Totten]

I sent it. Did you receive it?

On Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:19:37 -0500
Nadja Tesich <nadjatesich at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 
> Bill,
> I guess you could not send me that brilliant article
> of yours about oil.
> Nadja
> ----------------------------------------
> > Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2011 09:12:21 +0900
> > From: shimogamo at ashisuto.co.jp
> > To: a-list at lists.econ.utah.edu
> > Subject: [A-List] Riegel Explains the Foundations ...
> >
> > ... of Economic Democracy
> >
> > by Thomas H Greco
> >
> > Beyond Money (February 27 2011)
> >
> > Devoted to the liberation of money and credit, and the restoration of
> > the commons
> >
> > I have often referred to E C Riegel as a "master of monetary truth".
> > His insight is astounding, his logic impeccable, and his expression
> > eloquent. In this essay on Economic Democracy, he shows the way out of
> > our present predicament an into a new world of peace, justice and
> > prosperity. I urge you to read the entire essay but I don't want you
> > to miss his bottom line:
> >
> > Once a monetary science develops, it will no more be localized or
> > nationalized than mathematics is today. There opens before the mind,
> > therefore, the prospect of a universal monetary unit and system that
> > will operate without regard for political boundaries. It will have no
> > nationality or politics. None will be coerced to participate. None
> > will be barred. There will be but one monetary language for the world,
> > and a democratic monetary system will unite people everywhere in the
> > universal freedom of exchange.
> >
> > Economic Democracy
> >
> > The End of Monetary Nationalism
> >
> > by E C Riegel
> >
> > Rising from tiny springs of rebellion in the consciousness of primitive
> > men, democracy, like an ever expanding river, deepening and widening,
> > has swept aside all the ancient forms of political government, and
> > with them their pretenses of divine power and aristocratic preference.
> > Its traditional service to humanity, however, has been only that of a
> > negator of tyranny and presumption in the political sphere. In the
> > future, it will be recognized and acclaimed for its more positive
> > service in the economic sphere.
> >
> > Under the constant challenge of democracy, the modern state has
> > abandoned its former attitude of arrogance and now cloaks its
> > undertakings in such flattering phrases as "democratic government",
> > "rule of the people", "equality", "welfare state", and so on. These
> > pretenses have been forced upon the state by the very failure of
> > democracy as yet to assume a positive role in the affairs of mankind.
> > The state is a positive organ and, as such, retains the initiative and
> > leadership to which the people must turn for the "remedy" of this ill
> > or that. Though the state is impotent to do more than change one
> > economic ill for another, we cannot blame the demagogy of politicians
> > for promising salvation from all the ills of mankind. This must
> > continue, and the people must go on suffering under the delusion that
> > they can resort to the political means of salvation, until an agency
> > functioning through the economic means is supplied.
> >
> > The ultimate accomplishment of democracy in the political sphere is the
> > perfection of the rule of the majority. If this be all that democracy
> > can deliver to society, the game is not worth the candle. It is little
> > comfort to the individual, striving to express his personality, to
> > know that democracy has wrested government from the hands of a few and
> > placed it in the hands of a majority. Human aspirations for freedom
> > can never be gratified as long as there is a veto power over self
> > expression, whether imposed by a man on horseback or by means of the
> > ballot box.
> >
> > Yet the democratic state has no means of functioning other than by
> > popular elections. That being so, the functions of the state must be
> > limited to those public services which are desired by all. Consider
> > the folly of undertaking to express the people's will in all human
> > affairs by an occasional election at which, in one confused shout, we
> > sound our yeas and nays on a multitude of questions. At the same time,
> > we select representatives to guess what it all means, and to divine
> > from it how to execute our will on hundreds of issues that arise after
> > we have given our confused "mandate". Is not our boasted political
> > equality but the equality of frustration? Can we have self-government,
> > and at the same time delegate the power to govern? Are we indeed fit
> > for self-government if we accept these delusive exercises as the
> > processes of democracy? Can democracy offer nothing better?
> >
> > Turn, now, from this sham democratic process offered by the state, with
> > all its trappings of majesty, power, ritualism and futility, to a
> > sphere in which real democratic expression obtains - so far as the
> > state does not stultify it. This sphere of democracy has a true
> > balloting system, whereunder every ballot is the clear and irrevocable
> > mandate of the buyer through which he expresses his will, his
> > aspirations, his freedom, and his personality. In this balloting
> > system, elections are held every hour of ever day. Its voting booths
> > are the market places of the world, its candidates, the goods and
> > services offered by competing vendors. In this balloting system there
> > is no tyranny by the majority. Every voter wins the elections. Whether
> > he chooses the blue label, or the red, or the green, no one is denied
> > his choice. Here every man is a king, and the economic constituency is
> > made up of sovereigns in cooperation.
> >
> > This voting system is the elective process over which the house of
> > economic democracy must assert its exclusive sovereignty. It dispenses
> > with the legislative process, for it is governed not by man-made laws
> > but by a natural law that cannot be broken or biased by any man. This
> > law, which provides absolute equity, is the natural law of
> > competition, or, better, the law of cooperation, since it
> > automatically rewards him who cooperates and withholds rewards from
> > him who does not. The house of economic democracy requires no
> > constitution and no executive or judicial mechanisms. These powers
> > reside in the buyer, who exercises them by the simple criterion of
> > self interest. As the whole consists of its parts, so the exercise of
> > these powers by buyers in endless variety and circumstance compounds
> > the social order in perfection.
> >
> > Every power of the state must arise either by delegation from the
> > citizen, or by usurpation. If we but give the matter a little
> > independent thought, we can see that the money power can neither be
> > delegated to the state as agent, nor exerted by it as principal. It
> > can reside only in the same place where resides the productive power,
> > and can be exerted only in association with the bargaining power.
> > These powers belong not to the government, but to the individual; for
> > he alone can produce wealth, and he alone can express selectivity and
> > exercise the bargaining power in the market place. Professed money
> > springing from any other source is pure counterfeit. It is a menace to
> > the social order, which is utterly dependent upon the functioning of
> > true money.
> >
> > We all know that the rise in men's living standards from primitive
> > times to the present has come about through the specialization of
> > labor, which is made possible by exchange, and that this in turn has
> > been facilitated by the use of money. But do we realize that, without
> > the guidance of the money-pricing system, we would lack all cue as to
> > what products we should apply our specialized labors to? Production
> > and exchange constitute a vast cooperative system wherein the
> > cooperators are mostly strangers and usually remote from one another.
> > Most of civilized man's energies are devoted to the production of
> > things for which he as an individual has no direct use. His only way
> > of knowing that some other individuals have use for his product, is by
> > the reaction of the market to his product in the form of a money
> > price. The money-pricing system is the antenna of exchange, constantly
> > keeping the cooperative mechanism responsive to demand and supply, by
> > bringing together those buyers and sellers who at any given moment
> > have mutual interests - and in the process regrouping and realigning
> > those interests.
> >
> > As we pass money from hand to hand, we give little thought to the
> > delicate precision with which it preserves the equity of economic
> > democracy and advances the social order. Every transfer of money
> > registers an impulse on the market that changes the price of some
> > commodity or commodities. These registered prices give the signal for
> > more or less production of the commodities affected, thus keeping
> > human energy, which is the generator of values, intelligently applied.
> > This readjustment is in progress every moment of the day and night.
> > This is the dynamics of social progress, constantly rewarding the
> > efforts of those who conserve human energy and remain responsive to
> > the buyer's will, and punishing those who do not. If there can be
> > omniscience on earth, here it abides, and it is this all-seeing eye
> > that political planners would sacrifice for the blind directions of
> > bureaucracies.
> >
> > It is through the preservation and perfection of the monetary system
> > that economic democracy will demonstrate its potential for human
> > welfare. In this way it will avert the disaster that is now threatened
> > by the attempt of the state to exercise a power it cannot command. The
> > challenge is by no means difficult if we ignore the jumble of
> > complexities that have been written about money. Let us forget the
> > false premise of political money power. Let us endeavor neither to
> > reconcile the irreconcilable, nor by some protective device to
> > legitimize the illegitimate. The establishment of a nonpolitical
> > monetary system is but an undertaking in accountancy.
> >
> > In renouncing the political money idea, we abandon the idea of monetary
> > nationalism. Trade is homogeneous; it knows no nationality, race,
> > color, creed, or caste. Moreover, a truth is universal. Once a
> > monetary science develops, it will no more be localized or
> > nationalized than mathematics is today. There opens before the mind,
> > therefore, the prospect of a universal monetary unit and system that
> > will operate without regard for political boundaries. It will have no
> > nationality or politics. None will be coerced to participate. None
> > will be barred. There will be but one monetary language for the world,
> > and a democratic monetary system will unite people everywhere in the
> > universal freedom of exchange. [emphasis added]
> >
> > _____
> >
> > Riegel's books can be downloaded here:
> > http://www.newapproachtofreedom.info/.
> >
> > His Valun Mutual Money Plan can be found here:
> > http://beyondmoney.net/resource-links/e-c-riegels-valun-mutual-money-plan/.
> >
> > http://beyondmoney.net/2011/02/27/riegel-explains-the-foundations-of-economic-democracy/
> >
> >
> > https://billtotten.wordpress.com/
> > http://www.ashisuto.co.jp
> >