[continued]

579,

So what then ? Democratic systems with both capital and bureaucracy reined in, systems which would always need eternal vigilance and hard work, minimising leaners and maximising lifters*. But always with eyes wide open.

Any suggestions ?

Joe

* Please forgive these references to Menzies. I hate to suggest it, but he got it right.

the/Great War’s =>>..terrible aftermath—–a century of drift toward statism,*militarism =/nationalism..merchantilism to bail-in..and fiat money—

all/of-that was..actually triggered..by the/events..at Sarajevo.

Unfortunately,..modern historiography wants to keep the Great War sequestered..in a four-year span of archival curiosities..about battles,..mustard gas//bird-flue trench-rot/mustardgass and monuments to the fallen...But the opposite historiography..is more nearly the truth....The assassins at Sarajevo triggered the very warp and woof of the hundred years which followed.

The Great War..was self-evidently..an epochal calamity,..especially for the 20 million...tourtured..combatants and civilians who perished for,,no reason..that is discernible..in any fair reading of history, or even unfair one.

Yet the far greater calamity..is that Europe’s senseless fratricide of 1914-1918.gave birth to all the great evils of the 20th century— the Great Depression, ..totalitarian genocides,.Keynesian economics, permanent warfare states,..rampaging central banks...privatization/ demonetization/capitalisation..and the exceptionalist-rooted follies of the..global/secular-imperialism..of personalit...

Indeed,..in Old Testament fashion,..one begat the next and the next and still the next. This chain of calamity originated in the Great War’s destruction of sound money,..that is,..in the post-war demise of the pound sterling..which previously had not experienced a peacetime change..surviving/even guy fAULKS Attempts to end the tally long sticks/credit/[debt-owed/holding into dedit stick/money\by burning/the prrof of debt/the sticks shortness.

POUNDS/gold content..LASTED..for nearly two hundred years.
Not unreasonably,..the world’s financial system.had become anchored on the London money markets ..where the other currencies traded at fixed exchange rates..to the rock steady pound*sterling—which, in turn,..meant that prices and wages throughout..Europe were expressed in common money..and tended toward transparency and equilibrium.

This liberal international economic order—that is, honest money, relatively free trade,..rising international capital flows and rapidly growing global economic integration—-resulted in a 40-year span between 1870 and 1914 of rising living standards,..stable prices,..*massive capital investment..and prolific technological progress that was never equaled—either before or since.

During intervals of war,.of course,..19th century governments had usually suspended gold convertibility..and open trade in the heat of combat...*But when the cannons fell silent,..they had also endured the trauma of post-war depression ..*until wartime debts .[20/YEAR-WAR-BONDS]had been liquidated[IMMEDIATE/PAYMENT[IN GOLD]..DEMANDED]
-<<

and inflationary currency expedients..had been wrung out..of the circulation...[COIN/'LEGAL-TENDER/SHORTAGE/NO MEANS;OF EXCHANGE]..
..This was called..“resumption”..and restoring convertibility at the *PEACE TIME PARITIES*..was the great challenge..of post-war *normalizations.

The Great War, however, involved a scale of total industrial mobilization and financial mayhem that was unlike any that had gone before. In the case of Great Britain, for example, its national debt increased 14-fold, its price level doubled, its capital stock was depleted, most off-shore investments were liquidated and universal wartime conscription left it with a massive overhang of human and financial liabilities.

Yet England was the least devastated. In France, the price level inflated by 300 percent, its extensive Russian investments were confiscated by the Bolsheviks and its debts in New York and London catapulted to more than 100 percent of GDP.

Among the defeated powers, currencies emerged nearly worthless with the German mark at five cents on the pre-war dollar, while wartime debts—especially after the Carthaginian peace of Versailles—–soared to crushing, unrepayable heights.

In short, the bow-wave of debt, currency inflation and financial disorder from the Great War was so immense and unprecedented that the classical project of post-war liquidation and “resumption” of convertibility was destined to fail. In fact, the 1920s were a grinding, sometimes inspired but eventually failed struggle to resume the international gold standard, fixed parities, open world trade and unrestricted international capital flows.

Only in the final demise of these efforts after 1929 did the Great Depression, which had been lurking all along in the post-war shadows, come bounding onto the stage of history

Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/sarajevo-is-the-fulcrum-of-modern-history-the-great-war-and-its-terrible-aftermath/#pKY5q2l3tOGhGh7c.99

Yes, OUG, capitalism is pretty crap. But history has not been kind to the notion of 'sharing all the world' either. The degeneration of socialist theory into practice saw to that.

So what then ? Somehow a more equitable form of democratic capitalism ? Straight capitalism doesn't look like ever moving in that direction. And it has been far too easy for revolutionary or War-socialism, by whatever name, to slip into straight corporatism or - dare I say it ? - fascism. Notice how writers and social philosophers around 1920, like G. B. Shaw and Titmuss and Lu Hsun and Georges Sorel, could praise both fascism and bolshevism equally. No, they wweren't hopelessly confused: maybe their equation of the two wasn't so far off either.

And after all, to risk a charge of Godwinism, Hitler called his party the German National Socialist Workers' Party. Socialist. Workers'. But it was obviously still a fascist party.

How to stop 'socialism' sliding into a form of Party-corporatism under another name ? i.e. into fascism ? Yes, also how to stop capitalism sliding into obscene inequity ?

What might be a genuine third way ?

Joe

THE THIRD WAY..will be as its done/in heaven
and]..heaven[and hell woork on the theory/your here and your welcome

clearly bankers issuing money/simply on a promise to repay/has failed hugely\govt simply has become too good at extorting custom/from us as if a bear in a cage/and their bleeding off the bile.

they are afraid\of us/for what they know they done
but..most people..couldnt give a stuff/so govt need simply suport those/needing support/teach them.licence/..them train \/teach and promote them[our true wealth.is a informed people.

were being controlled..bY SMALL MINDS//we need change/so that mates rates is..everybodies due/if you got\the talent/or te skill/your the govt product/they take your skills..to the world..Marketing them/not what govt/can do..for big money.

we arnt..got a capital..ProblemJUS/NO-QUALIFIED/BORROWRRS../its those charging intrest/on mo/ey our borrowing*created/who created the debt/to repay intrest/was govt/but bankersstole everything.stole our super/our public -services/our systems/commerce IS EVERYWHERE

i suggest./a new social contract/govt takes tax from your transaction
and thats it[3 percent=..the easiest fix iS..get people spending[by re setting..the face values/of our coin/bring back one cent coins/but they become one pound[two dollars/2 cent-4 dollars[one pound]
and 5 CENT=5 BUCKS..TEN CENT-20 BUCKS..50 CENT=1`00 DOLLARS.1DOLLAR COIN -200..AND A TWO HUNDRED/COIN FROM THE 2 DOLLAR

NOTES..STAY AT FACE
ALL OF A SUDDEN/WERE]SPENDING/its called\job creation
people..will iNevitably..be saving..their pennies/and others sending
just like the roaring twenties..only we take back the pEOPLES ASSETS..[AND GOVT...ONLY SPENDS..ON ITS PEOPLE/by skill\need

govt insures us as citizenry/so we..dont need private/insurance scams
heath systems/not sickness systems..govt run localy/in school size districts/self administrated..and self funded bY/COIN ISSUE..FROM FEDERAL GOVT.

it begins/with govt borrowing to the max/in paper
ten converting the paper to coin/then revaluing the face values

[issuing a token sample...of each/to everyone/so we all get a stamp.collecters/type coin pack/then..the reface of all*..the queens coins...in the whole common wealth[via schols/fund schools/to teach/repair/record restore..trial test etc..everything govt should be doing/the kids..are doing..as their projects

the kids vote.on what goes..[KNOand dont go on..on the school district/they rule FOR/US..WING IT NOT..[guided/by teachers/that facilitate-dreams/prepare kids.to life involved in their society[im for taking this commerce/thing..from govt
/we been paying..too much for water..power banking etc
now they..need give back..

Hi OUG,

Thanks for demonstrating my point, that to slag 100%, one line of thought, doesn't make any alternative line of thought, 100% correct. As Marx and Engels also inadvertently demonstrated, as above.

So given that capitalism, pure and simple, is not perfect, and that socialism degenerates into fascism, what then ?

As a life-long socialist, born and bred, living, eating and breathing it for seventy years, I really would like to know before I kick the bucket :)

Joe