Free market proponents claim that entrepreneurs get rich because of the chances they took. Risk is used as its own moral justification: winner take all. Unfortunately, the need or willingness to risk marks the previous failure of commonwealth. It is not logical for a community to risk some members for the good of others. It is like tossing virgins into the mouth of the volcano to appease the mountain god. By a more logical arrangement we all could be safe and satisfied. Planning should be avoiding risk, not encouraging risks. Rights claim a protection from harm, not the freedom to inflict harm. A willingness to suffer individual loss puts all of society in jeopardy.
Revolutionaries justify killing the rich as a means to an ends. Those in power have justified killing as a means of retaining power and maintaining order. Violence is a method for both plunder and control. Unfortunately, economic imbalances are caused by our accounting methods. Violence cannot change the math. A left-wing or right-wing police state increases the overhead of waste and lowers the Standard of Living and Quality of Life. Everyone is to blame equally because money is handled the same way by all. The bloodshed of history is one colossal mistake. To eliminate winners and losers, the rules of the game need to be changed at a much more fundamental level.
Every war is a civil war for control of the purse in the wake of the divide of wealth. The mathematical divide becomes personalized, stereotypes develop, and blame eventually overshadows analysis. Bigotry, prejudice and violence all mark the failure of commonwealth.
America overthrew the evil empire of its day, and quickly evolved into a new empire. Just as the poor become rich, and become the person that previously disappointed them, so too do nations and businesses follow the same path. The British Empire came to be as overextended as the Roman Empire. Apple is now as monolithic as Microsoft and IBM had been. Power may trade hands, but the concentration of power remains. To defeat an enemy, one needs to become as large and as ruthless as the enemy. The merciless prevail in a competitive system, not the egalitarian.
The Role of Government
There is no escape from the law of diminishing returns. New leaders face old problems and are just as helpless in solving them. The laws of mathematics are stronger than both an autocratic leader or majority rule. Mathematics needs to be respected. Power alone is ineffective against inflation. The populace needs to be as wise as their literacy implies.
The global Monopoly board eventually reaches a financial crisis. At some point the banks and government are helpless. Buyers stop purchasing and the revenue streams collapse. The system is unsustainable politically and mathematically.
Government is a primary agent in the economy because it coins the money. It also has the impossible task of trying to placate two people who are fighting over money, and expects a share of their money through taxation. The situation is fraught with fear. Both sides can unite and turn against the government, which is common when someone enters a fray between two combatants. Political coalitions commonly defeat incumbents and challenge the rulers of the status quo.
To exert authority, the government resorts to mind control (public education), force (police) and bribery. It is impossible for the government to keep all the people happy all the time, under a volatile system. There are too many contradictions. As power changes hands, the problems continue. False analysis and false accusations offer false hope.
Unlike the game Monopoly, the government constantly shifts sides and changes the rules. Every privilege for one person, corporation, industry, or party is a burden for another. Everyone is struggling and lobbying, trying to cause the wealth to divide in a way that benefits themselves, especially after the tide has moved against them. Every political victory is pyrrhic. Economic volatility provides a perpetual fodder for disagreement. New faces engage in old arguments, old solutions are applied anew and fail again.
The ongoing fights over money divide, unite and confuse people. Unlike the rigid stratification of a caste system, in the modern world we are a part of many different social groups. The division of labor has created a division of loyalties. At the same time, we have created a shared experience of consumption and mass knowledge. Co-dependency and literacy has made us more empathetic. The ubiquity of money has made us all financially connected. Technology has closed the physical gap of separation. Yet, there are bitter differences regarding money which are built on untested cliches.
As humans, we all have the same needs as our ancestors. We experience the same joys and sorrows, and aspire to a common liberty. There are many forces driving us together. Primarily, the only thing driving us apart is the financial system.
Transactional Economics
Transactional Economics is a term for describing the process of how wealth separates. The Cost of Living formula defined wealth and poverty as a mathematical ratio; transactional economics explains why some players win and others lose. It is based on the same math.
As noted previously, every transaction is imbalanced because of the buy-low sell-high habit. We are all buyers and sellers and consumers. Our revenue is the result of selling (labor for wages, selling products, or lending money); our expenses are what we consume to survive and thrive (food, housing, healthcare, education, business equipment and supplies, etc). There is no mathematical difference between micro and macro economics, inflation, budget crises, and boom and bust cycles. The same mathematical event drives them all.
We all need to make transactions to survive. We need to produce to consume. That reality is impossible to alter. In the game Monopoly, everyone takes turns, and everyone has the same number of transactions. In reality, the number of players and the number of transactions per player can vary widely.
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