The Monopoly of Debt
Where does money come from? Perhaps you hadn’t asked yourself this question before and maybe it’s because you never saw its use, but you need to know that it is a very important question. This question involves origins and therefore sovereignty. Whether you believe it or not, it had haunted economists for a very long time and no one had been able to give an exact answer. However, the most widely accepted theory, due to its reasonable logic, is that the most marketable commodity arose within a free market.
Some economists and historians attribute the origin of money to man and the actions of this one within a free market. It is believed that the first interactions of trade were made through barter, this is exchanging a good, like a sheep, for another good, like a rag. Soon, however, it became obvious that it was difficult to find someone who would exchange a specific good for another specific one. There had to be a general good that was valued by all, easy to carry, divisible, and which’s value didn’t depreciate over time. This good would be the most desired commodity, due to its ability of facilitating exchange. This good would be known as money.
From mere feathers to gold and silver, acquiring money became a priority in people’s lives as it allowed you to obtain almost anything you needed or wanted helping you live life better. When gold and silver became the dominant mediums of exchange, things began to get a little more complicated. It became easier to cheat through counterfeit money, false scales, and many other ways. The economy began to be more propense to corruption, immorality, and ultimately, instability. People were more afraid of theft and scarcity or poverty. They needed to secure their money and be able to control the surrounding circumstances trying to prevent their prime mean of survival from any evil exposure. This is when goldsmiths and their safe vaults came into play.
Man, unable to control things by nature, placed his trust in man to take care of their money (prime mean of survival). People chose to rent a space in the vault of the goldsmith to secure their gold. As proof of storage, the goldsmith would hand out a receipt representing the amount of money stored. Whenever they wanted, people would be able to take out the quantity of gold stored by exchanging the receipt and using it in the market. Although, people soon became aware that it was more practical to simply exchange the receipt in the market than the gold stored in the vault. This became the origin of paper money.
Goldsmiths then began to make business and started handing out loans with an interest fee. This was virtually the origin of banking. Goldsmiths would now be in advantage as they were the only ones who stored the gold or silver and were the only ones who knew the exact quantity that was stored. Soon they realized that basically no one came back to exchange their receipts for the gold stored, this due to the fact that it was more practical to simply exchange the receipt in the market than going to the bank, drawing the gold, taking it to the market and buying with it. People’s actions gave the goldsmiths or bankers a mischievous and greedy idea.
They began creating false receipts that represented an unexisting quantity of gold within the vaults based on nothing but the debt of the borrowers. As you can imagine, this ability to create money made the bankers filthy rich, which soon caused suspicion between the clients whom thought that the goldsmith or banker was spending their gold. However, the truth is they were simply creating false or counterfeit money. When this got to the government’s ears, far from punishing it, they simply legalized it and regulated it, because they needed large amounts of credit to continue their expansion. This regulation would soon create the fractional reserve system.
In the beginning, the government would inspect banks to not create more money than a nine to one fractional reserve of gold. In simple words, banks could multiply the gold nine times more with newly created unbacked paper money. Every action would be controlled by a central bank backing up comercial banks. Banks would keep on lending money with an interest fee and creating money based on the promise to pay by the borrower. Only the currency or legal tender approved by the government, which was created by the central bank, became the only means of paying debts and making exchanges. Any other currency and bank would be illegal making the government and the bank owners the only legal authorities over what happens with money and thus, the economy of a nation.
Throughout the years, however, money stopped representing value or gold and it began to represent debt. This means that the amount of money created can only be limited by the amount of debt and not by a nine to one fractional reserve. Why? For two reasons: #1, since the 1930’s gold is by law not a marketable commodity and #2, because money is created when people borrow from a bank to buy something. The borrower promises he will pay back the money plus an interest fee. This promise of paying back is what gives the bank the incentive to create more money, even if the payment has not yet been completed. In a nutshell, the bank creates money it really doesn’t have.
When the borrower uses the loan to buy something in the market, the new recipient of the money, who acquired it through a sale, not a loan, will deposit his money in the bank to keep it safe. This newly deposited money, which in the beginning was issued by the bank through a loan, will give the bank another incentive to lend and create money by dividing the new loan through the fractional reserve. This is because the deposit is not seen as a paid loan, but as new money coming in.
Therefore, if the money we own doesn’t represent gold, just the paper or digit itself, and if the money we use to buy and deposit is the money the bank issued out in the first place through a loan, what sense does the economy have? The answer is simple, none. Every value we give money only exists in our hearts, not in a material thing. And as long as we keep doing the same economic things, business cycles, recessions, depressions, and wars will keep on happening.
To make it simple, suppose you ask me to lend you a car. I don’t have a car, but we get in an agreement and sign papers saying that tomorrow I will bring you the car. The next day I come with a piece of paper with a car’s picture on it telling you that this is your loan and you are now in debt with me. In the bank, this piece of paper is known as an IOU and it’s the money you and I use to buy with in the market. An IOU is a promise of a money that doesn’t exist, like the car. Lots of people believe that their loans are extracted from the deposits other people make. Truth be told is that 95% of the money in circulation was created out of a borrower’s promise to pay what he owes.
The bank’s limit to create money is essentially limited by our ability to not want more loans. The more debt there is, the more money there is. What’s worse is that even when the bank has the ability to create money that has no real value, the bank’s clients are coerced by the government to pay back what they owe or else, they will literally take away everything the borrower possess, which are the only things that have real intrinsic value, like houses, cars, etc. This implies that as long as we are in debt with the bank, this one will virtually own everything we have.
Now here is when things are really tricky. It is good for you as an individual to pay your debts, it’s a burden off your neck, and you will have more money to spend. However, if every person pays their debts, all money will be gone ultimately collapsing the system. Remember, the creation of money depends on debt. If there is no more debt, paper money would soon stop circulating. Many people actually think that if all debts were paid, the state of the economy would better, unfortunately this is only true for individuals, countries, however, would go into a recession.
Banks only create the quantity of principal but not directly create the money used to pay the interests. The money for interests comes from the money in circulation, which was created as principal money in the first place. People have to use this principal in circulation to pay their loan (principal) plus the interest rates of the same. Therefore we see borrowers in similar situations of tremendous debt trying to acquire money to pay the principal plus the interests. Yet it is very complicated for some to pay the principal and the interests using the limited amount of money in circulation (which is principal), thus some end up foreclosed.
The main problem is in the case of long-term loans, such as mortgages and public debts because in these the amount of interests many times exceeds the principal. Unless a huge quantity of money is created to pay the interests, the economy will not be able to function properly. For proper functioning, the rate of debt cancellation must be low and to accomplish this, more debt must be created to create more money to satisfy the demand of money needed to cater the interests of the previous debt. Perpetual debt is the result of this.
The system causes the level of debt to inevitably rise forming more interests to be paid ending in an ascending and unstoppable spiral of indebtedness. The only thing keeping the system from absolute bankruptcy is the the time lag between the new loan money and the repayment. Against all odds, the debt is continuously growing urgently needing more debt money to be created to satisfy the system.
All of this availability of banks to create endless money is the reason why governments, banks, corporations, industries, businesses, families, and individuals are all in debt at the same time and by exorbitant amounts. As we have learned banks need people to borrow from them that they may be in control of the economy. As long as they with the government possess a monopoly over a nation’s currency, the citizens will be at their mercy. Honest money comes with the freedom of people to choose what medium of exchange they want to use to pay their debts and in exchange.
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False Money
Money is supposed to be a reliable medium of exchange, but the one used today is filled with such controversy that “the most marketable commodity” is becoming more and more untrustworthy. Even so, thousands and thousands of people continue to place it as a means of security. Would you trust in counterfeit money? I hope that through this essay you see the illusion that today’s monetary system has become, only real in the mentality of people, but false in the essence of its structure.
The concept of counterfeit money is not new, it actually has centuries of history. Initially, counterfeit money involved mixing a precious metal with a base metal, like silver or gold with copper. This process was and is known as debasing money and it had and has terrible consequences in an economy. Debasing money gave people the opportunity to be richer and thus introducing greater amounts of coins into circulation, causing greater demand. Greater demand increased prices and once sellers realized that what they were being payed was not honest money, products or services were debased. Only those who received the first distribution of the counterfeit coins were the beneficiaries of such acts, because people had not yet realized that the money being used was not worth what people said it was. Yet, as redistribution of the coins in the economy occured, later receivers of the money were hampered. Prices increased and product quality decreased. This was and is obviously a crime that demonstrates the love of money at its height along with the exposure of despicable corruption.
Theft is unrighteousness, however, today it is legal if you belong to an elite, government-approved group of people in charge of producing paper money. As we have said it before, money is the word we use to define the most acceptable medium of exchange. Money came to existence through barter. Nevertheless, things were passed to the control of the government very fast when banks began issuing paper notes that were not representing gold but the debt generated by interest rates instead. To limit the amount of paper money bankers could print and because of the fear of bank runs, a Federal Reserve was created as a lender of last resort to help comercial banks surpass difficult circumstances whenever they were being pressured by their clients.
Simply speaking, bank owners realized they were the only ones who knew the exact amount of gold stored in the vaults. Since the clients didn’t come back for their gold to use it in exchange, but instead used the paper notes representing the gold they had in storage, bank owners began printing more paper notes for themselves. These paper notes were not backed up by gold, but by the greed of the bankers who wanted to buy goods with illegitimate or counterfeit money. They were backed up by thin air. When people realized that there was more money circulating in the economy than there actually was stored in the banks, they all at once began to remove their deposits from the banks. This left many banks in bankruptcy. However, many times again the people’s trust was restored and many times again it was destroyed, until the government approved a Federal Reserve System to bail out untrustworthy banks from bankruptcy.
But, how does this System work? Believe it or not, it is very subtl in its deception and very simple. Let’s show it through an example. The Fed, to create money, only has to have 10% of the total amount created worth in gold. The Federal Reserve System has 100 dollars worth of gold stored in its vaults. This means that it can create ten times more of that value to lend that money to comercial banks. The newly created and lended 1,000 dollars backed up by nothing become the reserve of the comercial banks. If the Federal Reserve System only requires the comercial banks to hold 10% of those 1,000 dollars in reserve, then the comercial banks can create ten times more of that reserve through fractional reserve loans. The comercial banks create ten thousand dollars out of what people owe (debt). That’s why it’s called fiat money. It’s based in unfulfilled promises, not in tangible things with real value.
Another way the Federal Reserve increases credit is by buying government securities (debt). When they invest in government debt, the interest rates governments have to pay are lowered or eliminated entirely. This acquisition of government securities allows the central bank to create more money out of the debt increasing the credit available. Credit that will help the government continue its projects without having to eliminate its debt.
The Federal Reserve also controls interest rates by creating money or reducing money. They set a discount rate on interests. When the Fed lowers interests, commercial banks borrow more money from the Federal Reserve and increase their funds to lend. Obviously bank credit becomes cheaper and interest rates are lowered on every bank loan and credit card. People borrow more from banks and the amount of money in the economy is increased.
Businesses are mesmerized by artificial low interest rates. They begin to borrow more from banks to start investing in long-term projects. However, people continue to buy from businesses at the same or higher rates because there is more money circulating in the economy. Money that banks created out of nothing. This increase in spending causes greater demand. Greater demand raises prices. Businesses instead of focusing in catering to the current demand, they keep investing in future projects. This either causes products to be debased, a shortage of supply, or business’ bankruptcy.
When the money supply normalizes, there will be a bust. Many businesses will be gone, prices will be over the rooftops, people will be out of jobs, and there will be a recession or depression. No one payed the debt and much of the money created was because of the promise people made about paying that debt. The currency will be debased. Many banks will be bailed out of bankruptcy and the cycle will start all over again.
Why? Because the government needs credit to continue its expansion. It is much easier and less noticeable to create money out of nothing to fulfill projects than to tax people. You don’t see people protesting on the streets when the banks increase the money supply, as a matter of fact, many people welcome it. Yet these actions cause the same effects as counterfeit money.
All this to say that he money you and I use is counterfeit money. All those bills you see printed or think you have stored in your bank account are really just digits that you choose to give value to. They are not backed up by gold or silver, they are just green papers and digits backed up by a collective mentality that continues to give tremendous value to them. Take a moment and think about the effects counterfeiting had in the past: price inflation, more money circulation, debased product quality, unsatisfied clients/buyers, disconfidence in the market and economy in general, plus a demonstrated deficiency in the capability of human justice.
When banks today create digital money out of nothing we see the same effects in the economy and market. What’s worse is that the Federal Reserve System, a central bank, and all the commercial banks encourage these effects, which are origins of the boom-bust or business cycles. Our money only represents an illusive or imaginative value. Money is not worth what we buy with it. Those things have value in themselves, just like gold and silver, but today’s currency is literally mere digits.
Some might say, “So, who cares? What’s the big deal? At least those digits get me things.” Well the problem is that having digits as money gives the government and banks unlimited power to control the economy through the monetary supply affecting prices, wages, product quality, business’ success, jobs, and wealth in general. If it was easy to counterfeit gold coins, if it was easier to counterfeit paper bills, how much easier is it to counterfeit digits, and even more, to create them? One, two, three, one thousand… it is very simple, all one has to do is hack into the system or run the system.
However, the bigger problem is that if the Federal Reserve System legalizes the actions of central and comercial banks, which cause the same effects as counterfeiting, doesn’t that make them equal to counterfeiting? What they do is legalized theft protected by badges and guns. It’s schizophrenic because they basically punish counterfeiters whom aren’t approved by the government. Why do they get away with it? Well because most people ignore the process and because their actions are not perceived at least after six months.
Tariffs: A Definition
When you buy, you seek the best price that suits the budget you are disposing of, without ignoring quality. Normally people do not care where the good comes from or who made it, they just want something functional that supplies their needs and/or desires perfectly or almost perfectly. In normal market conditions, where there are no taxes being imposed and there is no government with vested interests, transactions are made with virtually no problem at all. However, today we have many problems in understanding an economy and even more in leaving it alone. One of the greatest problems is the economic relations between two nations and the taxes imposed on imported and exported goods, known as tariffs. Whether we believe it or understand it or not, the economy is tremendously influenced by these phenomenons.
As it was mentioned in “Crony Capitalism”, exchange is a concept that defines two sides of a transaction; it affects both the buyer and the seller. These two parties have a considerable amount of responsibility upon each’s shoulders to supply the needs and longings of their trading partner. If one fails to comply, both of them will be damaged in the present, affecting future exchanges. It is as simple as a man buying a television of some local brand with a malfunction. The man will be uncertain if he ever wants to buy a television of such brand in the future. If the man and his buddies never buy again, the local television producers will lose money and will not be able to prevail in business. Any person with an average amount of intelligence is able to comprehend this economic logic. However, when political rationale is mixed in with economic logic, the former ends up defeating the latter.
This is clearly seen in tariffs. Tariffs, even though they involve money, our freedom to do whatever we desire with it, and exchange, are not an economic battlefield, but a political one. The arguments favoring tariffs are confused with immigration and have a slight taste of patriotism mixed with discrimination. After all a nation must protect itself from any foreign enterprise that is more productive and competitive in a market, capable of reducing costs and prices causing a greater consumer satisfaction. The government is obligated to subside ineffective native producers by raising or establishing tariffs upon imported goods that they may defend from better foreign products and have less competition, ultimately meaning that these native companies have become potential monopolies; monopolies that have no idea how to be successful in catering consumer demand effectively.
Do you see the problem? If a product from a bordering nation is cheaper and better than a native nation, which would rather you buy? When you buy the foreign good, the native producer will be hurt economically and convince the government to save jobs by raising tariffs on the foreign producers’ goods. Although, this will eliminate jobs on the foreign country and reduce their wealth to buy goods coming from your nation, finally meaning that jobs will reduce in your nation, as well. Yet, that is not the worst part of the problem, how your number of choices will be shortened is. Consumers will not be able to have a broad range of prices to choose from, but instead face native monopolies with high prices and decreasing quality. It is either that, or pay a tariff. Whatever the case, individual consumers lose wealth and liberty on both sides of the border.
Now, why does this occur? Because people, namely voters, confuse people with goods, and prosperity with disguised taxes (tariffs). They accept arguments saying that importing goods will change a nations culture, and its decisions will be negatively impacted. However, a good does not have a mind of its own, a culture, and even better, doesn’t vote. A foreign good brought to a national market increases competition, in this way raising quality and reducing prices. In better words, our national industries become better competitors in international markets.
With tariffs, customers lose authority to choose freely and the state gains more authority to allocate resources. Economic allocation moves from the market to the ballot box and there is an obvious reduced wealth for everyone (except the government) in the name of protection. The greed of the government and the false sensation of patriotism are the propellers of tariffs. They not only impact negatively a bordering nation, but also your own nation. Remember that.
Crony Capitalism
If there is a store selling American-made cotton t-shirts at 20 dollars and another store selling the same t-shirts, but Mexican made at 16 dollars, which shirts would you rather buy? They are the exact same shirts, same quality, same color, only different price and manufacturer, which would you buy? If you listen to your budget, the cheaper ones, if you are patriotic, the American-made ones. However, that is not what is important. The point is that if you would rather buy cheaper, even if it meant ignoring a hometown manufacturer, imagine what other nations do when American-made goods are more expensive than theirs. This is the direct but unseen result of an interventionist government establishing tariffs.
Who likes taxes? Government officials do for it is money received, but not the average citizen for it is money plundered. Yet, when it comes to tariffs (taxes imposed on imported goods) the average person agrees with being taxed due to misconceptions which are specially popular in protectionist nations, as the United States. People actually think that what is really an involuntary transfer of wealth on imported goods benefits their country, even if it harms the exporting nation. In other words, people believe that reducing customer’s freedom increases the productivity and prosperity of their nation. This is obviously false. Tariffs injure economic prosperity and the trading relations between two countries. Exchange is a two-side, mutual process that either benefits or hurts both sides. It seems that politicians who favor tariffs do not understand this. Let’s analyze what happens.
Suppose the Mexican manufacturers of cotton t-shirts are getting the American manufacturers a little tied up. Obviously this is not a personal matter, it is just business that is allowing customers to decide what they prefer. Even so, the American producers cannot take anymore losses, so they appeal to the government to protect them from their own marketing mistakes and raise tariffs (taxes) on Mexican-made cotton t-shirts.
The American producers will enter an organization in charge of lobbying the government to eliminate foreign competition. What they will basically do is bribe politicians by giving juicy amounts of “donations” for their campaigns and/or policies. In a nutshell it goes like this, if a congressman votes in favor of tariffs, he gets money. If he votes against tariffs he practically doesn’t receive any money from these organizations. What do you think the politician will do?
Now this is not what they tell normal people like you and me. Congress gives a legal justification: a border that separates the countries. Therefore, the constitution authorizes tariffs across the national border. Here it is important to mention that national borders are not the only existing borders. There is a border separating your house, street, city and state. Every one of these borders, including a national border is different culturally and judicially, but the same when it comes to exchange. Imagine the government charged tariffs for goods imported from other cities in the same state or goods that you imported from someone’s house. Of course people would rebel against this. Although, when it comes to national borders people don’t think the same.
A good is different than a person. A good doesn’t vote or bring a whole ideology that will impact and utterly change a nation. Goods do not seek citizenship, they don’t seek anything. People do. Hence, an invisible line offers no economic impact on the exchange of goods and services between two nations. Unless, of course, there is a tariff imposed. Tariffs do not allow customers to buy according to their tastes or preferences. They are a manifestation of discrimination that reduces trade. Tariffs help eliminate competition creating monopolies. Tariffs give the government more sovereignty and revenue. Tariffs not only reduce imports but also exports. This last fact is because the nation we do not buy from will have less from our currency to buy from us. Tariffs are imposed on you, not on the ones who imported the good.
If tariffs really did what politicians say they do, then it would be better to also impose them across states and cities. This would increase the production of each individual state and city creating greater wealth for the country. However, no one believes this to be true, then why do we still believe it in national borders? Tariffs destroy jobs on both sides of the border. If one nation decides to buy less from another nation, the other nation will do the same to that nation. That is to say that if the USA places tariffs on Canadian goods, Canada will do the same on American goods. This will do away with jobs.
The government and those whom it favors are the only ones who win. National customers lose, foreign producers lose, foreign customers lose, national workers lose, and foreign workers lose. The government decides that if a certain exchange will not be profitable to the government in terms of tariffs, then that exchange will not be legitimate. Nothing else will matter, your money will be taken and not only your wealth will be shortened but your liberty will be hampered. This is welfare state economics. This is crony capitalism. The triumph of a gun supported by a badge. The victory of the things seen over the things not seen. If you promote tariffs you don’t understand economics. I hope you don’t listen to someone saying that tariffs will increase productivity and wealth again, because thwarting people’s freedom will never make a country richer.
A nation cannot destroy another economically. A nation can only destroy itself economically.
The Economics of Sacrifice
Value is subjective to the will of each individual person. However, the scarcity of a product or service might be a real factor in determining its price (value). Because it is scarce, it may be worth more. It is natural for society today to think about paper money when they hear prices, banks, savings, economy, costs, etc. Although paper money is not the only thing that can be used for trade, but it is collectively the most marketable commodity. Therefore, paper money, even though it is practically backed up or based on debt and thin air, not gold or silver, is very valuable to the hearts and minds of people. In other words, paper money has no real value, but illusive and subjective value that only exists in a way of thinking, but not in something that can be exchanged if paper money didn’t exist, like gold. Even though money is by no means scarce and worth something real, it is practically the most valuable thing that almost all people treasure. The love of money is the root of all evils.
Understanding the latter, we might acknowledge that when you have money you can practically obtain any physical thing and service whenever you want and at any price. We realize, then, that people are easy to control when you use the voice of money because money conveys authority. If you have the money, they have the time. It is as simple as that. Hence, money controls the decisions and thus the will of people. Something perishable controls an eternal spiritual being with a soul inside a body, also known as a human. You see, your earthly home, the body, is the only thing that dies, but you, a spirit and a soul, don’t. That is to say that if money controls our body and these two control our soul which in the end controls our spirit, instead of it being all the way around, we are far away from an eternal mentality.
This takes me to conclude that people who are focused in just this world are easily controlled by money. An example of that would be someone offering you this, “kiss the floor and I’ll give you a dime.” You say, “no”. They say, “Kiss the floor and I’ll give you 100 dollars.” That is when you start thinking about doing it. “100 dollars covers the monthly bills and I could still buy something to eat… Just for kissing the floor, that’s a bargain.” Maybe you, dear reader, wouldn’t do it, because you value your integrity more, but I bet there are lots of people that would do it. This answers the question why drug dealing is such an effective and lucrative illegal business that hires those commissioned by the government to work against them. You just give them a price, a million dollars or your life. They come to an agreement by oath or contract and done.
Things are alright when you are the one whose got the money, but when things turn the other way, that is when we are tested how much money truly controls us. And to be quite honest, today money is in reality truly owned by central banks, they choose when there can be an economic boom and when there can be a recession all the way to a depression, of course only affecting those who are controlled by money. They own the money because they create it and it is with their creation that we bid with in today’s economy. Yet things get more interesting when we get rid of paper money and restore gold as the most marketable commodity. Perhaps we won’t be controlled by self interested bank owners with egocentric plans, but we will still be controlled by the voice of money. It will be our lord helping us or practically forcing us to make economic decisions based upon its voice. That is the crude reality.
Knowing this I will now expose you to an eternal mentality. I guarantee it will make you feel uncomfortable if the voice of money (perishable voice) is the source of your economic structures. Before I continue, I want you to know that I don’t write of this as if it were a philosophy, a mere world view, a religion, or something similar, but as a reality that, whether we admit it or not, influences our daily lives. I know some might say that I am saying it too literal, and yes I am because, like I said, it is a reality. If we follow these principles we will be the most free and prosperous people on earth, all it takes is courage, faith, and love. In the end you will understand why I don’t prefer either “first come, first served” or “high bid wins” in the areas of my life.
Would you place a known thief as your economic steward or treasurer? Perhaps you think this is a stupid question and it might be to some, but your answer determines what voice you are listening to when it comes to economic decisions, the one of money or the one that comes from love. However, I know of a man in history that made history and did this defeating all the systems of this world, meaning that he was never controlled by any because he did not listen to a perishable voice. Jesus Christ placed Judas Iscariot, a thief, as the administrator of all the money Jesus received. The monetary system used in His time were gold and silver coins and yet He said to not trust in money and not listen to its voice. He listened to the voice of the Father and multiplied 5 pieces of bread and 2 pieces of fish to feed thousands, money didn’t control Him. He told Peter to fish out a fish that contained the money to pay for the taxes of the temple. By the way asking a rabi to pay taxes was a despicable insult that did not acknowledge He was a teacher. Even so, He paid for Peter and for Himself by fishing out a fish which had the money.
But why was He able to do this? What made Him special? Yes, He was the son of God, but He was also the son of Man and the second Adam. This means He was just as propense to falling in sin as the first Adam did. For this reason He was tempted in the desert. Notwithstanding, He was able to listen to the voice of the Father, the voice of love. Jesus did not take and He did not keep, He gave. Through giving He was victorious over everything and through this love He transcended time, space, and all limits. Nothing controlled Him, not even ego because He detached from everything in order to give His life and manifest the power and all the miracles. Rejection did not control Him, He died for love of those who rejected Him and even called Judas “friend”, right before he betrayed Him. Jesus knew who Judas was and what he was going to do, yet He still called him “friend”.
What I am saying is that Jesus was the man with the greatest freedom ever, then the primitive church followed this freedom after the Spirit fell upon all flesh. Jesus conquered freedom not by beating the system through bargaining, negotiating, or whatever, but by giving. That is how He acquired liberty and established that true freedom is obtained. The primitive church walked after this. When Peter and John were going to pray, they saw a man who couldn’t walk asking for money. Peter told him that he didn’t have gold or silver, but that he gave the man what he had and healed him. There was no needy in the primitive church. All those that had faith would sell their goods and place the money at the disposal to all those within the believers that needed things. Therefore all need was supplied through giving. This is one of the reasons they wanted to kill them, because they did not live under the systems of the world and through their preaching they were taking people to get out of them. These are the economics of the sacrifice of Jesus. If we give and detach ourselves from all that is perishable, we will be people that transcend time and space and we will make history. Nothing and no one will be able to control us. Give and you shall receive.
This is why I prefer giving because of love more than, “high bid wins” and “first come, first served”.
Note: Click here to read a little more about high bid wins and first come, first served.
Tax-Supported
What easier way is there to pay than getting someone else to do it for you? Because the voice of money is quite deafening, the majority of people would hardly say no to a proposal that brings great comfort. As a matter of fact when you combine the voice of money with the voice of ego, it becomes extremely difficult for someone to give a “no” for an answer to something free (which really just means someone else paid for it). The heart of the matter is that nothing in this universe is truly free, everything has or had a cost and a price. This means that to get some resources you inevitably have to exchange others. Being blunt, sometimes people “give free resources” or pay for you in exchange of your freedom. In other words, getting something for free sounds beautiful at first, but it has terrible consequences upon others and upon you.
Allow me to explain. When someone else (known or unknown) pays for you, normally people will feel compelled to like or have some sort of appreciation for that someone. You will want to give them back the favor as long as it suits your resources. When you give them back the favor, a weight will be lifted off your shoulders. However, if that someone continues to pay for you in overwhelming ways, you will ultimately and definitely be surpassed. Here you will have two choices, continue to receive the money and pay back the favor by becoming a servant of such someone or stop receiving the “free resources” and begin working to pay them yourself. Here is where greed and the lack of desire to work influence ones decisions.
Let’s say you continue to receive the resources and the someone paying for you makes a contract with you. Suppose they are giving you resources to pay for the food of your restaurant. However, they are vegan and thus tell you that if you still want to receive the money to buy your food and make your own profit, you have to stop selling real meat and sell soy meat. You don’t think it’s a big deal and you do it only losing about 25% of your old customers, but gaining new richer ones because your giver invites his friends to eat at your restaurant. Yet, when they are eating at your restaurant, it turns out that one of them doesn’t like one of your waiters face and squeaky voice. Therefore your giver tells you to fire him and hire someone prettier with a deeper voice if you still want his friends to come over. You do it.
This is what happens when you have a welfare state that funds other people’s resources. They will in the end have the authority to call the tune of your piper because money conveyed such authority. In tax-funded schools the state is the one that provides the building, the desks, the food, the books, and the curriculum. Here they have the final call in deciding how practically everything in the student’s environment must occur. They control the knowledge the student can or cannot receive. This ultimately means that the state will use its power to create a knowldge that ends up favoring it. Tax-funded schools are therefore bureaucratized, meaning that they are state-taught, state-controlled, and state-favored. The teachers and the students do not have the freedom to teach and learn what they prefer, but what the state forces them, although they still receive everything for “free”.
The people might ask, how is it possible for the state to control what we learn if we paid it in the first place with our taxed money? The truth is that taxing is obligatory and the state is the one that decides how much will be taxed and who will be taxed. The instant you involuntarily place your money in the hands of the state, you lose control over it. You have no idea where that amount you gave will end and how it will be used. You also have no idea if the money you gave will be given to something you need, want or even support. What if the taxed money is being handled by politicians you did not even want in the office in the first place? So yes, taxed money is not in control or owned anymore by you, but by the state. That is the crude reality.
Money governed by the state will be used by the state as it may or may not of right do and it will control all of the people it gives money to. Hence, in principle a tax-funded church is no different than a tax-funded school. The sate will control the teachings in both to favor the state. And personally I believe that those (the state) who taxed money -taken coercively from other people- to use for their interests lack integrity and do not deserve honor. Worst than these people are those (state subsidized / tax-funded) who receive the money from the sate to not pay for what they owe. What type of church that supposedly trusts in God teaches to trust in plunder and what type of education are we allowing our children to receive by being bureaucratized? Begin by paying for the piper to call the tune.
Job Application Example
Hello there, as a job applicant there are many traits that clarify the reasons why it is important for you to consider hiring me.
First of all, my growth has been divided in living and studying in two different countries, the United States of America and Mexico. Through this I learned two languages perfectly, English and Spanish. I also understood both of the countries’ cultures and histories. I have experienced being under two very different systems of education, homeschooling and normal schooling. Experiencing this took me to become a self-disciplined and responsible person that can work efficiently both by himself and with others. Changing through systems, cultures, and countries made me a very adaptable person to drastic new things and a fast learner.
In a couple of times I have given public speeches, the biggest one I have given is perhaps one having to do with an investigation about psychosomatic diseases. I relate well with people and know how to lead. In elementary school I was chosen student body president and in high school I was elected president of one of the groups in a model of the United Nations. These events in my life took me to be molded in the areas of leading and organizing groups with character and authority.
I know how to gain the trust of people and stay trustworthy. I am a good listener and observer paying attention to the tiniest details. People feel comfortable being around me. I have the gift of seeing people’s potential and motivate others, while also being self-motivated. It is difficult for other people to make me mad, impatient or desperate. I know how to design web pages and create simple virtual art through programs like corel draw, an example of this is this blog. I have worked giving English language classes to non-native speakers. At home I was always the one incharge of cleaning the house (sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming), thus I know how to serve others with integrity. These and many other reasons make me fit for the job, hire me and discover them.
I thank you for investing your valuable time in reading this essay, I hope to hear from you soon.
Real Entrepreneurs
What motivates people? The answer to that question is so broad and subjective that it is difficult to give a fixed one that applies to everyone. However, I still believe that anyone will agree that we can find one common thing for the majority of people and that is money. Many times, throughout history, humanity has lived through great breakthroughs because of needs. For example, the “A” group of people needs a better way of communication and the “B” group of people needs money. Hence, group “B” develops the creativity and ability to supply group “A” with the need of a better form of communication in exchange for the supply of their need, which is money. Of course, more than half of the people who wanted the better communications would sooner or later find that one of the greatest benefits of having these will be tremendous economic revenue, being money the main one.
This is what an entrepreneur does, he or she seeks creative ways of providing personal and general needs and he or she does so by being more intelligent than the competition, being future oriented (this doesn’t include fear of the future because of past errors), and finding new, creative ways of supplying needs. There is nothing wrong with needing money, there is nothing wrong with wanting money, and there is nothing wrong with making lots of money, the problem is when an entrepreneur is motivated by the love of money.
An inherent trait that a real entrepreneur has is creativity and creativity is boundless. Money is limited. Therefore, if you use a limited tool to motivate a boundless one, you will automatically cause your creativity to be limited. You will be fulfilling a saying that goes something like, “the size of the cage determines the freedom of the captive.” It is the job of the captive to determine if he still wants to continue in the cage. But who can do that when the cage is money, to many a synonym of heights and glory.
And that is precisely the problem, an entrepreneur’s success is determined by what he believes and our beliefs are determined by the way we have been molded. This defines another characteristic of entrepreneurship, and that is boldness. One has to be bold enough to break the mold of the fear of past mistakes. Sometimes we are afraid of doing extraordinary things because of the fear of failure or because of discouraging voices that we have heard throughout our living. A real entrepreneur is not common, but stands out because he is different, beginning with his thoughts and beliefs. He or she sees things common people don’t and he or she figures out how to supply them.
There are many wonderful traits that belong to true entrepreneurs, yet many of them are hampered by the love of limited resources (yes, this includes time). I believe that an entrepreneur should not be motivated by the words of “ka-ching, ka-ching” or “tic tac”, but by the words “love your neighbor”. If this becomes our foundations of supplying needs, there will not be any boundary to our creativity and we will have a whole different society aimed towards eternity.
Now, do not misunderstand me, obviously time is valuable and I am not saying we should waste it, but we should invest it wisely. However, time at a certain time in life gives out such a loud voice of surrender that almost no one overcomes. In other words, it is never too late to fulfill something that goes beyond anyone’s expectations, including yours. If you die trying, so be it, but a least you didn’t surrender to the voice of time speaking the limits of death. A real entrepreneur overcomes all odds.
A Perishable Voice vs. An Eternal Voice
Money, the most marketable and thus most valuable commodity in this world, is perishable. Money has a manipulating voice governed by the fear of mortality, because everything that is mortal perishes. With money, you have three possibilities. Number one, either you are a “rational person” and administer it according to the measuring of your fears and waste it to the suitability of your needs and some wants (not all, to not waste it all). Second, you save it by throwing away the key of your strongbox to never waste it or give it. And number three, you make it “oil” money that you cannot sustain with your bare hands and just as it comes, it goes carelessly.
This is why most people make a budget. We try to predict our future incomes and expenses so that we do not lose money and end up looking like fools. Like I said, the voice of money is one of manipulating fear. The more money we have in our savings and the less we lose of it, the more secure we feel because we believe that we have overcome that which is perishable. In the end it is just an illusion that blinds us to the fact that we have not attained that which is eternal. The crude reality is, that money today is simply unbacked trading paper with people’s pictures that can be burned, ripped, or whatever.
The mentality of survival, which goes against the one of eternity, governs us. When our life is threatened by scarcity, most people will do whatever is necessary, and I mean whatever, to avoid death. History is a proof of this. And history, too tells us a story of a man who purposely gave it all and became poor because for love of people who didn’t love Him, in the strict sense of the words, to overcome mortality. His story truly goes against a survival mentality that tries to predict the future in order to not die. As a matter of fact, He died to gain life and by this He overcame everything that is perishable, including the fear of mortality. He said, and I’m paraphrasing, “Lose your life to gain it. Work for the food that doesn’t perish. Seek me and do what I say, not the things that belong to mortality and I will give you those things, plus eternal things.” It is not a matter of pretty moral, philosophical or religious words, but a matter of reality defeating illusion. He said, “Follow my example. Whoever believes in me will overcome all mortal things and have the eternal ones. Do not let money be the voice of your decisions, but let it be my voice.”
With this I am not saying that we must not be prudent with our money, but we must not depend on that which is mortal for the complete sustainability of our lives. In other words, where do you base the security of the continuity of your life in this world. If the structures of the voice of money govern your decisions according to money and not the eternal voice that comes from eternity, you are far away from living the reality of a life that is not perishable; the life that One man brought to this world. If you guide yourself by His eternal-life-voice, you will not have the need to make a budget to avoid impulse shopping because you will not be guided by the voice of money that determines prices of commodities in the first place. I encourage you, dear reader, to believe in eternity.
Now I am not talking about being super rich, but about the reality of overcoming all fears, including the fear of mortality. Jesus the Christ, revealed the nature of eternity, and this is giving. He conquered eternity by dying. The well known verse of John 3:16 proves both of these statements. You see, perfect love casts out all fear and the nature of love is giving. Real love loves those who don’t love Him. This is truth and this is a real freedom mentality because you are not bound to or bound by mortal things; you live in eternity and are eternal. You know what He says, “the truth will set you free.”
Truth that comes from a conquered eternity and takes you to live in eternity today, not when you leave this carnal body, meaning, in the future. This is because all physical things are subject to invisible and eternal ones. This is proved when Jesus multiplied bread and fish to feed thousands or when He resurrected and surprisingly, it is also proved by quantum physics. All perishable things are subject to eternal ones for those who decide to introduce themselves into an eternal reality through faith by love in the giving. Nothing can bind eternal things, this why I don’t believe in anticipating the future to avoid death or “the worst”, because I believe in eternity. Of course, with this I am not saying to not pay what you need to pay or to go around and lose money randomly. I am talking about the reality of eternity in our midst and the living within it today.
What do I encourage? That it is wiser to believe and depend on He who is eternal than a perishable paper. This will deliver you from the bond of mortality and will take you to live a truly wise life full of wise decisions. Real freedom, real prosperity, real peace, real joy, and real righteousness, in other words.
The Value of Resources
Is it worth my time to get a part-time job at the minimum wage?
Well, it depends. The key question is, “how valuable is my resource of time and how much of it do I have free to exchange it for money?” If you have lots of free time, then you can enter a part-time job to earn money and useful experience that can be applied to facilitate other activities in the future. You could take it like this, instead of playing videogames all the time and winning nothing profitable, you could win money, save it and buy yourself something nice. However, if you already have your time invested in something more valuable or preferable than a minimum wage and part-time job experience, anyone would believe it to be a fools idea to waste your resources in something less valuable and preferable than what you are already gaining.
Unearthing The Truth 