Economics, tisk! I say...Keanu Reeves is a twat!

Don't stop this feckin bus!

Now I'm not an mathematician. 

I've have not a head shaped like an egg and if I'm being honest, I'm probably not the sharpest needle in a room filled with PHD qualified needles. 

But I think I understand how the world works. 

I understand that if my car breaks down, I take it to the repair man. He will likely huff and puff and explain that the Double Radius Arm Flange has shattered and that it will take several billion to put right. 

I understand that if my water heater decides that it's had enough and explodes with the force of the Nagasaki bomb, that once the dust clears I'm going to call a man round and ask that he re-assemble all the pieces and provide me once again with hot water.  

I even, in a basic form, understand how our national economy works. 

At its simplest level it goes like this. I spend money in return for some form of service or product. This in turn places cash in the hand of someone else, who then spends the same money on further services. This again places the same cash in the hands of a third person, and so on and so on and so on. 

Of course it becomes slightly more complex when Mr Government dips his mucky paws into the equation and takes thirty percent of my and everyone else's money away in tax. But to be fair even that works its wily way back through the system and eventually is placed back into the hands of the public through road building, or employing police officers, nurses etc. 

Wealth is equally spread

Think of the ideal system this way. There's only $100 and five people on earth. Each person has an equal share of that $100 meaning $20 each, yes. Each of those five people provide the basic necessities of life and each day everyone buys food, clothing, vibrators, whatever they need in their daily lives from each other. The wealth of this 'economy' is equally spread and while individual wealth may rise and fall to a degree, each citizen is more than able to provide for themselves and is happy. 

Of course, the trouble with western capitalism is that all is not equal.

Imagine again that there are only five people on earth and again only $100. This time though, four of the five people have $15 each and the last member of this society has $40. The person with the most money will always be able to control pricing as he can simply pay more if he wishes. He can buy more at a cheaper price and in doing so ensure that others have little. As a result of his wealth he can sell on product he bought cheaply for more and make money. Then he can save some of his money, thus removing it from the system and denying it to others while he makes more of theirs in doing the same thing all over again. 

This second system shows us the very start of the problems associated with the loveliest of human traits, greed. 

Now into our new world of societal inequality come the banks.

To be fair the original premise of a bank was one that saw it broker investment in communities. You might remember the famous Christmas movie with ole Jimmy Stewart, 'It's a Wonderful Life'. The idea behind Jimmy's bank was that they funded the community through its customers deposits. In short it's an idea that sees them facilitate a service that sees money churn through the network. A noble exercise.

Bankers should be shot in the face, twice!

Banks today though are the root of all evil, the last bastion of  the wealthy. They work on the basis of returning profit to shareholders not the community and as a result, everyone who works in management at any of today's financial institutions should be shot in the face, twice!

You see on the one hand, assuming you're not a criminal with no job and a questionable attitude to honesty, they may allow you to borrow money. Of course they expect the 'principle', the amount you borrowed paid back and they'll charge an amount described as 'interest' for providing you with this service. 

All very agreeable yes. 

Well on the other hand assuming you're John Banks, or a criminal with a job in international finance, and you simply must be in possession of a questionable attitude to honesty, they'll keep your money for you and in return for allowing the bank to invest your money, they'll pay you a sum also described as 'interest'.

All sounds lovely doesn't it. 

Until you see the idea behind the bank's model is simple and is one of the fundamental problems with western capitalism. If you need money you pay, if you have money, you're paid! And the more you have, the easier it becomes to create more.

Biggest con job of the last 500 years

Now the trick of the western capitalist is to keep us as the masses wanting and spending more. 

Keep us wanting the 60inch SmartTV, keep us needing to buy that packet of Maltesers at the supermarket because if we do, money keeps money flowing through the system and the more money that does, the more ends up in the hands of those who have the greatest wealth. 

It's the biggest con-job of the last 500 years and we've all fallen for it hook, line and bloody well sinker. 

Now at this point you might think me some form of red rag communist. Someone who wants to charge the barricades, smash some windows in corporate town and someone with a scant regard for free speech along with a deep seated wish to place everyone who doesn't agree with my views in a plague infested gulag! 

As much as the latter is close to reality, especially when it comes to our glorious dear leader Mr Key, I do not believe in an equal society. 

I'm all for the theory that work hard and you should be well rewarded. I'm all for the idea that you can move on in this world and become successful through innovation, through diligence and through having a touch of nous. 

The whole thing resembles that movie 'Speed'

But you see the major problem we face today isn't and cannot be some messianic, titantic struggle of idealist methodologies, for you see we find ourselves in too deep. That's right, the wealthy have won. 

They've developed their vision of western society to the point where the whole thing resembles that movie 'Speed'. 

If we stop the bus to get off because we 're a touch uncomfortable with the direction in which it's travelling, the whole bloody thing will explode in a horribly disastrous fireball.  

Ironically, the wealthy who will likely have caused the crash in the first place, will skip merrily away from the carnage humming 'Hail to the Chief', whilst the rest of us will firstly struggle to extricate ourselves from the wreckage and then secondly, to return our personal lives to place where we can be happy. 

This is what those May Day protesters and the hippies who suggest we need to get back to eating grass and burping in grannies' faces don't understand. We can't do it, even if we wanted to, we're now trapped on the bus and it feckin well can't stop!

And so I come back to my earlier example of a more basic world. 

To keep our world going, to keep living, go out there and spend your money. Stop saving for those rainy days that your grand-mother told you about. 

To her, a rainy day was the bloody Second World War and if that happens again, you'll be vapourised in a heartbeat or you'll pop your clogs fairly shortly afterwards while your eyes fall out and you cradle your intestines in your then skinless arms. 

No, spend your money now and spend it big, don't worry about the kids. With modern medicine you'll last so long your kids will be in their eighties when you finally pop your clogs and will end up bloody annoyed that you hid millions under the mattress when they could have done with a leg up in their own lives forty years previously. 

In the movie Speed, Keanu Reeves desperately wanted to stop the bus without it blowing up. If he was on this bus I'd be calling him a twat, punching him in the face and telling the driver to speed up, cos I could do with making a little cash before I explode!  

Thanks for reading and till next time,

Gordy