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In response to the negative comments to the posting of Mr. Kazi’s article on Islamic economy, I would like to invite similar denigration for my observations below.
{mosgoogle right} Money was meant to be a servant of humans. It is a means of exchange which is more efficient than batter trade. The products and services which are bought and sold are usually consumed quickly in small economies. Money unfortunately is also a store of value. It now picks up long term power. In this capacity the man who accumulates most money also becomes most powerful. In the past when law and order is a bit shaky, this power is usually mocked by leaders who controlled a few good men. After all, if in the absence of law and order, you have money and I have men with swords, who do you think will come out on top? So the moneyed men plotted and waited – like in the Revenge of the Sith. They finally found their Darth Vader in the form of Oliver Cromwell for the English and Robespiere for the French. O what revenge these men wreaked! If they were contemporaries, they probably competed for how much blood each spilled. You might say Cromwell was more religious and therefore spilled less blood. But I don’t think the Irish who were not just slaughtered like animals, but devil worshippers would agree. Money can also earn interest. Besides invasion, piracy and plunder, this is the next basic form of capital concentration. Money now takes on a new power. It has a sex life. It could generate more money on its own. It is starting to turn into a monster – the master of humans rather than the servant. The Terminator would be pleased. Then they invented joint stock companies. Money from many rich men could be combined to build solid warships cum merchantmen that plied the worlds oceans when coastal trade in rickety boats in other nations was a dicey affair. Just about nobody could withstand them, but they competed with each other and blew each other out of the water for colonies. Just imagine – amidst all this destruction, money could still grow. It is not just a monster, it is a giant of a monster. Money was becoming very, very big, but this is not the end of the story yet. Banks and stock markets played very efficient roles in further concentrating money. If this were not enough, they invented future value (expected future earnings which could be bought and sold for hard cash today). The power of money grows exponentially because it is being concentrated in massive amounts which boggles the mind. These days money instruments that serve to concentrate money in obscene amounts is reaching its peak and may serve to destroy its power yet. Trust funds are so big that they can batter down the economic and financial structures of countries the size of S. Korea and carry off wealth in the form of forced sales because credit dried up and money velocity in the country is forced to a standstill. Lack of confidence or in other words, cold, cringing fear rules the day. This cold cringing fear is not unjustified because millions of human lives are wrecked and destroyed in the process. And they blame it all on free market forces and your own stupidity in managing your own finances and economy. Money is so sophisticated these days it controls and regulates the lives of billions of humans. It is the master and yet still the humble servant of humans. If it were not the servant, it would very easily be toppled. As such, powerful men who are good at controlling money can control millions of humans for relatively little effort. Kings and conquerors of old would salivate at the ease with which these men control millions of humans. And what loyalty they get in return for relatively small pains! Money is a hard taskmaster. As if it were not enough to buy the labour of a man with a family of 5 or 6 mouths to feed for US$1 a day, money often uses the labour of his small children as well. Inspite of sanctimonious words that are nauseating us for a few years now, about African child labour picking cocoa for a few cents a day, African child labour is still picking cocoa today. This is actually worse than slave labour, because slave owners need to look after their slaves in case they died and slaves cost money. In our case, money just hires the next child in case this one died or grows up and asks for more pay or more food to feed his growing body. This is one of the reasons why people say capitalism is more efficient and productive than slavery. Think about it next time you eat chocolate. Not that it makes any difference. Britons throw away 8 billion pounds sterling of good food regularly because of wasteful habits. It is not just about poor Africans or South Asians or South Americans. It is also about middle income families, where both spouses have to work long hours just to keep the bank balance from reaching single digit zero and children have to spend long hours without the guidance of their parents. Everyone is slave to money including the banker himself. But enough pontificating. Let us also not talk about females this time. I suspect some people are angry with me for talking too much about females especially beautiful ones of a certain noble community. For the sake of brevity, let us not bore ourselves with anything more on food, oil, pollution, raw materials, immigration, racism, genetic engineering, nuclear energy, technology, power of media, invasions, regime change, Zionism, etc. which bung up the waste channels of capitalism, for these are already well discussed in other areas. Let me just jump to solutions. Good people who wish to re-assert the primacy and dignity of humans have to start from scratch (even to the extent of batter trade and plunder of farmers produce – they call it expropriation). Sometimes the solutions proposed look very similar because they start from the same noble motives. I guess it is not easy to challenge the power of money. In my view, solutions proposed for today need to be able to come up with the same ability to concentrate money to be able to compete efficiently. Otherwise it will just be smashed down by the power of money. This makes it sort of Catch 22-ish. Too often, humans themselves cause problems with their quarrelsome nature and unpredictability (see readers’ comments on MT blog) (see also RPK’s blogs, heehee). The creation of ideal human societies not enslaved by money or plagued by racism and abuse remains beyond the horizon. But this does not mean humans will give up or stop trying. I think they will keep trying even if it is to stop the next minor irritant or abuse. Also, conditions change. Will money be the all powerful satan forever? Will the edifice built to worship capitalism be solid enough to last forever? Only God is forever. By batsman
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