"Free exchange turns scarcity into abundance for rich and poor alike "....................YES ! Good idea ,
BUT , only in a Capitalist-Free-Enterprise-Western-Culture where the INDIVIDUAL is recognised
as having personal FREEDOM , OWNERSHIP RIGHTS and WESTERN [ Judeo-Christian ] CULTURE , VALUES , WORK ETHIC and EDUCATION ....and that the 'society embraces those concepts !
Free-exchange has always existed as an option , but , historically was seldom the one of choice !
Where a person felt "entitled" to take what they wanted because they had sufficient POWER
[ Pharaohs , Kings , Barons , Generals , Popes and Abbots , Dictators= Tyrants and Pirates ! ]
then freedom and liberty were NOT a consideration ! ..........It was just TAKEN ......like slaves were !
For TRADE to occur there has to be a NEED to satisfy ..........and a high degree of TRUST.
Bartering was common and sharing [ and the consequent obligation ] would have been necessary , but until MONEY was 'invented' there was no means of conducting proper trading.
FREE TRADE is a modern concept....Tariffs are as old as the Roman Empire .....and inflation as well !
As I see the USA today with tariffs being imposed on " trading partners" , most of these are "retaliatory-tariffs" to "level the playing field" and MOST have been 'negotiated away by mutual agreements" as opposed to SANCTIONS which can be used to cripple an adversary's economy !
.
In almost every country in the modern world , economies are thriving , wealth is being created and people are enjoying , by far , the best living conditions that humans have EVER experienced ! This is largely because of NO WORLD WARS , scientific innovations in EVERY field and a "flowering of Western Culture and freedoms" and "we" have largely "tamed the bloody planet" that is so affectionately AND inaptly called "Mother Nature" [ because "she" is always devising NEW and TERRIBLE WAYS to kill us ! It's time "she" was renamed : THANATOS or MALUM ! ]
...
China has adopted a MERCANTILIST ECONOMY [ or "beggar thy neighbour" ] and it is NOT a FREE-TRADE ECONOMY [ although "left-leaning-economists' everywhere would decry that ! ].
China has surged MATERIALLY and URBANISED and created considerable wealth for itself and is now hoarding "precious metals" [ gold ,silver , palladium , Neodymium , Praseodymium , etc and Lithium and other 'battery-materials' ] and building it's military strength , and implementing it's BELT and ROAD INITIATIVE [ indebting 'weaker economies' and then , subjugating them ! ] all in it's pursuit of POWER . [ BUT POWER..........THAT IS ALL THAT "COMMUNISM" IS ABOUT ! ]
Ironically , due to "swallowing the Malthusian Idea " magnified by Paul Erlich and his doomsday book "The Population Bomb", they introduced the "one child policy" and now face a rapidly declining , and aging , population ..........so.....their "potential to wage a war" has become critical , it's got to be SOON or NOT AT ALL , because they won't have the "cannon fodder" to waste like they had in Korea !! [ Which , I suppose could earn Erlich a "BACK-HANDED" , BACK-FIRED and TOTALLY UNINTENTIONAL "Nobel Peace Prize" !!! So , some GOOD could yet emerge for him ! ].
.
I greatly appreciate YOUR DOOMSLAYER articles and ethos , so please do NOT take any of my COMMENTS personally.
I think that "saving the planet" is a 'garbage concept' and the people promulgating it , likewise , the planet has so far "eradicated" 99.99% of every life form that has ever tried to live on it !
"We" humans are always in it's "cross-hairs" but , thankfully , "our innovators and innoculators" are managing to hold it at bay for the moment !
"Catastrophic Climate Activists" on the other hand are as deluded as Malthus and Erlich and constitute a malevolence , a hypocrisy and a threat that can only assist "Mother Nature" in "her annihilist intentions". When "one" corrupts 'science' with blatant political intervention and personal aggrandisement and PURSUIT OF WEALTH then "one" should anticipate a bad outcome !
Denial of empirical evidence is delusion , but inculcating "hopelessness" and "delusion" into school children and impressionable young-adults , is diabolically malevolent !
"We" are in a warmish-interglacial in an ICE AGE......it will end ........and the ICE will return with a vengeance ....and with that phase lasting 100,000 years or so , "our" civilisation will terminate !
Advocating policies to PREVENT WARMING is suicidal as any added-extra-warmth will delay the inevitable a bit longer so that MORE PEOPLE can enjoy the life that "we" have enjoyed !
Sadly , the "TRUTH IS OUT THERE" was confined to a TV Show [ The X-Files ] and is no longer the driving force behind MUCH of science today ! Instead , it's become a question of "how can I manage to fit 'catastrophic climate change' into my new scientific research project in a way that IT WILL ATTRACT A GRANT , and assure me of a JOB and WEALTH and THE PRESTIGE I CRAVE " ???
Give me David Bellamy , the Academic , Botanist and Environmentalist over David Attenborough , the attention-seeking Broadcaster any day !!!
"Free exchange turns scarcity into abundance for rich and poor alike "....................YES ! Good idea ,
BUT , only in a Capitalist-Free-Enterprise-Western-Culture where the INDIVIDUAL is recognised
as having personal FREEDOM , OWNERSHIP RIGHTS and WESTERN [ Judeo-Christian ] CULTURE , VALUES , WORK ETHIC and EDUCATION ....and that the 'society embraces those concepts !
Free-exchange has always existed as an option , but , historically was seldom the one of choice !
Where a person felt "entitled" to take what they wanted because they had sufficient POWER
[ Pharaohs , Kings , Barons , Generals , Popes and Abbots , Dictators= Tyrants and Pirates ! ]
then freedom and liberty were NOT a consideration ! ..........It was just TAKEN ......like slaves were !
For TRADE to occur there has to be a NEED to satisfy ..........and a high degree of TRUST.
Bartering was common and sharing [ and the consequent obligation ] would have been necessary , but until MONEY was 'invented' there was no means of conducting proper trading.
FREE TRADE is a modern concept....Tariffs are as old as the Roman Empire .....and inflation as well !
As I see the USA today with tariffs being imposed on " trading partners" , most of these are "retaliatory-tariffs" to "level the playing field" and MOST have been 'negotiated away by mutual agreements" as opposed to SANCTIONS which can be used to cripple an adversary's economy !
.
In almost every country in the modern world , economies are thriving , wealth is being created and people are enjoying , by far , the best living conditions that humans have EVER experienced ! This is largely because of NO WORLD WARS , scientific innovations in EVERY field and a "flowering of Western Culture and freedoms" and "we" have largely "tamed the bloody planet" that is so affectionately AND inaptly called "Mother Nature" [ because "she" is always devising NEW and TERRIBLE WAYS to kill us ! It's time "she" was renamed : THANATOS or MALUM ! ]
...
China has adopted a MERCANTILIST ECONOMY [ or "beggar thy neighbour" ] and it is NOT a FREE-TRADE ECONOMY [ although "left-leaning-economists' everywhere would decry that ! ].
China has surged MATERIALLY and URBANISED and created considerable wealth for itself and is now hoarding "precious metals" [ gold ,silver , palladium , Neodymium , Praseodymium , etc and Lithium and other 'battery-materials' ] and building it's military strength , and implementing it's BELT and ROAD INITIATIVE [ indebting 'weaker economies' and then , subjugating them ! ] all in it's pursuit of POWER . [ BUT POWER..........THAT IS ALL THAT "COMMUNISM" IS ABOUT ! ]
Ironically , due to "swallowing the Malthusian Idea " magnified by Paul Erlich and his doomsday book "The Population Bomb", they introduced the "one child policy" and now face a rapidly declining , and aging , population ..........so.....their "potential to wage a war" has become critical , it's got to be SOON or NOT AT ALL , because they won't have the "cannon fodder" to waste like they had in Korea !! [ Which , I suppose could earn Erlich a "BACK-HANDED" , BACK-FIRED and TOTALLY UNINTENTIONAL "Nobel Peace Prize" !!! So , some GOOD could yet emerge for him ! ].
.
I greatly appreciate YOUR DOOMSLAYER articles and ethos , so please do NOT take any of my COMMENTS personally.
I think that "saving the planet" is a 'garbage concept' and the people promulgating it , likewise , the planet has so far "eradicated" 99.99% of every life form that has ever tried to live on it !
"We" humans are always in it's "cross-hairs" but , thankfully , "our innovators and innoculators" are managing to hold it at bay for the moment !
"Catastrophic Climate Activists" on the other hand are as deluded as Malthus and Erlich and constitute a malevolence , a hypocrisy and a threat that can only assist "Mother Nature" in "her annihilist intentions". When "one" corrupts 'science' with blatant political intervention and personal aggrandisement and PURSUIT OF WEALTH then "one" should anticipate a bad outcome !
Denial of empirical evidence is delusion , but inculcating "hopelessness" and "delusion" into school children and impressionable young-adults , is diabolically malevolent !
"We" are in a warmish-interglacial in an ICE AGE......it will end ........and the ICE will return with a vengeance ....and with that phase lasting 100,000 years or so , "our" civilisation will terminate !
Advocating policies to PREVENT WARMING is suicidal as any added-extra-warmth will delay the inevitable a bit longer so that MORE PEOPLE can enjoy the life that "we" have enjoyed !
Sadly , the "TRUTH IS OUT THERE" was confined to a TV Show [ The X-Files ] and is no longer the driving force behind MUCH of science today ! Instead , it's become a question of "how can I manage to fit 'catastrophic climate change' into my new scientific research project in a way that IT WILL ATTRACT A GRANT , and assure me of a JOB and WEALTH and THE PRESTIGE I CRAVE " ???
Give me David Bellamy , the Academic , Botanist and Environmentalist over David Attenborough , the attention-seeking Broadcaster any day !!!
Cheers everyone ! Trevor.
Trevor said it profoundly better than I was going to. Thank you. Enjoyed the article, and Trevor’s follow up. John