Economy
The first prioritys of survival are:
Water, food, clothing and shelter.
The four branches of production are:
Fishing
Farming
Mining
Manufacturing
Industries that fall into one of the above four branches will contribute to increasing the four basic elements of survival. Thus making them more affordable for the individual. The growth of these four industries create an economic ladder reaching down to the underdog. The underdog if able to reach the bottum rung of the ladder will be able to climb out of poverty and could become wealthy.
Unfortunatly the biggest and fastest growing industry is the service industry.
The service industry is not one of the four means of production. Therefore it does not increase the size of the economic pie. It does not make the four basic elements of survival more affordable for the individual.
The service industry transfers wealth from one group or individual to another group or individual. Hence only the illusion of prosperity is perpetuated.
Individuals working in the service industry are called servants.
While individuals working in one of the four branches of production are called producers.
A producer adds value to the economy.
A servant on the other hand is only transfering his or her labor to another individual or group.
Service is honorable only if it does not consume resourses and labor that could be more effectively utilized in one of the four means of production.
Sometimes it is hard to draw the line between service and production:
If turning a tree into a desk is production than turning wheat into flower in too. However, transportation is not production. The woodworker who built the desk added value to the tree. The mill added value to the wheat. What value was added to the wheat or the desk by the truck driver?
None.
The truck consumed fuel.
The driver consumed wages.
The roads were worn.
If capital is the means of production and transportation consumes capital then it stands to reason that the best way of increasing the size of the economic pie is to transport freight consuming the least amount of capital per pound per mile of freight hauled. Which mode of transportation consumes the least amount of capital per mile of freight moved?
For at least the last 100 years the barge carried over water(rivers, oceans, lakes, etc.) has been the way to transport freight or cargo minimizing capital consumption. On land trains carrying freight over steel rails consume the least amount of capital per mile of freight moved. Shipping by trucks consumes the most capital per mile of freight moved. This includes the burning of fuel. More fuel burnt per mile of freight moved pollutes the enviroment. It also drives up the cost of fuel.
While the train inself is an effective divice, the steel rails are more remarkable. The steel rail requires less *work* than asphalt. Steel railroad takes up a much narrower strip of land than an asphalt highway. This leaves mre land avalable for productive use like farming or for housing. The latter being important in times of rapid population growth.
If the price of helium were brought down dirigible could theoreticaly move freight or cargo while consuming the least amount of capital per mile. Since they would be high in the air the amount of land occuppied would be even less.
One more thing about railroads they pay for themselves. Concrete and aspalt roads are subsidized by the government. That's right! Underdogs are taxed to pay for a more wasteful mode of transportation.
Wasting farmland making food more expensive.
Wasting land that could be used for housing making homes less affordable.
The nobility couldn't be happier.
This transportation scam keeps the underdog in his place.
Driving up the cost of living also keeps the nobility in power.
Taxation is one way the nobility directly steals the labor of the underdog. inflation is the other major way the nobility robs the underdog of his earnings.
It has been said that money or currency is a medium of exchange. More importanly money is the measuring device of value. It is the yardstick not only of widgets but also of labor. The underdog attemps to climb the economic ladder through his labor. If the underdog is recieving a currency for his labor that is constantly changing it is like running on a treadmill that continues to run faster. Putting the underdog's labor up against a yardstick that is growing will make it harder if not impossible for the underdog to become finacial independent.
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