The problem with this reactionary stance is that attempts to base economics on the “real” economy focusing on technology and universals are so materialistic as to be non-historical and lacking in the political element of property and finance.
The Lost Science of Classical Political Economy | New Economic Perspectives - 0 views
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A “real” economic analysis focusing on their common denominators would miss the distinct ways in which each accumulated wealth in the hands of (or under the management of) a ruling elite different modes of property and finance, and hence with what the classical economists came to classify as “unearned income.”
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For classical and Progressive Era economists, the word “reform” meant taxing economic rent or minimizing it. Today it means giving away public enterprise to kleptocrats and political insiders, or simply for indebted governments to conduct a pre-bankruptcy sale of the public domain to buyers (who in turn buy on credit, subtracting their interest payments from their taxable income).
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Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Money | New Economic Perspectives - 0 views
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Observe that the need for a standardized money of account was not necessary since the redemption of debt between individuals can be determined case by case. Money of account might be a cattle between Joshua and Henry, and then ten watermelons between Helen and Linda, etc. However, when there emerges the need to denominate debt obligation between individuals and the “society”/central authority in various forms (such as fines, fees, taxes, etc.), a standard unit of account for money was needed to serve as the standard measure of value.
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In his study of colonial Africa, Forstater similarly concludes that by imposing a debt obligation (taxes) on colonial Africans denominated in foreign currency (British Pounds), the British were able to dismantle the pre-existing economic structure in Africa and to monetize its whole economy and population (2005).
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While Hudson (2004) in his study of Mesopotamia offers the second explanation of the origin of money that money evolved as a standard accounting unit that keeps track of surplus and inputs of production, the two heterodox explanations need not be mutually exclusive (Tcherneva, 2005). Henry links both explanations in his study of ancient Egypt. In essence, Henry argues that: 1) money originated in ancient Egypt from the need of the ruling “engineers” class to establish accounting basis for agricultural products and social surpluses; and 2) money also served as a means of payment to settle debt obligations (fines, fees, foreign tribute, and tribal obligations) to the kings and priests (Henry, 2004).
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How America Became an Oligarchy » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names - 0 views
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The freedom to vote carries little weight without economic freedom – the freedom to work and to have food, shelter, education, medical care and a decent retirement. President Franklin Roosevelt maintained that we need an Economic Bill of Rights. If our elected representatives were not beholden to the moneylenders, they might be able both to pass such a bill and to come up with the money to fund it.
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