14

Forty Centuries of Failure: Price Controls, Debasement and Tyranny

Posted by markjr 3 months, 2 weeks ago to Politics
37 comments | Share | Flag

August 15th was the anniversary of the infamous "Nixon Shock" which not only ended USD to gold convertability ("temporarily") - but also enacted a wage and price controls.

It set off "The Fiat Era" and began the inexorable process of grinding the middle class into dust.

When politicians tell you they want to be able to control prices, believe them - but what the public must understand is that for forty centuries, price controls have always meant serfdom.
SOURCE URL: https://bombthrower.com/forty-centuries-of-failure-price-controls-debasement-and-tyranny/


Add Comment

FORMATTING HELP

All Comments Hide marked as read Mark all as read

  • 10
    Posted by Dobrien 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    I have warned about Technocracy for many years now. It’s a topic that has been basically ignored on this Forum. Ayn said it “you can ignore reality but you can’t ignore the consequences of reality.”

    “We are developing, through technology, an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint. What does that mean? That’s where are they travelling, how are they traveling? What are they eating? What are they consuming on the platform? So, individual – carbon – footprint – tracker. Stay tuned, we don’t have it operational yet, but it’s something we’re working on”.
    The stage is set, when politicians tell you they want to be able to control prices, believe them – but what the public must understand is that price controls means spending controls.
    The politicians will tell you that it’s all about putting “greedy CEOs” in their place.
    What they won’t tell you is that price controls also means is telling you what you can or cannot eat, how you use energy – whether you’ll be permitted to travel, or make any other kind of economic decision or make any kind of value exchange that you used to take for granted.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by nonconformist 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      Technocracy (the management of society and its resources by experts in technology and engineering, rather than by elected politicians) actually sounds pretty good. What is wrong with it is not that part above but the part where force is used to impose this control on people not willing to follow decrees of the managers. In other words, statism is what is wrong with it, just like with any other system that requires 'the state'.

      I would actually prefer a system in which people managing society be not some random unqualified uneducated corrupt bums but people who are best qualified to do the job. However, in my humble opinion, there should not be anybody in charge of managing society, period. Society should be managed by a free market in a decentralized way without giving anybody special privileges. The people best qualified to do the job will naturally emerge in control and will be there until they are no longer best qualified. Also, they wouldn't need force to impose the control, it would be voluntary.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by Dobrien 3 months, 2 weeks ago
        Yup like Fauci during the PlanDEMic. Use your imagination , what could be wrong with a centralized selected expert dictating your amount of goods or services you are allocated. Decentralized is the road to sovereignty.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by nonconformist 3 months, 1 week ago
          I think Fauci is far from being any sort of expert. He is more of a government bureaucrat.

          However, if Fauci was in fact an 'expert', that wouldn't give him any more rights and privileges than anybody else. He would just be more effective and doing whatever he is an expert in.

          What is wrong with technocracy is not that experts are running things. It is that somebody is in charge involuntarily / by force. Clearly, having an expert in charge is better than some random idiot that the masses have voted for. Still, even better option by far is not to have anybody in charge at all. I agree with you, the free market (which is a decentralized algorithm) should be allocating resources.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by Dobrien 3 months, 1 week ago
            Your ignorance is telling. You clearly do not understand technocracy.
            Ayn Rand says “ There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.”
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
            • Posted by nonconformist 3 months, 1 week ago
              I do not think that statement from Ayn Rand works in my case. I'm not arguing against your statements because it might be popular to do so but because they are wrong.

              Just saying that I don't understand something doesn't make it so. You have to show your work. Which part don't I understand?
              Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by freedomforall 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    I see that Lebanon just lost electric power because they no longer had fuel to run the power generation plant.
    That is what the Deep State wants for anyone who doesn't "follow orders."
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by mhubb 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      this is why i have my own solar panels, batteries
      i am looking at a good solar battery system now

      i can get my panels out when needed, they are EMP protected now

      plan is to have at least 500 watts of power, averaged over 24 hours, just in case
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by nonconformist 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      I think Lebanon got what they deserved. These are a bunch of entitled free loaders that voted themselves a bunch of freebies. Now that the bill came due, they are shit out of luck. I will show no mercy to corrupt societies. I guess there are other factors, but this one here is a big one.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by DrZarkov 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    It infuriates me when commenting about Harris' policy speech, speakers are quick to say "she didn't actually say price controls." I'm no economist, but when someone talks about "capping" prices, that means control. When someone talks about stopping "price gouging" that means control. The inanity of wordsmithing and cherry-picking phrases to support lies drives me nuts!
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by mccannon01 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    Another thought to add is to enforce price controls in every city, town, village, or crossroads convenience store a massive increase of unelected self serving bureaucracy (presumably armed and well accoutered with offices and cars and stuff) will need to be spawned and financed by the tax payer and even more printed money. The commie busy body control freaks love this stuff!!!!
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by $ gharkness 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      As well as the people who consider themselves "little" people or economically downtrodden. They just want to stick it to "the man" so strongly they don't realize they actually will be "sticking it" to themselves.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by tutor-turtle 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    Trump Derailment Syndrome is poisoning this Republic to the point where a complete, total idiot is seriously being considered for the most powerful position in the free world.
    God help us.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by mhubb 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      she is not the first...

      Carter was a fool, well meaning, but a fool
      biden was never qualified
      ford likely got there for helping to cover up the JFK murder
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by tutor-turtle 3 months, 2 weeks ago
        Nixon's VP was Nelson Rockefeller, why didn't he assume the presidency after Watergate?
        I was under the false assumption Rockefeller was not tinged by the scandal.
        Yet he was immediately replaced by Ford after Nixon resigned.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by mhubb 3 months, 2 weeks ago
          if i remember correctly, Agnew was Nixon's VP
          Agnew had resigned due to some scandal
          Ford was approved by the Senate as VP
          then later Nixon resigned

          Rockefeller was Ford's VP
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by tutor-turtle 3 months, 2 weeks ago
            Ah... But in the 1976 election was Ford (with Rockefeller as VP) running against Cater?
            I should remember this, as it was the first election I was old enough to vote in.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
            • Posted by mhubb 3 months, 2 weeks ago
              i had to look it up :-)
              to be sure.
              i could not have told you who Ford's VP was if i had not

              i really wish i was back in high school
              we had to read a book on watergate and i'd have a LOT more to say on the subject now
              how Nixon was screwed
              Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
              • Posted by tutor-turtle 3 months, 2 weeks ago
                Yes he was, he should have just let it play out, he was going to be sullied either way.
                He could have went down swinging, instead he went down with a whimper. Sad.
                I've had my ass kicked more times than I can count, but I never went down without a fight.
                Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ splumb 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    People bleat on about Watergate, but this is what I'll never forgive Nixon for.
    That, and normalizing relations with China. Wonder how rich he got off that deal.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ splumb 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    "What they won’t tell you is that price controls also means is telling you what you can or cannot eat, how you use energy – whether you’ll be permitted to travel, or make any other kind of economic decision or make any kind of value exchange that you used to take for granted.

    In a world of price controls, that’s over.

    Throughout history, price controls have always brought about serfdom and tyranny because that is the only way to override individual incentives. In today’s highly wired world that would mean total technocratic feudalism."


    The ultimate goal isn't feudalism. It's much more primitive than that.
    What they're after is an unimaginable reduction of the earth's population, with just enough people kept alive as slaves to the elites.
    And for all their talk about "greedy corporations", most of people who run them are in on it. They're Horace Bussby Mowen types; there are no Dagny Taggart, Hank Rearden or Francisco d'Anconia types in the world anymore.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by $ sekeres 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      Perhaps the DagnyTaggart, et al. equivalents have already shrugged and are waiting for the lights of New York to go out. Some Owen Kellogg, Jeff Allen & Quentin Daniels types are still around.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by $ splumb 3 months, 2 weeks ago
        I truly wish I could believe that.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by $ sekeres 3 months, 2 weeks ago
          If you haven't already, I'd recommend going into "fly-over country" for a pick-me-up. There are more than a few energetic, young people providing goods and services -- building under, over and around the snares of the bureaucratic, red-tape state. Many more people decided to "retire early" or "become freelance " or "homeschool" as a result of the COVID debacle. And, according to reports, the entire state of Wyoming neglected to lock down.

          As Rand had Hank Rearden say at his trial, those who "choose to deal with men by means of compulsion . . .discover that [they] need the voluntary co-operation of [their] victims." "Refuse to be a victim."

          2 other sources for encouragement are:
          -- https://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.php -- Eric Frank Russell's "And Then There Were None." Dated, but still a delicious example of "malicious compliance" and,
          -- https://accordingtohoyt.com/ Nominally a sci-fi/fantasy/writers gathering place, but actually much more.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by chad 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    With the advent of computers that can be programmed to track everything individuals do and alert the overseers of any infractions self determination is gone.
    The acceptance of this by the masses, even those that complain, means total enslavement. A few outliers who think and act on their own can easily be detected and dealt with, their example keeping the rest in line.
    It doesn't matter who wins the election the result will be the same.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by Ben_C 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    Its all by design. Destroy the economy then like a Phoenix the new leadership will emerge promising utopia. Its all about control and power. Covid gave them a taste of complete power. The global elitists are behind the curtain pulling the strings.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by j_IR1776wg 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    Why is it the case that the lame-brained, dunderheads have become leaders for the last 40 centuries?

    Is their ignorance of economics and history an asset?

    How do they convince their victims into becoming ardent followers?

    What do they know about us that we don't know about ourselves?

    Based on economic illiteracy, Kamala should be a shoo-in to be elected president this November.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • -1
    Posted by nonconformist 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    The state imposes price controls as an attempt to solve poverty it is creating with outrageously high taxation/inflation. This extreme taxation/inflation occurs due to the government overspending caused by the continual increase in its inefficiency/corruption.

    Of course, there is no free lunch, price controls will not solve the root problem.

    You guys don't understand that without a free market in the area of services that the government provides, there is no way to naturally get rid of inefficiencies and corruption via bankruptcy. A monopoly organization (government/the state) imposed on society by law will eventually become corrupt and inefficient. Because government is not allowed to go bankrupt naturally, it will keep increasing prices (taxes) on its 'customers' until they cannot pay any longer and all their wealth is exhausted. Then, a collapse of the government commences and with it goes the society.

    There is a simple solution to this problem: don't put a monopoly organization in charge of your society that can charge any price it wants for its services and that doesn't allow competitors. However, I think you statists will die of poverty and hunger before you will admit you were wrong about your misguided world views.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by freedomforall 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      If you must sling insults, please be specific about who you are targeting.
      "You guys" and "you statists" doesn't apply to 99.99% of people posting here and you insult people who could be your allies.
      This quote may apply:
      It's better to remain silent and have people wonder about your intelligence than to speak and remove all doubt.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by nonconformist 3 months, 1 week ago
        You guys would be pretty close to being my allies, that's true. Except, you guys are still pretty far.

        As I understand it, most people posting here believe that government/'the state' is needed to run society. I would define a statist as a proponent of that exact belief, an advocate of statism.

        You, for example, believe that borders are needed. However, that implies a monopolist organization that would be in charge of enforcing the border. Everyone residing within would need to pay taxes to this organization in order to keep it funded. Anyone that refuses to pay would be seen as a free loader. I don't see how a stateless society can exist with the concept of a 'country' that has borders.

        I tried hard to persuade you guys, but so far I didn't have much luck, even though my arguments seemed to have not been proven erroneous.

        I'm not sure how I insulted anybody. Although the word 'statist' may carry a negative connotation in my view, it should not in yours. Calling you guys 'statist' is not really an insult, just a statement of an unfortunate fact. I did, however, express my sore dissatisfaction with the fact that your belief and preference for the existence of state keeps you from realizing that the state is the exact source of your troubles (debasement of money in this case).
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  

FORMATTING HELP

  • Comment hidden. Undo