We instinctively keep a watchful eye on our wallets and purses when in a crowd. We know that we are vulnerable to the thieves who specialize in distracting us while they make a grab for our money and valuables.
National economies are ruled by a brighter sort of pickpockets. Citizens of every political unit are invariably impoverished by those who pick their pockets. Those who are elected usually claim to be modern Robin Hoods, taking from the rich and giving to the poor.
Pickpockets become specialized as a society prospers. Some, like teachers’ unions, pick pockets by mandating property taxes. Others, like the various Ponzi schemes that masquerade under names like “Social Security” and “Medicare”, tax incomes. The vast enterprises of transportation pickpockets take money from gasoline taxes to subsidize their unionized supporters.
When too many pockets have been picked, governments have the power to borrow against future pickpocketing. “You don’t have any money to take, so we’re going to make what you do have worth less than it is. We will borrow against your assets, and devalue your money by printing more of it.”
Oddly enough, there is one situation that allows such pickpockets to operate without doing too much damage. If the number of people required to produce goods and services is reduced, the actual costs go down. As long as taxes don’t take any more than a portion of the increased wealth provided by automated production of goods and services, pockets can be picked (taxes can go up) and people can become wealthier.
Unfortunately, one type of pickpocket is motivated by more than a desire for themselves to be rich. They also want their neighbors to be poor. These, “The Envious Anti-brights”, pick pockets and destroy productive capacity. We see them at work proud to be associated with the lunatic “Green” and “Sustainable” groups.
Some of these pickpockets pile up amazing amounts of money for themselves while impoverishing their neighbors. At the same time, the pickpockets who “only want to make an honest living” in the vast and useless bureaus, are, themselves, so filled with lies that they can’t argue, much less fight with, “The Envious Anti-brights”.
So, “The Envious Anti-brights” end up with more and more political power. While they go on destroying productive capacity, the bureaucrats have less tax money available.
In Greece, right now, huge strikes among the Useless are going on. “The Envious Anti-brights” are glad, knowing that their goals, having all underlings living in government barracks and eating in state dining rooms, are ever closer.
Pickpockets, II
Today, Archeology Magazine (http://www.archaeology.org/) features four “news” stories about things that happened a long time ago that have become vitally important to funding a small portion of the Pickpocket Sector:
Twenty years with “The Iceman”
Prehistoric hunting camp investigated in Alaska
Federal artifact case continues in Utah
U.S. returns Maya bowl to Belize
Today’s four stories involve dozens of people, all getting paid at least a hundred thousand dollars a year, working on things of absolutely no importance to any of us.
“The Iceman”, an Iron Age corpse that fell into a snowbank that became a glacier a few thousand years ago, has prompted endless battles over ownership. The nations near the body, Italy and Austria, hired platoons of lawyers, billing at several hundred dollars an hour, for years and years. At least two countries wanted “this valuable window into the past”.
Every aspect of “The Iceman” has been forensically investigated at endless expense by full-time staffs working for two decades. Learned discussions about the contents of his stomach have gone on for at least one of those decades. His shoes, clothing, bag, quiver, bow, DNA, hair, teeth, fingernails, skin, and every other aspect of him, his bowels, and belongings have been investigated in minute detail. A museum has been built to house his remains. He has been an excuse for having millions spent on over-examining him and every possible permutation thereof. Every dollar had to be taken from perpetually bamboozled taxpayers, many from a near-bankrupt Italy. Still, a lot of people “Ohh” and “Ahh” when viewing “The Iceman’s” remains. No one knows how much was spent in the decision to name him “Otzi”.
Archeology Magazine’s second article concerns the “prehistoric hunting camp” now being investigated in Alaska. It has not risen to a level of interest that can justify the utter waste generated by “The Iceman”, but not for want of trying. Nothing has been discovered of any use to anyone.
The “Federal artifact case” is one of many that have provided jobs for archeologists and attorneys for decades. The fraud that “nothing must be disturbed, not ever ” has provided endless excuses to hire, regulate, fine, and imprison.
The fourth article is about a Mayan bowl. So what if the “U.S. returns a Maya bowl to Belize”? By any standards, it’s safer in the U.S. Those who profit from such “problems” don’t care about keeping the bowl safe as much as they worry about being politically correct. Internationally, attorneys, archeologists, and investigators are deeply concerned. Lots of billable hours are generated by such “deep concerns for protecting the past”.
Interestingly, few of those involved in any of these stories, or in most “newsworthy” releases, focus much on the eternal fate of their own souls. They tend not to worry about issues like abortion, preferring to focus on the ephemeral, especially if it’s old and ephemeral.
