A road map to saving Medicare

[CatholicGerman]

From a monetary standpoint, we work about one-quarter of the year for the government and serfs worked about one-quarter of the year for their lord.

Here’s an interesting chart, that shows the parallels. Since I am in an inflammatory mood, and enjoy irritating Good News with radical ideology. You see, in Neo-Feudalism, I am a mere serf. Valued for my tax payments and child-bearing (surplus-creating) abilities.

http://libertyrevival.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/neofeudalism.png

 

[Black_Rose]

From a monetary standpoint, we work about one-quarter of the year for the government and serfs worked about one-quarter of the year for their lord.

Here’s an interesting chart, that shows the parallels. Since I am in an inflammatory mood, and enjoy irritating Good News with radical ideology. You see, in Neo-Feudalism, I am a mere serf. Valued for my tax payments and child-bearing (surplus-creating) abilities.

http://libertyrevival.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/neofeudalism.png

Thanks for the image, but it seems to be more like “left-wing” propaganda since it implies that the current economic status quo is unjust and it negatively portrays bankers and corporations.

I most certainly do not think welfare state is like feudalism at all, but one can make realistic comparisons to the status quo and feudalism. But I do believe in the existence of “secret” conspiratorial organizations.

But I am curious to your perception of feudalism. Do you agree with this description of feudalism?

Under feudalism, before the ascendance of the bourgeoisie, rent goes mostly to building of palaces and elaborate manor estates and patronage of art and architecture to prevent the emergence of a general glut. Malthus made the famous argument that landlord consumption functionally increased to “fill” the general glut, an argument that framed itself as a scientific apology for feudalism in which the aristocracy owned the land by birthright and consumed conspicuously, leaving behind in posterity a network of tourist attractions in the form of grand palaces and heroic monuments. Since landlords do not produce anything, nothing is added to output by their conspicuous consumption, but their very unproductiveness is actually functionally necessary since it maintains demand for goods and services, particularly those not affordable by the poor, while at the same time reduces investment that may lead to a general glut, not to mention bringing art and culture into civilization. But if landlords should hold back consumption in peace time, a general glut will be unavoidable that would inevitably lead to war. In post-monarchal societies, the state has replaced the land-owning aristocracy, and the state must spent its rent income in the form of social services, such as heath care, education, retirement benefits, environmental protection and cultural subsidies, the soft monuments of civilization, to prevent a general glut. Instead of palaces, the state must build universities and research centers, physical and social infrastructure. This is the strongest economic argument for a welfare state, not humanitarianism.

henryckliu.com/page38.html

 

[Good_News_1]

. Since I am in an inflammatory mood, and enjoy irritating Good News with radical ideology.

But this doesn’t irritate me at all. I have nothing against feudalism. There are great merits to feudalism. It was based on reciprocal status relationships, and allowed for religion to flourish. Someone low on the pyramid would tend their land for generations, in relative peace. They certainly had more attachment to family and to the fruits of their labor than the average American, who “owns” a piece of their house, and a piece of their car, and has no ownership or control over their job, which provides for their existence.

The great disadvantage of feudalism is the lack of flexibility and lack of equal legal status. These are things which, as a modern person, I tend to value. There is also no real market economy, and I think a market economy is essential to developing goodies like televisions and cell phones, which I am inordinately attached to. I tend to think that more rigid status relationships would be a step backward for humanity. At the same time I recognize that even allegedly free and equal people seem to create hierarchies, and even enjoy and amplify status relationships. A world in which human relations are governed by contract is one without much to feed the soul.

My problem would arise, not with the abstract concept of the benefits and disadvantages of feudalism, or even with the hypothetical discussion of a neo-feudal society in a science fiction novel, but with the notion that we can say that our world is traveling down a path to neo-feudalism. And, until the dawn of neo-feudalism, we aren’t serfs, or neo-serfs.

 

[Good_News_1]

But I do believe in the existence of “secret” conspiratorial organizations.

A conspiracy is no fun at all if it isn’t secret.

 

[ProVobis]

Defense is what they are supposed to be spending money on!

This is true. But we got ourselves into trouble by borrowing $4 trillion from foreigners to pay for it and our other programs.

Contrast the position we’re in now versus the Gulf War declared under Bush I. Kuwait paid us $100 billion to get Saddam out of there and help us as well, we accomplished that, and the war stopped as soon as the money ran out. That to me is a much more responsible way of dealing with terrorists.

 

[CatholicGerman]

Black Rose,

I sense the development of neo-feudalism, which is slightly different (see my new thread on the subject).
God forbid we should say anything negative about bankers and big corporations. A pox on both their houses!

Good News,

LOL. I had the exact same thought.

I also am not anti-feudalism, per se. But neo-feudalism is especially pernicious, I think. It has an Orwellian feel to it, somehow. True feudalism was straightforward. The newer version is sneaky and manipulative.