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Guest Post: What Happened To Virtue?
Submitted by James E. Miller of the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada,
In the midst of the Great Depression, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon famously advised President Hoover to “liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate” instead of propping each industry up with tax dollars. This liquidation doctrine would “purge the rottenness out of the system” and make certain that “people will work harder” and “live a more moral life.” Contrary to popular belief, Hoover did not take Mellon’s advice and went forth with his own version of the New Deal that gave relief to farmers and supported wage rates in certain industries. These efforts, which were exacerbated under the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, effectively prevented the market from clearing. The boom of the late 1920s that was driven by the Federal Reserve’s monetary inflation was not allowed to bust. Instead of liquidating the debt and allowing the economy to reach a sound footing, both the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations attempted to manage it back to health. The result was the longest period of unemployment ever recorded in American history.
Today, Mellon’s advice is still spurned by most of the economic profession. The media establishment, not to be outdone, is also on the side of intervention. Government is looked to as a savior while markets are seen as inadequate in providing for a satisfactory standard of living. With their incessant need to fix what isn’t broke, the political class is praised for their courage to take the reins of society and direct it toward a meaningful and just way of life. Liberty is seen as barbaric in comparison to state-sanctioned redistribution. Fighters of war are looked to as glorious warriors who make a great sacrifice to their countrymen. Public office itself is seen as an occupation of the righteous who give up the opportunity for profit. Most notably, spending is regarded as the necessary elixir of economic growth.
The old fashioned ideas of hard work and self-reliance are made out to be anachronistic. It is no longer a virtue to succeed. What is now honorable is men with guns and badges taking from some and giving to others.
In this context, it must be asked where did the ideas of virtue originally come from and what role do they play in humanity.
Virtue is typically defined as an attribute that is regarded as good in a moral sense. Donating one’s income to the less fortunate is normally seen as a virtue. A propensity to steal is usually looked upon as a ruinous vice rather than a worthy trait.
In the modern era, it would seem as if classic virtues (basic ideas of right and wrong) have lost their appeal. In their place has been a concentrated effort to promote those actions once thought of as deserving of moral condemnation. To this writer, such a course of action is socially destructive will end up severing the cooperative ties that mankind has established within itself. Market economies are based on the ideals of self-ownership and mutual effort. It is only through reciprocity that material progress can be made to lighten the burden on human existence. State interference creates distortions in favor of one party over another.
St. Thomas Aquinas famously defined the cardinal virtues of human life as being prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude. These virtues are revealed in nature and make up the foundations of natural law. To Aquinas, humanity naturally strives to achieve ends through the use of reason. Because of innate imperfection, these qualities aren’t always adhered to but are necessary for facilitating a rising standard of living. Without temperance, the present is indulged to rather than the future. In the absence of justice the incentive to carry forward with life is handicapped through uncertainty over whether collaboration with others will be successful. And without fortitude to face certain obstacles, lofty goals will not be pursued. The guiding force for all actions is prudence which enables men the capacity to decide whether an action will result in ends being achieved. These virtues, it is held, stem from nature and are discoverable through reason alone; a spiritual authority is not needed for their confirmation.
Logically and practically, it is obvious that persistent rashness and thoughtlessness are not sustainable lifestyles in a world defined by scarcity. To achieve that which is desired, man must act in way to best ensure his demand can be met. Behaving discreetly and with respect toward others is often the best avenue for achieving happiness in the long run. Government, with its slew of welfare benefits, attempts to supersede this truth by creating dependency. In return for votes, politicians and bureaucrats instill a sense of infantilism while posing as givers of charity. Combined with economic regulation which aids politically-favored firms and stifles the free action of entrepreneurs, the state creates conflict amongst society since it operates solely on funds plundered from the greater public. As a monopoly of force, the state becomes a target for all those attempting to circumvent the laws of nature.
With central banking the concept of saving more than you consume is dismissed as a relic of the past and the era where planners didn’t have the economy in their firm grasp. Through Keynesian economic policies, short time preferences are rewarded while looking toward the future is punished. Retirees living on fixed income struggle to make ends meet in favor of debt accrual. The state invariably uses easy access to the printing press to fund its activities. Resources that could be used for productive efforts are siphoned off in favor of political interests. More egregious is that fact that central banking itself is a client of the banking system and guarantees an unlimited supply of dollars should bad investment decisions come to fruition. The rest of the public must pay with using depreciated currency. Because of the allowance of fractional reserve banking, credit is created out of thin air. In other words, titles of property are effectively created to a good which doesn’t necessary exist. Modern banking isn’t just a cartel that operates at the expense of everyone else; it enjoys a government privilege that would otherwise not exist under a free market. Yet many commentators have nothing but praise for central banking and its ability to manage the business cycle.
In the same vein, the conduct of war is applauded even as it extinguishes precious life from the planet. President Obama personally makes the call for the extrajudicial killing of people without any evidence of their wrongdoing. Women, children, and other innocents often meet the same fate just by being in the vicinity of a drone strike. In a new study from the Stanford Law School and New York University’s School of Law, it was revealed that the number of “high-level targets killed as a percentage of total causalities” from the drone program is only 2%. The study also accuses the administration of downplaying the number of civilians killed by strikes.
It’s unfathomable how someone could even begin to ponder over supporting a man who places the order for indiscriminate bombings that often result in the death of innocent bystanders. But Obama still remains fairly popular to the American electorate. He is seen as tough on terror while ordering for the assassination of targets in complete secrecy and from the comfort of another continent. His policies are painted as being admirable when they are cowardly. In the name of ensuring peace he creates chaos. The media stands all too ready to lap it up and parrot the message. These callous murders should bring despair to anyone who values their own life but seldom does. Death has unfortunately become all too routine.
In his personal memoirs, the great anti-state thinker Albert Jay Nock once opined
All I ever asked of life was the freedom to think and say exactly what I pleased, when I pleased, and as I pleased.
I agree whole heartedly with Nock’s sentiment. Not only do I seek the freedom to speak without the overarching menace of a faceless big brother but to do as I please as long as I bring no harm to others. The “live and let live” existence is the only type that falls closest in line with the natural virtues laid out by Aquinas centuries ago. Refraining from violence is not just an ethical choice, it allows for the productive capacity of men to blossom. And without hard work and the putting off of immediate gratification, less becomes available for the future.
In the age of state welfare pandering, corporate subsidization, and Orwellian monitoring, a longing for true liberty remains totally unconventional. To many, it is downright radical to take charge of one’s life and wish only to be left in peace. How we have reached this point is demonstrative of how pervasive the state has become.
There isn’t a shred of decency in how governments or central banks operate. Their functions run antithetical to the basic virtues of mankind. If we as a species are to use our reason and free will to better our live, the institutionalized violence the state embodies must be rejected.
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Virtue has incorporated and monetized.
Fuck the poor!
Virtue used to be taught at home and church, it was a part of the social fabric so peer pressure was actually biased that way. This was before parents started suing teachers for giving billy or suzy bad grades etc. now billy and suzy think cheating lying and relativism are all normal behaviors and beliefs. In order for evil to flourish virtue just has to stand silent. We ALL have a hand in this retarded mess we are in - welcome to our nightmare we think youre gonna like it
go Mitt lie to me baby if it gets you what you want
four more years you fake couple lie to me I wanna believe
go CONgress you group of turds lie to my frickin face
go red white and blue ya f'n hoo
IMPENDING SELL OFF.
Longs please be careful.
Due to recent central bank intervention and short covering spikes, these daily charts are extremely overextended and significant correction expected very soon:
SPX, DOW, NASDAQ, NZDUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, COPPER, CRUDE, GOLD, SILVER. [USD strength will return]
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-24/market-analysis
http://trader618.com
Does anybody remember the scene in Swordfish when Travolta shoots the senator? Travolta/Gabriel wasn't getting paid or looking to make a profit for his actions.
So ... the truth be told by hacks at the Mises Institute? Build a rubber mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door just to see it amuse the mice.
Good grief.
The US central bank (basically the New York Federal Reserve Bank) had little to do with monetary expansion pre-1929. Like now, Wall Street finance provided all the credit business (speculators) needed to inflate Ponzi schemes. The Fed was effectively a branch of the Treasury. The stock market offered 9x leverage or more for stock plungers, these would be bailed repeatedly with bank credit. There was little currency inflation in the US during the 1920s because the agriculture sector (largest US sector) was collapsing (prices below production costs) with accompanying internal immigration (insolvent farmers seeking industrial jobs in cities). Gold and other monetary assets flowed into finance: stocks, bonds, real estate, insurance companies ... much of this from overseas speculators.
Interest rates were low b/c there were multiple sources of credit, funds flowed to the US markets seeking yields. This is identical to the way funds have been flowing to China recently looking for the same thing. Like China now, US business activity was to a large degree fraudulent.
Once the Depression began, Hoover ignored Mellon and directed funds toward political friends under the Reconstruction Finance Corp. Money flowed uphill to bankers and big businessmen, people whom Hoover relied upon to put the country back to work. However, America was not a good investment post-1929 and funds flowed into 'friends' pockets, instead.
Because the severe recession was a) related to the after-effects of WWI, and b) world-wide, the Fed was limited to helping the Bank of England defend both the currency rate of pound-sterling and exchange price of gold. Private/semi-private agencies (such as RFC) added liquidity but never enough. Meanwhile, the price of gold was defended by the NY Fed with very high interest rates even after London gave up and abandoned the gold peg, with other countries following suit rapidly. Real interest rates did not retreat until after Roosevelt's inauguration and US abandoned the hopeless gold peg allowing currency depreciation.
Us in 1933 was like Greece now, the difference was the US had vast available resources to pillage, Greece - nada. (US has a lot less ...)
Currency depreciation was something Roosevelt had to do otherwise two things would have occurred: there would be no functioning banks in the country and no functioning US currency, either. The government had lost credibility because of Hoover's ineptitude. The general direction of the country at large was to forego (unavailable) official currency/legal tender and use scrip instead. With scrip systems, centralized banks are unnecessary. The widespread failures of banks amplified the shortage of circulating money, the shortage causing banks to fail under depositor withdrawal pressure (as in Europe today).
As it was at the time of Roosevelt's inauguration, there was customer banking only in two states, the banks in the other 46 had failed. Roosevelt bailed out the banks by the Treasury printing money and halting deposit redemptions for a week (bank holiday). The 40% depreciation of the dollar (effected by the Treasury buying gold and silver) and the removal of specie from circulation ended capital flight at least temporarily. Banks reopened and business conditons improved.
Business and trade actually have some value, note that word 'value'. Money destroys value, it has no intrinsic worth. When money becomes valuable or gains intrinsic worth it becomes useless as a medium of exchange: it is a collectible instead, like an old rocking chair or grandfather clock. As it turns out, business activity is worth more than bits of metal and paper even if these things are put into vaults in attempts to give them the aura of rubber mousetraps. To paraphrase Neitzsche: "what are these bank vaults now if they are not the tombs and sepulchres of Money?"
The problem wasn't economic regulation but the opposite.