Capitalism Upside Down or

                                     
 How Dopes Like Me Got Duped                  
                                         
                                        
 A Money Manifesto                  
                                   
Introduction:                        
                                
Though the war for this nation had not yet begun
and though my father was kept out of it when it did
because he worked for a newspaper, I am a war baby.
Times were good.  My childhood was good.  Too much
was good, especially for someone like me.  Had I  
been born a Spartan and had the illnesses I had, 
I would have been placed on the mountain shortly
after my birth.  But no, I was born near the heel
of a stinky swamp lake in beer, brat, and cheese
Wisconsin into a religious and mostly practical
and caring family where I--the second born--was
the surrogate first.  Making sure I did not die
was imperative.  So, though not totally pampered,
I grew up in relative comfort.  Am not certain,
but I think my father bought a TV (an Admiral)
in 1949.  It was the first in the neighborhood.
                                              
Okay.  Some years later, when I was a student at
a Wisconsin State College midway up the western
side of the stinky swamp lake, my dad gave me the
family Rambler.  During my senior year I rented a
space with some other guys in the upstairs part 
of a large house which was near the college.  At
some point, since I wasn't using it, I sold the
car.  My bride-to-be was not pleased.  She told 
me I should have brought it down.  Her dad could
have stored it for us.  In those days there still
was train service.  Anyway, she had been working
for ACNielsen; and so after I graduated we had
to use some of her money to buy a car.  An aunt
of mine had taught me how to drive a stick shift
after my mother had taught me how to drive.
Guess what, therefore, this Brian did.  Bought a
stick shift; and not a used one.  It was a white
Falcon.  At the college two teachers of mine who
had been through the Iowa MFA Program coaxed 
me into applying.  I was accepted.  Fine, but how
was I going to pay for it?  On June 12th she 
became my wife, and I became her--.  She had an
excellent work record.  We honeymooned in Iowa
City and, as I suspected, the university had a
keypunch department.  Shortly after we returned
home, I wrote a letter to that department, but
I made believe I was her.  One day at work she
got a call from them, and they hired her over
the phone.  I never did drive that Falcon as I
ought to have.  She said she always knew when  
I was coming up the hill to get her.               
                                               
While I was teaching at Eastern Illinois, the
Falcon's odometer got to 50,000.  I traded it
in for--right--a new yellow Fairlane.  I then
taught my wife how to drive, but didn't make  
clear to her when to use the turn signal and
also took the same course, thinking that was
the course the tester would take her on.  He
didn't, and I sensed a prejudice against her
before they went out for the test.  She was
a small woman, but she actually did well.
That cop failed her for one reason: she did
not flick the turn signal on soon enough.  I
wanted her to try a second time.  Guess what
happened to the Falcon--a pizza place bought
it.  Or maybe it was the Fairlane that pizza
place bought.  It got driven to Key West.  I
had purchased a set of The Great Books, not
that I ever thought I would read them/ even
though I intended to, but they came with a
vacation to Florida.                       
                                         
The next car was a blue Maverick.  Rightfully,
I didn't get tenure at Eastern, but the new
Mav got driven from Wisconsin to California
and back.  She had a aunt and uncle living
in Santa Barbara, and one of her sisters
needed a ride out to California.  I sought
work there, and might have gotten employed
as an ombudsman at the university had we
not left before they called her relatives.
                                          
Back at our home base, she walked over to 
ACNielsen's while I and her youngest brother
headed north along the western side of the
stinky swamp lake.  By God's perfect timing
I obtained an English Instructor position at
my alma mater.  She, of course, had gotten
employed again at the product-rating facility.
Then, though the Maverick had had an eventful
gallop, I, unannounced, bought an army-colored
Nova.  Tonight I see that vehicle as a symbol
of what was about to happen in my life.     
                                             
Early in 1973 I did a one-time-only Wisconsin
Poets-in-the-Schools gig.  As to the cars,
I am not certain of the order; but there was
a sky-blue Volare, an orange captain-seat 
Dodge van, a VW Sunbug, and one or two others
up into 1981 when we moved from Milwaukee to
Austin, Texas, without a vehicle.  When we did
get another car, it was with $2000 my mother
secretly gave me after our move to Gainesville,
Florida.  That was a used Buick which we had
for a good long while.  My wife's favorite color 
was red, and toward the end of her life, her father
went with me to Main Street Chevrolet where via
a loan I bought a red Geo Metro.  It became my
last car as of early in January of 2003.     
                                             
Needlessly wasting money on transportation 
wasn't the only way I financially messed up my
life, but I don't want to go there.  Not now.
                                              
*                                         
                                                 
Here is the nitty-gritty.  Free market capitalism
depends on active consummerism.  Thus the buy-this-
buy-that-put-a-feather-in-your-hat philosophy: the
emphasis on pleasure: the emphasis on the so-called
American dream.  These false ideas are pushed by   
many corporations and by much of the media.  One 
reason the rich get richer and the poor get poorer
is that the rich follow the principle of delayed
gratification while the poor follow the principle
of immediate gratification.  This is deeply complex,
but by dividing it into three complicit sources/ it
can be analyzed more easily.  These are the sources:
the public sector, the private sector, the personal
sector.  In the Twentieth Century in the U.S. (and
by extension, the world), the two leading monetary
theories were the Keynesian and the Friedmanian.
Neither is perfect, yet neither should be faulted
for the current fiscal improprieties in the U.S.
of _______.  See Monetarism at Wikipedia: $$$
and read what is there carefully.  It is not the
theories; it is how the theories were interpreted
and skewed.  I did not use the word "complicit"
inordinately.                                     
                                                
The Public Sector:                                
-                                                
I'm restricting this to government.  
Several thoughts:                                 
1. Excessive spending causes inflation.              
2. Allowing the creation of more paper fiat notes
    devalues each note.                           
3. Relaxing credit promotes fraud in the markets.
4. Incentives are ultimately bad for business.
5. Allowing usury destroys the consummer base.  
6. Bailouts of financial entities are dangerous.
7. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
                                                    
The Private Sector:
-
Several thoughts:
1. Are the U.S. politicians controlled by corporations?
2. Does the Federal Reserve have too much power?
3. Has the Federal Reserve misused the power it has?
4. In what ways is Wall Street good?                    
                                                   
The Personal Sector:                                
-                                                 
Several injunctions:
1. If there is a church or other entity you wish 
    to support, note it in your will.              
2. Find ways to save as much as you reasonably can,
    but be aware that the dollar is ill and may
    become more ill/ and is therefore not the
    best way to save.
3. Don't count on job security.
4. If you can't pay for it, don't buy it.
5. The sooner you start saving, the better your life
    will be when you are 70, if you live till then.
6. If you enjoy working and are able to beyond when
    you are supposed to retire, keep working.
-                                              
And this thought:                                 
 Your worth as a human being 
  does not depend on your credit rating.
                                                  
                                               
=                                              
                       
                                           
Take link on this post to read 
Mike Hewitt's history of US money
at his Dollar Daze blog:               
about the role of the central banks       
                                                    
                                                    
                                                 
                                              
Rho00150