The Hidden Looting by the Rich leads to the Physical Looting by Those Who've Been Looted
This is Essay #3 in the series Truth Be Told.
That The Hidden Looting by the Rich leads to the Physical Looting by Those Who've Been Looted is so obvious that it is strictly taboo in the polite circles of those tasked with protecting The Hidden Looting by the Rich behind the cliches of "market forces" and the many carefully obscured mechanisms of state subsidies, tax giveaways, insider trading, market manipulation, and so on.
An astute reader summarized the dynamic succinctly: "Looting by the rich is hidden, silent, not criminalized while the physical looting by the poor is overt, thunderous and criminal."
Note that "the market" doesn't dictate what is legal and what is criminalized; the state dictates what is legal and what is criminal. This establishes the second truth which is taboo in the status quo:
"The Market" and the State are one system. Every claim that these are separate is self-serving misdirection / artifice. Consider the difference between what happens when Average Citizen contacts their state representative or a regulatory agency, and what happens when Tech Bro Billionaire contacts their state representative or a regulatory agency with an offer to fund $10 million of campaign contributions if various regulations and tax codes are amended.
The truth is "the state" is a "market" for corruption and self-service in which the "market" is hidden from view: The auction that dictates what's legal and what's criminal is won by the highest bidders, who are of course the wealthiest and most powerful few, who then dictate state policies that expand and protect their wealth and power by looting the powerless many.
French economist Frederic Bastiat famously described this dynamic of "market" and "state" generating legal plunder, i.e. legal looting. Once the purchase of state power for the purposes of self-enrichment becomes normalized--what I term moral decay leading to moral collapse--it becomes more profitable to pursue legalized looting than actually create authentic value.
This is why we see extreme wealth-power inequality increasing while the quality of goods and services plummets. There are no "rewards" for the richest few to risk capital by increasing the quality of goods and services when political influence is both cheap and risk-free: just "buy" a tax break or subsidy or regulations that protects your lavish state contracts from competition and expands the power of your monopoly / cartel.
The reason why this dynamic of legalized looting by the rich expands until it breaks the status quo is that it is self-reinforcing. Those who aren't delighted to further enrich the moneylenders in the temple with their labor quit in disgust, while those with zero scruples and limitless greed devote every waking hour to enriching the most avaricious few for their share of the loot.
Politicians who don't kiss the ring of Tech Bro Billionaires to raise millions of dollars in campaign contributions lose elections, as once again those with any shred of integrity self-select out of the political / "market" cesspool.
As Bastiat put it, the status quo boils down to "That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen". What's seen is an endless spew of paeans to the glories of "the market," scrappy innovators creating new products in garages that generate billions in wealth, blah-blah-blah, or paeans to the glories of the state protecting us from the evils of exploitation, blah-blah-blah, all of which is the necessary cover story to cloak the market-state system of legalized looting by the rich and the criminalization of any blowback by those being looted.
We're being looted in so many ways that are not seen until the scales fall from our eyes. Billionaires manage to exploit tax shelters intended for the middle class to protect millions of dollars in gains from any taxes. Inflation in goods and services that is gutting the bottom 90% doesn't affect the wealthy, as they spend an inconsequential share of their wealth and income on essential goods and services.
As in any conflict staged for show, "the market" is glorified as the saint and "the state" is demonized--or on other stages, the roles are reversed. Neither staging reflects the truth: there is only one system, and the only possible output of this morality-free system of self-enrichment is the terminal expansion of looting until the system breaks down.
This--
leads to this:
Legal looting by the rich--who have eliminated both the moral foundations of society and avenues of Redress as impediments to the ceaseless expansion of their wealth and power--leads to uncontrollable looting by those who have been looted--Retribution. I address all these dynamics in my book Investing In Revolution. If you can find another book that explains everything I explain, by all means buy that book. But there is no other such book to my knowledge.
New collection of five intriguing stories: Jumble Bin Stories (Kindle $6, print $12) read samples for free (PDF)
My book Investing In Revolution is available ($18 for the paperback, $24 for the hardcover and $8.95 for the ebook edition). Introduction (free)
Subscribe to my Substack for free
NOTE: Contributions/subscriptions are acknowledged in the order received. Your name and email remain confidential and will not be given to any other individual, company or agency.
|
Thank you, Steve B. ($70), for your marvelously generous subscription to this site -- I am greatly honored by your support and readership. |
Thank you, Duane S. ($35), for your monstrously generous subscription to this site -- I am greatly honored by your support and readership. |
|
|
Thank you, Sam T. ($25), for your most generous subscription to this site -- I am greatly honored by your support and readership. |
Thank you, Christopher B.C. ($7/month), for your massively generous subscription to this site -- I am greatly honored by your support and readership. |
