Making Capitalism work for the poor and middle-class-

 

Laws against the Mega Wealthy Ruling Classes That Use

Government Power To Solidify Their Business Interests

The other day I was briefly quoted in a segment for National Public Radio that dealt with the changes in American capitalism that will come about as a result of the current crisis. Everyone agreed that we needed major changes, though my proposed changes were in rather a different direction from those of everyone else.

The segment gave us a neat little history of the expansion of government power and the various transformations of the economy that have taken place over the past 150 years. Each time, the segment explained, a terrible problem created by the free market was followed by a brilliant government response. For example: "When the free-market system allowed monopolies to emerge in the nineteenth century, the Interstate Commerce Commission was created to control them."

I love that sentence. It has fourth-grade teacher written all over it, as in: You see, children, our wise overlords, when they saw greedy people taking advantage of the public, did just the right thing, as usual. Without them, we'd all be living in rickety tenements begging for food, and at the mercy of men with white mustaches carrying money-filled sacks with dollar signs on them. It is just this kind of thing that it gave me so much pleasure to take apart in The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. And it comes up so often that I can't resist addressing it here.

For the sake of argument we can overlook the capture theory of regulation, which holds that the industries being regulated tend to "capture" the regulatory agencies themselves, transforming them, beneath a rhetorical nod to the common good, into engines of privilege and protection. We can be extremely good sports and even overlook Gabriel Kolko's argument in Railroads and Regulation that the railroads themselves pushed for the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission. That would unduly complicate the little cartoon version of American history it's the job of the regime's mouthpieces to impart.

We'll stick just to the claim that the "free-market system" gave rise to "monopolies." (For our purposes we can define a "monopoly" in the colloquial sense of a single or overwhelmingly dominant supplier of a good or service, since this is clearly the sense in which people who peddle this view intend it.) This is pretty much what every child is fed in our official propaganda centers, as indeed was I all through high school. Put forth in tandem with this claim are lurid tales of the so-called robber barons, who we're told ruthlessly exploited the public to satisfy their insatiable greed ­ a human inclination that never seems to afflict our selfless public servants, I might add.

To be sure, no one should try to excuse those who sought to use state power to cripple their competitors. Burt Folsom made a helpful distinction between political entrepreneurs, who got ahead using underhanded tactics like this, and market entrepreneurs, who prospered because they produced what the public demanded at prices people could afford.

Andrew Carnegie almost single-handedly managed to reduce the price of steel rails from $160 per ton in the mid-1870s to $17 per ton in the late 1890s. Given the importance of steel to a modern economy, that massive price reduction yielded greater wealth and a higher standard of living for everyone. Carnegie was so efficient, in fact, that the 4000 people who worked at his Homestead plant in Pittsburgh produced three times more steel than the 15,000 workers at Germany's Krupps steelworks, Europe's most modern and renowned facility.

Likewise, John D. Rockefeller was able to reduce the price of kerosene from one dollar per gallon to ten cents per gallon. People could finally afford to illuminate their homes. Rockefeller also developed 300 products out of the waste that remained after the oil was refined. Claims that Rockefeller was an "unfair" competitor (whatever that means), the usual gripe of those who cannot deliver a product at prices that sufficiently please consumers, were laid to rest half a century ago in John S. McGee's study for the Journal of Law and Economics.

Source (John S. McGee, "Predatory Price Cutting: The Standard Oil (N.J.) Case," Journal of Law and Economics 1 [October 1958]: 137­69.)

We might also mention James J. Hill, who grew up in poverty but whose entrepreneurial skill helped make the Great Northern Railroad, which extended from St. Paul to Seattle, a major success without any government subsidies at all. In 1893, when the government-subsidized railroads went bankrupt, Hill's line was able both to cut rates and turn a substantial profit.

Still another of the alleged robber barons was Cornelius Vanderbilt. In 1798 the government of New York had granted Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton a monopoly on steamboat traffic for thirty years. Vanderbilt was hired to run a steamboat between New Jersey and Manhattan in defiance of that monopoly. Vanderbilt evaded capture while at the same time charging only one-quarter of the monopolists' fare. After Gibbons vs. Ogden (1824) overturned New York's steamboat monopoly, the fare for a trip from New York City to Albany dropped from seven dollars to three. The trip from New York to Philadelphia, which had been three dollars, fell to one dollar. Travelers going from New Brunswick to Manhattan now paid only six cents, and ate for free. When he moved his steamboat operation to the Hudson River, Vanderbilt charged a fare of ten cents, as opposed to the previous three dollars. Later he dropped the fare entirely, running his operation on the proceeds from concessions aboard the ship. Even when his competitors had unfair advantages, Vanderbilt came out on top. Edward Collins received a government subsidy for his steamship business to provide mail delivery across the Atlantic ­ to the tune of $858,000 a year by the 1850s. When Vanderbilt entered the field in 1855, he outperformed Collins in passenger travel and mail delivery with no subsidy at all. Congress did away with Collins' subsidy in 1858, and before long he went bankrupt. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt was also outperforming two subsidized steamship lines that brought passengers and mail to California. They charged $600 per passenger per trip. The unsubsidized Vanderbilt charged $150 per passenger, and nothing to deliver the mail.
Forgive me, but I am supposed to fear and despise these benefactors of mankind why, exactly?

These men were able to acquire such substantial portions of their industries because they consistently produced goods at low prices. When they stopped innovating, they lost market share. The cartoon version of events notwithstanding, competition was vigorous. It was only after voluntary efforts ­ pools, secret agreements, mergers, and the like ­ failed to stabilize this highly competitive environment that some firms began to look to the federal government and its regulatory apparatus as a way to reduce competition coercively. "Ironically, contrary to the consensus of historians," writes Gabriel Kolko, "it was not the existence of monopoly that caused the federal government to intervene in the economy, but the lack of it."
Speaking of the situation that faced Standard Oil, Kolko writes:

In 1899 there were sixty-seven petroleum refiners in the United States, only one of whom was of any consequence. Over the next decade the number increased steadily to 147 refiners. Until 1900 the only significant competitor to Standard was the Pure Oil Company, formed in 1895 by Pennsylvania producers with $10 million capital. By 1906 it was challenging Standard's control over pipelines by constructing its own. And in 1901 Associated Oil of California was formed with $40 million capital stock, in 1902 the Texas Company was formed with $30 million capital, and in 1907 Gulf Oil was established with $60 million capital. In 1911 the total investment of the Texas Company, Gulf Oil, Tide Water-Associated Oil, Union Oil of California, and Pure Oil was $221 million. From 1911 to 1926 the investment of the Texas Company grew 572 percent, Gulf Oil 1,022 percent, Tide Water-Associated 205 percent, Union Oil 159 percent and Pure Oil 1,534 percent.
Standard Oil's decline preceded the antitrust ruling against it in 1911, and was "primarily of its own doing ­ the responsibility of its conservative management and lack of initiative."
As a matter of fact, it was very difficult for top firms to maintain their positions in a great many industries in the United States in the late nineteenth century. This was true of industries as diverse as oil, steel, iron, automobiles, agricultural machinery, copper, meat packing, and telephone services. Competition was extremely vigorous.

Whenever business leaders criticize the free market, be assured that they are hoping to replace it with an arrangement that is more likely to guarantee their profits. Any rhetoric we might hear from them about the evils of alleged cutthroat competition, or of the need to put private concerns aside for the sake of the common good, is window dressing intended to distract the dupes ­ who sing the praises of these firms' "social responsibility" ­ from what they are really up to.

It became especially fashionable in the 1920s to suggest that laissez faire was a thing of the past, a foolish, discredited system that needed to give way to rules of "fair competition" to be established in each industry. One businessman, for instance, complained that "our profits are absolutely unprotected." Poor baby. A trade association executive condemned any private actor who operated his business "in entire disregard of the effects on his competitor and the rest of the industry."The American Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages declared: "My desire shall not be to undersell my fellow bottlers, but to contend with them for first place in the quality of my products and the service I render my patrons." Appeals like this were all over the business magazines.

During the initial years of the New Deal these conspiracies against the public were given the force of law in the form of the National Industrial Recovery Act, which administrator Hugh Johnson called "the greatest social advance since the days of Jesus Christ." Butler Shaffer's important study In Restraint of Trade: The Business Campaign Against Competition, 1918­1938, provides all the details.

The reason that business firms have so often been eager to employ government power on their behalf is that coercion solidifies their positions far more effectively than does the free market, the system through which consumers keep them on their toes every single day. On the free market, these firms must serve the consumer effectively or close their doors, period. Even the mightiest corporations have learned this lesson.

It is government, with its subsidies, special privileges, and restrictions on competition, not to mention the looting of the public and rewarding of privileged interests that go on within the military-industrial complex, that promote monopoly properly understood and grant truly unfair advantages to some at the expense of everyone else.
What a different country this would be if the drone factories that imprison the minds of American children permitted them to hear the trute version of American history.

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Who is the AFC ?

We are American Men , Woman and Children.

We are Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Native Indian and any one else with God given civil rights.

We are Christians, Jews, Moslems, Free Atheists etc.

We believe in the Constitution, the bill of rights and the wisdom of the founders of America.

We believe that highly localized social government is good for the people. (We believe that 'National socialists' or 'socialist nationals' are dangerous people.)

We believe that centralized civil rights are the Federal government's job so that local laws can't affect an individual's civil rights and so local social law can never be used to divide people by race, religion or gender lines.

If life were a baseball game the Capitalist umpire would say "O.K. you hit a great home run, now keep on batting since you can hit better than any of the other members on your team."

 

If life were a baseball game the Multi-capitalist umpire would say "O.K. you hit your home run, keep your trophy and now sit down on the bench for your next turn and let someone else have a chance at success."

• In Multi-Capitalism the government is FORBIDDEN from directly handling any type of redistribution moneys!!! The Government instead has its hands tied behind it's back and can only SUPERVISE the redistribution of fairness in the form of the redistribution of OPPORTUNITY by the GRADUATED REGULATORY SYSTEM or GRS

WHY??? So that the KINGS treasure room can NEVER be filled with the spoils of the people's money ever again!!! 4000 years of corruption concerning taxation in the name of the peoples common good is proof enough that no group can ever be trusted with this much money behind closed doors. If a party wishes to do good for the people then let them do it in the open with opportunity creation type laws instead of using oppressive tax collectors coupled with redistribution laws.

The cornerstone of capitalist culture is supply and demand

One of the concepts of Multi-capitalist thinking is to limit the supply of the largest producers which allows millions of smaller people the opportunity to jump into the artificial openings NOW created in the market and earn a living by working. We think that it is fairer to slow a Mega-capitalist at a certain point in their annual production and let them keep their money rather than confiscate money with the current communist style graduated income tax laws used in the U.S.A. today. Some people simply say "leave the big guy alone" but as history proves, the big guy, the big corporation usually becomes so powerful they literally become a force of tyranny that can control the very fabric of your life just as forcefully as an oppressive public government can.

 

To fully understand Multicapitalism it is absolutely essential that you get a good mental grasp on the concepts of PUBLIC POWER or PRIVATE POWER or government power V. corporate power and the fact that they are simply the opposite mirror images of the same evil.

 

Multi-capitalism simply opens the doors of opportunity so all can share in the happiness and rewards of independent labor and balances that the powers of public and private moneys imposes on our freedom and our lives.

 

When the powers of private money and public money are at odds with each other there is balance and harmony. Balance is when the powers of a free market economy and private moneys are equally matched against the powers of social government and public moneys.

A monumental conspiracy is when the corporate right wing and the social government left wing form a silent alliance and the forces that are normally at odds with each other begin to cooperate for their own goals and gains.

 

Ilam

Revised by committee 10-15-97

 

What ever rules apply to businesses and land owners etc. Will not be enforceable on the poor, moderately enforced on the middle class, strictly enforced on the wealthy and highly enforced on the Mega-wealthy. All fines, fees, licensing, permitting, special taxes, requirements etc, etc will be graduated in the same fashion to allow for the capitalist successes of the poor to become middle-class and to progress upward and so on.

 

(This Law will make sure that regulation will never again be used so that Monopolistic Capitalists can cleverly hold monopolizes keeping the poor and middle-class out of the capitalist market. Profits of all classes are never to be confiscated in any way by communist type graduated income taxes. Only by the none violent attrition of wealth will all be made fair. All we need to do is graduate the ability of the wealthy to make more and more and more. But to confiscate what they have already eared is morally wrong and would set us on the coarse for disaster and freedom loss.

 

(We need to make the air thin and hard to breathe on the top of the mountain of Mega-success)

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Law #2 of the 'Graduated Regulatory System' (GRS)

 

Graduated fine, penally and judgment system of the 'Graduated Regulatory System' (GRS)

 

(Now this law is really scary to Rich-Liberals)

 

All legal fines payable to government or private lawsuits will be based on your financial status.

 

(Example: environmental crime fine: 1% of your worth (Estimated value of your assets by public appraiser. Absolutely no fines based on income!).

 

$25.00 for the average citizen, $25,000.00 for a Mega-corporation.

 

Yes! Even treat speeding tickets like this too. After all, the idea of a cash fine is to financially 'sting' the violator into re-thinking their un-lawful behavior. We think that a $35.00 fine on a waitress is just as painful as a $3500 fine to a millionaire.

 

Now-a-days all fines are balanced for rich and poor alike so the waitress has to pay $150.00 for the speding ticket just like the millionaire.

 

NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!!! If the idea of a fine is a deterrent, then speeding will be the "cost of doing business" for the Mega-rich and will break the back of the poor and middle class. The financial fine pain should act as a deterrent for all classes of people equally and fairly.

 

A graduated fine, penally and judgment system will do this.

 

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Law #3 of the 'Graduated Regulatory System' (GRS)

 

Land ownership becomes a birth right.

 

Think for the incredible injustice of the land ownership situation in the world. All the people that have lived before you have sallowed up the land and own it. When you are born you have no legal place to exist. You are a living creature of the plant earth but you have no place to call your own because of the sheer greed of those that were here before you came to be.

Now you have to serve as a virtual slave to earn your right to have a place to exist! It's perversely absurd and unjust!!! Animals don't even take more land than they need to survive. However if a human owns lets say 9000 acres of land and you trespass or try to live on that unused land you are arrested and have your freedom taken from you. This is so wrong!!!! As a natural creature of this planet you have an ABSOLUTE right to claim a piece of this earth to call your own without charge! Without owning anyone simply because they were here before you were born!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(AS LONG AS your right does not eliminate the rights of the next generation to own a piece of land. Therefore land ownership is a floating law based on population and need)

 

Note: You may still own private property. Land grants are only for those whom desire and need free land. You may draw from the lottery once a week and if the land you draw is not to your satisfaction you may cast your ticket back into the lottery and try again in 7 days. This land will be prime government land in forests, deserts, farms, cities etc. If you decide to build on this land you must sell any other private land that you own in order to participate in this program. If you cast the grant back into the lottery you may leave and re-draw or purchase private land.

You may build on your lottery land without a building permit under common law.

 

Section A.

(This Law necessary NOW)

 

Land as a birth right law

 

When you are born into this world you will now automatically own at least 2.5 acres of land somewhere in your country. For a family of four thats 10 acres (max). The government must find ways to make this happen and it MUST absolutely happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Birth right land grants will come from federal land, state land or land-boron land but it must become an absolute RIGHT with no excuses!!! The corperate government may try to increase the size of national parks to encompass fantastic boundaries to stop this but never let any excuse public or private stand in the way of land ownership as a birth RIGHT! This is your planet and you must be allowed to own a piece off it that can never be confiscated from you for ANY reason be it public or private. Land grants can be traded with other peoples to allow freedom of movement but may never sold of cash but can be relinquished back into the lottery. Land can also be willed to others at time of death like children and spouse.

Section B.

LAND GLUTTONS (The "Land-Baron" law enforced for

rental land, un-used or non-farmed land both public and private)

(This Law not necessary until the year 2065)

There are other types of Mega-rich Mega-capitalists other than monster corporations that need 'graduated regulation' and that is Mega-property owners, millionaires that own thousands of apartment buildings or rental properties. We believe that any one person who owns more than 100 apartment units and/or 10 rental homes and/or over 1000 acres of any type of non-farmed land or rental land is considered to be a "Mega-land baron." All Mega-land-barons should be encouraged to give lease/purchase options on their rental property in order to redistribute private land to encourage capitalist private property ownership until such time that they have sold enough properties to be below the said level of "Mega-land barons."
Example: Said "land baron" may keep their properties for personal use but if they decide to rent them they must offer a 30 year lease/purchase option at a preset monthly rate. If the land renter pays the rent faithfully for thirty years, the apartment, home or property becomes the renter's private property by the instrument of "Re-deed." When the Mega-land baron has exhausted his excess properties and has less than 100 rental units and or 10 homes and/or 1000 acres of land he will be free of this lease/rent regulation for future rentals. These limits should work fine until the year 2125. As population increases the max land ownership limit will drop accordingly so every one can own a nice big chunk of private property. This is so important!!!! All future children MUST be allowed to own property and we must make it available. Property ownership is fundamental to capitalism, basic human rights, happiness and freedom. When people can't achieve property ownership, they begin to listen to the propaganda of the Mega-rich liberal Kings. REMEMBER, THE MEGA-RICH WILL TRY TO SUBSTITUTE SOCIALISM INSTEAD OF THIS PRIVATE PROPERTY SCENARIO. DO NOT FALL FOR IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Law #4 of the 'Graduated Regulatory System' (GRS)

This type of private based socialism will insure the government never gets into the position of socialist power again.

Labor benefit codes of the 'Graduated Regulatory System:' (GRS)

RP = Retirement program. (Employer makes payment to employees' private retirement fund.)
PT = Paid time off (2 weeks per year for sickness or vacation.)
PHC = Personal health care. (For the employee only.)
FHC = Family health care. (For the employee, spouse and children.)
DC = Day child care.
UR = Union rights. (Private companies only. NO PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS.)
PL = Paid leave (4 weeks a year for maternity or sick child care.)
PT2 = Paid time off (2 additional weeks off per year.)
PS = Profit sharing (Amount to be decided by regulation.)
PT3 = Paid off time (2 additional weeks off per year.)

1 to 10 employees - No regulation! (Gives people a chance to become capitalists and like it! Allows an entry level for the poor to become middle-class while making their small un-burdened companies more competitive than the larger companies)
10 to 25 employees - RP + PT
25 to 50 employees - RP + PT + PHC
50 to 200 employees - RP + PT + FHC + DC
200 to 500 employees - RP + PT + FHC + DC + UR
500 to 2000 employees - RP + PT + FHC + DC + UR + PL
2000 to 5000 employees - RP + PT + FHC + DC + UR + PL + PT2
5000 to 10,000 employees - RP + PT + FHC + DC + UR + PL + PT2 + PS
10,000 plus employees - RP + PT + FHC + DC + UR + PL + PT2 + PS + PT3

(Note: These figures will need to be factored to the total number of stockholders or owners in the entity. Breaks will be given to employee owned entities and other multiple owner entities)

Law #5 of the 'Graduated Regulatory System' (GRS)

The de-regulation of Insurance companies and the legalization of citizen owned insurance co-ops no smaller than 100 people and no larger than 5000 people to be operated by the co-op without profit to benefit only the co-op and it's beneficiaries.

In other words private insurance companies funded and ran with the money of your neighbors and towns people. No more having to pay for billion dollar sky scrapers with your premiums. Your co-op will elect a president, secretary and treasurer yearly and they will be responsible for the co-ops moneys and activities and they must abide by strict laws set by the people to regulate this field.

This is IMPORTANT as insurance is the social system that a FREE people uses in FREE counties for their security.

A FREE and VOLUNTARY insurance system is corner stone of a FREE society.

It must be affordable and free of greed and corruption!!!!!

 

• VOLUNTARY Insurance = Private Socialism.

Law #6 of the 'Graduated Regulatory System' (GRS)

Multi-owned Corperation Exclusion

 

If a company has an unusually high number of smaller stock holders or employee owners and or partners they will be treated as a smaller entity in the GRS.

 

In some cases we need big companies to build the "BIG STUFF" like bull dozers, cars, airplanes etc. Smaller capitalists just can't do

many of the bigger jobs that the people of the world require although multiple subcontracting would be a preferred way.

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Law #7

 

 

The AFC is 100% for FEDERAL Social Security!

You will no longer need an SS number your age is the only requirement and no one is excluded from this benefit !!!!!!!!!!!

 

Why? Many old people can't work!

 

Fact: We will all get old someday and will not be able to work as our bodies gradually give out.

Getting old has nothing to do with laziness or finding some trick to swindle tax payers old of their hard earned dollars with uncle Sam's help.

 

We do however believe that the hand of government with the blessings of its self serving constituency

has dipped far to deeply into a fund that was ONLY designed to keep old people out of the "Poor House".

 

Now-a-days millions of people under the age of 65 are raping the fund that clearly belongs to retired people only.

A wonderful Government system for a brave new world is at our finger tips. Millions of high paying jobs, a VERY high standard of living, great new medicines and cures for sickness and most of all, HOPE!!! Hope for all people in America and any other country in the world with people brave and smart enough to make it happen in their country as well.

ABSOLUTELY NO TAXES BASED ON INCOME because it will always be twisted to make the working class and small business person pay more than those that have already made their fortunes. (The old royal money, Mega-rich ruling class.)

 

The IRS, Income tax and the Federal Reserve bank MUST be abolished! Only the U.S. Treasury should be in charge of printing ALL money!!!

No more "DEBIT NOTES" No more "PRIVATE BANKERS" in the public sector of constitutionally legal money printing and the setting of interest rates.

Again! All these laws are never, NEVER to be aimed at poor through upper middle class citizens or even minor millionaires. A high living standard for all is the goal.

• FEDERAL AGENDA - Get off the backs of the middle class and bring more Americans into the middle class. Make the middle class larger and more wealthy in general by bringing the poor up to this level and allowing them to hold on by redistributing OPPORTUNITY. Redistributing OPPORTUNITY is the main Federal agenda, until the time it can be passed down to states citizens as it should be. Once the people are given the taste of success they will never, NEVER let it go again!!! If you net between $10,000 and $200,000 a year NOW, Multi-capitalism is for you. (1996 inflation adj. fig.)
  
  
• STATE AGENDA - Take all current Federal social issues to the state level. You can never and should never force a free citizen to adhere to your morals at a federal level no matter how much you believe in them. We believe that the more localized government is the better it represents it's local voters. Let the liberal Americans live in their groups under their local democratically chosen laws and let the conservative Americans live in their local areas under their democratically chosen social laws. We will learn by example which side is right. Once separated we shall see who has the lowest crime rate, best employment rate and the highest standard of living. Whoever is afraid of this coming wave of separated thinking must be the one afraid of losing the contest. (We speak of separation by philosophical grounds only, not race, religion or other types of prejudicial division.)