Wealth and Power:

To restate Karl Marx wealth and the control of wealth governs and controls any political system. If you accept this premise much of history can be better understood. Events such as the American Civil War and the French Revolution can be better understood if you will consider the economics behind these conflicts. The theories of Marx on capital formation can be arrived at through an independent study of history. The reason to do this is to attempt to remove political dogma from the discussion.

The reason there is so much heat and so little light in the current discussions in America is due to some raising the specter of Communism and socialism. These two are the great “boggy men” that some would use to frighten the American citizens at large. Folks get a grip. Communism failed the test of viability. It is a dead issue. Normally when the horse dies you quit beating it. So why you ask is this not the case today. The short answer is that issue is being used to distract the American public from the real struggle that is being fought.

What is the real struggle you might ask? The real struggle is over who will control the economic wealth of the nation. In fact throughout human history that has always been the real struggle. It is a struggle that has always been won by the rich and lost by the poor. You might ask how a rich minority can control a poor majority in a democracy. Short answer is they do that by lying to the majority and if necessary bribing with granting of temporary wealth or power. The goal of the “haves“ remains the same and that goal is preserving what they have by any and all necessary means such that the “have not’s” continue to have not.

What the real struggle comes down to is who will control the wealth and power of America. Some would tell you that things should remain as they have been throughout much of American history. That is the wealthy should rule the nation made up of the poor. To say that another way the plantation owner should continue to tell the slaves what they can and cannot do. Stated a bit differently the owners of the automobile factory can continue to tell the workers in that factory what their wage will be and how many hours per day and per year they must work for these wages. Some of my readers might see that I have picked the two major conflict events one from the 19th century and one from the 20th century.

The American Civil war was largely fought over the issue of slavery. The outcome of that war would suggest that the plantation owners who created slavery lost. I would argue that the battle ground simply shifted from the cotton and corn fields of Virginia to the political and economic capital of Richmond. When these same slaves now “freed men” came north to seek employment in the automobile plants of Michigan the battle again underwent a change. American trade unions had become powerful and were increasingly being used to level the economic playing field. These children of former slaves found economic dignity and economic freedom from want in the factories of the victors of the American Civil war.

In the twenty first century America is once again conflicted by economic issues. At the heart of this issue is who will control the debt of America? You see America has since the Second World War squandered her wealth on oil and drugs. The current service centered economy is thought to require less capital for the actual manufacture of goods and more capital applied to managing the debt of such a nation. The debt is actually owed to other countries but is managed by American banks and credit card companies. This is not wealth in the traditional sense but in the brave new world of twenty first century America debt and wealth has become one in the same much like matter and energy.