Worzels World - A failed experiment

 

How many real estate millionaires have poured footings or swung a hammer? Could the CEO of Spark explain how a transistor works or discuss the properties and purposes of capacitors, inductors, resistors and diodes? How many Fonterra executives have ever milked a cow? The bloke who would pocket a few dollars from the rugby club raffle is rightly thought of as a thief and a rogue. Yet the CEO of the lotteries commission pockets around two million a year, is portrayed as a conscientious public servant and suffers no shame. 

Unregulated, free market capitalism has resulted in centralisation of wealth and resources controlled by an unelected ruling elite. The truth of this statement is not necessarily negated by the historical fact that over-regulated state controlled socialism produces exactly the same end. The problem is not ideological but spiritual. Greed, manipulation, corruption and control are the real culprits regardless of what political system is in place. 

During my lifetime I have witnessed the gradual enslavement of common people shackled by fear and burdened by debt. Fear of loss of job, social status or credit rating. Fear of prosecution, persecution, poverty.

Without it being preached from any pulpit or discussed by any parliament, there has been a general acceptance of what is known as the zero sum game. In order for me to win you must lose. In order for me to win big, many must lose a little. The corporate private sector of capitalism is essentially no different from the corporate state of socialism or for that matter the corporate monarchy of a kingdom. 

Regardless of the brand of tyranny the tyrant acts in accordance with his creed of milking the many so a few can cream it. Traditionally the check on this type of behaviour has been violent revolution. The Czars of Russia were murdered and the French aristocracy guillotined for behaviour less reprehensible than that of modern day corporations and the global financial elite. Hitler tried to exterminate the Jews for small-time usury. Today multinational banking cartels are praised as economic paragons for practising the same evil on a global scale.

Had any feudal system king or baron taxed his subjects at anywhere near the rate we are taxed today by a supposed democratic government the peasants and serfs would have skewered him. Yet today’s despots smile smugly from the business pages of the newspapers, lauded for exploiting the gullible and the powerless. Lying politicians who pass hypocritical laws hold their heads high in public (albeit these days with bodyguards and extensive security measures) and shamelessly sell themselves with every sound bite and photo opportunity. 

Unelected local ‘Crown Manager’ Peter Winder who lives in Remuera prosecutes –without mercy and to the full extent of the law – ratepayers who refused to financially support fraud and corruption. He then pocketed $900 per day of their money for doing so. Many are painted as heroes who personally profit from the exploitation of resources that should be shared by all whilst contributing little or nothing of any real value themselves. 
Numbers employed in production have decreased significantly. There is constant pressure on farms and factories to produce more with less. Those who don’t manage it go bust, those that do find more of their earnings taken by government local and central. Middlemen, corporates and other swindlers clip a rapidly deteriorating ticket at every turn. 
The power that comes with the control of great wealth belongs to a very small financial elite. These are the greediest and least scrupulous people within society.
The Occupy Wall St movement mobilised many to protest but not before lowered production and educational standards, along with increased unemployment, cost of living, and homelessness had taken their toll. These legitimate protests were put down with tear gas and truncheons. No apologies. The ruling elite still fail to acknowledge and address the real issues. 
The facts clearly illustrate that the corporate globalist centralisation agenda is a failure. It has failed in the US. It has failed in Europe. The EU has impoverished once functional nations like Greece and Spain. Interestingly, Iceland, which was also a basket case of debt, did not follow the IMF template. Instead they declared national bankruptcy, jailed the ‘banksters’ who engineered their downfall and started again. These days they are doing quite nicely thank you. For some reason or another this is not in the news. 

Somehow New Zealand was also duped into adopting a failed philosophy and, throwing out the baby with the bathwater, exchanged wealth for debt. Without exception the amalgamation of various councils has led to decreased efficiency and less democratic accountability. The remodelling of companies like the Farmers Co-Operative Dairy Company into the corporate giant Fonterra has not produced the promised rewards. 

It is time to admit that we have bought a lemon and revert once again to the tried and true prudent financial and social management that characterised much of our history. We must remind ourselves of what we really always knew. That the zero sum game merely diminishes everybody. It is by co-operation, not competition, that we prosper. Generosity works and greed fails. New Zealand once led the world in social fairness and egalitarianism. The time has come to do so again.

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There has been a general acceptance of what is known as the zero sum game. In order for me to win you must lose. In order for me to win big, many must lose a little.