By F.G.Helmke, January 19, 2012
Good times don’t last forever. That’s logical, one should think. But most people and especially the ones in the government don’t seem to know this. Prisoner Joseph Jacobson knew it from bitter experience. He was raised as the second youngest son of a wealthy cattle owner, but had become victim of family intrigues and slave trafficking before he finally wound up in jail in a foreign country. His work ethics plus his rare ability to interprete dreams made him a famous esoteric guru though, and that saved first him, then millions.
The ruler of that country had been suffering from reoccurring nightmares and asked him for advice. The answer was simple: “You’ll have some very prosperous years, but they will end. Then bad times will come and eat up all your riches.” Unlike our modern rulers this one took some very smart action: He wisely appointed J.J. as a head of a government food bank that began storing up big parts of the harvest as a reserve for the future. (The only country I know of that does something similar nowadays is Norway.)
Things haven’t changed much since then. When I was younger I learned very fast that the more you earn the more the bank lends you. As a result I was constantly $3000 in debt. Later I found out my big brother had a $50.000 credit line he was using to the limit. I soon got used to it, actually the new zero was now 2000 negative by just paying a little interest every month. That was no problem, until one day my income dropped drastically, and some time later the bank asked me how I was going to take care of this debt.
And this is exactly how governments and many people live. They spend money they borrowed, never return it to the bank but instead just pay interest every month. That’s excellent business for the bank, because in the end all the interest paid over the years adds up to much more than the amount that was lent. But the best part is that these interest payments never end, the bank keeps on making money endlessly, because the borrowers usually don’t want to pay back the loan. And then one day they can’t, even if they wanted to.
Some 3500 years ago the Egyptian Food Bank under Joseph made the government practically owner of the whole country. Having all their money spent the citizens first mortgaged their houses to buy food, then their lands, then everything they owned. They could have very well laid aside reserves during the fat years, but they didn’t. So finally they had to sell their freedom and became slaves, forced to pay a monthly 20% of the GNP to the government-bank. And that not only for the rest of their lives, but for the rest of their children’s lives too.
History repeats itself. Exactly like Joseph and the Pharaoh of old, modern banks and governments got together once again to help each other collect taxes and interest from us and our children, guaranteeing each other’s survival. And now that the economy is worsening, some countries are starting to take pretty drastic measures to squeeze out the most they can from their citizens.
There is very little we can do about that. But let’s at least save up when we have plenty, so when the good times end we won’t become slaves of the bank.
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