Harmonious Economics or The New World Order. Vladimir Emelyanovich Chabanov
is observed in modern Russia and many other post-socialist countries.
On the one hand, the nouveaux riches do not need to produce as many commodities for themselves, as the rest of the population need, which inhibits the social oriented production. On the other hand, this decreases the effective demand of the population, which impedes economic development as a whole. By consequence, the demand drops further and forces supplementary cuts in production, etc.
B. G. Shaw wrote, “If the wicked flourish and the fittest survive, Nature must be the god of rascals’6. However, following the liberal principles, the state must create ever more favourable conditions for the business to have a greater income. “What is good for General Motors, is good for America’, said W. Wilson, the President of the US. This is a cunning logic. Besides, businessmen’s “interest is never exactly the same with that of the public so they have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public’ (Adam Smith).7 For this reason the flourishing of business and the wellbeing of the society do not coincide, in fact, they often contradict each other.
Indeed, in the end, business is a form of activity that generates personal income serving as a source of increasing personal fortune, not the public benefit. On the one hand, business encourages people to develop their talents, sparks energy in them, diversifies production and service forms, and creates new jobs. On the other hand, it promotes profit-making at the cost of Nature and society. In addition, it contributes to manufacturing and sale of low-quality merchandise, drugs, counterfeit medicines, surrogate alcohol, etc. Besides, such economy naturally contributes to gangsterism, corruption and unemployment.
In the current situation, the money that the financial elites have laid their hands on gives them the reign over all global processes, and allows to ruin entire states and social strata for their personal fancies. This weakens the human society, deprives it of the strength to protect itself from aggressions, shocks, phobias and attacks. A good example, here is what Louis McFadden, Chairman of the United States House Committee on Banking and Currency, wrote about the 1930s Great Depression: “It [the depression] was not accidental. It was a carefully contrived occurrence <…>. The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so that they might emerge as the rulers of us all’8.
But this is not the main point. To prevent people from protecting the values that they create from external encroachments, everything is done to deprive them of independence, render them powerless, psychologically and physically defenceless. Through mass media and the very lifestyle, deformed culture, education, perverted ideology and repressive religious beliefs are imposed on people. They are stripped of their human dignity, crippled by false stereotypes, alcohol, and pushed on the path of further degradation. People left without means of existence, property or good health. Deprived of rights, work tools, money, resources, they cannot provide for themselves any more. Otherwise, would anybody tolerate being a milking cow for the “the select few’? The humans are poisoned with unhealthy foods, admixtures, surrogates and hypnotized by ideology. Their environment is destroyed. However, all this is done in accordance with the liberal economic principles!
As the result, the society often loses the feeling of community, of common roots, as well as the reverence of the values earned through the sweat and blood of their predecessors. The harmonious vision of the world, the understanding of one’s place and purpose within it are gone. For instance, 26% of the Americans have no idea that the Earth orbits the Sun, and not vice versa. People have lost life’s purport and have become an easily mouldable material. They have accumulated suffering and spite, losing confidence and strength, belief and conscience, hope and kindness. And what is a man without them? The man does not live by bread only, not by gold or power. “No man can serve two masters’ (Gospels)9.
Against this background, wild propaganda is under way: human personality would be now freer than ever, human rights would be respected, and the omnipotent democracy would furnish everyone equal possibilities. But then, the human beings are deprived of their most basic right, the right for life. For their life is determined by the profit of the employers. The propaganda has been reinforced by coining of a series of clichés to worship, such as “freedom of personality’, “permissive behaviour’, “independent creation’, “tolerance’, or even “non-traditional sexual orientation’. They obscure the clear reference points, destroy the family, suppress the people’s inner aura, interfere with the link of generations, and let false values supplant the true ones.
Having thus crushed and crippled the person’s inner self, having diverted their energy towards pecuniary objectives exclusively, the present-day rulers have cut the supply from the true sources of well-being: kindness, respect and friendship. The lack of spiritual development is covered up by luxury, entertainment, and pleasures. Instead of love we get sex, instead of friendship – partnership, instead of respect – servility. Thus, spirituality, honour and dignity are being exterminated by all means available.
As the result, all contradictions accumulated in the past are aggravated, and the true values are substituted by the false ones. A considerable share of the fundamental concepts has come under the fire of ostracism; the previously undisputed truths have been questioned; the accrued experience has turned out to be unreliable, and the traditions – lost forever. That is why now it is hard to define what is erroneous and what is correct, where the truth and where the lies are, what the difference between business and crime is, what should be considered progress and what – regress. The society is revisiting the long-standing pillars of morality and culture, religion and science, physiology and psychology.
An unprecedented dissolution of manners has followed. Certain zealous and empowered persons and countries feel entitled to reshape the others’ destinies in accordance with their own petty ideologies and ambitions. The society has answered by the spread of social unrest, protests and revolutions, which claim lives and destroy cultural and material values. The result is the change among men of power, and the rotation of proprietors and social classes. However, as rules remain unaltered, these happenings have no significant consequences.
At the same time, it is widely proclaimed that the liberal economic model is the only possible one and that its key ideas are immutable. We seem to have returned to the Ptolemaic times, when they believed the Earth was born by whales, and no other version would have been accepted. In similar mode, the liberal economic theory is the very essence of the modern economics, while other systems are nothing but the fruits of ignorance. The numerous faults of this model are excused by the errors and the incompetence of the authorities, by the cupidity of certain individuals, and by the money grubbing of the proprietors and the government. Furthermore, there persists a naïve conviction that once these faults are eliminated, the existing economic system will provide for a decent living.
Such belief multiplies the ideas based on the liberal economic tools but used to change the situation and to get rid of some of its drawbacks. Nevertheless, in practice these tools are, as a rule, asymmetric and fail to bring any tangible advances on the existing issues. For example, if financing lacks, it is suggested that it be increased. If corruption ravages, new ways to fight it are found. These are just a few examples. In reality, it is impossible to eliminate the faults of the liberal economy through liberal methods, just as one cannot remove a spot with the substance that spotted the clothes. However, the theory of a different, non-liberal economics has not yet been worked out and, to tell the truth, it is not even visible yet.
The actual economics, as any other economics, is a rigid system held together by direct and reverse connections that make it integrated. All that conforms with the nature of the system flourishes within it, while everything hostile perishes. Indeed, every system has intrinsic qualities that cannot be eliminated as long as the model continues to apply. The fundamental concepts of the model will not survive any alteration, just as a cat will not grow to be
Cit. ex G. B. Shaw,
Cit. ex A. Smith,
Cit. ex L. McFadden,
Cit. ex Matthew 6:24.