brodix

"Now that the contest is over, I would like to thank the judges who commented on my work. It is certainly a privilege to have Steve Keen read and offer positive remarks on the work of an amateur. You are right about my focus on the relationship between information and energy. I think there are basic physical processes which underlay economic realities, but are not given enough consideration because their conclusions are not always what people paying economists want to hear. As I describe it, the truth is. Answers are what people want to hear. While philosophers seek truths, priests and politicians provide answers. That is why there are so many people able to make a living as priests and politicians, but so few as philosophers.
To Daniel Marcus, I would like to say the idea I offered for how government could budget is entirely designed to make all sorts of trades, manipulation and power plays possible, as the legislature organizes the list of priorities, but it includes a real budgeting function, by giving the executive the power of decision about where to draw the line. The fact is, only as many promises can be kept, as there is the ability to fulfill. This doesn't necessarily lead to the forms of austerity currently being proposed, because the overhang of surplus spending will always be kept in mind, not allowed to expand uncontrollably and then be collapsed, usually in favor of these in positions of power. The reason democracy works is because power is decentralized, with local, state and federal systems all working in areas best suited to particular needs. The real problem we currently have is an overly centralized banking system. If we had local, state and federal forms of public banking, that put profits back into the communities generating the wealth and not having it channeled through private hands in New York, to be then lent back to the Federal and local governments, there would be stronger local communities and less need for the Federal government to solve as many problems.
In politics there is this dichotomy of the individual, versus the community, but keep in mind that it is at the local level, where most people know each other, for better or worse, that we are all most deeply recognized as individuals and yet still most strongly connected to our societies. That doesn't translate to a larger society, but there are advantages to large that don't apply to small and advantages to small that don't apply to large. Knowing what works best is what is important.
On a personal note, it is interesting that while Brisbane is virtually on the other side of the planet, Goucher is the college closest to my home, up here in Sparks. My eldest sister graduated from there.
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"Money is a contract to the larger economy, but it's a commodity to the banking system. One which can be manufactured by increasing demand, ie. debt. It's as if lawyers had to validate every handshake and were paid for it.

A market needs a medium of exchange, but if that medium is in private hands, then the rest of the market is subservient. Government used to be a private function as well. It was called monarchy. When the system became so taken for granted that kings thought society existed to serve them and not the other way around, they were no longer worth the cost and were replaced by government as public trust. Monarchists thought "mob rule" could never work, but few would go back to monarchies today. Eventually banking will be a public utility and few will look back with much regret.

http://www.exterminatingangel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=826&Itemid=662"