It simply is not possible to talk to anyone even remotely involved in “economics” and to not talk about “growth”.
A “one” man business that has been handed down from father to son for four generations, say a butcher, who has sold exactly 1 cow 2 sheep and 3 pigs worth of meat every week for 100 years will be seen as a business with zero growth and therefore totally broken.
It gets even worse because “growth” is measured in percent, which is an exponential function when it is compounded, 1% annual growth for 100 years is 1.01 XY 100 = 2.704 so even at a measly and uselessly underperforming 1% annual growth the grandson has a bigger shop, 2 employees and 3x the meat sold.
At a barely acceptable economists 4% annual growth it gets insane real fast, 1.04 XY 100 = 50.505, the grandson has a chain of shops, 50 employees and sells 51x the meat.
Unless of course he is one of the 49 one man butcher businesses that has been eliminated by the guy who expanded at 4% per annum.
Even if those 49 all got jobs in the one that expanded, they will no longer be living rent free in the house over the shop, nor will they be earning the same money.
Nor are we talking about buggy whip makers here going the way of the dodo, we are talking about a business that is every bit as viable as it was in grandpa’s day, people still buy and eat meat.
I’m not even going anywhere near the fact that the big supermarkets are literally incapable of stocking anything even remotely approaching the quality stocked by my local farm shop and local butcher (who raises much of his own meat on the hoof) or pointing out inconsistencies such as the farm shop able to sell genuine succulent flavour explosion spanish oranges at 2.95 a kilo, and the local Morrison’s supermarket stocking water filled vaguely orange flavoured spanish oranges at 3.00 a kilo, a whole 5p a kilo more for the vastly inferior product…
Going back to our butcher, at 11% annual growth we get 1.11 XY 100 = 34,064.175, our one man butcher is now a small town, all by himself…
But, when all you have is a hammer, everything becomes a nail, and when all you have is an “economist”, everything becomes annual growth or contraction measured in percent, and anything below 5% annual growth is considered tragic.
When I was a boy a recession was defined as a contraction in the money supply, there was literally less money in free circulation, it was also referred to as deflation, as opposed to inflation.
Which brings us to the other side of things, how much is 1 kg of prime beef from our one man butcher?
If the value of money in circulation is inflated the price per kilo goes up, but the kilo of beef always remains the same.
If the value of money in circulation is deflated the price per kilo goes down, but the kilo of beef always remains the same.
Provided there is sufficient physical money to go around and facilitate transactions, and provided everyone has enough employment to earn some of that money, it’s all the same to the butcher.
The one thing that is important is that the price per kilo does not change significantly from week to week and month to month, before long the beef is worth more than the money and the money is worth less than it costs to print, and the beef makes a better currency.
The kilo of beef is still the kilo of beef.
Sadly, to continue the agricultural analogy, the foxes got into the hen house years ago, refinanced everything and built a huge hen farm cum chicken factory, nobody sees any chickens, just blister packs of white meat that is labelled as being chicken, only in this case it not chickens and foxes, it’s money and economists.
So if your eye is on the ball with other things we have talked about in the past on this blog, you still lose, because we are in the final stages of the push to eliminate money, and of course when I say money I mean cash (fiat) money as in the coins that used to be in your pocket and the notes that used to be in your wallet.
I remember as a child reading about the tower of babel, a bunch of people were co-operating to build this huge tower to reach up to heaven, god did not like it so smote them down with different languages so they could no longer communicate or co-operate.
It was never made clear to me to my satisfaction quite why building a fuck off great space elevator type tower up into the heavens was evil and needed punishing…
… but the message was clear, Peoples that can no longer communicate can no longer achieve anything of significance, and go their own ways to be nomadic subsistence wanderers.
The eradication of cash means I can no longer communicate directly to my local farm shop of butcher, there is a middleman, or a whole series of them, and without them no transaction is possible, and with them no transaction is private.
Inflation and deflation become something done in seconds at a keyboard, so money supply and therefore prices can be arbitrarily set and changed from moment to moment and region to region and even entity to entity, the only problem is that you and I will never be granted access to that keyboard.
In shades of the recent shit in India, I have a wallet with some notes in it, and I have other notes in a drawer, the difference is the notes in the drawer are no longer legal tender, they are just pretty pieces of linen paper…. but the notes in my wallet are still good.
You have to physically deprive me of the notes themselves to deprive me of my money, or the ability to spend it.
Not so with virtual electronic fiat currency.
With my business hat on yesterday I had a conversation with a new customer, specifically with the guy in purchasing, now this is a fairly large company, not a Ford or anything, but their annual turnover is millions and they sell 4 figure items europe wide, and he asked me about my terms, which are cash with order, and expressed surprise, because they were a large company, and I was the *only* supplier who did not offer “terms” eg pay at the end of the next month / 30 / 60 / 90 days etc.
I was polite and said it’s not our policy and left it at that.
He said Oh OK and sent a purchase order.
Last night I talked to another potential customer, a “working man” who makes wood stuff with his hands (and power tools) he had no difficulty understanding the concept, “I have to pay for my diesel when I buy it……”
Sure, all of the above is done is virtual electronic fiat currency, but at least it is done instantly and I can spend it instantly on Amazon.
So beware, be observant, do not be complacent, the foxes have taken up residence in the hen house and the war on cash is in it’s final stages, and the one thing you can be sure of is that it is of no benefit whatsoever to thee and me, it is all about taking personal control of our cash out of our hands, and it goes hand in hand with the last 30 years of policy of making everyone an indentured servant living on permanent credit.
Might be time to start up a one man business as a butcher shop.