The Five Points

2008-2-28 22:52:00

Larry wrote:

"In your very first post in the Archives you talk about the student-teacher relationship and how to determine if a teacher is a reliable authority on a subject. You used the example of testing a Spanish teacher to see if they could speak Spanish fluently.

"As far as I am concerned I have tested you to see if you could 'speak economics' fluently and in my view the end result is that you have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are not any kind of authority in economics. You have repeatedly demonstrated that you are not aware of very basic concepts. How do I know that? Because as a student of Objectivism I studied a lot of economic theory in order to try to decide whether the claims of Objectivism made sense to me."

JJ:

I would never find fault with you for following the highest you know, even though I think the highest you can perceive in this case is not correct.

By the standards of this world I am probably not an expert on anything -- yet I press on and I teach the principles behind many things because I am proficient in one thing and that is the language of principles.

If you can see the principle behind why something works, or is true, then your argument will have more truth in it than all the experts in the world who may go against you.

Jesus went against the experts of his day by teaching principles that common people could understand and the experts could not. He was deemed beyond a shadow of a doubt to be not any kind of authority and unprincipled. But with the passing of time the tables have turned.

Even so, today I realize many experts would criticize me in economics just the way you have but the same will happen. With the passing of time the basic principles I teach will be proven correct -- which are:

The principle behind all money that gives it life and power is labor. It is true that other things are at play such as intelligence, decision, the faith of the people, the authority of the originator, a commodity, etc. However you spin it when you peel away the layers that veil the power behind money the final principle revealed is labor.

There would be no gold available without labor -- no cotton, no banking, and nothing for intelligence to direct.

On the other hand, without gold, cotton or banking there would still be labor and that which labor produced would still have value and a medium representing that value could be used as money.

The parable illustrated the absolute fact that, in able to have gold-backed money, a tremendous amount of labor has to be expended to first procure the gold. If that same labor can be transmuted to the production of goods and services rather than obtaining gold (which will never be a product but stored in a dark vault) then there is more abundance, creation and wealth available to the inhabitants.
Therefore the most efficient and wealth promoting system of money would not be backed up by gold, but by the labor which can procure gold and all that gold can buy.
Humanity, because of its inherit intelligence, always gravitates toward the ideal and that which is most efficient. It is true we make many mistakes along the way, but sooner or later we correct ourselves and press forward toward the highest ideal. Because gold and other commodities as a backing for money represents wasted time and labor humanity will eventually move away from gold and toward that which is most efficient -- labor to back their money.

Because the ideal always manifests, in the end then this absolutely has to be the end result of money.

Because the production of money itself is only a symbol and produces nothing in itself its use will eventually come to an end. In the end we shall have a society without gold in vaults backing money and without fiat paper money but wealth created by the responsibility of the individual to play his part in society. This will require then elevation of the consciousness of humanity as a whole. It is not practical at the present time, but many seekers know within their hearts that this will, in the future, manifest.

All these five points will be verified because of the eternal Law of Economy, which is a manifestation of the principle of life gravitating toward that which is most efficient.

No one has been able to touch any of these five points and give even one reason why they are not true and they never will because a principle cannot be proven false.

As I said, two hundred years from now these principles will be so obvious that many will wonder why they were not seen by people of our day just as they will wonder why people in the middle ages thought the earth was the center of the universe.

Do you want a teacher who just tells you what you already believe or do you want one who challenges your mind by saying, "come up higher"?