Day 242: The EFF and Land Redistribution in South Africa

The EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) in South Africa, under the leadership of Julius Malema, are placing some very cool points on their political manifesto. One of them is to nationalise resources, including financial intermediaries and the South African Reserve Bank. Reserve Banks being the institution that steers monetary policy in an economy should by principle be in the hands of the people and not an independent point where so-called experts apparently have the right to do what they think is best. Such points are too important to exclude from public decision-making.

Another point they insist on is the redistribution of land as land is so extremely skewly owned in SA at the moment as an outcome of colonisation and apartheid. To pretend that such huge disadvantage will simply 'fix itself' is delirious. Herein, the EFF wants a full audit to find out how much land is available and what it is being used for - where, land that is wasting away would be re-appropriated and put to proper use. Having this information mapped out would obviously be able to significantly speed up the process of equitable land distribution.

The problem comes in with the call to start occupying land as a statement of 'taking what's ours'.

"The position is that we are expropriating without compensation. We want that to be an act [of law], and before it becomes an act, our people should begin the process of occupying the land.”

Encouraging and enticing people to take the law in one's own hands will inevitably lead the country into disorder, chaos and conflict. Taking such route to increase the popularity vote without consideration for the repercussions is only a sign of immaturity and a lack of understanding of what true leadership entails. Within the international community no-one would take such leadership seriously as it undermines the very political and legal system that it is supposed to derive its legitimacy from.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/State-must-own-SA-Reserve-Bank-EFF-20130720

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Day 177: Will there still be Retrenchment in Equal Money Capitalism?

For context, please read:

Amplats should cut costs rather than retrench, says Amcu
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-01-18-00-amplats-should-cut-costs-rather-than-retrench-says-amcu

The Problem

“The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union has called on government to intervene in Anglo Platinum's plans to retrench 14 000 employees.

It has also called for government to revoke the mining licences of the soon to be mothballed shafts in Rustenburg, possibly even nationalising them.

Amcu has a membership of 26 000 out of Anglo Platinum’s 60 000 employees across all its operations, according to Joseph Matunjwa, the union’s president. Speaking at a press conference in Woodmead on Thursday, Matunjwa said Amcu was not formerly notified of the retrenchments, and learnt about the mining company’s plans through the media.

“This is unacceptable,” Matunjwa said. Given the high rate of unemployment in South Africa, he said the multinational mining company had shown that it did not have the ¬country’s interests at heart.

He said no jobs should be lost and stakeholders should rather engage on a strategy of how to cut unnecessary costs. He also called for the intervention of Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu.

“We call on the minister of mineral resources, for those [mine shafts] on care and maintenance, to withdraw licences and allow interested businesses to mine there,” he said.

Matunjwa said the planned closures could also be an opportunity to see how nationalisation might work on a small scale. “If Anglo insists on closing these mines, it is a window for the government to nationalise the mine and save those jobs,” he said. “

Currently the economy and the businesses that run within it are set up to only care about the bottom-line. There is little to no consideration of what actually constitutes the corporation as all the various workers as contributors within producing a particular product. When looking at companies, we evaluate them according to their profit – we don’t look at the blood, sweat and tears that go into for instance platinum mining. Thus, when a company wants to review its profits (and thus also its losses) and decides to close down some shafts in the name of ‘preserving profit’ – life is not considered valuable and is omitted from the equation of the corporation’s wellbeing – leaving many in a position of unemployment.

The Solution

Within an Equal Money Capitalism, Life is what is valued and supported – and a level of full employment must be maintained at all times. When a company requires to shut down particular departments/sites for whatever reason – the Capital as Life requires to be taken into consideration. Companies won’t be able to ‘fire’ people as this is in breach within Basic Human Rights, as firing someone without ensuring that they are able to continue contributing elsewhere - is severing their access line to income and thus severing their Basic Right to Life.

In cases where some job positions are to be eliminated, new job positions must be identified beforehand or be created within the companies’ Compassion Department.

Corporations will merely be structures of support – here to support Life and the Earth effectively. As such, companies will not be able to own natural resources such as mines, but will only be existent as facilitators – to ensure that all people receive the resources required while at the same time treating the resource with respect within managing it responsibly. 

Reward

Unemployment will cease to exist. This will alleviate a lot of doom and gloom on the minds of youngsters who are no longer faced with a grim future where Life is a gamble. People won’t have to labour their way through college and take out loans without even knowing whether all this effort and debt will ensure them financial security as employment is not guaranteed.

Knowing that Capital as Life is valued, will give each person a sense of respect and integrity - resulting in human beings who care about who they are and what they do. This quality of Life will be reflected in the quality of products produced. Not having to worry about job security, allows for peace of mind resulting in a more efficient and pleasant work sphere.  

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Day 88: Capitalism vs Socialism?

This blog-post is a continuation to: Day 82: Government Failure, Day 83: Nationalisation and Privatisation and Day 86: Who Really Pays the Taxes?

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to believe that politicians actually represent the population that elected them, without considering that the population only has a say when they cast their votes, and afterwards don't require - and thus, don't - consult with the population on matters of public policy - and thus, any representative democracy is really a fraud as voting is just done to make people feel like they are part of the decision-making - when, in the end, it is those with power and money who get to decide.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that bureaucrats are in quite powerful positions, able to influence the situation to suit their own needs, while they are not held accountable to/by the population in any way whatsoever.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that in a country/society where some have more money than others, it will always be those with the most money who actually run the country, despite elections, executive governments, parliaments and judiciary systems - because each official in government can be seduced and influenced by greed and thus, act in a way that benefits the few in spite of the many.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that, unless our monetary system is based within and operates according to the principle of equality, the public nor the private sector is suited to distribute goods and services - because, in the end, the distribution of resources is handled by individuals, who due to inequality, feel they have the right to abuse their position to distribute resoruces in a way that suits their personal desires.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that a monetary system of inequality and competition is directly responsible for the creation of crime - as all crime is an act of inequality, which is justified in the mind of the criminal by the acceptance and allowance of inequality by society as a whole.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that, unless all individuals are taken care of with the resources required to live a life of excellence in an equal way - no one can be trusted with the task of distributing resources - neither the government, nor private companies - because within inquality, the human is corrupted and acts accordingly in corrupt ways - therefore, only an equal money system can ensure efficient and equitable distribution of resources.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that taxes are not an effective way to redistribute resources among the population - by 'taking from the rich' and 'giving to the poor' - because the government is only able to specify who hands over the tax, but does not specify where it gets the money to be able to pay the tax - and thus, it is often customers who bear the real tax burden and not the owners or shareholders of the company, as companies, faced with having to pay higher taxes, simply raise their prices and, thus collect the money to pay their taxes from the customers who still require/want the goods or services they provide.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that any attempt to 'correct' market failure in terms of unequal distribution of resources will be negated by the market itself, as the whole economic system moves according to the principal of inequality, and thus ways will always be found to manifest unequal results that benefit some at the expense of others.

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