Sunday, July 18, 2010

A Lesson From The Roman Empire

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned
to repeat it. Well that’s an adage from George
Santayana (1863-1952) that has been proved many
times over. The only miracle is that it took so
long for someone to formalize the idea.

In my lifetime, very little has been discussed
about the economic impacts of slavery. One of the
books I acquired along the way is “Our Nation’s
Heritage” (1925, American Book Company, New York)
which was a school textbook at one time at Fence.
As a common teaching of facts in the 1920’s, the
book discusses the fact that as the Roman Empire
was winding down, the “free” labor of the slaves,
that had for a couple of hundred years replaced
paid labor, was shrinking because the Empire was
not so much at war as it had been in earlier times,
and warfare was the main source for slaves.

As the economy was contracting, the ruling class
became aware that they were headed into a period
where necessary goods, from food to clothing, would
become impossible to buy because as the slaves were
dying off there was no one to replace them.

Rome then passed laws, and provided oversight
throughout the empire, to assure that if a man were
a farmer, that’s the only career permitted for his
sons. Shoemakers, and tradesmen of all sorts, found
that their children were not permitted to better
themselves.

Much has been made in the 20th century about the
evils inherent in slavery. Nevertheless, it is an
institution that has been around for most of the
history of mankind. While slavery is generally
thought of as the outright ownership of one human
being by another, over time mankind has discovered
and created a different form of slavery best
described as economic enslavement.

In economic enslavement, the “owner” has no actual
investment in the slave, but reaps all the benefits
without acquiring any of the liabilities. If an
employer pays minimum wage (and in the case of
illegal immigrants they often pay less) and it
takes all 10 members of a family to earn a poverty
level of living for the group, that’s no skin off
the employer’s nose.

What has happened in the US is that inexpensive
shipping has brought even cheaper labor on the
Pacific rim into our economic sphere. While our
southern border brings us more illegal immigrants
every day, all of our significant manufacturing has
moved overseas, leaving us with millions of people
who are now partly entitled, and after the next
round of amnesty for illegal immigrants will become
100% entitled to government handout programs.

We have a growing number of individuals with no
possible way remaining to support their eventual
entitlements. Heck, we can’t afford the entitlements
we already have. Look at California and Michigan!

Rome solved her economic problems by creating a
working class. The demand for the locally produced
goods was already there and no entitlement programs
existed, making their problems far simpler.
The problems in the US could be similarly solved
by the imposition of protective tariffs, bringing
manufacturing home once more and removing the
Pacific rim from our economic sphere. Similarly we
could exempt Mexico from protective tariffs,
thereby encouraging investment in manufacturing
there, and encouraging low wage illegal immigrant
workers in the USA to return home before shutting
the southern border.

Once those things are achieved, we could impose
protective tariffs on Mexican goods, and bring all
manufacturing work home to the US if that’s what
our population and economy require for best
functioning.

Being “the nice guy” in a world that marches to the
beat of a different drummer is what has brought the
US, and the world economy, to the edge of economic
ruin. There are only two choices available. 1) Take
control of our own economy before world economic
collapse, or 2) take control of our own economy
after world economic collapse.

Wake up! Wake up America and smell the coffee!

Bill Vajk

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