(NaturalNews) I'd like to share a lesson in economics today, and I call it the "Production, Coercion and Theft" lesson.
There are only three ways to accumulate money and wealth in world (other than stumbling across a hidden treasure and actually finding money, that is):
#1) Production: Offer something of value in exchange for money voluntarily traded by recipients
#2) Coercion: Confiscate money (or stores of value) by claiming authority over those who earn it
#3) Theft: Steal money (or stores of value) from those who already have it
Every person in society today acquires money in these three ways (with "gifting" being a fourth way that's in a separate category because it's passive, not active). The office worker, the entrepreneur, the laborer, the weekend burglar and even the professional politician all acquire money in one of these three primary ways.
Production means offering something of value to another party who is willing to trade you dollars for it. It can include both goods and services. A 9-5 office worker, for example, offers the value of their time and effort, and in exchange they are compensated at an agreed upon pay rate.
Production can also mean adding value to physical goods. We do this at the Natural News Store by sourcing organic superfoods from around the world and packaging them in pouches and cans for retail in the USA. This is a classic example of value-added production.
Out of the three methods of money accumulation covered here, production is the only one that adds abundance to the economy. The other two methods reduce wealth and ultimately promote poverty.
Coercion means forcing someone to give you money. This is the default method of all government bodies, from your local property tax collector to the federal IRS. Coercion means extracting money from someone in a non-mutually-agreed (i.e. "non-voluntary" ) way.
A mugging is money extraction via coercion. Ironically, it is almost identical to taxation: There is a threat of force stated or implied, followed by a request for a certain amount of money: "Give me your wallet" or "Pay $12,453.24." Your compliance results in the source of the coercion taking your money then moving on to their next victim. Non-compliance results in you either being shot, stabbed, arrested at gunpoint or stripped of other possessions you may own.
Theft is different from coercion in that there is no interaction at all between two parties. Theft is when someone breaks into your house and steals your flat screen TV when you're not even there. Or it's when someone breaks into your online bank account and transfers all your money to an offshore crime haven in Nigeria.
Theft is what recently happened in Cyprus, where banksters stole 40% or more of private account balances, later stealing 60% or more of many business accounts. It wasn't coercion because there was no threat of force, nor any compliance on your part. You simply wake up one morning and find that your bank account, your truck, your wallet or your laptop computers is missing. That's theft... and that's how the global banking system fundamentally functions.
Another advanced kind of theft is committed by the Federal Reserve. By printing new money, it steals the value of all the money you currently hold. This is called "currency theft" but a full discussion of it is beyond the scope of this lesson. For now, let's stick to simple theft and coercion.
The illusion of compliance
Governments typically shy away from engaging in outright theft. Why? Because they hope to create the illusion of voluntary compliance. By coercing you into giving up your money "voluntarily," they avoid the appearance if outright stealing money or property from you. You "agreed" to pay your taxes, didn't you?
In certain cases, of course, the government does engage in outright theft. This is called "eminent domain" and it means the government simply claims ownership of something you own (usually some land or a building), then decides how much money to pay you for it. The government claims the right to steal from you for "the common good," implying that the benefit of some is more important than protecting the private property rights of all.
Theft is also carried out through misrepresentation and fraud. If a used car salesman sells you a 2005 Chevy pickup with "only 25,000 miles" on it, but it turns out they hacked the odometer and the vehicle actually has 300,000 miles on it, that's misrepresentation and fraud.
This is very common in the food industry where "extra virgin olive oil" often turns out to be cut with GMO canola oil. Or where "tuna fish" actually isn't from tuna. In the health supplements market, misrepresentation and fraud is also common among heavily-hyped "miracle" supplements that claim impossible results. Acai weight loss pills are a good example.
Misrepresentation and fraud is how virtually the entire system on Wall Street operates, by the way. It's all a numbers game
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