America's History of Empowering Wealth: Optimizing America Booklets, #2

By Jarl Jensen

Is life getting better? At the accelerating rate of advancing technologies? Food availability, income, and life span are up for the lucky few while disease, child mortality, and violence are barely improving for the rest all across the globe. The world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper but are still not accessible for the vast majority. Population growth is slowing but is exploding in the poorest countries and declining in the wealthier. Africa is still far behind following Asia out of poverty. The Internet and the mobile phone are invading people's private lives as never before. The optimists who dominate public discourse insist that we will soon reach a turning point and things will start to get better for the poor. But they have been saying this for two hundred years.

Yet Jarl Jensen does more than describe how things are not getting better. He explains why and offers solutions. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else which can only happen when everybody has money. The habit of exchange and specialization—which started more than 100,000 years ago—has been undermined by the debt driven economy over the last 100 years. The mutual dependence on debt are causes for despair and prevents us from living with abundance.

This bold book covers the entire sweep of America's economic history, from the Constitution to the Great Recession, from the creation of the Federal Reserve to the creation of FIAT money. It ends with declaration of change that we can not, should not and must not continue to let the commercial banks of the world unnecessarily force economic limitations on the rest of us. Acute, refreshing, and revelatory, 'America's History of Empowering Wealth' will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jarl Jensen
• Release date: Jun 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386511809

Book preview

America’s History of Empowering Wealth

Understanding the Consequence of Money Controlling Political Power

An Optimizing America Booklet Series

By Jarl Jensen

ISBN: 9781717949783

Copy Right 2018

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‘THE BIG SOLUTION’ is now available

The vision and the thinking we need.

–JACK CANFIELD, AUTHOR, CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL

A comprehensive way out to an exciting society where everyone has the opportunity to live a fulfilling life.

–RICHARD CASSATA, WALL STREET BOND TRADER

Contents

The Constitution and the Problem with Representational Government

What America Can Learn From the Economic Failure of 1861

History of Our Financial System — How Banks Ended Up in the Federal Reserve

The Dark Beginnings of America’s Federal Reserve

How German Manipulation of Currency Lead to Global Monetary Rules After WWII

The Bretton Woods Agreement and the New Global Order

America’s Addiction to Debt

The Consequences of a Slave Nation

Why ‘Trade War’ is an Oxymoron

Nixon’s Devastating Legacy

Why the Government Keeps Bailing Out the Banks

The Misplaced Economic Policies in a Representative Democracy

OPTIMIZNG AMERICA

Chapter 4 Cocktails with the Arts Department

Chapter 5 The Payout

The Constitution and the Problem with Representational Government

There is a lot of hypocrisy in American political history. The Civil War had as much to do with business interests as a desire to end slavery, for example. Or take the Federal Reserve. An entity created to stabilize the consumer economy has created a nation built on debt that only serves the interests of the financial sector.

But perhaps the largest hypocrisy of all is the Constitution. Written in the guise of democracy and emancipation from the tyranny of European monarchs, it only served to underscore deep lines of inequality already well-formed in American society. Like it or not, the Constitution was written by wealthy property owners at a time when slavery still existed. The result was a partial representational democracy designed to shed light on property owners only - and leave the rest of the population in darkness. 

The Purpose of the Constitution

The founding fathers were rich white men with considerable economic and social power. Although they may have tried to move beyond individual biases, the Constitution they drafted set strict limits on voting rights. Only those with property could vote – which at the time meant rich white men ONLY.

Why was property such a defining feature?

A few assumptions lay beneath the decision to limit voting rights to property owners. Including:

Slaves should not be able to vote. There was no question about slaves remaining below the standard of acceptable American citizenship. Of course, the only way to keep them from joining civil society was to make property ownership a prerequisite for voting.

Only the wealthiest landowners could vote. There were "landed qualifications" for voters to determine whether or not they were sufficiently wealthy to have a say. 

Property owners have more of a vested interest in politics than the landless. James Madison wrote that property rights are as important as personal rights. He also wrote that these areas of life are the two greatest subjects on which governments are to act. The founding fathers assumed the first and foremost task of government was to control the interaction of conflicting economic interests.

They believed pure democracy was weak. The goal of the Constitution was never to create a genuinely democratic state. The assumption was that genuine democracy was a vulnerable system, one that would inevitably lead to the dissolution of private property. As Madison wrote elsewhere in The Federalist, the landless proletariat fighting for their collective rights would usurp the primacy of individual property rights. Privileged white men with property and power could not stand for such upheaval.

Based on these assumptions, the founding fathers created a representational democracy designed to defend and support the primacy of individual property rights. But was it done out of selfish interest or the good of the country?

If you ask Charles Beard, the founding fathers used property rights to protect personal economic interest rather than defend the principle of land ownership for all. In his progressive take on the economic rationale behind the Constitution, Beard argues that a cohesive elite were involved in drafting the Constitution to suit their ends and keep the landless laborers out of politics.

Wealth Should Not Equal Importance

Frankly, who can argue with Beard’s take on the matter? We can see the impact of the Constitution still today. Rich people control the opinions of elected representatives because they fund vast portions of the election campaign. All this comes  at the expense of the majority – which is ironically how the founding fathers wanted it.

Progressive leaders through the years have done exceptional work to get voting rights for women and African Americans. However, until we ban unlimited political donations, the inequality enshrined in the Constitution will continue to leave average citizens in the dark.

The Wealthy Control Both Political Parties

The influence of wealth on elected officials goes beyond voting.  The laws that are passed by our elected officials are often written by lobbyists.  Lobbyism is a burgeoning industry that is tantamount to legal bribery.  Politicians leave office a lot wealthier than when they enter, the system is virtuous for those politicians that support the interests of their wealthy donors.  However, always putting money interest first is often unproductive. Just look at America’s health care costs, it’s military industrial complex and, of course, the Federal Reserve.

Finally, let’s recognize that both Democrats and Republicans are funded by lobbyists.  This realization should make you realize that the political lines are drawn to keep the population divided on issues the lobbyists do not care about.  So, while the average citizen thinks the other party is crazy, the lobbyists are writing legislation and getting it passed into law.  The media plays the role of catering to the left or the right, never delving deep enough into any issue to expose their own hypocrisy.  Because, let’s face it, half the country can’t disagree with the other half unless both sides were being hypocrites.  So, if you understand why Democrats are the same as Republicans and vice versa, then you are close to the solution.

What America Can Learn From the Economic Failure of 1861

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The American Civil War was as much an economic struggle as an ideological one. Lincoln often spoke about why slavery had to end in order for American society to actually reflect its founding principles of democracy and human liberty. However, emancipation was not the only reason to take up arms against the South. By 1861 a number of economic forces had crystallized into a seemingly unsustainable mix of rich Southern plantation owners who refused to pay taxes, and a burgeoning industrial economy in the North looking for a supply of workers and a new consumer market. As Tony Horwitz writes in his 150 year reflection on the Civil War, historians now agree that "very few