The Catskill Chronicle

By Mort Malkin

In the beginning there was free trade. Only goods were exchanged – as yet, there was no such thing as money or securitized derivatives. Trade between settlements or towns was established around 7000 BCE, four millennia before writing was invented. Economics came before literature, just like today. A few examples:

Catal Huyuk, a most ancient city in southern Anatolia (present day Turkey), traded obsidian for various useful goods such as olives and barley. Olive oil was valuable for use in oil lamps, an essential for romantic evenings. Barley was used to make beer, the first alcoholic beverage. The obsidian, from the volcanoes around Catal Huyuk, was used for making scrapers and knives. The Catalians were wise enough to trade a material of work for products of play – an advanced marketing concept back in 7000 BCE.

In ancient Egypt and in Mesopotamia, lapis lazuli was used for ornaments and occasionally for stamp and cylinder seals. These artifacts date to the fourth millennium. The only source for the royal blue mineral was the mines in the wilds of Afghanistan. There being no chariots and no Orient Express, the thousand mile journey had to be made on foot and by donkey, a travel tradition that is still relied upon in that region today. Trade, but still no currency.

A little later, perhaps the second or third millennium BCE, the sea people of Phoenicia (present day Lebanon) became adept sailors. The Mediterranean became a choice trade route. The Phoenician cities could sell their products to Egypt and towns along the North African coast. Tyrian Purple dye was much sought after and Sidonian glass was especially pure and clear.

Then, about 700 BCE, a new world order came into being. King Croesus of Lydia (central Turkey) collected taxes based on a percentage of his own weight in gold. To keep his tax collectors honest he issued flat chunks of 22K gold of a specific weight which the people could use to pay their taxes.

These staters became a medium of exchange in their own right for various goods and services. Barter, which had served mankind well for six millennia, was as passé as yesterday’s gossip. Capitalism was born. But, the new ism was soon called into question. The Romans started to debase their silver coins, and Jesus was upending the tables of the money lenders in Jerusalem.

Fast forward to today. Capitalism has reached new heights of greed and a few of the other deadly sins. America today is the standard of sliced & diced Capitalism and all the ills thereof. There is a huge disparity of wealth between the richest and poorest Americans. The typical CEO of a large corporation now receives (not earns) over 400 times the pay of the average worker – an all time record. There are 40 million Americans living below the poverty line, many of them with jobs. The official unemployment rate of almost 10% can be doubled when you count those who have given up looking or who do an occasional paying gig to keep body and soul together. Many who have full time jobs are working longer hours at the same pay. New labor contracts are being offered at lower wages. Management explains patiently that if labor costs are not contained, the corporation will just have to move to Panama or Dubai. For US labor it’s: mucho trabajo, poco dinero.

Never mind that we citizens are financially challenged, the Fed and the White House say “go shopping, spend money.” Wall Street says you don’t need actual money, you can borrow from your 401k. The advertising industry provides the power behind the marketing, surrounding us with enticements for more: food, clothing, cars, Viagra …  Even PBS and NPR accept “underwriting.” Buy, buy, buy!  But of course, the corporate community has responsibility only to the stockholders, to the bottom line. All that is valuable in society is measured in money, even the components of the Gross National Product (GDP). Social responsibility is for churches, kindergarten teachers, parents, and environmental wackos such as Greenpeace. The government must fund only the Pentagon and private military contractors.

Besides minimizing government funding for social services, food stamps, Medicaid, aid to dependent children … ta rah, rah, rah, we need not provide taxpayer money for the arts, the humanities, and public radio. That’s what philanthropy is supposed to be for. Our public schools are pioneers in shrinking government – they’ve already cut classes for music and art. It’s more important to prepare students for the (low salaried) job market. Liberal arts? On the contrary, we need crass utilitarity. All homage to the Market God.

Everything must be privatized: public schools, prisons, even the military. Our ambassadors may need some classes in meditation so they won’t become nervous about Blackwater security contractors watching their backs.

With all the focus on profits, with values measured in dollars, with enough money to maintain over 700 military bases around the globe, one would think the US was an economic superpower and that the dollar was king of currencies everywhere. To the contrary, the US has neither credit nor credibility. We are the world’s number one debtor nation. The countries of the Near East and Far East who hold a trillion dollars worth of US Treasuries are afraid to ask for the money lest the request cause the full faith & credit of the US to be downgraded from AAA to the level of credit default swaps.

But, the idea of exceptionalism is growing in the US. We don’t have to care what the rest of the world thinks of us. We can have a culture of personal responsibility for the working class at the same time as a policy of kindness for the corporations who need a few tax breaks, subsidies, and mineral depletion allowances. Corporations are people, too. The Supreme Court has so ruled. May the American Dream be with us. Greed is good in the home of you’re on your own.

Capitalism? So it’s Capitalism.