-->Auszug aus dem Privateer:
For Purposes Of War - Financial Controls:
War-making governments find themselves caught in a bind of their own making. In fighting the war, all expenditures for purposes of war explode at precisely the same time as retail industry lays off en masse and as bankers see consumer loans, mortgages, car loans etc., explode - all the while being hammered with a massive withdrawal of deposited funds. Almost always, governments panic too. The government needs to ensure that the"money" is available to fight the war. So, governments step in, and one of the first acts usually resorted to is to limit cash withdrawals.
The commercial banks are saved on one flank, but promptly threatened by a massive wave of loan defaults by retailers and their suppliers on the other flank. At the same time, the general public starts a cash only black market in private garages all over the place. The increasingly desperate producers start to connect with this market and find unlicensed wholesalers, transporters, and other retailers. The private market grows. Goods are still a bit harder to find there, and they cost more, but supply is assured to good (that is - silent) customers.
There has NEVER been a war situation where the above sequence of events, or something very like it, has not happened. Once a private market for goods has sprung up, governments always react. Simply to get some goods production in"traditional" channels, a war-making government usually introduces massive subsidies to producers on the retail side while at the same time puts in place price controls on goods the public sees as necessary and"rations" goods seen as critical like petrol (gas).
At that point, de facto, a war-making government has taken total control of the civil economy.
A full"war-making" economy closely resembles what was the East German economy, a horrendous mess of subsidies and price controls, partial or full rationing. Wild screams are directed against hoarders while the government subsidies make some industries produce goods nobody wants. All along, the black markets flourish. And so do those in government who"protect" the black market - for a price. Political corruption flourishes too.
The Serf's Last Defence - The Lie:
At this point, the general public has turned two-faced in self- defence. Individuals will routinely lie right back at governments as blatantly as the war-making government lies to the public through its propaganda. Informers infest all forms of life."Private" justice is substituted for the former lawful justice. Informers are often eliminated in gruesome ways, but the government makes sure that nobody hears about that, officially, at least.
NOW, the government which started a war is truly living in fear of its own public. The public, in its turn, hates the government for its lies, all the vast costs which it has imposed, and for its control over private lives. Sooner or later, the public attacks.
The"attack" is an indirect one. The public knows better than taking on the government head to head. Instead, more and more individuals, always one by one, start to make small but critical"mistakes" at work. The"motto" in Eastern Europe was:"We pretend to work - and they pretend to pay us". Sometimes, the public works with what looks like frantic fervour, and the government applauds. Again, the example of Eastern Europe is instructive. When workers were given a task they saw as being a mistake on the part of the government, they worked with a will. But when they were given a task they thought might actually"work" - to their detriment and the government's benefit - they became incapable of following instructions, they made continual mistakes, and they stole everything in the factory that wasn't literally bolted to the floor. In short, they engaged in a subtle form of sabotage.
Against this form of indirect counter-attack, any government stands helpless.
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