{"id":9978,"date":"2010-04-21T10:37:57","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T16:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oooorgle.com\/wordpress\/?p=9978"},"modified":"2015-04-20T17:25:10","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T00:25:10","slug":"sound-money-and-schoolyard-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/sound-money-and-schoolyard-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Sound Money and Schoolyard Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"SzandorBlestman<\/a> | Let\u2019s say, for instance, that we\u2019re two kids in a schoolyard. You have a small bouncy ball that I want. Sure, I could try to knock you down and take it from you if I was a bigger and stronger kid than you, but we all know that\u2019s not very nice. That\u2019s not a very good way to make friends. Not too many people like a bully. It\u2019s also not very good economics. I might be happy, but you\u2019re not going to be. We\u2019ll call this theft. I think it\u2019s safe to say that it\u2019s more or less universally accepted that theft is wrong and those who engage in such practices need to stopped, punished and taught that theft is not acceptable no matter how big and strong one is.<\/p>\n

Suppose then, that I decide to go about trying to obtain the ball in a more civil manner. I check in my pocket and find I have some jacks. So I offer you one in exchange for the ball. You\u2019re not entirely certain about the trade, so I offer you two. You accept and now we\u2019re both happy. Simple. One plus one equals two.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s make things a little more complicated. Little Jimmy has been watching us and wants to know what\u2019s been going on. He comes over and sees your ball. Suddenly, he wants to trade for it too. He looks at what I\u2019m offering and notices that my jacks are a little worn and slightly corroded. His are nice and new and shiny. It\u2019s obvious that you, being the only one in the schoolyard with a small bouncy ball can now determine for yourself which person you want to trade with, if either, and the amount of jacks you can ask for. It\u2019s not quite as simple as earlier, but it\u2019s still voluntary and two of the three people are going to end up happy.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s go even further. Little Suzy has noticed three boys gathered together and wonders what it\u2019s all about. She comes over and sees the colorful little ball and has decided she wants it too. It turns out she has candy to trade. Well, who wouldn\u2019t trade a colorful little rubber ball for some sweet candy? The boys with the jacks are sweating it now as they dig in their pockets for more neat stuff to try to win the ball, and maybe even some candy. Things have become a little more complicated, but everyone\u2019s more or less acting civilly toward one another and no one\u2019s going to trade something for something else they don\u2019t want.<\/p>\n

Well, let\u2019s say this goes on for awhile. Other children show up with marbles, more candy, more rubber bouncing balls, jacks, dice, cards, matchbox cars, all kinds of things to trade. There\u2019s now a regular smorgasbord of trading going on. Everyone\u2019s trying to find something to trade and something to trade for. It might look a little chaotic, but all the kids are more or less satisfied with the deals they\u2019re getting. Some might be looking to trade up and get something to trade for something else, but others are getting exactly what they want and walking away. They are doing what kids do. And they are deciding for themselves what they want to receive and what they are willing to give up. Most of them are going to be happy with their trades, even those who decide to simply keep what they have and maybe try to trade again tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Ah, but now a shadow creeps onto the schoolyard. He sees the large gathering of kids, and he doesn\u2019t necessarily like what\u2019s going on. He looks in his own pocket and finds that he doesn\u2019t have much the other kids would want, and he smirks. He doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s very fair. Then he smiles. He realizes that he has something the other kids don\u2019t have. He has his size and his muscles. He\u2019s been held back a couple of years and he\u2019s the biggest and strongest kid at school. He\u2019s quite intimidating. We\u2019ll call him Dick.<\/p>\n

Dick has a pocket full of toothpicks and an idea. He marches over to the gathering determined to get a piece of the action. He quickly assesses the situation and makes the announcement that the students are no longer allowed to trade amongst themselves without his approval. There is too many of them crying that things are unfair. He is there to make sure that trade is kept as fair as possible. He is going to take all the stuff and in exchange he will give the kids an amount of toothpicks depending on the stuff they have. Only the kids he decides will trade in a fair manner will be able to trade the other stuff for the toothpicks. He will then allow the kids to use the toothpicks to get back their stuff and to \u201cbuy\u201d other stuff. But, they\u2019re not just regular toothpicks he\u2019s giving out, they\u2019re special toothpicks colored in a way only he can color them, with marks only he can make because he wants to be certain he\u2019s the only one who can give out the toothpicks.<\/p>\n

You would think the rest of the kids would just walk away at this point and take their fair trade somewhere else, but there\u2019s a problem. What I neglected to tell you about Dick is that he hangs out with a few other big kids after school and they happen to know that if they don\u2019t do as he says, it\u2019ll be more than him they have to worry about. They know they\u2019ll get beat up. These kids are scared. They know that defying Dick is not a smart thing to do if they want to avoid a beating. Most reluctantly give into his demands and go along to get along, despite how badly they may feel about themselves for not having the guts to stand up to Dick. He takes note of those who do manage to sneak away and avoid him, or those who do speak up. He\u2019ll get his retribution on them soon and everyone will know what happened when they see the kid\u2019s bruises. They\u2019ll all certainly fall into line after that.<\/p>\n

Now no one is happy, except for maybe Dick and his goons. The kids all walk away from the gathering grumbling harshly with their pockets filled with mostly worthless toothpicks. Dick has all the good stuff. They are hoping that they\u2019ll be able to get their stuff back, but they are filled with uncertainty. They are simply too small to do anything about it if Dick decides to be a dick and keep the stuff. Their trading frenzy, and hence their prosperity, has come to an end. Read Entire Article<\/a><\/p>\n

By Szandor Blestman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SzandorBlestman | Let\u2019s say, for instance, that we\u2019re two kids in a schoolyard. You have a small bouncy ball that I want. Sure, I could try to knock you down and take it from you if I was a bigger and stronger kid than you, but we all know that\u2019s not very nice. That\u2019s not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[341,758,130],"class_list":["post-9978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-coercive","tag-government","tag-voluntary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}