Das Capital Is Inside Your Head

A glaring example of "false education" comes to all of us almost every day as some pseudo-economist or the other in Nude Elly, that too, from atop Raisina Hill, makes pronouncements on future "rates of growth" of the "national economy": both concepts are false. The latest is that the GDP will grow @ 8.56% next year, an extremely precise "measurement," that too of an amorphous "aggregate," looking into the very uncertain future.

Capital is a "mental category" inside your head, along with "income." These mental categories, both part of the "logical structure of the human mind," enable the illiterates on the banks of the Narmada here, those who herd cattle and goats in the manner of their ancient forebears, perform mental "economic calculation" within their minds so as to ensure they consume "income" and no more; indeed, that they consume less than income, so that they "save," and their Capital, the size of the herd, keeps growing - which is "capital accumulation." Cowboys in America did this. Sheep ranchers in Australia do the same.

Capitalism is therefore about each and every Individual, with his own mind, superintending all affairs pertaining to his own Capital. While the mental category of Capital is inside our heads, the actual stuff is usually material - and thus we have Individual Private Property. Since each must look after his own Property and Capital, one very important question that arises in inflationary times is regarding "store of value." Inflationism robs savers. Fiat currency no longer serves the purpose of a stable store of value. Gold, silver, art, land - people are preferring alternatives. For a simple reason: if you store your Capital in these forms, it will increase in value.

Whereas illiterate goatherds, shepherds and cowherds ensure capital accumulation (we call it "animal husbandry") the constant decline in the value of the fiat paper currency is because our The State is engaging in the very opposite form of behaviour: Capital Consumption. That is "deficit financing." Air India, the railways, the electricity boards, education, NREGA, salaries of millions of staffers - all this is "consumption." Not a "good shepherd" at all. Rather, the very Predatory State.

The idea of "limited government" means three things: firstly, limited by Law in its ability to use coercion, compulsion and force; second, limited by Parliament in its greed for taxation; and third, limited finally by the Budget voted.

It is only because of "unlimited democratic government" that the currency is in constant decline. The State is abusing its money monopoly to fund itself. The problem before each citizen as the Proprietor of his own Capital is, as I just pointed out, how to "store value" - into the uncertain future. The best advice I can offer the citizen is to press for an end to the money monopoly. We must be free to choose media of exchange as well as stores of value. Further, there must not be any taxes or customs duties on gold and silver. We must also be free to write contracts into the future in gold and silver - and this includes bank deposits.

If this is achieved, each Individual will be able to accumulate capital - the pathway to civilisation. Simultaneously, the pseudo-economists captaining the Pirate Ship of State will find their power to endlessly fund themselves at public expense suddenly withdrawn. They will be forced to adjust their own conduct. They will be "limited" - at least in the "economic" sense.

Collective statistics on the "national economy" are dangerous in the precise sense that all publicly held lies are dangerous. Capitalism is inside your own head, with you as the planner and proprietor - the ultimate decision maker - of what is your own. Since the future is uncertain, all your actions will be "speculative" as you try to store value, or invest speculatively in enterprise. The fact is that the pseudo-economists of the "national economy" are making things difficult for you - not only by inflationism, but by its inevitable consequence, the increase in uncertainty that results, the endless booms and busts.

Capital is a mental category, Capital is Private Property, and Capitalism is therefore all about Private Economies - billions of them. Capitalism has nothing to do with the false concept of "national economy" - which forms the principal false public education that the pseudo-economists from Nude Elly's Raisina Hill regularly engage in.