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Father Son Cracking Safe

SO, WHAT'S YOUR JOB ANYWAYS? - CONT'D

Zimbabwe - Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

Not a clue when was this one created, but they are famous for bringing you the eye-popping One Hundred Trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill. With this kind of reference, they must be really good at what they do.

Task

Translation

Management of public debt and portfolio

Yes, begging is at the top of the list. No money no spending no political jobs. First things first.

Accounting

Again, making sure all formalism are taken care in all government "creative accounting" practices while ensuring you pay taxes down to every accounted penny. Politicians need funding, never forget that.

Budget

Key element. Who will get how much is critical in determining which politician stays in power. Cushy jobs are there to stay.

Mobilise financial resources to finance Government Programmes

We didn't even bother summarizing this one, so funny it is. Basically it reads: do whatever it takes to fund political expenditures to ensure politicians keep their jobs. Nice one!

Facilitate and participate in the negotiations related to domestic and international mobilisation of resources

Ahh…yes. Con other countries and international organizations in giving us money. It is a dirty job but somebody has to do it.

Tax

Well, now that the second prong of the unholy trinity is covered, we can turn our attention to the first one. Robbing you is always a good sport, particularly if it keeps politicians in their cushy jobs.

Give policy guidelines to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe

Wow! We seldom see the third prong of the unholy trinity spelled so clearly. Basically it means; PRINT!

Statistics and economic reviews

Even in Zimbabwe, highly educated apparatchiks are required to justify whatever it is that politicians need justified in economic terms. Good to know that democratic practises have taken hold.

MODUS OPERANDI

Police forces throughout the world have this expression "Modus Operandi" which in Latin means "Ways of Working". They are, of course, referring to the ways of working of criminals. Ministries in charge of stealing your wealth are most certainly not criminal organizations simply because criminality is determined by laws, not by deeds. They are, however, deeply illegitimate because Social Contracts Are A Scam (if you would like to know about a so-called social contract that it is not a scam, please read The Absolute Austro-Libertarian Social Contract).

The interesting observations that can be summarized from our little statistical sample above are as follows.

  1. All Ministries use the unholy trinity (tax, borrow and print) and they never use honest money (Real Money For A Real Economy).
  2. All Ministries retain control of how your money will be wasted (i.e. Budgets).
  3. All Ministries manipulate and control the markets, financial or otherwise.
  4. All Ministries provide deeply flawed economic justifications for doing what they are doing.

Daddy, what do you do for a living?

Taking all that into consideration, if we would be ministers of stealing your wealth, we would be deeply ashamed should this question would be posed to us. But the point is that we are not (ministers of stealing) but other people with other morals and ethics are (see Government Morality). They have no problem whatsoever stealing your hard earned money. We, on the other hand, think vastly differently (see Austro-Libertarian Morals And Ethics).

Why would politicians do this?

Because they are attracted to whichever place the highest amount of money with the highest discretionary wasting spending may be located. And this location is these ministries. Consider that even a dinky little country such as Zimbabwe has a yearly budget in excess of 3 Billion USD!!! Which politician or bureaucrat will be willing to reject a slice of such large pie on ethical or moral grounds? We wager that not many, if any. It is for this very same reason that we are Absolute Libertarians, because we do not rely on the hope that some authority over us may behave in a moral or ethical ground. This hope has been proven time and time again to be false and baseless. We rely on something more basic, fundamental and distributed: your very own self-interest. We don't need authorities because everybody is watching their own properties. In such a system it does not matter what moral or ethical position you may have, the system itself won't allow you to impose it or abuse anybody else.

ARE WE SLIGHTLY BIASED?

Bias? Bias? What bias? We are thoroughly objective to the point of being cold blooded. We are only guided by statistically vetted numbers and information which has been thoroughly reviewed by our in-house team of professional statisticians, led by our tireless dog (don't call him Fluffy, he does not like it).

Of course! we are biased. It could not be otherwise. If you are fed-up, pissed-of, irritated to no end, upset, disgusted, and generally in a pissy mood, you would be biased too.

The point we are trying to make is relatively simple: Ministries of Finance (or Economy or Treasury or whatever they choose to call themselves) are simply political tools to keep politicians and bureaucrats in power.

Additionally (there is always something else) all those government programs do help some people in some instances at some price. We are not dismissing this help. The problem is that the overall price is ridiculously high because it is costing us higher (much, much higher) standards of living (see Piketty Fences). The point is that governments are wasteful to no end while pursuing political goals; the most important one being to keep their jobs and positions of privilege. This is not something unusual because politicians -just like everybody else- are greedy people. The problem is that they satisfy their needs not by serving their customers by creating new and cheaper goods and services, but by robbing your money and wasting it (and yes, helping some people in the process, but even this is deeply perturbing; see Socialism - The Most Addictive Drug).

CONCLUSION

Ministries of stealing your wealth are there to… well… steal your wealth. They are not here to improve or manage an economy (which is a self-optimizing system anyways) or to provide for your social service needs or to ensure financial stability (the most recent economic debacle in 2008 proves that much quite eloquently). Not only they do not do this, but in the process they steal your money. Did we mention this?

What is most surprising at all is not that this information is there in the open since most people suspect as much at the least. What is most surprising is that this pathetic state of events is the "standard" to which most "democracies" aspire to. This state of events is "normal". So brainwashed are people that they believe that if a thief reaches into your pocket and steals your money this is OK just because it wears a label called "government". This is not OK. This was not OK in the past and it is not OK now and it won't be OK in the future. It is not OK to get used to this. It is not OK to just accept it. It is not OK to be part of the herd. Get used to this situation because it is changing and change will only accelerate... albeit not as fast as we would like it; but it is happening.

Unless you are one of those people who enjoys being robbed. Unless you are one of those people who lives off the kindness of governments. Unless you have given up and simply don't care as long as checks and direct deposits keep coming. That's OK. That's your right. One warning though, what are you going to do when they stop?

Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.

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