Omega wrote: "I do agree, however, that something needs to be done to stop tyrannical practices running rampant under the guise of capitalism."

Me: It begins with caring. I appreciated your reply.

I'm not advocating communism. That would be more democracy, which is the problem. Democracy means 'humankind without God'. Most of those who advocate theocracy are still advocating democracy, in fact. If it's man made, and it involves a 'rejection' of God, then it's both democratic and faulty. Faulty is faulty. Stalinism was faulty, and a bad system. So is capitalism. And both came from imperfect humans dreaming up ideas about how to run their societies and the world. Human limitation is not the problem, when we aren't trying to work without God. But we weren't mean to be imperfect the way we are. This imperfection makes allowance for all kinds of folly, including serious folly such as Stalinism, past and present.

I agree with a lot of what people say democracy means, actually. But I am a theocrat. As for money, I think if it was gone tomorrow, everywhere, we'd do just fine. For one thing, they'd stop making guns, eventually, with no one to sell them to. The focus would be on what we need to do to survive, and that would involve doing other things. And everyone - not just 'wage' and 'literal' slaves - would have to pull up their sleeves and pitch in.

When you don't have a boss (nice or nasty) who is going to withold your money/life from you if you don't work for him or her, that's a pretty compelling reason to work for yourself, especially if the alternative is starvation or freezing in the cold because you don't have shelter or heat. And neighbors would have to help each other out, not with exhortations to spend and make the economy work - something that millions can't do now, making such a general exhortation perverse - but in real, practical ways. There would be no more of this centralization and hierarchy, with a few making decisions, behind closed doors, that have consequences not just for them, but the wider society. (That's your typical 'democratic' corporation. Look at agriculture in our developed democracies, and in all places where the capitalists call the shots. It's highly centralized and vertically integrated, and the farmers are mere serfs without any economic security and with no freedom to manage their farms the way they see fit. - What do the farmers own, now that Monsanto et al, have claimed everything, including all crop seeds etc, as their own?! - That's exactly how it was in Soviet Russia. The only thing that's changed in agriculture from the model we saw in Soviet Russia, is the boss.) If your (former) boss lives next door to you in such a suddenly moneyless world, then he's going to help you with whatever he has that you don't have, and vice versa, because if he doesn't, then he won't get the help from you and others, when you all have what he needs to keep warm and not starve.

Money is a part of this system of things. It's not just money that has to go, but this entire system of things, including the perverted capitalist idea of private property. (I believe in private property, but not the capitalist kind. Look at the bio-prospecting and biopiracy going on. Look at the way patent law is being extended to areas it was never meant to be extended to.) If you are trying to imagine money disappearing, while the rest of this system remains, then, yes, that's going to be difficult. On the other hand, It's not hard to see that money just doesn't work. It's there to enable greed and slavery, things you are either for or against, in my opinion.

But it's a free universe. And it's nice to be able to talk to people about these things, agreeing and disagreeing freely and without rancour. And I have no problem with people disagreeing with me. That's because the world, and it's future, doesn't depend on Arby's own efforts. Yes, We are meant to manage ourselves. But we are not our own savior. At least that's my view.

**RIAA: I Am Most Definitely Interested In Hurting Your Revenue Stream. Pay Your Artists And All Of Your Taxes, For Starters.**