Slavery

In all my reading of traditional history, whose unfortunate sway is near-universal, there is greatly important emphasis on the levels of production achieved.  But there is rarely any talk about the constantly occuring phenomenon of needless overproduction due to enslavement.  In the distant past, it seems that mainly the rulers benefitted from consuming high levels of wealth, which as such equates to waste.  The industrial revolution unleashed ever more mindblowing opportunities to produce wealth/waste, yet Marx still had to respond to the slavery which resulted when machines that produced at levels unlike anything ever seen before were not producing enough.  

Future levels of wealth never seem to be enough.  For some, doubling or tripling is desirable.  Others have the foresight to know that given certain key tools, wealth can be squared, or cubed, or raised to the tenth power.  And to do that, once a few eyes are brightened by the possibility-turned-inevitability of magic happening, slaves WILL BE HAD.  It was not enough to discover the "new world" and be content with absurdly rich and abundant land, incomparable to Europe.  The land alone was an excellent and robust wealth multiplication.  And it was not enough to take over full empires with productive goldmine operations, and for what cost?  Maybe 3 cents to the dollar or less?  Those were some good deals, and the shareholders were pleased with the high level of dividends they could now waste.  Not pleased enough though.  It was also not enough for the many astute analysts of the day to contemplate the incredible potential of European mass-colonization to the new lands.  So they worked their way right up to the limits of human tolerance, as usual.  

Now our minds are left boggled when imagining how many months-long trips were made across the Atlantic, back and forth, back and forth, to transport millions of African agricultural force-multipliers.  How many could possibly fit on one ship?  Well, cargo-space was fully utilized--the motto has always been "less waste."  Still, how many trips, approximately?  It seems that the global financial system is a similar new product, discovery, invention, innovation, paradigm--call it what you will.  It is incomparably powerful compared to similar technologies of the past, and still very much changing and developing.  It is very new. 

I think the crises are surface shocks that may one day actually bring about major destruction, but it's the tectonic plates that are truly impressive.  As a statistical matter, the magnitude of any crisis is dwarfed by the underlying strength that drives it--over the cliff sometimes.  A small crisis is also a good thing, and sometimes necessary to maintain course.  And a whole series of small crises managed appropriately is a very good thing--it's called a balanced economy, and even a balanced life.  I believe in advancement, in slow historical change.  But the full undoing of simple and clearly graspable North American slavery still isn't finished.  The restoration of Native Americans is even less finished.  Capitalism is so not finished that it's praised endlessly.  

The financial structures that move the world economy are mainstays of capitalism, and transactions that can yield a billion dollar profit on good days without creating anything but small changes in psychological valuation spread globally have not run their course--they are way too institutionally entrenched, despite all the bank failures.  It will take messianic change.  Half a million Americans died in the Civil War, and that wasn't messianic enough.  This is because messianic change is generally unavailable, and possibly a complete fantasy.  And so I believe in incremental, painfully slow advancement.

We know the ones that are leading the current charge in the latest technological frenzy, and we know the ones that are incentivised and/or directly shipped in to strengthen the cast-iron balance sheets.  They ARE made of cast-iron.  But they could always use 21st century titanium plates for additional strengthening, if only we knew how to make them... But wait a minute, we do know how!  We just figured it out!  And what with how fast everything is happening, we probably should make them five meters thick if we could just ...  I mean, who's against additional titanium-plated reinforcement?  It is honorable, dignified labor to produce them for $13/hr, which is more than the competition pays.  If only polygamy could be legalized again, a large, healthy, hard-working family might even be able to afford one, eventually.

As a caveat, I have little or no real idea of what the fuck I'm talking about.  And I certainly want to employ people making titanium plates.  Currently, I am employed making titanium plates.