Category: Economics, Finance, and Political Economy

Jan 5, 2020, 5:20 PM Proximity decreases opportunity costs (time). Decreases in opportunity costs increase transactions. Increases in transactions increase monetary velocity. Monetary velocity increases the possibility of consumption. Increases in consumption increase the possibility of taxation. An increase in taxation increases the possibility of commons. Increases in commons produce increases in demand for use (if not consumption) Increase in use of commons creates demand for government An increase in demand for the government creates increases in opportunities for rent. Increase in opportunity for rent increase rents. Increases in rents decrease the opportunity for commons and consumption and… you see where this goes. There is greater incentive and control in accessing rents than in creating or using commons or production. As in all cases rents accumulate until maintenance of commons is impossible Incomes decline. Rents and debt remain. Top margin leaves. Leaving only extractors (financial sector), and rent extractors (dependence and the state). Finally the major industries leave. And that’s it. Urban death follows. The only possibility is external wealth, such as Byzantium could extract as trade moved through the narrow straights. This is why the middle east is a disaster. It evolved to specialize in parasitism not production. When the trade route fell because of the age of sail it was dark ages for them, just as the Muslim destruction of Mediterranean trade caused the economic dark ages in Europe. The Hamster Wheel of economics.

Jan 5, 2020, 5:20 PM Proximity decreases opportunity costs (time). Decreases in opportunity costs increase transactions. Increases in transactions increase monetary velocity. Monetary velocity increases the possibility of consumption. Increases in consumption increase the possibility of taxation. An increase in taxation increases the possibility of commons. Increases in commons produce increases in demand for use (if not consumption) Increase in use of commons creates demand for government An increase in demand for the government creates increases in opportunities for rent. Increase in opportunity for rent increase rents. Increases in rents decrease the opportunity for commons and consumption and… you see where this goes. There is greater incentive and control in accessing rents than in creating or using commons or production. As in all cases rents accumulate until maintenance of commons is impossible Incomes decline. Rents and debt remain. Top margin leaves. Leaving only extractors (financial sector), and rent extractors (dependence and the state). Finally the major industries leave. And that’s it. Urban death follows. The only possibility is external wealth, such as Byzantium could extract as trade moved through the narrow straights. This is why the middle east is a disaster. It evolved to specialize in parasitism not production. When the trade route fell because of the age of sail it was dark ages for them, just as the Muslim destruction of Mediterranean trade caused the economic dark ages in Europe. The Hamster Wheel of economics.