GUEST BLOG: Tadhg Stopford – Contact Energy Chair spins sin?

One of the basic problems of Western Civilisation today, is the corporation, “for it has neither a soul to damn nor a body to kick”. Which would be good at times, because it doesnt like competition, its psychopathic, and its legally obliged to be greedy.

Yet greed is a root sin.

This sin is shared by many of its owners and managers.

The billionaire class; and its staff of deodorant salesmen, bankers, lobbyists, accountants, lawyers, paid for politicians, landlords and Epsteiners is Caligula level Roman Empire. You know this. Its Trumpian.

Here, and there; at home, and abroad. Just at different scales.

In other Civilisations, there is some strategic thought. Some sense of national purpose and pride. But in the West, all seems shallow. Lacking in morality and reason.

Without values like honesty, truth, virtue and prudence, is all lost for the 99%?

I think we need a real change. We have had our current cultural and economic dumpster fire “normalised” as ‘admirable’ since the 1980s, but Western Civilisation is driving itself into fascism. You do not have to be a genius to see this.

At fifty one years of age and a lifetime of studying the world, Im not optimistic about the status quo. Britain is locking people up for opposing genocide. The USA is enabling genocide. Israel is doing genocide. NZs govt., says, “its complicated”, leaving us one of ten countries not to recognise Palestine as a state. The same Palestine that is engraved on the wall of Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Meanwhile, the West has lost the arms race to China and Russia, and a trade war, and increasingly control of the world economy. Our ruling class are what Plato called ‘the wealth addicted’. They are incapable of the leadership we need.

Wealth addiction is how the West became SNAFU.

Through hubris, greed, short sighted financial parasites, and arrogant amorality. Through a self defeating strategy of looting our own people and nations of wealth. Through giving our natural resource wealth to corporations who dont pay much tax, and hide their profits through transfer pricing. Through outsourcing industrial manufacture, and own Military Industrial supply chains. Through being so zero sum aggressive that the rest of the world has felt forced to unite against us, and to construct an alternative global architecture.

Accordingly, here in one of the richest countries in the world by resources per capita, our political class have stopped using government to develop the wealth of the nation. Instead, their bankster poliocies have let us be exploited as a basic bitch resource colony/ holiday spot / Armageddon bunker paradise.

Do you think its smart that some of the richest gold deposits in the world have been allowed to sit unexplored by the state for a century? Why have we not employed our people, developed our industry, and increased our wealth?

Similarly, the crown jewel of ‘think big’ (the Maui Gas field) was basically given to BP and the Todd family. Norway parlayed their windfall resources into a massive sovereign wealth fund. We gave ours away and ran it down without reinvesting in much else. Now, we are running out of gas and theres no follow up plan I can see.

Economically, there is room for improvement. But to get there, we need to reclaim some basic human values first. Because we have the American disease, and its turning into libertarianism. Which is just fascism in drag.

But its inevitable without reclaiming core values like virtue, prudence, honesty, compassion.

Because, to protect monopoly corporate power, media and politicians have brainwashed us that “greed is good”, and there is no such thing as society. Thats the mantra of Reaganism, Thatcherism, Rogernomics, Ruthenasia, and NACT. Essentially, ‘let the few own it all’.’ It is beyond foolish.

Greed is a root evil. Historically, it leads to inequality, corruption, stagnation, and fall.

Capitalism – at its best – is a constant commercial and technological evolution that creates wealth. Its a process of creative destruction. Classical Economics lays it out. Let each compete freely in the market.

But the Sovereign must invest in what the nation needs collectively and the citizens cannot afford individually. Like Energy/electricity, the point of this post. Which I will get to shortly…

A nation should be sovereign over its vital needs. Investing in what the nation needs lowers the cost of living, and lowers the cost of business, hence a Sovereign govt enables trade.

Capitalism – at its worst – is stagnant monopolies hoarding their rents and hollowing out a nations economy while they squat on their customers, and fail to invest in what the Citizens and nation needs.

Thats NZ, and the West, today. Five hundrd years of global dominance has come to an end after only fifty years of neoliberal economics. Rammed down our throats as bringing efficiency and free markets, its really been a robbery and an incompetence.

Heres the thing, Capital (credit creation, money) mobilises resources and people to make and do what is needed. So control of Capital is key. But as Professor Michael Hudson and Professor Richard Werner have proven in their respected yet obscured works; Credit creation has been privatised by a small class of people, and the fact banks create credit has been hidden from the public to deny us Sovereign investment. (eg Public Finance Act/RBNZ Act 1989).

Historically, and today, we can see this leads to market manipulation by finance, monopolies, infrastructure deficits, unpayable debts, feudal economics, war, and potentially social collapse.

This week we have seen that GDP has fallen by three times what the RBNZ expected, and double what the other banks expected. The only sectors to see any growth were the monopolies, which keep getting privatised. Which means higher costs of living and business. Because the witch, the deodorant salesman and Rimmer dont want to use the state to grow the nation. They represent entitlement, ignorance, oligarchy. Banking. Private equity. They are the worst of us.

Again, think Rome. But with WiFi, and falling quicker.

All of this waffle is really just to say that Im sick of corporate monopolies looting kiwis pockets of monopoly rents for monopoly services that they keep getting cheap off their mates in government. Today ( last week now) I read a puff piece of poison from Contact Energy Chair Rob McDonald. Shane Jones had clearly put the wind up him about nationalising nzs energy sector. Mr McDonald said “the market is “not broken” and “fundamental reform” could damage “investor confidence”.

Mate. Electricity is like water. Its an essential service. You say “the market isnt broken’“, but its been broken since it was created by the fourth labour governemnt. As an SOE it worked well. As private monopolies, prices have sky rocketed. Gentailers profit from both wholesale and retail ‘rent extraction’, while “investors” and their minions confidently raise prices, chump the market, and underinvest/sweat the assets.

New Zealand is deindustrialising before we even peaked. Yes, hooray for Rocket Lab! But without affordable energy we are screwed.

We’re fucked. Youre part of the crew fucking us. Give it a rest.

Without a public interest in essential services, NZ has gone backwards, thanks to ‘the market’.

Lets build back better. Lets build what we need with RBNZ credit we issue at 1% interest to ourselves. Lets free ourselves from ‘the market’. …Why the hell do we need to get our dollars from ‘the market’ again? So they can get risk free compounding interest? Thats not how capitalism is supposed to work. Thats a hand out.

Thats a racket.

Ive had a gutsful. I want my country back, and I want it to serve us all.

Tadhg Stopford is a historian and teacher.

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