Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the gap.
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The following comes as a huge surprise to those famous economists from Harvard, University of Chicago, Stanford et al, who have won all those Nobel-related prizes in economics, and to the media and politicians who are paid to indoctrinate you.
GDP Shows Surprise Drop for US in Fourth Quarter
Wednesday, 30 Jan 2013, The Associated PressThe U.S. economy posted a stunning drop of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, defying expectations for slow growth and possibly providing incentive for more Federal Reserve stimulus.
Economists expected the first reading on gross domestic product to show growth of 1 percent.
The economy shrank from October through December for the first time since the recession ended, hurt by the biggest cut in defense spending in 40 years, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles.
The famous economists never knew that cutting federal spending and reducing exports would actually reduce the money supply.
And the famous economists also never knew that a growing economy requires a growing money supply.
This new information comes as a great surprise, not only to the famous economists, but also to the famous economists, politicians and the media writers. No one knew.
The surprise contraction could raise fears about the economy’s ability to handle tax increases that took effect in January and looming spending cuts.
Isn’t it amazing how bleeding a patient is not a good cure for anemia?
The economy may stay weak at the start of the year because Americans are coming to grips with an increase in Social Security taxes that has left them with less take-home pay.
We don’t like “big government.” So we not only keep cutting Social Security, but we take more dollars from the private sector and give them to the federal government (which has no need for them.)
Please don’t ask anyone to explain this. Just trust the famous economists, politicians and the media writers.
And what? — You say increasing the Social Security tax is bad for the economy and completely unnecessary?
Who’da thunk?
Subpar growth has held back hiring.
So federal spending stimulates economic growth and jobs availability? Has anyone told the famous economists, politicians and the media writers?
The (Social Security) tax increase will lower take home pay this year by about 2 percent. That means a household earning $50,000 a year will have about $1,000 less to spend. A household with two high-paid workers will have up to $4,500 less.
Not to worry. The tax increase will have absolutely no effect on the upper .1% income/power group.
This is good, because they are the ones who bribe the politicians (via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment), control the media (via ownership), bribe the university economists (via donations and grants), and pay the salaries of economists who work for “think tanks.”
So here is the bottom line, for those of you who have not been hypnotized by the cut-federal-spending, raise-federal-taxes, screw-the-middle-class-and-the-poor lies you have been fed by the bought-and-paid-for economists, politicians and the media writers:
1. GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal spending + Net Exports. When we reduce any of those three terms to the right of the = sign, we reduce GDP.
2. When we cut GDP, we cut employment and widen the GAP between the very rich and the rest.
3. Increases in federal spending (aka “big government”) primarily benefit the middle- and lower income groups. Cuts in federal spending widen the GAPs between the rich and the rest.
In a few months, Americans obediently will trudge to the polls, and mentally benumbed by economic lies, will vote for the politicians who promise loudest to cut “big government,” broaden the federal tax base and balance the federal budget — each guaranteed to reduce GDP and employment.
All together now: “Pass that cup of hemlock, please.”
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)
10. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with much higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
—–
10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt
No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports
THE RECESSION CLOCK
Vertical gray bars mark recessions.
As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.
#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
More amazing news:
Tax increase takes money from the private sector; fiscal stimulus adds money to the private sector. One step backward; one step forward. Japan’s government at work.
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And the beat goes on:
“Limited government” is code for, “Cut spending that benefits the middle class and the poor.” “Fiscal responsibility” is code for, “Raise taxes on the middle class and on the poor.”
Among the Republican “leaders” are: Michele Bachmann, Donald Trump and the notorious homophobe, Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson (!).
Duck Dynasty?? A Republican leader? Can Sarah Palin be far behind?
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[1] A moment ago I read this at another blog…
“We hear the endless drivel from disingenuous Keynesian nitwits about government and consumer austerity being the cause of our stagnating economy. My definition of austerity would be an actual reduction in spending and debt accumulation.”
For this clown, we have no austerity, since consumers have massive debts! (e.g. student loan debts). He defines “Keynesian-ism” as unsustainable debt-based consumerism!
More…
“During this time of so-called austerity, total credit market debt has RISEN from $53.5 trillion in 2009 to $59 trillion today. Not exactly austere, as the Federal government adds $2.2 billion per day to the national debt, saddling future generations with the bill for our inability to confront reality.”
Since the financial economy is doing great (at the expense of the real economy), there is no austerity! And since the federal government keeps selling T-securities (largely to itself) there is no austerity! Note also that this clown believes the lies about the “national debt.”
He is in good company. Yesterday Forbes ran an article which claims that we have had no austerity at all! And that the government must start imposing “real” austerity if we are to “get our fiscal house in order.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/05/28/the-non-existent-era-of-austerity/
IT ALL STEMS FROM THE BIG LIE. The more educated and “sophisticated” a person is about the emperor’s-new-clothes, the more he defends his version of what those non-existent clothes look like, and the more he dismisses other fools’ versions.
Meanwhile still other fools falsely equate the strength of the US economy with the strength of the US dollar. They think that since we are in a depression, the dollar will collapse, and that the government will hasten this “collapse” if it “prints more dollars”! Therefore austerity (which is killing us) is the only thing keeping us alive!
In reality, people are desperate for dollars. They’ll do anything for dollars. Does that sound like a loss of full faith and credit to you?
Mexico is now privatizing its state oil company, Pemex. The politicians’ rationale is that oil and gas belong to the people when they are in the ground and worthless, but when oil and gas are extracted, and worth trillions, the money belongs to the owners of the companies that extract them. This bullshit is no less ridiculous than the average person’s bullshit.
“Pass that cup of hemlock, please.”
[2] The purpose of austerity is to plunge the middle and lower classes into a death spiral, in order to widen the gap between the rich and the rest.
And because the middle class is going extinct, every “big box” retailer is now in very serious trouble.
Sears will close 80 more stores, and wants to sell its 51 percent stake in Sears Canada.
American Eagle Outfitters will close 150 more stores.
Staples will close more stores, but has not yet said how many.
More headlines…
WAL-MART Profit Plunges by $220 Million as US Store Traffic Declines by 1.4%
TARGET Profit Plunges by $80 Million, 16% Lower Than 2013, as Store Traffic Declines by 2.3% (This figure was given before the recent security breach in credit and debit cards, which may well finish Target for good.)
KOHL’S Operating Income Plunges by 17% as Sales Decline by 3.4%
COSTCO Profit Declines by $84 Million as Comp Store Sales Only Increase by 2%
GAP Income Drops 22% as Sales Fall
AEROPOSTALE Losses $77 Million as Sales Collapse by 12%
BEST BUY Sales Decline by $300 Million as Margins Decline and Sales Decline by 1.3%
MACY’S Profit Flat as Store Sales decline by 1.4%
DOLLAR GENERAL Profit Plummets by 40% as Sales Decline by 3.8%
URBAN OUTFITTERS Earnings Collapse by 20% as Sales Stagnate
MCDONALDS Earnings Fall by $66 Million as US Comp Sales Fall by 1.7%
DARDEN Profit Collapses by 30% as Same Restaurant Sales Plunge by 5.6% and Company Selling Red Lobster
TJX Misses Earnings Expectations as Sales & Earnings Flat
Dick’s Misses Earnings Expectations as Golf Store Sales Plummet
HOME DEPOT Misses Earnings Expectations as Customer Traffic Only Rises by 2.2%
LOWES Misses Earnings Expectations as Customer Traffic was Flat
JC PENNEY Thrilled With Loss of Only $358 Million for the Quarter
Every time a “big box” store is closed, it means more people unemployed, fewer retail sales nationwide, more people unemployed, fewer retail sales…and so on.
Nonetheless, the more the lies about economics are exposed as lies, the more the masses defend the lies as “truth.”
The more the leeches cause anemia, the more the patient demands more leeches to cure his anemia.
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“The famous economists never knew that cutting federal spending and reducing exports would actually reduce the money supply.” RMM
Wrong… It would reduce the expansion of the money supply. To say that it would reduce the money supply is irresponsible – it will reduce the growth of the money supply. On that note, when was the last time you saw an actual reduction in the money supply? The 30s?
“And the famous economists also never knew that a growing economy requires a growing money supply.” RMM
Double wrong. Try to proof this without using the GDP measure. GDP will grow whether people’s situation improves or not, all the government has to do is double the money supply. Voila – GDP will grow by 100%. Would people be better off if the government doubled the money supply tomorrow? I bet not…
“We don’t like “big government.” So we not only keep cutting Social Security, but we take more dollars from the private sector and give them to the federal government (which has no need for them.)” RMM
Triple wrong. What do you think issuing un-backed currency is? What would you call me if I minted my own dollars? I bet there won’t be an answer to this…. Nonetheless, outside of government lending – the money supply actually grows more when banks lend.
The funny thing is that these “economists” you appear to be bashing are more on the left than on the right. Ask them how we should resolve an issue and I bet they will respond with the same line as you, have the government spend more. They are part of the “do gooders” crew. Of course, it’s not their money so who cares.
These socialists policies are the problem, have been the problem and will never, ever, ever, ever be the solution.
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time. But you cannot fool all the people all the time.
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TO RODGER…
The Fed says the M0 and M1 money supplies have been increasing month after month, reaching an all-time high last month (April 2014). This is noted in the web site Trading Economics.
Nonetheless, the depression continues to worsen.
Reason: Differences are hazy between the various forms of “money supply.” The definitions of M0, M1, MB, M2, MZM, etc are not crystal clear. Most importantly, the various measures ignore the distinction between the financial economy and the real economy, and also between money created by the government, and money created as bank loans. (Measures of GDP also ignore this distinction.)
The real economy continues to die, while the financial economy (the markets) continues to set records for robustness. Therefore the overall “money supply” continues to grow, even as the money supply in average people’s hands continues to shrink, and the middle class faces extinction. The overall GDP grows, even as the depression in the real economy deepens.
In 1959 the M1 was only $139 billion. In April 2014, the M1 was twenty times that, or $27.7 trillion. And yet we have a depression today in the real economy.
Reason: in 1959 we still had industrial capitalism. The gulf between the financial economy and the real economy was very small. By the 1990s we got deregulation, repeal of Glass-Steagall, and “free trade agreements.” By mid-2010 we got austerity mania worldwide. Today, industrial capitalism has been almost totally eclipsed by financial capitalism.
Result: the global 1% have trillions, while the masses have nothing.
In the real world, austerity does not mean “less government spending,” or a “reduced money supply.” Instead, austerity means less government money for the 99% and more for the 1%. Actual figures are irrelevant. All that matters is the ever-widening gap.
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Can you define “socialism”? I know you cannot. Do you have an inkling of what money is? I know you do not. Do you understand the present means by which most of the money is created? I’m certain you cannot describe the process. Can you explain why money must be “backed” by a commodity? I’m sure you can not. What I do know is that you are a big tough guy who does not need anyone or anything to exist. Especially the rest of society. You’ve done it all yourself, right? You most likely believe within that fantasy world you reside in that you individually provided all of the infrastructure and all else you require for survival all by your big old tough-guy self. So I suggest, you stop filling that empty head of yours with right-wing propaganda and make an attempt to educate yourself before opening that perfectly good anus you call your mouth.
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Easy to define socialism.
The government pays the media, educators, and other administrators to portray the government as the savior of humanity. Institutions are put in place to make sure this is the case. Unions, banks, etc.. Those who oppose it are called loonies and terrorists. Only one entity in the world can afford to do such a thing. Check
The media, educators, and administrators go out and tell the people how wonderful the government is. Check
The “mainstream” people, the fools, go from minority (50 years ago) to the majority and believe the lines the propaganda machine says. Check
The majority, the fools, believe that the government can actually “give” people money. Not one stops to think where the stuff that they buy with the money comes from. Check
People like Clinton, Bush, Obama, Hillary are voted into office time after time after time. Check
Due to the socialist policies implemented by the socialists in government (including the GOP), the situation goes from great (1960s) to good (1980s) to bad (2000s) to terrible to worst (2010s). Check
After all the pump and dump, the QE, the money printing, the increases in deficit spending by the government – the “greedy” capitalists are blamed. Not an ounce of blame goes to the government – oh no.. Instead, what we get are calls for the government to pull out an even bigger sword (looking at you Rodger). Check
And guess what fools, the government doesn’t even deny it anymore. I’ve heard Bernanke, Yellen, and the other fools say it clearly, we can and will continue to print. And let’s talk about this stupid government shutdown. What an idiotic front – the Democrats do what they always do – ask for more funds – the Republicans put up a quote fight unquote. Whatever little is left of the so called “conservatives” believe the made up front put up by the Republicans and we keep on our merry way. We are stupid morons and the folks in government know it.
So let’s summarize in one easy to understand sentence. The socialists are those who foolishly think that removing power from the people and giving it to the government will improve the power of the people.
Did that make any sense? I bet it didn’t, but it’s good to dream nonetheless.
Here is an easy solution: grow some, defend your right to earn and keep what you earn and we, as a society, will have a better life. Those wanting to be do good-ers can do the good with their own funds. Letting the government counterfeit is stupid and moronic, but we let it happen and not only do we let it happen, we want more of it.
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= Off topic =
IT HAPPENED AGAIN LAST NIGHT…
I was talking with two Mexican nationals who have been in the USA for only two weeks.
I mentioned the facts of Monetary Sovereignty. They grasped everything instantly, saying, “Yes, that is the only possible explanation.”
I told them it was the same in Mexico, since Mexico has MS. They understood that too. They understood that money is not physical. (!!!!)
I did not have to explain the facts several times before they “got it.” No, they grasped everything instantly.
I have also discussed MS with three different people from Guatemala. They also grasped it instantly.
Who are these foreign nationals I keep running into and discussing MS with? I will give all details if any of Rodger’s readers asked me to do so.
THE POINT…
Mexicans are hit with the Big Lie, just like Americans, but Mexicans outside Mexico City pay less attention to the TV news than average Americans do.
Therefore when they come to the USA, they more easily see that the emperor has no clothes.
It’s the same with most foreign nationals from so-called “third world” countries.
Maybe one day they will turn the tide in the USA.
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Quat,
Are you surprised that Guatemala and Mexico are hell holes?
You have it backwards – the reason that the US surpassed every other nation and has managed to stay on top is what you call ignorance.
As for me, the ignorance is all over Latin America. I was born in Latin America – and believe me – socialism is what is killing those nations. The majority of people are ignorant fools that see the government as the solution to everything. The poor have no clue – and the wealthy that end up having the privilege of getting a decent education, even coming to the US for that, end up being more socialists than when they left. And why wouldn’t the wealthy turn to socialism – I mean think about – who can help a bad business model succeed if not government backing?
Need to sell your products – well, the government can easily do that. They will just print money (that according to Rodger – doesn’t do anything to the people), devalue the wealth of the middle class, give the funds to the poor who will use it to buy your garbage product. Voila – a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy – while getting credit for “helping” the poor. Evil genius. When crap blows sky high – guess who the government over there blames?
The United States or the “bourgeois” aka, the capitalists. Those that made ZERO decisions to implement stupid policies.
Can you believe that? people vote and support fools that implement stupid policies, suffer for them – and then blame it on the US not wanting to do business with them or the greedy capitalists that have more than they do.
What Latin American countries need is to stop complaining and get their behinds to work. And you Quat, you are part of the problem for spreading the lies to make a buck. Grow some…
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I believe one part of your comment: “As for me, the ignorance is all over Latin America. I was born in Latin America.”
Sad, but clearly true.
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Too many wrong statements to argue individually. Briefly:
1. Expansion in the money supply is not important to “the people.” Wrong.
2. Doubling the money supply doubles GDP. Wrong.
3. The dollar is “unbacked.” Wrong
4. Government lending grows the economy. Wrong..
5. The government spends “our money.” Wrong.
6. I am “bashing” economists who want to spend more. Wrong.
7. “Socialists” are the problem. Wrong.
8. “Try to prove that a growing economy requires a growing supply of money without using the GDP measure” of the economy What measure do you prefer?
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1. It’s important to the wealthy who have first access to credit, will use the easily acquired credit to buy cheap while the getting is good, and sell high to the morons (aka, housing/stock crash). At the same time, the purchasing power of the middle class (which according to you are the benefactors of the printing) is stolen away.
2. You get my point. If the government simply printed a lot, it would grow GDP by a lot. In the below, it would require more than doubling, but see the impact to GDP.
GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal spending + Net Exports.
Example baseline: GDP (8 trillion) = FS (4 trillion) + NFS (2 trillion) + NE (2 Trillion)
Example 2x FS: GDP (16 trillion) = FS (12 trillion) + NFS (2 trillion) + NE (2 trillion)
3. Sure, it’s backed the full faith and credit of the United States government that can can never run out of dollar. What you forget to say is that it can sure run out of faith in its currency, which would make it bankrupt and destroy the middle and lower classes.
4. I meant government spending. Both government spending and bank spending grow the money supply and are both bad for people on fixed incomes, like the middle class, the poor and the elderly (those that are not rich).
5. One day, you see it as paper the next you say “money does not exist”. I’ll take that. How about the items you buy with the non-existent money – does that exist Rodger? What happens to the price of goods for the poor and middle class when the government pushes up demand using printed dollars? And who produces these products – is it not the same poor and middle class? Don’t think of the paper, think of the good/service being purchased with dollars that otherwise would not have been there. Someone else just lost a piece of that good and service to someone else. Still think the government doesn’t use “our money”?
6. The economists on the article would vote for more spending – just like you. And you quote bashed unquote on this post. I’d highlight – it was a made up bashing because you know their motive pretty well.
7. What do you call people wanting to consume but not wanting to produce in return? See, if you already have and don’t have to worry about fighting for resources, you probably cannot assimilate – unless you are poor and dumb (and there are many of those). High middle income or wealthy people (like the ones on this blog) know damn well that it’s a fight for resources at the end of the day. If you consume and don’t produce, you are taking it from someone else. Still think the government is not taking our money?
8. GDP can be easily manipulated and is. Real incomes are not. With all the technological advances of our era, REAL INCOMES should be WAY UP. Instead they have been flat for the last 20+ years. And by the way, flat equates to lower real incomes since we have had technological advancements that should have made a lot of the stuff cheaper for everyone.How’s the GINI ratio looking Rodger? All the growth in social benefits not working for ya? I thought so….
All social programs are nothing more than a way for the wealthy to maintain a monopoly. Get a government contract or cater to government beneficiaries and your business will succeed. The government prints, gives to the poor, and your goods will sell. All at the expense of the middle class who will show up to find empty shelves.
Nothing is free Rodger. Someone always pays.
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Shish, I’m trying to teach you, but you don’t want to learn, so my patience is ebbing. One last try:
1. The housing crisis had nothing to do with the wealthy “buying cheap and selling high.”
So called “printing” (of money?) does not cause inflation. In increases the Supply, but that neglects the effect of Demand. I repeatedly have referenced proof of this, and apparently you don’t have the energy to read the data.
2. Your math is completely wrong, not only algebraically but factually. But yes, increased federal spending increases GDP, all other factors being equal. So is that supposed to be a bad thing?
3. What is the likelihood of the U.S. running out of full faith and credit compared with the likelihood of insufficient federal spending punishing the 99.9% and widening the GAP?
The former never has happened in our history. The latter is happening now and for the past 50 years.
4. Please provide evidence that increases in the money supply are bad for people on fixed incomes.
5. This paragraph is so nonsensical it barely deserves an answer, but I’ll try. Of course money exists, but money does not exist in a physical form..
And yet again, you get into the same nonsense about federal spending causing inflation. At long last, read the data to which I’ve referred you, and stop with your intuition.
6. Completely nonsensical.
7. Even more nonsensical than #s 5 and 6.
8. Right. GINI is up. I’ve said it dozens of times. In fact, you probably got that from one of my posts. That means the GAP has widened. That is the whole point of this post.
And the last, unnumbered paragraph is a real doozy: You said, “All social programs are nothing more than a way for the wealthy to maintain a monopoly.”
OMG! You think Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, school lunch, aid to education, and all other poverty aids are ways for the wealthy to maintain a monopoly?????
Yikes!
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No Rodger, that person does not want to learn. Indeed, I think that person needs immediate crisis intervention. I’m serious. Such intervention would have prevented Elliot Rodger from embarking on his shooting spree in Santa Barbara last Friday. Elliot Rodger had acute Asperger’s syndrome, and had been seeing therapists since he was eight years old, but no one ever paid enough attention to how profound his mental illness really was, despite how obvious it was – although his mother tried to help him. I see a similar illness in an individual that wrote comments above. I’m not joking. The person above (like Elliot Rodger) craves attention, even if it occurs as hate. The person above (like Elliot Rodger) is a poster child for gun control.
Anyway, mention was made about how “ignorance is all over Latin America,” and, “socialism is what is killing those nations.”
Some responses (addressed to you alone, Rodger).
[1] Latin America has no monopoly on ignorance, poverty, political corruption, or the ever-widening gap. Indeed, the gap in Mexico is about to triple with the forcible privatization of Pemex, the state oil and gas company.
[2] The only country in Latin America I would call “socialist” is Cuba.
[3] Stereotypes and generalizations about Latin America are problematic. The 27 nations south of the USA have no universal language, culture, cuisine, religion, or political structure. Some governments are worse than others. Some living conditions are better than others.
[3] I never claimed (or even hinted) that Latin America was somehow “better” than the USA. (!! WTF??!) I lived in Mexico for 2.5 years, and I traveled the entire country, so I know how things really are. I also visited Nicaragua (two weeks) and Venezuela (two weeks). My point was that Mexicans and Guatemalans who I have talked to (at least, those who recently arrived) tend to be far more open to the facts of MS than are average Americans.
[4] Some presidents south of the border actually try to improve things, but they face tremendous obstacles from rich people in Latin America and worldwide. Those presidents’ virtues are precisely what enrage the mentally ill reader that I noted above.
A random example is Jose Mujica, president of Uruguay. Compare Mujica to, say, Obama…
a. Mujica refuses to live at the Presidential Palace or have a motorcade. He lives in a one-bedroom house on his wife’s farm, and drives a 1987 Volkswagen. His salary is $12,000 a month, of which he donates 90% to charity, so that he makes the same as the average citizen in Uruguay ($1,200 per month). Mujica says he is not poor. “A poor person is NOT someone who has little, but one who needs infinitely more, and more and more. I don’t live in poverty. I live in simplicity.”
b. Mujica was the first president in Latin America to pass tough laws against smoking in enclosed public spaces, plus laws that require graphic warning labels on cigarette packs. Mujica says tobacco is a killer that we must get control of. As a result, Philip Morris is suing Uruguay in the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
c. Mujica is the first president in Latin America to address the “war on drugs” by regulating marijuana, as opposed to outlawing it. Individuals may grow a limited amount each year, and the government controls the price of marijuana sold at pharmacies. Consumers, sellers, and distributors must be licensed by the government. Drug addiction is regarded as a public health issue, not an excuse to fill prisons.
d. Mujica was the second president in Latin America to legalize gay marriage, saying it was simply a recognition of reality. “Not to legalize it would be unnecessary torture for some people,” he said.
e. He supported the legalization of abortion in Uruguay (his predecessor had vetoed the bill). The law allows abortions within the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy and requires women to meet with a panel of doctors and social workers on the risks and possible effects of an abortion.
f. His government provides free computers and education for every child. Mujica has also focused on reforming the distribution of his nation’s wealth, claiming that his administration has reduced poverty from 37% to 11%. “Businesses naturally want to increase their profits. It’s up to the government to make sure they distribute enough of those profits so that workers have the money to buy the goods that businesses produce. It’s no mystery–the less poverty, the more commerce. The most important investment we can make is in human resources.”
g. Mujica has offered to take detainees cleared for release from Guantanamo. All of the remaining victims at Guantanamo were cleared for release years ago, yet they continue to rot in prison, being force-fed, because no country will accept them. (Mujica’s proposal is unpopular in Uruguay, but Mujica, who was a political prisoner for 14 years, said he is “doing this for humanity.”)
h. He opposes war and militarism. “Uruguay is not a military power, or an economic power. We are an egalitarian power.”
i. Mujica is an environmentalist who seeks to limit needless consumption. Uruguay soon will become one of the world’s biggest users of wind power, and will get most of its power from renewables.
Such measures are not easy, since the masses in Uruguay are like the masses everywhere else… they prefer slavery. Corporate media outlets (owned by the rich) have convinced most Uruguayans that Mujica is a terrorist and the anti-Christ.
But Mujica is at least trying to make a better world for all. He is TRYING – and that is precisely what infuriates the mentally ill person above.
This dark, materialistic world awards no points for trying, only for succeeding. However, my view is the reverse. I award no points for success, since success always entails at least some degree of blind luck. For me, what counts is a sincere effort like Mujica’s. Whether the person making the effort succeeds or not makes no difference.
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