Government, Continuity of Society, Taxation and Human Relationships

The Podcast can be found here: Government, Continuity of Society, Taxation and Human Relationships
If we are to fully comprehend what we are dealing with we must first ask a question, who has not been tempted in this life, who has said no to every temptation, may he/ she rule us all, alas there is no such person.



If we are ever to discuss government, we must look at it as it is as an institution right now today. There is no point in talking about how it evolved, these are governments as we see them. First and foremost, what we see about the government is that it tells us what to do. Some government conducts our lives everyday, every single one of us. A key question is how much should a government tell us what to do?



In a modern society the government tells everybody they must pay taxes. One of the primary reasons for the justification of taxation is the need to protect a societies resources, the societies borders. A breach in the borders of the society mean the possible end of that way of life and the resources of the community will be left to plunder.



The justification for some sort of taxation is strong, there is no community, no society once the borders have been breeched. Non taxation can thus be linked with extermination in an extreme argument for taxation, for the government telling us what to do.



Given the reality of a key justification for taxation thus the government telling us what to do is that it protects the societies resources, there will be no society with those vital resources of a society that are found within the land that the society utilizes to survive. To make it as simple as we possibly can we must now think of things in terms of relationships.



Society in general is in a relationship with the government that tells them what to do. It would be impossible for the government to tell people what to do if it was not in a relationship with those people. The government is people from the society that is why they have the responsibility of protecting that societies borders, the land they till, the hills they get iron from, the land producing oil, the land producing lithium, these must be protected.



When we pay taxes, it is because of this expectation in the relationship. The first law of information tells us that every relationship leads to a loss of freedom due to the energy needed to maintain them. Thus, when we are taxed, there is a relationship between those who pay tax and the government. The government is in a relationship with the rest of society, that is where it gets resources in the name of tax from. And those not in government are in a relationship with government in that they give taxes to the government.



Thus we pay the government to protect us, or should one say we assign the government the duty of protecting us. This protection is answered by part of what we produce going to the government in the form of taxes.



Before we move on let us basically understand the relationships that are taking place between a government and those that fall under the jurisdiction of that government. It is necessary to understand it like this for the world that we leave in, take out any illusions. We fall under the jurisdiction of a government in one form or another. Pick up an atlas, see all those borders, they are the domain of some government.



But we understand that everything is in a relationship, in this case the government and those that are governed. Every relationship leads to a lose of freedom due to the energy needed to maintain them. Scientifically this ensures the location of things. We all have a location, and in that location, we have relationships that need energy to maintain and in that location a government governs that particular location when we discuss the relationships between the government and those that are governed.



When one moves from one location to another there are different governments that one has a relationship with, but it is not only the governed who have a relationship with the government. The government must also have a relationship with those that are governed, and it too must lose freedom because it must also use energy to maintain a relationship with the governed.



Looking at the relationship between those who are governed and the government from the viewpoint of those being governed, what is their loss of freedom. We will start with the most basic loss of freedom, the territory has to be defended. The governed have a relationship with that territory. In todays sense a standing army is usually used to defend that territory. That standing army is under the control of the government.



The army produces nothing, they need to eat, they need arms, clothing, shelter, this is provided by the people they are presumably protecting. This is provided in the form of taxation. Taxes are provided by the governed. That means the governed must give a portion of what they have to feed, clothe, and shelter those defending the territory. That is the cost, and what they have represents energy. It takes energy to produce anything, thus money, we talk of money because this is the world we live in right now that is what we give to the government to protect our territory, thus the continuation of the society.

What is money. Money is a simple but important tool, the concept of money itself is not a con, it simplifies our existence. But money itself is central to existence, we existed long before money came around. Thus philosophically there must be larger principles to our existence than money, principles that came before money for us to have existed as a species.



The reason for money is to simplify the exchange of goods and services. Because of this it must be able to be a good store of wealth, one ideally wants the coins that buy bread today will by the same sized loaf in the next time period. To generalize good money will purchase the same amount of goods and services in the next time period.



Money comes in the form of an income usually, nearly always, this income can be said to be monetized. Every periodically daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and the such one receives an income in exchange for something, for having been in a relationship to generate that income. That income represents what one can get for food, clothing, shelter and other duties of life for the household and oneself.



In a modern sense that income represents the continuation of that household, a household to survive needs food and shelter, guaranteed by that income.



To defend the territory needs bodies, men and women of arms. Please let us understand that we are in the twenty first century. It used to be arms where blades that kept an enemy at a distance, a sword, a spear, inklwa, a shield, battle axes of all sorts of variety a favorite of many cultures, a club of some sort, all sorts of weapons that had to carried by arms, and the more power one yielded a great advantage. A reality on the most part. A man was stronger thus it was his role to go and die.



Yes, indeed a man is stronger, having a sex change will not change that fact.



A great mistake of the past was to leave the young girls at martial training. They are going to be the mothers of warriors. If she is an expert in the martial, when the men are away, or mate is dead, she continues the duty of training the young ones in the household about the basic skills needed not to perish, the final defence of the household against a physical threat. A personal view.



100 years ago, war was mostly the gun, pressing a trigger, at the end of the day a fat unhealthy man with a good aim could partake in battle, why can’t a healthy fit woman partake in battle with a good aim? There is no scientific rational for keeping women out of battle, we have a different relationship with weapons of today as compared with non projectiles. Emotional justifications are about different relationships than scientific justifications. At the end of the day if one believes they have great warrior genes, scientifically so does his sister.



Today we have gone beyond 100 years ago, projectiles shoot further, sometimes it’s just buttons from far away. Ideally speaking to get to where it is just buttons the enemy needs excellent spy service to find out where the buttons are being pushed from and take out the facility. The buttons can be pushed from any where. This is just the reality; it is not a personal view. Maybe one likes it, perhaps one doesn’t like it, but it is the reality.



This is why one says men and women of arms, because that is the technological reality.



These men and women of arms need their households also provided for in an adequate manner not below the general standards of society. They must have all the comforts of society including looking after their future, their offspring get an education like hopefully the rest of society. These defenders of the territory do not produce goods and services to be exchanged for money, but they are supposed to play a very important service, protecting society from extinction.

As they perform such an important service that will never ever work in the market because you will always get back to the same place. One needs to understand the territory needs to be defended. Somebody has to be on full time alert looking after the borders like it or not. One can argue that we do not need a government to protect the territory, the people can organize it themselves without a government.  How will the people do this? They will have to create some sort of so called “volunteer” force of free citizenry.



This volunteer force will need food, shelter and clothing and somebody must provide it. No matter what you call it, a volunteer fee, it is still a tax for the same service. The borders must be checked permanently as long as the society exists. It is very difficult to escape the need to pay somebody to protect the borders, a situation that must be maintained constantly. They are producing nothing to sell in the market they are providing a service that ensures there is a market for the society if at the least each other.



Those defending the border start their own economy that runs parallel to the official economy because the goods and services being provided are for securing the border in the large part. Arms must be forged for these men and women of arms. This arms cost money and they need to be the best that the society can conceive. They will be the largest consumer of this product. Those that make the arms need to be paid, they need food, shelter, clothing just like the rest of society.



The need to protect the border is a tax that if the society desires to continue can not be avoided. This physically protects the wealth of society. But in order to protect the wealth of the society a proportion of the wealth of society in the form of taxation must be appropriated. Ideally speaking the amount appropriated should not hinder continued creation or production of wealth in the society. If it hinders the continuation of production of goods and services, then eventually there will not be enough to appropriate to keep the defences strong enough against formidable enemies who want to breach the borders.



An income is derived from what one considers the value of their expanded energy, this is because one gets that income from being in a relationship and relationships are maintained by energy that is why there is a loss of freedom. It should be clear at this moment that both the government and the governed are in a relationship. Without the governed the government cannot survive, it has no purpose, and will never have a way of maintaining itself, somebody has to provide the food and shelter for them.



As for the governed without the government, who will protect the borders, somebody has to do it and the prize is they must be paid because they need to eat. Some of the energy spent in the relationship that creates an income must be spent creating an income for those who protect the border or the way of life will cease to exist. Thus an income is a reward for energy spent in a type of relationship that generates income. Thus, because an income is monetized, money represents a claim on energy spent, the quality of energy spent according to human perception. It can not be in the perception of a mouse or a dog.



Money thus at it’s most basic is a claim on energy spent in a relationship by another party. A farmer grows carrots, that takes energy to maintain the relationship that will yield a best carrot crop. The farmer takes those carrots that took energy to plant and harvest to the market. They sell those carrots and receive an income that is monetized, their income does not come in the form of barter in this day and age, not usually. That income represents useful energy used to look after those carrots from seed to harvest. Useful energy in this case is that part of energy used to generate an income.



If the carrots rot without being harvested that in terms of the farmer does not represent useful energy expanded, just energy described in terms of effort. The income the farmer receives represents useful use of energy in terms of economics. Part of this income, useful energy must be diverted to take care of the people who will look after the borders. Those who are governed have to give away as much claim on the energy of what others have produced as is necessary to best protect the borders.



It is correct to say the on the energy of others is an income. All goods and services are the result of a relationship and the income from them represents a claim on energy of others. Money is a claim on other people’s effort, other peoples use of energy other people’s relationships, that is why it is so useful for commerce. In terms of relationships good money is money that will at every least purchase the same amount of effort as it did in last time period.



To defend the borders those governed give away on a claim of other people’s energy used to produce economical goods and services to those who defend the border. It will be more accurate to say that those who are governed transfer a portion on the claim of the effort of others to those who defend the border. This is done in the form of money in most instances. The money one has in their pockets, is a claim on other people’s relationships that created goods and services. It compensates those relationships for the energy and therefore the time spent in creating those goods and services. Money in many ways can be considered as a claim on energy of others, the more you have the more energy/ time of others you can claim. It takes time to make goods and services.



The governed give up a claim on goods and services and gives this claim to those who defend the border to ensure the continuation of society. This can not be escaped, the borders cannot be guaranteed 100%, but putting bodies to defend it increases the chances of keeping the border. Even in times of peace, one warlike society can ruin all that peace in an instant. The defence bill must be taken care of.



Bhekuzulu Khumalo


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