the simplicity of life

There was a time, long ago, when the world was young, that all you needed to do to survive was to do your best.

Long, long ago, people knew each other and wished each other the very best. We had Tom the Butcher, we had Larry the Candlestickmaker, and Eustace, the Farmer.

Tom and Larry and Eustace worked, each unto himself. They had a product or skill that was valued each among each. There were times when Tom and Larry traded. Just so, did tom and Eustace. In fact, the three of them traded whenever they wanted! It was an idyllic relationship, since each man was an adult, and fully informed that whenever he would so choose, he could willfully change his vocation.

Tom was the luckiest of the three men. There would be nights when Eustace would leave for bed early, since he couldn't afford to pay Larry for additional candles just to stay up and read, or hit the internet for porn. Larry normally stayed up late, but during the Summer he found that the time he needed to produce candles went down...the Sun made sure there were plenty of hours for the kinds of things that men like Eustace, Larry and Tom wanted to do without the need for extra illlumination.

Butchering. Well, a man needs to eat. And since Tom was the Butcher, he found that unlike Eustace and Larry, demand was not dependent upon season, since men need to eat every day. So during the Summer, Eustace, the Farmer, would work on his farm from the earliest part of the day until after the Sun went down. Things didn't fare so well for Larry. So, when Larry was at the low point of his season, he went to Tom to ask if he could use a hand.

Brilliant! replied Tom. Yes, I will use your labour to help me meet the daily demand for meat. And I will pay you for your share of what you help to bring me. That is, not the gross amount of your product in terms of gross sales, but that portion, less capital costs, that you are responsible for. And Larry was happy.

Eustace heard of this wonderful thing; labour for hire! Imagine, he thought, how wonderful it would be if I could take the time when I cannot make money for myself, yet hire myself out to another, to receive my fair share of the resultant profits in form of wages! Brilliant!

This wonderful relationship lasted for years, until a man from Chicago came to town. The man from Chicago said, "Eustace? Larry? Did you know that Tom the Butcher was exploiting your labour? Did you know that he was making money off of your contribution to his business? Did you know that Tom the Butcher was richer than you? That Tom the Butcher had a bigger house than you? And that even his wife was prettier than your wives?"

Well, it turns out that Eustace and Larry were pricks. Rather than becoming Butchers themselves, they decided that they would go to the local constabulary and indict Tom as a Corporate Bastard. Before the time that Tom hired Eustace and Larry, men were just men, each according to his own ability. They knew there were smarter guys than they were, but that's just normal. I don't know of any man who doesn't recognise that there are smarter men than he "out there."

But after the man from Chicago came to live among Eustace and Larry, when Eustace and Larry were told that envy didn't need to be a sin, that Tom--by being richer than Eustace and Larry--was an evil Corporatist "who only cared about profit," Eustace and Larry learned that by going to the constabulary with a complaint of "unfairness," that the constabulary would penalise Tom for his hard work and effort. And that the constabulary would take money from Tom and give it to Eustace and Larry in order to create a more fair society.

Tom was torn. He had hired labour to assist him in his endeavours in order to both increase his own wealth, and to increase the wealth of his employees. And yet, now, he was finding out that through an application to the constabulary, he would end up losing the gains of his business, his work and the sense of what his customers wanted, to people who had no legitimate claim to his business activities. Other than they were his employees.

Tom tried firing his employees at that point, but found out that Eustace and Larry had a deal with the constabulary that prohibited Tom from letting these--formerly friends, now bastards--go.

Tom looked at his balance sheet and asked himself, "Why do I try to give others gainful employment when the sheer act of helping others, while helping myself, gives rise to such spiteful hatred and greed?"

In the end, Tom agreed to sell his business for pennies on the dollar to the constabulary. Tom left the country he was living in, in order to find a place where a man, working for himself, no longer needed to worry about others coming in and telling him how to run his business, how to pay his employees, and continually called him a bastard for hiring others who sought out his employ.

Life is pretty simple. Just ask Larry and Eustace, who are back at their candleworks and their farms, poorer, but with the pride of knowing that they were able to achieve their own version of social justice.

Social justice is a wonderful thing. Profits, and increasing wealth for a nation, are not.

Change!™