Own Nothing And Be Happy

The World Economic Forum has a vision of our future. We'll own nothing, and we'll be happy for owning nothing. The idea is that everything will be owned by a tiny elite, and that everyone else will have to pay rent. How that is different from our current arrangement, where everyone has to pay taxes, is not clear. Most people don't own anything anyway, their debt is about as big as their assets, and assets in the form of pension funds are most likely overvalued. Yet, this expansion of Status Quo is touted as some kind of futuristic utopia.

The idea must be that the few who still own stuff are to be dispossessed. Only the tiny elite at the very top of our neo-feudal system are go to own anything. But this strategy will never work. The whole idea is based on a confusion of terms. Ownership is not the same as possession and control. Ownership is merely a formal registration. In a world where a handful of people own everything, everything will be controlled by others than the elite. The elite is not going to control anything directly. It will all be done through agents, and it's these agents who will be the people in control.

Imagine a plot of land out in the countryside of Portugal. Assume now that this land is owned by someone in Berlin, and that this someone owns thousands upon thousands of similar properties. What is the chances that this person will have any inkling of what's going on in Portugal. His whole scheme hinges on the assumption that his agent in Portugal will act on his behalf. But history is clear on this point. Agents will always act primarily for themselves. They will edge out an autonomous corner where they have full control. This corner will escape accounting. It may even be subsidized from Berlin.

However, the fact that this scheme to dispossess us is doomed to failure doesn't mean that it won't be tried. We should therefore take note, and act in anticipation of a power grab that's likely to happen fairly soon. My recommendation is to sell everything, pay down debt and stash all remaining wealth into gold and silver. That way, we'll be perfectly positioned for the power grab. Gold and silver is so easy to hide that hostile agents are very unlikely to find it. We will look as poor as anyone else so the agents will pass us by.

Then, as the elite extends their ownership, we either take employment as their agents, carving out an autonomous domain for ourselves in the process, or we start trading with the agents who will be happy to lease capital to us for a low fee if paid in gold or silver.

Gold eagle

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