17/10/2008

Throughout the world capitalism is shifting from the total free market to partial state ownership, and some doctrinaire capitalists are howling with indignation.

Thanks to the excesses of greed in the United States, and fear elsewhere in the free world, states has stepped in to save us all from a 1929-style world depression. And that is the morally correct thing to do.

Stressing that they want no long-term involvement in the markets, governments will, however, find it hard to extricate themselves from this position. I live in a country where the State has considerable involvement in the economy, and it has softened the excesses of capitalism. If the way we treat our elderly is any indication, I would rather live where I do than in the United States.

For Americans, this move is the frontier. Communists, if there are any left, will commend the move as one step towards Utopia.

What must it have been like when Ancient Egypt made the jump, over a period of fourteen years? None of us was there, but we have an historical record of the day.

The king of Egypt was given some advance notice of the impending financial crash and the consequent depression. He left the decision making to a Jew he trusted named Joseph, who became his prime minister because of the advice he gave the king.

Joseph had been given a picture of the future and warned the king of a long-lasting drought and famine. He told the king to stock the granaries during seven good years. Then, when the grain failed and famine ruled, the people could buy food.

The people spent all their money on food, and when the money ran out, Joseph bought their animals. When they were gone too they sold themselves and their land to the king.

Now the king owned everything and everyone. He even sold them seed for crops, and took twenty per cent of the harvest, which had returned, for the seven bad years were past and the Nile had returned to normal flow.

And the people were happy.

Joseph's family came to stay and they prospered. They became the Jews. Read all about it in Genesis 41 and 47 in the Bible. Any nervous Republicans who happen to be Christians can take comfort that there is nothing new under the sun.