The Entitled

[This was in reply to one of my friends who is a real farmer (not an agri-business operator) lamenting conditions on the family farm. In general, not his specific farm.]

Jake:

Here is the basic problem.

Ordinary citizens in this country, particularly those who engage in their own businesses, and that includes farmers, have the mistaken belief they deserve more than a basic wage.

Here's the deal: Wages for ordinary citizens are to be maintained in the range from $15,000 to $150,000. This leaves room to reward those who pursue education, are innately reasonable smart, and/or put in the extra effort.

Ordinary citizens are NOT, however, to presume themselves equal to captains of industry or high-end politicians. These particular people come from appropriate backgrounds, attend appropriate schools and understand that real wealth must be kept 'in the family' as it were.

In order to maintain the image of possible upward mobility, small percentages of certain social elements, among them doctors and lawyers, are permitted to grow outside the "citizen pay range" as are the occasional Henry Ford or Bill Gates. But groups, such as mechanics, teachers, plumbers or farmers, as whole units can not be permitted to jump out of scale. That would put stresses on the Natural Order that may result in challenges to the Entitled.

History shows us that the Entitled maintained their status, and consequently the lesser status of the majority, through a variety of means, primarily centered around blood. They were the Kings, Barons, Dukes, Pashas, Mandarins, etc.

Following the Industrial Revolution, the Entitled were forced to determine a new mechanism to preserve the Natural Order. Corporations were born. Entities that simulate the rights previously associated with peerage, primarily property rights and legal immunity. To ensure complete legal immunity, ordinary citizens were permitted into the corporations in order to 'take the fall' if and when necessary.

As transportation and communications systems improved, this new mechanism of feudalism was able to adapt, alter the playing field and replace the territorial boundaries of geography with the territorial boundaries of economic endeavor. Rather than being Baron of a certain piece of France, a Rothschild became Baron of a certain piece of the alcohol trade.

This marks the shift from agrarian to urban societies. Where the Cartwrights and other large ranchers had to ensure their cattle were well, producing offspring and properly cared for, and hence live with them, the Cargills merely had to ensure they controlled the paperwork behind the cattle. That allowed them to leave the dirty and difficult rural environment for clean and cared-for urban centres. Cared-for by we serfs.

This is accomplished by letting the previous hired hand think he now was master of the farm. Over the past century or so, this form of serfdom has been improved and has evolved into today.

Benefits to the Entitled have been more than maintained. In addition to wealth and power, the Entitled no longer have to sweat the small stuff. Bankers no longer have to know their depositors or judge their borrowers, grain merchants no longer need to farm or even know what grain actually looks or feels like, CEO's of car manufacturing entities no longer have to understand assembly lines or cars.

Better yet they no longer have to govern. Responsibility for keeping the masses orderly has been turned over to the masses themselves under conditions favouring the Entitled. The entitlements are enshrined in Constitutions and Bills of Rights that concentrate the powers of the Entitled under the guise of providing for the common man.

The Entitled get their MBAs from Harvard, and control through generalizations. When they screw up they point to the vast number of serfs that will suffer from whatever calamity they have caused and governments, now formed and funded by the serfs, rush to help. As a farmer you know most of the $1.8 billion the various Canadian governments poured into the BSE issue did not show up in your bank account.

The $600 million the Federal government provided Bombardier to 'compete' with their Brazilian counterparts, allowed the Board and CEO to 'earn' their bonuses. Lowered resource royalties in Alberta were part of what enabled Exxon to provide their retiring CEO with his $100,000 daily stipend. Assistance to the financial system in the US will enable Merrill Lynch to pay their out-going CEO $159 million for doing a terrible job.

Canada's export culture, as you call it, was not predicated on business, but on colonization. England, France, Spain and other European countries reached their tentacles out to grasp whatever resources could be found in the Americas and retrieve the best from themselves. We did not export cattle primarily for financial gain in the beginning, but because it was our role in feeding Britain. The change from geographical kingdoms to economic kingdoms is what necessitated the apparent change in culture.

But you are no more an economic player in the provision of beef to feed the Cargill coffers than my ancestors were when the products of their seigneury (interestingly now occupied by the Bombardier plant in Montreal) went first to feed and clothe the French army and later the British. The Kings of France and Britain paid a pittance for the goods, just as Cargill pays you one. Neither farmer, past or present, gets honest value for their work.

The former Entitled manipulated with political theory, saying things were done for 'king and country', and there were enemies of your Empire at the gates. The current Entitled manipulate with economic theory, saying things are done through 'free market forces', and there are enemies of your Way of Life at the gates.

The point? Stop bitching and get to work feeding the needs of the Entitled. Just as the King of France had the power to remove seigneury owners from their land for disobedience (i.e. not accepting their role in the scheme of things) the economic Barons of today can remove you from yours.

Have a great week-end. (I know farm work ceases Fridays at 4:30 pm and does not resume until Monday at 8:30 am. Crops, livestock, illnesses and pests all enter a state of suspended animation for Saturday and Sunday. Don't they??)