The couple managing the best household on the block found themselves in a crisis. They were making $2,174 per month but spending $3,819 on their bills. The husband wanted to cancel the wifes gym membership to save $61 per month and the wife wanted the husband to cancel his gun range membership to save $45 month. In the end, they decided not to eat out and save $33 per month.

They are afraid to cut back anymore because it might hurt them at their jobs if they quit living such a lavish lifestyle. They feel if they quit 'fronting' they will lose income.

They plan to put the $1,645 per month they are short on their credit card. Their current credit card balance is $14,000 and their interest on their card is $207 per month.

Hopefully their card company will increase their maximum balance so they can stay afloat. But, one company that underwrites the loans needs a new generator and their corporate headquarters got smashed by a tornado. The other underwriter wants to start paying its stock holders dividends, so that is pretty sketchy.

However, not going out to eat once a week should go a long way towards helping them become solvent.

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Let's take factory workers making $10 per hour building Color Television Sets that sell for $1000 per unit. Over a five year period the price of the TV has steadily dropped to $375. Also, over the same period workers have gotten an average raise of $1.50. The workers benefit from the efficiency of mass production as consumers. Their salaries in relation to the price of the TV has increased. Even without the raises the man-hour per TV is now lower.

Now imagine building a TV yourself starting with a bucket of Sand, a few ounces of Silver, Gold and Copper, and a Barrel of oil in your bathroom and kitchen. How many man-hours per TV would that take.

You may point out the price of everything else in the economy has increased. However, this is not due to efficiency. This is really due to the debasement of the currency by the Central Bank. The Federal Reserve was created in 1913. Here is a link to the BLS Inflation Calculator so you can see for yourself.

Here is an oversimplified example that demonstrates the fallacy of wage slavery, and the value of an employee. Humans have a trait Marx seemed to over look in his theories. That trait is the ability to acquire skill and efficiency over time. The interest of the Capitalist and Labor are not divided, but united. Consider this:

We will assume a steady market of customers paying me $300 per room at my budget paint company. I hire Joe Blow for $5 per hour. Joe has never painted and is helping me. His first day I have him rolling paint and it takes us 8 hours to paint a room.

+ $300 Paid
$ 40 Joe
$ 20 Paint Supplies
$15 Gas
$225 profit for day 1

Time goes on and Joe and I can now do a room in 4 hours. I now pay him $12 per hour. We do 2 houses per day:

$600 Paid
$96 Joe
$40 Paint
$20 Gas
$444 Profit Now
a 97% increase in profits for me and a 71% increase in pay for Joe. The better Joe gets, the more money he makes and the more money I make.

Now I can make a capital investment and buy a spray rig and move on to bigger jobs. Joe can wind up making $20-25 per hour and benefits if he sticks with it.

I know it is evil to think like that, but I am a Capitalist damnit.

I guess some folks don't understand the difference between life's inconveniences and true oppression. Today I gave a presentation about how to set up a networking alternative to survive an Internet Killswitch. This was done for an Anarcho Capitalist organization, and I got quite a bit of flack for it. I guess some people believe Free Enterprise is coercive. I was lectured about how creating my own business would only lead to something called 'slave wages.' I would think a slave would not be able to come and go as he pleased. I have never been a slave to a boss that I know of.

I quit a job one time. I was in Oklahoma and Oklahoma is an 'at will' employment state. This means if you or your boss decides to end the employee/employer relationship it can happen at the drop of a hat. One day I decided I no longer needed to work at the place I was working. I didn't show up. I didn't call in. I just quit going. In a few weeks they mail me a final paycheck. A few years latter I saw the guy I stood up at Wal-Mart. I spoke with him for 10 or 20 minutes just chit-chatting. He was too polite to bring up the fact that I stood him up for work that day. Or maybe, it was just so insignificant he had just forgotten.

One day I came home from work, looked in my back yard and saw my dog. A few minutes later the dogcatcher knocked on my door. He claimed my dog was running loose. I told him my dog was in my back yard. He persisted to tell me my dog was running loose and I needed to sign something. I refused to sign and he went away. About 30 minutes later, the Chief of Police for Chickasha showed up. He was armed. He forced me to sign the paper. I guess it was a ticket – I never read it. I forgot all about it. Six months later, on a Sunday evening I was replacing an alternator in my car so I could get to work on Monday. I was in my front yard. My kids were playing out front while I was working. My wife was talking too me. An armed man in a blue suit pulled up in a sedan. His sedan had a cage for a back seat. He proceeded to put me in wrist shackles and put me in the cage in the back seat of his car. He kidnapped me and put me in a cage and extorted money out of me. It had to do with me not showing up to some state gathering concerning the paper I signed and didn't read. Once my wife paid the ransom, I was released from my captors.

Business, don't show up, they don't seem to care much. (Although I have quit jobs and been begged to come back, but not at gunpoint).

The State, don't show up and armed men kidnap you and take what they are after.

See the difference?