10/01/2012 A Peace of Keynes The Cake A Serious Look At Life

1/2 cybercynic.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/seeking-keynes-the-cake/
A Serious Look At Life A Serious Look At Life
L seems Lo me LIuL LIe nuLure oI LIe uILImuLe rev oIuLIon wILI wIIcI we ure now Iuced Is precIseIy LIIs: TIuL we L seems Lo me LIuL LIe nuLure oI LIe uILImuLe rev oIuLIon wILI wIIcI we ure now Iuced Is precIseIy LIIs: TIuL we
ure In process oI dev eIopIng u wIoIe serIes oI LecInIques wIIcI wIII enubIe LIe conLroIIIng oIIgurcIy wIo Iuv e ure In process oI dev eIopIng u wIoIe serIes oI LecInIques wIIcI wIII enubIe LIe conLroIIIng oIIgurcIy wIo Iuv e
uIwuy s exIsLed und presumubIy wIII uIwuy s exIsL Lo geL peopIe Lo Iov e LIeIr serv ILude. (AIdous HuxIey ) uIwuy s exIsLed und presumubIy wIII uIwuy s exIsL Lo geL peopIe Lo Iov e LIeIr serv ILude. (AIdous HuxIey )
A Peace of Keynes The Cake A Peace of Keynes The Cake

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John Manard Kenes was temporarily attached to the British Treasury during the First World War and was their
official representative at the Paris Peace Conference up to June 7, 1919; he also sat as deputy for the Chancellor of
the Exchequer on the Supreme Economic Council. He resigned from these positions when it became evident that there
was no hope of substantial modification in the draft Terms of Peace. The grounds of his objection to the Treaty, or
rather to the whole policy of the Conference towards the economic problems of Europe, are contained in his book THE
ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE. Written in 1919, when Keynes was 36 years old, this book brought him
fame. It is, in part, condensed in the following, which covers Keynes deliberations on the accumulation and division of
wealth leading up the First World War and the impact that war may have on it.
Keynes premised that the accumulation of capital through the power of investment was the main justification for the
Capitalist System. An accumulation of capital only made possible through the unequal distribution of wealth. Capitalist,
like bees, saved and accumulated, those less fortunate only benefited when able to service less needs. The immense
accumulations of fixed capital which were built up during the half century before the First World War, could never have
come about in a Society where wealth was divided equitably. This Capitalist system depended for its growth on a
double bluff or deception. Firstly; that the laboring classes accepted having very small slice from this cake of wealth,
which they and the capitalists were co-operating to produce. Secondly; an acceptance that the capitalist classes took
the lions share of the cake (conditional on them consuming very little of it). Saving became a duty and investing in
the growth of the cake the object of true religion. Saving was for old age or for your children; but this was only in
theory. The virtue of the cake was that it was never to be consumed, it simply grew.
No one would be much the better off if the cake were shared all round, it was really very small in proportion to the
appetites of the consumers (even at that time). Society was not working for the small daily pleasures but for the future
security and improvement of the race,in fact for progress. If the cake were allowed to grow in proportion with the
population and with compound interest perhaps a day might come when there would at last be enough to go
round. The two pitfalls to this prospect were that the population would outstrip the accumulated growth of the cake
and, however much grown, the cake would be consumed prematurely as in a war.
In this Keynes was pointing out that the principle of accumulated wealth based on inequality was a vital part of the pre-
First World War order of Society and progress as it was understood then. Emphasizing that this principle depended on
unstable psychological conditions, which it may be impossible to recreate. These being; that it was unnatural for a
population minority to accumulate such huge wealth when so few enjoyed the comforts of life. However, the war had
disclosed the possibility of consumption to all and the vanity of abstinence to many. In discovering this bluff , the
laboring classes were unlikely to forego so much. The capitalist classes, no longer confident of the future, were likely to
enjoy more fully their liberties of consumption so long as they last, and thus precipitate the hour of their confiscation.
10/01/2012 A Peace of Keynes The Cake A Serious Look At Life
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The Trojan Brse A Universal Debt!
Written by Keynes nearly one-hundred years ago; he may be right in attributing the accepted order of society to an
unstable psychological condition, but wrong in thinking that may be impossible to recreate it without adding the caveat
in a Democratic Capitalist society. Saying that it is unnatural to distribute wealth so disproportionately while so few
enjoy the comforts of life could be considered as Keynesian altruism. The unequal distribution of wealth is something
that history and contemporary world society would suggest is the norm. That is until there is insurrection against such
iniquity, this providing only a temporary respite until the inequality is restored. He is certainly right in suggesting that the
laboring classes may no longer be willing to forego a larger share of the cake and in the capitalist classes loss of
confidence in the future.
What he is unlikely to have foreseen, at the point of his writing here, was how large this cake was to grow encouraged
by Machiavellian interpretations of the economic theories he was to develop. That capitalist governments would foster
the global liberties of consumption by many other than the wealthy. That this would be the ingredient of an insatiable
growth, a growth fueled by wealthy investors and precipitating its decline. That wealth creation schemes, achieved
through the manipulation of wealth by the wealthy, would excluded and exploit the many. In recognising the economic
folly inherent in such manipulation by the wealthy and the abrogation of economic rectitude by governments, Keynes
was to write later that; capitalism, wisel managed, can probably be made more efficient for attaining economic ends
than any alternative system yet in sight, but that in itself it is in many ways extremely objectionable
Economics, Opinion, Political, UK budget deficit, debt, deficit, Europe, finance, J M Keynes, politics, war, WWI
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