A concrete idea to combat unemployment, 4 essays

Unemployment is a major social and economic problem. There are not enough words to describe its consequences. The statistics of nations sometimes hide the reality about it, because along with unemployment there is another big problem: under employment, i.e. people who are economically active, but do not enjoy stability, a secure salary or social security.

In this work I have put together 4 essays on employment and unemployment, with some ideas to solve this reality.

The following are links to the documents:

The ecological employments are an effective road for combating the world poverty

http://pablorafaelgonzalez.blogspot.com/2009/10/ecological-employments-are-effective.html

Economic dimension of the ecological employments

http://pablorafaelgonzalez.blogspot.com/2009/10/economic-dimension-of-ecological.html

The ecological employments, an useful proposal

http://pablorafaelgonzalez.blogspot.com/2009/12/ecological-employments-useful-proposal.html

A concrete idea to combat the unemployment

http://pablorafaelgonzalez.blogspot.com/2011/04/concrete-idea-to-combat-unemployment.html

Four priorities and programs for the world development

The most important problems and priorities of the world are: a) overpopulation, b) destruction of nature and the environment, c) poverty d) egoism and lack of social education. Following we will explain each one.

1.       Overpopulation

In the last 100 years the population grew more than in the rest of the humanity history; this has been a consequence of the advance in the science and technology. The trend of high growth has augmented in the recent decades and the perspective is that at mid and long term will be more intense. But the problem is that the resources do not increase in the same proportion.

1.1.  Solution

A solution is to develop a global campaign of education to promote the responsibility and to highlight that a family most have only the number of children that a couple can care, this mean, to feed, educate, to give medical assistance and to assure an appropriate home.

The campaign must be accompanied of concrete medical programs developed by the governments to help the population to reach the objectives.

2.       Destruction of nature and the environment

The world shows evident signs of the nature and environment destruction: climate change, contamination of the sources of water, pollution of the cities and too many other problems that affect the health and quality of life of millions of people.

2.1. Solution

There is no one solution because the environmental problems are innumerable. However, we can do something concrete to help the environment: it is a global program of reforestation, which might contribute to restore the balance of nature and to improve the quality of life of the people. The reforestation is an effective way to diminish the climatic change effects and, moreover, to protect the threatened sources of water.

3.       Poverty

The key to combat the poverty is the employment: good and stable jobs with fair salaries. To reach those objectives would be necessary to carry out three plans: a) a program of job training, b) a program to increase the number of jobs in the economy, that we have denominated the double working-day and the half working-day (1) and c) the creation of millions of ecological employments, through the global program of reforestation proposed in the previous epigraph. The countries might create permanent activities to plant and to keep diverse kind of trees for different uses and this would be a concrete contribution to the solution of the jobless.

4.       Egoism and lack of social education

They are the cause of the most world problems.

4.1. Solution

A solution is to employ the immense power of the mass media to create in the world population attitudes to favor the economic and social development; they are: a) To promote the responsibility in the family that, among other duties, require to have only the number of children that a couple can care, b) to protect nature and the environment, especially, to keep the forests, do not contaminate the sources of water and to do a rational disposal of waste and c) to develop campaigns of public health to teach the population rules to prevent the spread of illnesses.

5.       Conclusion

Of course, these ideas are not the solution of the humanity problems, but its application might create better conditions of life for millions of people worldwide. This kind of initiatives must be promoted by institutions of international influence, like United Nations and the World Bank. Without the sponsorship of those agencies the programs would not be possible. So that in the hands of the leaders of the United Nations, Ban Ki- moon and the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, is the possibility of to realize these initiatives.

(1)    http://www.amazon.com/Pablo-Rafael-Gonz%C3%A1lez/e/B001JOAE2U

Austerity generates unemployment, poverty and political instability

Austerity is a big mistake. The big damage is for the middle class and the workers. Austerity leads to recession; orthodox politicians and economists are responsible of that big error. They developed a theorist conception that attributes at money the cause of inflation; but this is not true. The true cause of inflation is the human egoism; the unlimited desire of wealth of speculators.

Money is only metal and paper without intrinsic value. Nations can issue without limitations all the amount of national money ---their own currencies--- that their economies need. Money is only a mean of interchange, nothing else. Observe what happen when people have more money; when people have more money is happy; buy more food, clothes, cars, travel, etc; also observe the opposite phenomenon and you will obtain the right answer about what is good and what no.

If you give more money to people ---by the increase of salaries, pensions, more and best public services--- you improve the quality of life of people, because this stimulate production and the goods and services supply increase. If, on the contrary, you restrict the amount of money in circulation you lead people to poverty and stop the economy.

The economies of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal do not need to restrict their public spending; if the governments of those countries insist in imposing the program of austerity, it is very likely a deep political change in those countries, because of the population pressure. Perhaps new actors will appear. New actors that are unknown in this moment but that might provoke a complete political change in those nations. A similar phenomenon happened in Latin America in the 90s years as a consequence of the economic and political impositions of the International Monetary Fund, IMF and the World Bank.

The European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, IMF and the authorities of the European Union are the big obstacles for the European recovery.

Soon it might come a moment when Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain have not other option than to abandon the euro and comeback to their national currencies. It will depend of the European Central Bank, the IMF and EU attitude.

Money is only metal and paper without intrinsic value

http://pablorafaelgonzalez.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html

Economic crisis 2011: the solution is to realize that the economy operates in a new scale and not reducing the public spending

The measures of austerity adopted by the industrial countries might cause a global recession at short and mid term.


If the United States reduces its public spending and some countries of the European Union do the same, in too few months the world might fall in a great depression. It is important to remember which were the main causes of the Great Depression of 1929; among them, the reduction of the public spending and the diminishment of the workers capacity of purchase.

Is the economy in a similar scenario?

There are similarities, among them the followings: a) the pressure that exerts orthodox economic sectors to impulse reductions in the public spending in the industrial nations, b) crisis in the stock markets worldwide, c) reduction and/or insignificant increase of the consumption in the United States, d) growing unemployment in the industrial countries, e) the attack against the U.S. dollar made by S&P that has provoked doubts about its strength like international currency, f) financial crisis in nations like Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy and Portugal; these countries are reducing its public spending, provoking more recession, g) expressions of social conflict in the mentioned countries and now in unexpected countries like England (recent riots) and Israel (serious protests against the economic system), h) the possible rupture of the Economic Union unity, caused by the privileges of nations like Germany and France and the disadvantages of the other members of the Union.

The solution for the crisis that the orthodox economic sectors has found is to reduce the public spending, this mean more unemployment and less consumption; then, the solution is worse that the illness. Many countries, among them Greece, have been obligated by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union to reduce its public spending. A similar situation occurred in the 90s years in Latin America, and like a consequence of that policy, in 9 countries of the region the leftists sectors won the government, among them, in the biggest economies like Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela and also in small economies like Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominica and, in Mexico, almost the leftist sectors obtained the victory in the past elections. All those leftists’ governments in Latin America are a consequence of the policies of austerity imposed by the International Monetary Fund in the 90s.

The economic crisis is caused, moreover, by the economic prejudices, because many people, even politicians and economists, believe in wrong concepts like the balanced budget, the false idea that the amount of money determines the inflation, the false idea on organic and inorganic money; all them are simply concepts that impulse the poverty and the unemployment.

The solution

The solution is to think the contrary; to realize that the economy operates in a new scale and to work in that sense.

How?

Simply: issuing more money, in cash and in bonds and increasing the public spending regarding the new scale of the economy.

The politicians and economists should realize that there is a new economic scale in the world caused by many factors, among them, the quick population growth, which demand new resources and the globalization process of the 90s years. The world economy is now more integrated, the population grows and, also the needs grow. That is the new economic scale that must be understood.

Which are the limitations to reach the new scale?

The limitation is the availability of natural resources, because man can not create them; you can not make water, petroleum, etc. (1) but, on the contrary, man can issue money to satisfy the economic needs.

Money is only a simple mean of interchange; money is only metal and paper without intrinsic value (2) and the human beings must employ money in its exact sense: like mean of payment, not more. It does not exist none cause to limit the issue of money claiming reasons of austerity; money is a mean, like a hammer, like a car, like any other good, and must be used to satisfy the economic and social needs of the population and not to cause damage to the population.

The public spending is the unique force that cans impulse the global economic recovery.

The new economic and monetary scale will promote the consumption and, in consequence, the employment and prosperity. That was the formula used by the most important economist of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, to solve the consequences of the Big Depression in the 40s years.

(1) Running Out: How Global Shortages Change the Economic Paradigm. Algora Publishing, New York, 2008.

(2) Money is only metal and paper without intrinsic value http://pablorafaelgonzalez.blogspot.com

A concrete idea to combat the unemployment, political economy

“The economic crisis has taken its toll on the young, ILO estimates that the global youth unemployment rate rose to 12.6% in 2010.” Helen Clark, Head of the United Nations Development Programme, March 21, 2011.

Index

1.     Overview

2.     Inexactitude of the statistics

3.     The sub employment is not revealed

4.     The intense use of technology and its effects on the employment

5.     Machine substituted the work of man

6.     What to do

7.     Demographic control

8.     The double working-day and the half working-day

9.     Global campaign of reforestation

10. Conclusion

1.      Overview

The unemployment is the worse illness of the society. The effects on their victims are of devastation. The employment is essential for the happiness. Unfortunately, the unemployment affects millions of people in the entire world. But there is other similar phenomenon: the sub employment (underemployment); this affects people that exert an economical activity but do not enjoy of a secure income neither the social benefits of the formally employed.

If you add the figures of the unemployed to the figures of the sub employed, the total amount is something really amazing, especially in the underdeveloped nations. The problem is that the figures of sub employment generally stay hidden. The official’s statistics usually do not reveal the sub employment figures.

The unemployment and the sub employment are the main cause of the poverty. So that the first measure to combat the poverty must be the creation of jobs.

But the creation of jobs requires several conditions. The jobs cannot be generated by magic. The creation of jobs responds to concrete needs of the society. An entrepreneur creates a job when he is sure of the utility of that job.

For the creation of a job it is necessary to make an investment; this means the use of financial resources and the employ of material goods, among them, resources of energy ---like petroleum--- that are every day scarcer and expensive.

One hundred years ago, the situation was different: there was abundance of material resources, especially of natural resources. For that moment, still man had not devastated the Earth wealth. The petroleum exploration was hardly beginning and the forests, rivers, lakes and oceans had not been razed.

Now, in the first years of the 21^st century, the reality changed completely. Today, the limitations of natural resources are something real. The reserves of conventional petroleum have diminished in a sensible amount; hundreds of animals and plants species have disappeared; the forests, the marine resources and the reserves of water are also in critical situation in many regions of the world while man realized 2,053 nuclear detonations only between 1945 and 1988. The food is seriously threatened by the drought, the water scarcity and now by the biofuels. For example, by the year 2007, 25% of the United States corn production was for ethanol. On March 31 2011, the Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO, described as “potentially catastrophic climate impacts on food production over the long-term,” in a letter to the Convention on Climatic Change.

But while the natural resources experiment a reduction, the population grow in a constant form. It is a contradictory phenomenon that threats the humankind survival at mid term. The world is overpopulated. This means that the resources are not enough to satisfy the demand of the world population, among them, the demand of employment. You can verify it in a simple form: observe the traffic jam, the limitations in the water availability, the price of gasoline, the number of unemployed and sub employed in your community, the files in the banks, supermarkets, in the drugstores, in the bakeries, the scarcity of food and basic services. This is especially visible in the underdeveloped nations.

2.      Inexactitude of the statistics

I have serious doubts about the exactitude of the statistics of labour; I will explain why. For example, if you study the statistics of unemployment of Mexico, you will find that the level of unemployment was ---approximately--- an average of 3% ---this represent full employment--- between the years 2003 and 2008, like you can see in the table 2.  I do not believe that those figures are true because of a simple reason: during the same period, the immigration of Mexican citizens toward the United States was huge, occupying the first place among the foreign-born population, as may appreciated in the table 1.

Table 1. United States, Foreign-Born Population by Race for Countries with 750,000 or more Foreign Born: 2007. Numbers in thousands

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2007, American Community Survey.

Available in Internet in: http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/acs-11-pdf

For the period 2003-2008, the official statistics reveals that in the United States the unemployment was superior to 5%, this mean, superior to the Mexico’s unemployment rate; see table 2. This fact confirms that the doubt about the exactitude of the statistics is absolutely reasonable. The basic question is:  if Mexico has a level of full employment then why do the Mexicans citizens abandon their country to look employment in the United States?   A society that enjoy a high rate of employment, do not experiment a high percentage of immigration of its workers. Then, the logic conclusion is that the official unemployment figures of Mexico are not true. The figures of immigration reveal the economic disparities of the societies and especially their amount of unemployment and sub employment. 

Table 2. Unemployment, selected countries of America

Source: International Labor Organization. Laborsta, Internet.

Available in Internet in http://Laborsta.ilo.org/stp/guest

3.      The sub employment is not revealed

The big problem is the methodology used to define the unemployment. The traditional concept consider unemployed at the people of an age superior to the 18 years that search an employ and do not get it. But the statistics do not consider as unemployed the people that exert activities in the informal economy, the self-employed, neither the people that work for formal economic activities but do not enjoy of a fixed salary neither the social benefits of the formal employed, like the workers that work per hours, or in temporary form. All them are the sub employed, that do not appear in the official statistics. The International Labour Organization has its own concept about unemployment and underemployment, adopted by the 30^th International Conference of Labour Statisticians in Geneve, 1982.

Moreover of the situation of Mexico and the United States, it must be underlined the reality of other countries of Latin America, like Venezuela and Colombia where the sub employment occupy a first plane, but this is not reflected in the official statistics. This situation happens not only in America but in the rest of the world. Therefore, it is right to say that the sub employment is most grave than the unemployment, because the sub employment is a hidden fact ---officially not recognized--- of disastrous effects for the world population.

4.      The intense use of technology and its effects on the employment

The technological development has brought two contradictory phenomenons: a) the displacement of the traditional workers and b) the creation of new technological jobs. The problem is that the former has been more than the second and this has contributed to the maintenance and increase of the unemployment. In some nations the phenomenon has been more intense and in other less. For example, in the last decades, the industrialized societies have kept acceptable levels of unemployment; in change, the underdeveloped nations have been more affected by the use of new technology, displacing a most number of workers.

The industrial societies have prepared the workers for the new challenges derived of the technological development. In the underdeveloped nations this process has been slow and in minor scale. This explains the relative reduced levels of unemployment and sub employment in the industrialized nations and the major amount of both in the underdeveloped countries.

 5. The machine has substituted the work of man

The objective of the entrepreneurs is the economic benefit, for that reason the search optimize their activities through the technology and usually do not consider the social impact of the technological changes. The objective of the governments is different. The governments look the social benefit; therefore, they must establish the rules to guarantee the employment.

It should have a balance between the aspirations of benefits of the entrepreneurs and the social need of to generate employments.

The machines must be used with rationality and justice; man must not be an enemy of the machines neither vice verse, the machines must not be enemies of man.

The machines must be employed to give happiness to the human beings and not to provoke sadness, exclusion and unemployment.

The principal task of the scientists should be to get the balance between the machine and man, and to guarantee the maintenance and creation of employments.

A technology that substitutes the work of man is not a good neither a fair creation. The main objective of man should not be to accumulate more and more money. All the owners of the machines and the most advances technologies will die and shall not keep with them neither the money, neither the machines. They should think in the human effects of their actions, the effects on the families and on the workers, and not only in the egoist desire of to obtain more and more money. At the final, that money will not be useful for them.

6. What to do

The solution to the problem of the unemployment and the sub employment is not easy. Nevertheless, it is possible to achieve important advances. The world might reach partial success in this matter. The problem is of such magnitude that requires the action of the international agencies, the national governments of the countries, the entrepreneurs and the workers worldwide. But the main responsibility corresponds to the international agencies like United Nations and the World Bank. They should be the sponsors of a global campaign for the promotion of the employment and the preservation of the environment. I think that those should be the principal goals of those institutions, because the unemployment and the destruction of the environment are the two most graves material problems of the world. In turn, those problems have a cause: the overpopulation.

The high rate of population growth in the underdeveloped nations is responsible of the world overpopulation.

7. The demographic control

If the population growth rhythm continues like until now, to resolve the basic needs of the world society will be everyday more difficult. The first measure should be to begin a global campaign of demographic control in the underdeveloped nations. The situation is different in the industrialized nations because they experiment a contrary phenomenon known as demographic transition. This is the augment of the life expectancy of the senior people and the reduction of the birthrate.

I think that the international agencies, United Nations and the World Bank and the national governments of the underdeveloped nations should develop a Global campaign of demographic control. This is the unique form of to guarantee the next generations survival.

8. The double working-day and the half working-day

Twenty three years ago, in 1988, I wrote and published, in Spanish, an economic model to fight against the unemployment. The title of the thesis was “A concrete idea to combat the unemployment, the double working-day and the half working-day.” Available in Amazon:

 http://www.amazon.com/Concreta-Combatir-Desocupaci%C3%B3n-Jornada-Spanish/dp/9803002813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301159461&sr=1-1

The model was dedicated to the countries that suffer high levels of unemployment as consequence of the weakness of their markets, this mean, the weakness of the internal demand, by lack of income of a good part of the population, the unemployed.

It is an economic model that search to enhance the production of goods and services and to increase the level of employment, through the full use of the time of work, the productive infrastructure and the machinery. It is a new form of organization of the production and the work. The model is applicable especially in those countries where there is a productive capacity not enough used.

The core of the proposal is the legal creation of two different working-days of seven hours each one in a same day. In the most countries, the legal working-day is of eight (8) hours, but with the new proposal it would be established legally a second working-day of seven (7) hours. The workers that work in the first working-day cannot work in the second working-day. This fact guarantees the creation of new jobs that will be occupied by new workers.

The first working-day would begin at 7 am until 2 pm and the second working day would begin at 2 pm until 9 pm.

I shall explain the benefits with a single example: If 7 workers produce 7 pair of shoes in 7 hours, 7 new workers will produce 7 additional pair of shoes in the next seven hours of the second working-day. This mean that in the same day will be duplicated the jobs and the production.

Moreover of the industry, the model is applicable in the services sector; for example, in the medical and sanitary services. This would be especially useful for the underdeveloped nations that suffer serious restrictions because of the lack of medical attention.

9. Global campaign of reforestation

The other option to achieve a quick and effective creation of jobs is through the development of a Global campaign of reforestation, sponsored by United Nations and the World Bank, with the cooperation of the governments of the countries.

The Global campaign of reforestation would let to create millions of ecological employments worldwide and, in consequence, to attack the problem of the poverty and the unemployment. The other big advantage of this program is that it would let to keep the environment, because of the multiple benefits that the trees give to the people. The reforestation favors the ecological balance, the oxygen of the air, the rain, the conservation of the soils among others advantages.

To develop the Global campaign of reforestation it is not necessary to employ fossil fuels, like petroleum neither coal and this is its other great positive difference regarding other forms of creation of jobs. For example, to create one employ in the agriculture, the industry or in the tertiary sector it is necessary to use big amounts of energy. The campaign of reforestation does not need big amounts of energy.

10. Conclusions

-         There is not one or a rigid number of actions to promote the employment and to fight against the unemployment and the sub employment. I think that the human being have the duty of helping to find roads, solutions. That is what I want to do, only to help to find ways to solve this big problem that hit deeply the hearts and the life in family of the human beings in the entire world. The unemployment is something terrible, especially for the young people, that lose its hope when do not get a formal work. The same happen to the adults and to the senior citizens.

-         The international community, through the international agencies, the United Nations and the World Bank, might contribute in a decisive form to diminish the problem of the unemployment and the sub employment. I think that they might sponsor three basic campaigns: a) The Global Campaign of Demographic Control, b) The Global Campaign of Double Working-day and Half Working-day and c) The Global campaign of Reforestation, like concrete measures to combat the poverty, the unemployment and protecting the environment worldwide.

-         The Global campaign of demographic control is something essential to guarantee the survival of the next generations. The rate of population growth of the last decades is unsustainable.

-         The Double Working-day and the Half Working-day should be developed especially in those activities that require the less use of energy, like the tertiary sector of the economy; for example, in the activities to improve the quality of life of the population, like the medicine and services of health.

-         The Global Campaign of Reforestation is not only a measure of conservation of the environment but a measure of conservation of energy because its realization do not imply the use of the traditional sources of energy, petroleum neither coal.

Human egoism and overpopulation, big economics and political problems

“The pride of man makes him love to domineer, and nothing mortifies him so much as to be obliged to condescend to persuade his inferiors. Wherever the law allows it, and the nature of the work can afford it, therefore, he will generally prefer the service of slaves to that of freemen.”

Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), Book III, Chapter II

Index
1. Overview

1.1. The system of private property

1.2 The postulates of the economy are only intellectual exercises

1.3 Base of the political systems

2. Original Accumulation, vision of Adam Smith and Karl Marx

3. Comparison between the two points of views

4. The population growth, appreciation of Adam Smith and Thomas Robert Malthus

5. Unsustainable

6. Conclusions

1. Overview
Why does exists poor’s and rich’s?

Why one’s does governs and others obey?

For understanding the scope and answer those questions, first of all it is necessary consider two essential aspects: a) how was created the first wealth in the world? and, b) how did evolve the societies toward the different forms of government?

In the first stages of the human development, man lived in small groups of peasants and in a communitarian economic system, where shared the means of life with other members of the group; but that Honey Moon did not last too much. The human egoism dominated man hearts and appeared the first signs of struggle for the Earth resources and the dominium of one’s men over other men.

At the beginning of the times, land was communitarian property and nobody had individual rights over her.

1.1. The system of private property
The first big jump toward the new political and economic system of private property was the appropriation (robbery) of land by the strongest and rich men; this led to the establishment of the private property on land. The second step was the accumulation of stock. The first forms of capitalism appeared at the end of feudalism; however, the previous appropriation of land was the first expression of the wealth concentration.

But what did determine that deep change ---robbery of land and private property--- in the social behavior of man?

The answer is: a) the fear and b) the sexual instinct. The fear to the lack or scarcity of material means of life and the uncontrolled desire of sex. But pure love, fraternal love also exists and it is the other big might that inspire human beings life. The fear provokes the wealth accumulation wish because man wants to assure the goods that need. But for obtaining those goods he requires, in turn, to dominate the other people; therefore he searches the politics power.

Man made war to appropriate land and women of the conquered lands. In the Holy Scriptures and in the world history there are numerous examples of this. The fear and the sexual desire ---pleasure--- are the two forces that determine man behavior.

As a consequence of the uncontrolled sexual appetite ---and fertility--- the population grew; the effect of that growth was the multiplication of the social needs. The material means of life began to be scarce and this fact developed the human instincts of survival and the human egoism. Each one began to fight against other for the possession of the limited resources.

Land is the primary resource. And land encompasses the other essential resources. Land is wealth, the true wealth. Therefore, the first action of man was to appropriate land. But land and their physical expressions ---in material goods--- was not enough. Hence man created other symbol of wealth: the money.

Everyday the population grew more and more. But the resources do not augmented in balanced proportion and, moreover, they were not distributed fairly. This has been the essential cause of poverty and richness of one’s and others. The rich and strongest men ---since the physical and intellectual point of view--- have taken the best part of the earth resources and the capital factor; the poor’s and weak has received nothing.

In its first stage, the process of expropriation of the weak peasants was made through blood and fire. In parallel to the robbery of land to the peasants and the accumulation of stock, the rich and strongest men developed the political institutions ---states, governments, laws--- to guarantee their property and privileges and the dominium of the poor’s and weak . The maintenance of that process along the centuries has been based in the same principle: the violence. But ---in the modern times--- employing a romantic and false justification: the prevalence of law. The juridical system of the countries is the base where is supported the privileges of the owners of the power and wealth. It is too its moral justification. You must obey the law. It does not matter if the law is fair or unfair, moral or immoral. If you do not obey, the system has the legal force to punish you. The financial crisis of the year 2008 in the United States and other Industrial countries is an excellent example of the unfair laws. The bankers ruined their banks --- but kept their personal fortunes--- and the governments had to give them millions of money in bailout. That is the law.

1.2 The postulates of the economy are only intellectual exercises

In all the political and economical systems, the politics and the private economy advance together. The private economy cannot work without the institutional political support. The private economy is not independent and do not dominate the market. The private economy depends of the politics because the most important economics decisions ---the economic policies--- are taken by the politicians and the governments and not by the economists neither the entrepreneurs. For the mentioned reason, the postulates of the economic theory, the laws and the mathematical base of the economy ---like science--- are only intellectual exercises over situations that can occur or not in the true reality. In all the political and economical regimes are the governments ---through their policies--- who determine in last instance the conduct of the market. However, it is necessary underline that the politics and the politicians need the cooperation of the business and the entrepreneurs to reach the goals of the economic and social development. The public economy and the private economy, though have different objectives, need achieve basic agreements to benefit the society.

1.3 Base of the political systems
Since their creation, the political systems were established over a basic principle: the use of force or the threat of use of force. All the political systems are sustained in that principle. Man obey only for fear or own interest. The rulers and the rich know it perfectly. They employ both.

But man searches power and wealth for a basic reason: to satisfy his sexual desire. That is the true truth but nobody is able of to recognize it openly. The society has two faces: a) the apparent, institutional, legal and moral and b) the real, the true and not recognized. The Adam Smith’s concept that heads this work is a good example of the true human beings feelings. Fear, hedonism and egoism govern its life.

The world problems have two kinds of causes: a) intangibles and b) the materials.

The human egoism ---that is equivalent to the uncontrolled desire of pleasure--- is the foremost intangible cause of the big problems of the world. That uncontrolled wish of pleasure provokes the uncontrolled desire of sex, of wealth and politics power possession.

But the big desire of sex is, in turn, the cause of the overpopulation and this, the source of the big material problems of humanity: a) the overexploitation of the natural resources, b) the damage to nature and environment, c) unemployment, d) poverty and e) illnesses. In the table may be appreciated the hierarchy of the diverse situations.

2. Original Accumulation, vision of Adam Smith and Karl Marx
The study of the Original Accumulation is essential for the comprehension of the evolution of wealth along history.

Adam Smith employed the term “Previous Accumulation”, Karl Marx used the words “Primitive Accumulation” but I prefer “Original Accumulation.”

Adam Smith (1753-1790) is the father of the Economic Liberalism. His vision regarding the Original Accumulation is a concept that cannot be ignored in the study of richness. The opposite thesis of the Economic Liberalism is the Scientific Socialism. Karl Marx (1818-1883) is considered the father of this conception and for that reason his opinion about the Original Accumulation must be taken in account.

In the book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter VIII, Adam Smith wrote:

“Of the Wages of Labour

The produce of labour constitutes the natural recompense or wages of labour.

In that original state of things, which precedes both the appropriation of land and the accumulation of stock, the whole produce of labour belongs to the labourer. He has neither landlord nor master to share with him. But this original state of things, in which the labourer enjoyed the whole produce of his own labour, could not last beyond the first introduction of the appropriation of land and the accumulation of stock. It was at an end, therefore, long before the most considerable improvements were made in the productive powers of labour, and it would be to no purpose to trace farther what might have been its effects upon the recompence or wages of labour.

As soon as land becomes private property, the landlord demands a share of almost all the produce which the labourer can either raise, or collect from it. His rent makes the first deduction from the produce of the labour which is employed upon land.”

And in the Introduction of the Book II about Of the Nature, Accumulation, and Employment of Stock, Smith wrote:

“In that rude state of society in which there is no division of labour, in which exchanges are seldom made, and in which every man provides everything for himself, it is not necessary that any stock should be accumulated or stored up beforehand in order to carry on the business of the society. Every man endeavours to supply by his own industry his own occasional wants as they occur. When he is hungry, he goes to the forest to hunt; when his coat is worn out, he clothes himself with the skin of the first large animal he kills: and when his hut begins to go to ruin, he repairs it, as well as he can, with the trees and the turf that are nearest it.

But when the division of labour has once been thoroughly introduced, the produce of a man's own labour can supply but a very small part of his occasional wants. The far greater part of them are supplied by the produce of other men's labour, which he purchases with the produce, or, what is the same thing, with the price of the produce of his own. But this purchase cannot be made till such time as the produce of his own labour has not only been completed, but sold. A stock of goods of different kinds, therefore, must be stored up somewhere sufficient to maintain him, and to supply him with the materials and tools of his work till such time, at least, as both these events can be brought about. A weaver cannot apply himself entirely to his peculiar business, unless there is beforehand stored up somewhere, either in his own possession or in that of some other person, a stock sufficient to maintain him, and to supply him with the materials and tools of his work, till he has not only completed, but sold his web. This accumulation must, evidently, be previous to his applying his industry for so long a time to such a peculiar business.

As the accumulation of stock must, in the nature of things, be previous to the division of labour, so labour can be more and more subdivided.” End of the quotes.

In his book, Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, 1867, Part VIII, Primitive Accumulation, Karl Marx wrote:

“We have seen how money is changed into capital; how through capital surplus-value is made, and from surplus-value more capital. But the accumulation of capital presupposes surplus-value; surplus-value presupposes capitalistic production; capitalistic production presupposes the pre-existence of considerable masses of capital and of labour power in the hands of producers of commodities. The whole movement, therefore, seems to turn in a vicious circle, out of which we can only get by supposing a primitive accumulation (previous accumulation of Adam Smith) preceding capitalistic accumulation; an accumulation not the result of the capitalistic mode of production, but its starting point.

This primitive accumulation plays in Political Economy about the same part as original sin in theology. Adam bit the apple, and thereupon sin fell on the human race. Its origin is supposed to be explained when it is told as an anecdote of the past. In times long gone by there were two sorts of people; one, the diligent, intelligent, and, above all, frugal elite; the other, lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living. The legend of theological original sin tells us certainly how man came to be condemned to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow; but the history of economic original sin reveals to us that there are people to whom this is by no means essential. Never mind! Thus it came to pass that the former sort accumulated wealth, and the latter sort had at last nothing to sell except their own skins. And from this original sin dates the poverty of the great majority that, despite all its labour, has up to now nothing to sell but itself, and the wealth of the few that increases constantly although they have long ceased to work. In actual history it is notorious that conquest, enslavement, robbery, murder, briefly force, plays the great part. In the tender annals of Political Economy, the idyllic reigns from time immemorial. Right and “labour” were from all time the sole means of enrichment, the present year of course always excepted. As a matter of fact, the methods of primitive accumulation are anything but idyllic.

In themselves money and commodities are no more capital than are the means of production and of subsistence. They want transforming into capital.

The capitalist system presupposes the complete separation of the labourers from all property in the means by which they can realize their labour. As soon as capitalist production is once on its own legs, it not only maintains this separation, but reproduces it on a continually extending scale. The process, therefore, that clears the way for the capitalist system, can be none other than the process which takes away from the labourer the possession of his means of production; a process that transforms, on the one hand, the social means of subsistence and of production into capital, on the other, the immediate producers into wage labourers. The so-called primitive accumulation, therefore, is nothing else than the historical process of divorcing the producer from the means of production. It appears as primitive, because it forms the prehistoric stage of capital and of the mode of production corresponding with it.

The economic structure of capitalist society has grown out of the economic structure of feudal society. The dissolution of the latter set free the elements of the former.

In the history of primitive accumulation, all revolutions are epoch-making that act as levers for the capital class in course of formation; but, above all, those moments when great masses of men are suddenly and forcibly torn from their means of subsistence, and hurled as free and “unattached” proletarians on the labour-market. The expropriation of the agricultural producer, of the peasant, from the soil, is the basis of the whole process. The history of this expropriation, in different countries, assumes different aspects, and runs through its various phases in different orders of succession, and at different periods. In England alone, which we take as our example, has it the classic form.” End of the quotes.

3. Comparison between the two points of view
Adam Smith presents an ascetic or perhaps an eclectic appreciation of the Original Accumulation. He does not explain openly how the violence, the murder and the robbery of land to the first commoners, the first peasants, was the base of the process. Smith recognizes the landlord’s rights to explode the peasants and receiving rent.

On the contrary, Karl Marx highlights how the violence was the method employed by the first rich to accumulate its primary wealth before the apparition of the first forms of capitalism.

This appreciation on the origin of wealth would determine the position of each one of them regarding the paper of capitalism in the society.

If you consider that something is right and moral you accept it, but, on the contrary, if you think that something has been not acquired by right and moral methods, perhaps you will reject it. Adam Smith considered the capitalists methods like something right. Karl Marx taught the contrary.

Along the centuries the workers had been simple slaves.

The philosophical position of Marx contributed ---years later--- to change the social and economic situation of the workers, because it opened the door to new reformists movements, like the syndicates, and new political parties, that fought by their social rights. For example, an Italian friend, remembers me that at the beginning of the 20th century, in Italy, cradle of western culture, the peasants were formally freemen but, in the social and economic reality, they were true slaves. He told me: “it was Benito Mussolini who made the first social reforms to improve the quality of life of the Italian peasants. At the beginning of his politics career, Mussolini was socialist. Mussolini, for first time, gave to the Italians peasants a participation in the benefits of production. In an official decision, he imposed that 55 per cent of the benefits of production had to be given to the peasants; the other 45 per cent was for the capitalists owners of land”, assured my friend.

The Marxist communism was a result of the unfair economical and social conditions that existed in Russia, the Eastern Europe and China. But the Marxist Communism did not change those unfair conditions. On the contrary, the communism created new dictatorships that devastated those countries during the past 20th century.

The nations that had reached the most standards of economic and social progress are those countries that had adopted an intermediate model between capitalism and socialism, like the Nordic countries. For example, I read recently, that Norway is the country with the major level of happiness.

4. The population growth, appreciation of Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus

The high rate of population growth is the principal cause of the economic and social problems of the world. In the last two hundred years, the world population grew as never before.

But the most paradoxical is that the maximum growth has been registered in the poorest and underdeveloped countries.

So far, the world, as a whole, has not focused its attention in this problem. Only the principal countries directly affected by the phenomenon, like China, have taken in account the issue.

If there is not a global consensus on the need of demographic control, the situation will be every day worse and in too few years will be unbearable. To ascertain this, it is enough to see how the poverty augments in sustained form in the underdeveloped nations. The poverty has many causes but one of the first is the overpopulation. It is not the same a family with two children than a family with six or eight children.

In the time of Adam Smith, 18th century, the situation was different. As a matter of fact he assured that:

“The most decisive mark of the prosperity of any country is the increase of the number of its inhabitants”. End of the quote. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), Book One, Chapter 8, Of the Wages of Labour.

But Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) thought something different; in his book An Essay on the Principle of Populations, Book One, Chapter One, Malthus assured that:

“It may safely be pronounced, therefore, that population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years, or increases in a geometrical ratio.

The rate according to which the productions of the earth may be supposed to increase, it will not be so easy to determine. Of this, however, we may be perfectly certain, that the ratio of their increase in a limited territory must be of a totally different nature from the ratio of the increase of population. A thousand millions are just as easily doubled every twenty-five years by the power of population as a thousand. But the food to support the increase from the greater number will by no means be obtained with the same facility. Man is necessarily confined in room. When acre has been added to acre till all the fertile land is occupied, the yearly increase of food must depend upon the melioration of the land already in possession. This is a fund; which, from the nature of all soils, instead of increasing, must be gradually diminishing. But population, could it be supplied with food, would go on with unexhausted vigour; and the increase of one period would furnish the power of a greater increase the next, and this without any limit.” End of the quotes.

5. Unsustainable
Nevertheless all the advances achieved by science and technology and the development of the democratic institutions, hundreds of millions of people suffer hunger. Already it is not only a problem of distribution but a problem of production. Man has devastated the environment and the natural resources. The scarcity of water is every day something real in too many places of the world. The deforestation and pollution of seas, rivers and lakes is the other evident reality.

“Until recently economic theory has not seriously considered that a global shortage of natural resources could occur, and even less a global shortage of water and petroleum.” Pablo Rafael Gonzalez, A Statistical Yearbook 2008. Running Out How Global Shortages Change the Economic Paradigm, page 11, Algora Publishing, New York. 2008.

But the global shortages of natural resources have begun and are visible in countries and regions where there was abundance in the past recent. The stress or scarcity of water exists already in several regions of the United States and Mexico, in the Caribbean and in South America in unthinkable countries like Brazil and in other countries as Bolivia, Peru and Chile. The same happen in some countries of Europe, like Spain and Italy, in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The stress or scarcity of water is and will be the gravest problem that humanity will face at mid term; their consequences will be disastrous for the wellbeing of the world population.

The global scarcity of natural resources is, and will be, a consequence of two phenomenons: a) the overpopulation and b) the overexploitation of the resources.

6. Conclusions
- For the comprehension of the current economic and social disparities it is necessary to know the evolution of wealth since the first times.

- The Original Accumulation is the previous period to the Capitalist Accumulation.

- The Original Accumulation of wealth was a consequence of two facts: a) the robbery of land by the strongest and rich men and b) the violence and crime against the first peasants.

- In its first stage, capitalism used analogue methods but substituted crime by the overexploitation of the workers, especially women and children.

-The economy depends of the politics, because in all the countries, the most important economic decisions are taken by the politicians and the governments and not by the economists neither the entrepreneurs.

- The human egoism is the foremost intangible cause of the world problems and the overpopulation the first material cause.

- If there is not a global consensus on the need of demographic control, the situation will be every day worse and in too few years will be unbearable.

- So far, the world society has not given the due importance to the problem of stress or scarcity of water that is the most important challenge for the population survival.

- The overpopulation and the overexploitation of the resources are destroying the planet and, if that trend continues, in too few years the Earth might be inhabitable.

- It is something essential, vital for mankind, to detain the destruction of the forests and to begin a global campaign of reforestation. This might be a way to combat the poverty, create millions of ecological employments and preserve the water and the environment.