August is not yet over, and I need a break. Not from blogging, of course. Asking me to do that is a bit like asking me to stop breathing. I've been writing pretty incessantly sense I was eight and still have my first cast iron Remington typewriter. No, I need a break from the rubbish that some commentators put in this blog. As one more enlightened commentator put it yesterday:
I honestly don't know why you give these people the time of day.
If you go to Worstall's blog and read through the comments you'll see that the same names appear amongst those who spend every day bragging about winding you up, launching all manner of vile personal attacks, wishing you were dead, fantasising about posting dog shit through your letterbox etc, etc like a sad collection of adolescent sociopaths.
So I went to take a look (not easy these days: Google have blocked Worstall's own blog on the grounds of its poor taste, I gather) and I immediately found five regular commentators here in action there doing if not exactly what is said above then certainly doing things not far short of it in some cases.
And then there are, like Worstall himself, those who have come out of the closet recently to attack democracy and who place themselves so far beyond the fringes of reasonable political debate that I really can't be bothered to engage with them any more. There are simply better things to do with life.
So, if you're a regular commentator on Worstall's blogs about me, or have sided with the plutocrats here I'll be deleting you now however reasonable you think you might try to make your comment because no one will be fooled by it, and by definition it will not be adding to useful debate.
And I'll get a break from having to deal with all your nonsense.
PS There are more than a dozen on the list already
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I hope you also have a good relaxing break and have a bit of fun.
I am hoping to get a copy of Modernising money by Dyson for my birthday. It seems it advocates 100% reserve banking. I have also been reading Ann Pettifor’s objection to it. Steven Keen is also doubtful about 100% reserve.. Is one of the issues which you will comment on in your new book?
lastly i hope the writing goes well. From my experience, sometimes it does but at others…..!
It’s not right now….
I am with Ann and Steve
Positive money really do not appreciate that money is just a form of credit, albeit a special one without which other credit collapses, and so too does economic activity
I guess they’ve never actually seen a real business
You might be interested to know that it was because of your attitude to my mildly-critical posts that I discovered Tim Worstall and his blog (I googled “Richard Murphy critique” or similar in an attempt to determine whether my experience was unique or whether that was your modus operandi) and gradually changeed my views from being soft-Left to stridently pro-markets (a neoliberal, as I’m sure you’d label me, if not worse), albeit I’m probably amongst the more tolerant of limited government intervention and regulation on Tim’s comments.
Based on this data point, you might like to consider whether your approach of preaching to the choir and denigrating critics is helping or hindering your stated goals.
I don;t preach to the choir
I talk to a very broad church of mainstream politics
Those on Worstall’s blog are way outside that mainstream and not worth engaging with
I’ll add you to the list of those who won’t get on again
Strange how intolerant libertarians are.
Scratch the surface and they’re very authoritarian.
Will give that a scan at least
Richard,
I could not agree more and am glad you are taking these steps. Tolerance of all points of view is nothing more than a prescription for tyranny on these pages. Those who hold other points of view should start their own websites and try to attract a readership, no matter how meager, instead of piggy backing on your success and making their name off of your hard work.
I agree
too right richard
It’s almost amusing how many of those barred have not realised they are on the list automatically deleted
One posted about 7 comments, so I mailed him to stop wasting his time
Then I found the email address was false, after all
So he failed moderation anyway
PS Why are they all male?
PPS I am aware that most commentators are but I also know one or two women do, I think wisely and appropriately, use pseudonyms on this site and I am happy for them to do so
Does that mean I am on the list then?
Of course
I’ve been to Worstall’s site
You’re there, often
That’s your last post
“Why are they all male?”
I suspect you know the answer to that.
There is a very close link between right-wing libertarianism & a certain type of “Dungeons & Dragons” obsessive. They tend to excel in IT & finance & have few, if any, interests in social interaction. If they’ve been successful in business (as those commenting often are) they’ve been able to buy relationships so have no need to improve their limited social skills.
They like lists & definitive facts & they don’t like complicated, messy, things like empathy.
They find it difficult, verging on impossible, to imagine themselves in another person’s predicament.
I can understand their mentality. I prefer Chess, Sudoku & Maths puzzles to listening to talk about relationships. I don’t accept you can go on like that. An inability to empathise is not an adequate basis for a philosophy. There comes a point where you have to try to talk.,
It seems that you only want comments from people who agree with you. Not the most effective way to establish a discourse, I would have thought, but perhaps such is not your intention.
Far from it
I appreciate genuine discussion
I just don’t want it drowned out by the nonsense that those who frequent the likes of Wostall’s site produce
as Richard pointed out in his speech for the Quaker meeting, by far the best way to convince the undecided is column inches and TV/radio appearances. as the Confucian Hsun Tzu pointed out over 2000yrs ago:
“If you climb to a height and beckon, it’s not that your arm gets longer, but it is seen from farther away. If you yell downwind, it’s not that the sound gets swifter, but it is heard more clearly.”
of course discussion amongst commentators is valuable, but expecting Richard to debate every commentator is like asking him to climb down from the mountain and address the crowd one by one. it defeats its own purpose which is exactly why the trolls try so hard to engage him in it.
I think you’re right
New ones have already emerged out of the woodwork today
They’re going the way of the established models
enjoy your break Richard. my local rag says we might be in for something of an Indian summer!
There’s no break – except from trolls
I’ll be writing come what may
And fending off claims from my son’s for my time as the end of the school holiday looms nigh
Richard
I genuinely think you could achieve a lot of peace by simply ignoring the trolls.
I suspect that, were you to ignore them, other people would comment. There is no requirement for you to do it. Speaking per sonally, I’m happy to have a laugh at them.
Don’t work yourself to death, you won’t, believe me, get overtime in this world.
recent comment from one of Worstall’s worshippers:
“worzel
August 27, 2014 at 4:00 pm
I sense a competition in the offing. Who can get the most lunatic statement couched as obsequious comment through the new moderation policy whilst using a user name from this site ?
I salute James Lloyd as the winner thus far.
‘Tolerance of all points of view is nothing more than a prescription for tyranny on these pages’”
so i’m guessing that “Jack C” is a made up name and the above post is an attempt at humour to impress your fellow followers… well done you that’s really really clever. even funnier though is that while you and your sad little friends sit giggling at your sad little games, the objects of your fun are busy cutting down your idols.
wrote above in wrong area (too many tabs open)! should have gone here:
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2014/08/27/opposition-to-democracy-is-not-some-historical-anachronism-its-alive-and-well-on-the-uk-right-wing-today/
St Augustine defined evil as simply the absence of good. I think it follows that facetiousness, requiring as it does an absence of serious good intention, could be a form of evil if only a minor kind.
I know I’m capable of it myself, but there is something destructive about those whose response to any attempt at change is to throw mud-pies & pull faces.
I don’t agree with St Augustine on all aspects of sin
But he has a point here
“Positive Money really do not get that money is just a form of credit…”
If you had had time to read Modernising Money by Ben Dyson à nd Where Does Money Come From? by Collins,Greenham,Werner and Jackson, you would be in no doubt that Positive Money understands money very well. Their point is that with the present system where 97% of our money is created with an accompanying à nd equal(at least equal) debt,their is an endemic shortage of purchasing power because every pound is needed to repay debt à nd buy the goods that are produced. Of course all money, even state created notes à nd coins, are a token of what is owed from the common pot of goods à nd services. Ann’s objections appear to be partly based on lack of trust in the state! Her objections are comprehensively answered on the PM website. Steve Keen’s objection seems to be that we can’t be sure that PM’s proposed system would work perfectly! Does anyone know of any system in the economic sphere that does work perfectly?
I have read PM’s view
I do not think it shows an understanding of credit
Steve Keen is right
And so is Ann
The PM proposal could result in a lack of liquidity and that would be disastrous
I am all for monetary reform, and have been for a very long time, but not for strangling the economy
Ignore Ann if you wish
Certainly ignore me
But Steve Keen? I wouldn’t….
I think it could be wonderful & would be revolutionary, but you really are talking about taking a locomotive that is doing 70 down the fast-lane & giving it a massive U-Turn. There would be horrendous consequences.
I definitely think people like Richard & others should give thought to it BUT it is a massive change that could go disastrously wrong. My initial feelings are positive, I think it would kill the power banks & global finance have over “us”.
I genuinely don’t know, though, how we’d go on with global trading without this ability to create finance. Do we, (can we?) go back to bills of exchange & the like & how will people cope with having to always travel with foreign currency in cash?
I don’t rule it out….
How we’d go on with global trade without the ability to create finance.”
There would be no problem.We would have money the same as before but it would be state created money not bank created money.If we imported more than we exported à nd money drained away from our country as a result and we found ourselves short of currency to keep the economy working at its full potential, then more could be created by the responsible public body. There would no longer be any need to worry over an excess of imports over exports. If the rest of the world wanted to work to provide us with goods instead of making things for themselves, just to get money they could have created themselves, then so be it!
Read The Grip of Death by Michael Rowbotham. He is very good on the damage that the money system we have
exported to the rest of the world, has inflicted.