Conspiracy theories
I am not one for conspiracy theories surrounding Covid, but sometimes you come across passages when reading various books and you can't help but wonder if there is something more going on than meets the eye.
I have been revisiting a book called the 'Sovereign Individual' written in 1997 (24 years ago!) by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg (yes, he is the father of that rather cringe worthy politician Jacob Rees-Mogg and ex-editor of The Times newspaper).
The book is about the rise of the Information Age, the internet and the effect it would have on all our lives, the politics and the actions that individuals and governments will need to take as a result of its impact on our lives. For the record, I don't agree with the general conclusion that one should seek out tax havens and move ourselves and our money until we find the lowest tax jurisdiction that will host us (that's the general theme of the book). But the book itself reads like a prophecy for the future. Its conclusions are eerily accurate.
To put this into context, a few things about the internet in 1997: - Google.com did not exist
- In January 1996 there were only 100,000 websites globally. In 2008 there were more than 160 million.
- The web browser of choice was Netscape Navigator, followed by Microsoft Internet Explorer as a distant second.
- Do you remember dial-up internet connections, when it took about 5 minutes to load an internet page? Well, highly modern 56Kbps modems arrived in 1997.
- In 1997 Steve Jobs returned to Apple to take it over after being ousted by the directors years earlier.
So, I think we can agree that the internet was in its infancy in 1997!!
In the book, they talk about how the internet will allow individuals and money to become globally mobile and neither will be bound by state borders as they previously had (that sounds about right). This would result in governments needing to find ways to restrict capital and labour flows across national borders.
One hypothesis that they come up with to deal with this does make you wonder if they had a crystal ball for the future. Read the text below:
The wealthy OECD countries impose heavy tax and regulatory burdens upon individuals doing business within their borders. These costs may have been tolerable when the OECD nation-states were the only jurisdictions in which one could do business and reside at a reasonable level of comfort. That day has passed. The premium paid to be taxed and regulated as a resident of the richest nation-states no longer repays its cost. It will be ever less tolerable as competition between jurisdictions intensifies. Those with the earnings ability and capital to meet the competitive challenges of the Information Age will be able to locate anywhere and do business anywhere. With a choice of domiciles, only the most patriotic or stupid will continue to reside in high-tax countries.
For this reason, it is expected that one or more nation-states will undertake covert action to subvert the appeal of transience. Travel could be effectively discouraged by biological warfare, such as the outbreak of a deadly epidemic. This could not only discourage the desire to travel, it could also give jurisdictions throughout the globe an excuse to seal their borders and limit immigration.
It does make me wonder if someone read this book and then decided to run with it as an idea! Quite eerie in its accuracy. | 
Hello Gareth - Rees-Mogg rubbed shoulders on a daily basis with the individuals (some elected, most non-elected) who get to decide what's going to happen us, and so what this tells us is that these thoughts have been circulating in one form or another for a long time.
ReplyDeleteIt is telling that one of the first facets of the panic was to intensify the war on cash, which is a touchstone of the global political elite.
I have been following the whole covid business very closely since January last year, and have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to join all the dots without oing down the rabbit hole.
And that is very scary, and destabilizing.
Think about it; besides the war on cash which has been intensifying for years, and is something to be opposed at all costs, one of the first things that was said was that there will be no going back to the old normal. In fact the very idea that such a concept as the old normal needs to be distinguished from the new normal is already deeply concerning.
And now, just as everybody at risk has been vaccinated and excess deaths are now below the 5-year average, we have to continue wearing masks probably all summer, and therefore probably for ever. Where does that come from?
Deeply concerned, and yes, depressed.
Robert