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THE REAL PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENTS, AN EXTRACT FROM "THE NATURE OF THE STATE." by Derrick A Pike Freely distributable, but please quote source 5 WHY WE CHOOSE THE STATE AND HOW WE CAN DISCOVER ITS TRUE PURPOSE The state is simply one way that people can organise and live together. There are many other ways to do this, but always people have only two choices. If they believe that humans are innately good, they will choose a society where they cooperate with one another of their own free will; but if they believe that humans are innately evil, they will choose a society where everyone is forced to cooperate with one another by violence. If people choose the former, they will be free; but if they choose the latter , they will not.=20 =09Unfortunately, because people believe that some of us are innately evil (not themselves, of course) and because they know of no alternative, they choose violence to protect themselves from the enemies that exist at home and abroad. (The enemies exist, but only because our present social pattern creates them.) Then, when people have accepted violence, they must accept a separate group - a government - to organise it. They also accept a government because they believe that people are incapable of controlli ng their own affairs and so must be directed by others. People accept the state.=20 =09Once people choose a government to direct affairs and be in charge of violent forces to protect them, it must have absolute power to make them obey its commands. It would be ineffectual if people did not obey. It must also have complete power to overcome any violent opposition to its rule. But because a government has absolute power it can rule in any way it wishes. And this it does. As a result, it has a purpose that is very different from the one that was used to justify its existence. As will be prove d, governments rule in their own interests, in the interests of those they wish to favour, and in the interests of those whose support they have to buy.=20 =09Because governments are in charge, and since people obey the laws they enforce, it is possible to discover the real purpose of governments. It is important to do this because once their true purpose is recognised, all socioeconomic details, all history, and all government morality can be explained. It will be understood why even the most benign ruler behaves like an ardent reactionary, why no political party is substantially different from any other, and why even a change of political system (from or to: democratic, fascist, socialist, communist, etc.) does not produce any change in social conditions. Once the true purpose of governments is understood, and once an alternative to the state is seen to be practical then, hopefully, people will create a free and ideal society. =09The purpose of governments is revealed by the way they behave and by the kind of society they produce as the result of their rule. The real purpose of governments can also be discovered by examining the construction of the state because the way they control the people will confirm their true purpose. By these means we can discover whether governments exist to serve all the people or only some of them.=20 6 THE GOVERNMENTS' MAIN PURPOSE IS TO DISTRIBUTE WEALTH UNEQUALLY The outstanding characteristic of every state is the massive inequality of wealth that exists within it. There are a few extremely rich individuals who have wealth worth billions of pounds, a relatively small number who have a reasonable amount of wealth, and a mass of people who have little or nothing. There are those own everything they want and those who do not have their next meal or the money to buy it. Ten per cent of the people living in the industrial countries own 80 per cent of all the wealth in the world. Generally, women are much poorer than men. It is the same with income. Some individuals have a huge income; others have very little or none at all.=20 =09The contrast between the rich and poor in the first and third worlds is obscene. According to the World Bank First Development Report more than a billion people were living in poverty "a condition of life so characterised by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality, and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency." In 1990 it added, "Being poor means being unable to maintain a minimal standard of living . . . it means low life expe ctancies, high death rates among infants and children, and few opportunities to obtain even a basic education." So in the third world millions and millions starve, while in the first world many have their own camcorders, televisions, videos, and every other luxury. In the developed countries, the middle and upper classes dress in a variety of clothes to attend horse races, fashion shows, plays, operas, dances, concerts, and all the other enchanting diversions.=20 =09The inequalities in the world are always increasing. In 1960, the richest 20 per cent of the world's population received 70.2 per cent of the total annual income, and the poorest 20 per cent received 2.3 per cent of it. By 1989, the richest 20 per cent received 82.7 per cent of the total annual income and the poorest 20 per cent received 1.4 per cent of it.=20 7 POVERTY AND INEQUALITY IN THE DEVELOPED COUNTRIES Unfortunately, even in the first world, a great many people do not have the luxuries or even the necessities. Fewer than two-thirds of the people in the so-called rich countries can maintain even a modest standard of living, and many do not have enough to eat, so that they become hungry. There are areas of unbelievable squalor where people live without hope. According to official statistics, there were, in the early 1980s, more than thirty million people in Europe who were chronically poor. The figure wor sened in the early nineties. Some parents were so poor that they had to abandon their children. Teenagers had to live on the streets, stealing, and sleeping rough. In Britain, nearly one family in three with children was living in poverty. One sixth of th e population was on income support. In America, people died because they could not afford medical attention, and many unemployed had to queue for food vouchers.=20 =09In Britain, in the 1980s, over a quarter of the total income went to the top ten per cent of the people, while less than a quarter of the total income went to the bottom 50 per cent. A quarter of all wealth was owned by 1 per cent of the adult population and 59 per cent of all wealth was owned by 10 per cent of it. Nearly two-thirds of the land was owned by only 2 per cent of the people - more than half of the land was owned by only 1 per cent.=20 =09The inequality of wealth does not even remain stable for while the poor get poorer the rich get richer. Those with a high income always receive large pay rises. These are the senior civil servants, the judges, the high ranking military officers, the Civil Service 'mandrins'', and the directors of companies. Amid the slump around 1990, while teachers, nurses, and social workers had rises of only a few per cent, these people had rises of more than 20 per cent. For example, in 1992, the TSB chief executive had a 25 per cent rise, bringing his salary to =A3230,000. The directors of MFI got =A31.3m as a bonus when their company returned to the stock market. This cash was on top of salaries ranging from =A3100,000 to =A3275,000 a year. A report published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations showed that top bosses enjoyed pay rises out of all proportion to their companies' performance during the recession. During the worst years, from 1989 to 1991, their salaries increased by 14 per cent per year. During each year since 1983, their average salary increase was 20 per cent. Many company directors were paid around one million pounds a year. Britain's highest paid tycoon had a remuneration of =A318m in 1993. Most of this took place while company dividends, interest on the shares, and general performances were nosediving. =09Always the inequality of wealth and income is maintained or increased. In the latter part of 1993, the bottom 10 per cent of the population survived on =A354 per week, while the directors of the top 100 firms earned on average =A310,000 a week. It is not sur prising the number of millionaires in Britain became greater than ever and that some people were immensely rich. David Sainsbury shares were worth =A31.89bn; Lord Sainsbury's, =A3262.2m; and Lord Rothermere's, =A3249.3m. In contrast, in Britain, as in all countries, there are beggars who can exist only by living off the charity of the public. The police move on about 100 beggars every day in the Central London stations.=20 =09Official statistics confirm that the wealth inequality increases. In June 1993, the Social Security Department issued a report concerning the income of people between the years 1979 and 1991-92. It showed that during those years there was a dramatic fall in the share of income for the poorer 10 per cent of households. Although average incomes rose 35 per cent in real terms from 1979 the incomes of the bottom 10 per cent fell by 17 per cent. At the same time the income of the richest 10 per cent rose by 62 per cent. The Financial Secretary to the Treasury later showed that even during the first two years of the recession, between 1989 and 1991, the income of Britain's highest earners increased enormously while the income of the poorest in work was cut. =09In 1994, Tom White, the chief executive of the National Children's Home charity, said, "It is appalling, as we approach the year 2000, that even an 1876 workhouse diet is too expensive for the families of one in four of our children."=20 =09As people get poorer, their working conditions also deteriorate. Now there is less full-time pensionable employment and more insecure part-time and contract work.=20 =09In America, between the years 1988 and 1992, the wealth inequality rose sharply. Real wages rose rapidly for 20 per cent of males, held constantly for another 20 per cent, and fell for the remaining 60 per cent.=20 =09In the state there is an inequality not only of material wealth but also of social service. The rich can afford to pay others to look after them; the poor cannot.=20 =09Since those who are rich have money to buy anything, they need do no work, and although a great number may continue to work, the majority do not. So within the state there is not only an unequal distribution of wealth and service but also an unequal distribution of labour and leisure.= =20 =09Because all of this inequality is the result of the governments' rule, we must conclude that it is their purpose to produce it. The true purpose of governments must be to serve themselves, and certain individuals and groups.=20 8 GOVERNMENTS DO NOT EXIST THE SERVE THE PEOPLE By observing what governments do, we have discovered their true purpose. They control the production and distribution of wealth with partiality. We can confirm that this is indeed their purpose by observing what they do not do.=20 =09It is not the governments' purpose to provide even adequate living conditions. On the contrary, as we shall see, to achieve their true purpose, they must see to it that most people remain poor and deprived.=20 =09Governments do not arrange the efficient production and distribution of food, and because of this there is no state where everyone has enough to eat. In the third world, millions starve and die, and even in the developed countries there are thousands who are often hungry.=20 Equally shameful, much of the food produced is unhealthy and downright poisonous. Dr Richard Lacey, professor of microbiology at Leeds University, said local studies have shown food poisoning cases were up from 200 a year in 1988 to 800 a year in 1992. He said, "That equates to a real figure of 200,000 across the country, and the exact total could be as high as two million." During the year ending May 1993, there were 16,664 cases of food poisoning. Many people who understand that they should eat healthy food have no money to buy it.=20 =09Governments fail to provide water. Some people have adequate supplies but most have not. Two-thirds of the people in the world have to fetch water from outside their homes. In the third world, governments make no serious attempt to organise water supplie s. Even when there is no drought, many people have to walk miles for their daily supply. In Britain, a supposedly developed country, not enough water is stored for the people or industry, so often it has to be rationed. Millions drink water contaminated b y harmful sewage, fertilisers, pesticides, and lead. Raw sewage is discharged into the sea on the holiday coasts.=20 =09In the third world, millions are unhealthy because they have no money to buy medical attention and because governments do not arrange to give it to them. Epidemics occur because there are famines, mass migrations, revolutions, and wars. Humanity's greatest killer, tuberculosis, is out of control in many parts of the world, although the disease is preventable and treatable. Aids is infecting 5,000 people a day; 40 million worldwide will be affected by the year 2000. Of the 42 million blind people in the w orld, 30 million could see if they had a simple operation. Even in the developed countries people are not as fit as they should be. Not only do they eat and drink unhealthy food and water but they also breathe polluted air, swim in dirty seas, and absorb deadly human-made radiations. As always, only the rich are cared for. It is they who can buy adequate and immediate medical attention. Once the government of Britain took regular amounts of money so that it could provide medical care for everybody at no e xtra charge. In the eighties, however, the government reverted to type and the National Health Service started to deteriorate. Charges were made for some services, and hospitals had to refuse patients for lack of money. By June 1993, more than a million p eople were waiting for hospital treatment, even though thousands of beds were closed down. Needless to say, there was no reduction, only an increase, in the regular payments made by the public. The death rate in Glasgow and Sheffield confirms the inequali ty of health care. In the deprived parts of these cities the poor can expect to die eight years earlier than people in the affluent areas. According to a report issued by the British Medical Journal, in April 1994, the growth of poverty and the widening d ifference between the rich and poor in Britain over the last fifty years meant that the latter had a mortality rate four times higher than the former.=20 =09People would be healthier if they were always protected against the elements. Unfortunately, in the state societies, the very poor have little or no protections. It is they who are killed, often in their tens of thousands, by earthquakes and floods becau se they are compelled to live in disaster areas and in poor housing. Further, not everyone has adequate clothing. It is only the well-off who can dress in any way they desire. Many of the poor in the third world are only just adequately covered. People su ffer from the cold and have accidents, even in the developed countries, because they cannot afford to buy fuel and electricity.=20 =09Many people are unhealthy because they are unemployed. The suffer not only economically but also psychologically as they feel they have no place in society or purpose in life. Unemployment and poverty are often responsible for family breakdown, social di stress, and crime. The suicide rate among the unemployed is much greater than the average, and their expectation of life is shorter.=20 =09A number of people are unprotected because they have no place to live. Governments have never provided enough houses. In Britain, in the third quarter of 1992, local councils accepted that 35,550 families were homeless. Although 1,500,000 families receiv ed temporary accommodation, there was none available for many others. The organisation Shelter calculated that there were 1.7 million "unofficially homeless". These were the squatters and the people in temporary private lodgings and hostels. Such people h ave a death rate that is three times the normal. An estimated 8,600 people sleep rough every night - in cardboard boxes, shop doorways, car parks, abandoned buildings, parks, and hedgerows. More than 600 people died on the streets of England and Wales in 1992. Yet while the poor have nowhere to live, the rich live in splendid houses and mansions. Many have more than one residence.=20 =09If governments do not provide enough food and shelter, one would hardly expect them to provide a good education for everybody. Nor do they. In Britain, for example, there are about nine million adults who have difficulties with reading, writing, spelling , and basic mathematics. In some state schools, the parents have to provide books and pencils. Many schools have not been redecorated or maintained properly for decades. The Government, even after nearly a century, cannot decide how the pupils should be t aught the basic subjects. In the entire world, half the people cannot read or write, and in Africa and Asia only one in ten can do so.=20 =09The deficiencies and inequalities extend to every part of life. Most people in the world, for example, have no transport, but others have fine cars, ships, and aeroplanes. Some are inconvenienced by transport strikes, others are not.=20 =09The true purpose of governments has now been confirmed by showing what they do not do. They do not provide all the essentials of life. Those who are rich have them, but the majority do not. They do not because it is not the function of governments to pro vide them.=20 =09Despite our increased scientific and technical knowledge, despite all the possibilities of computer control and automatic machinery, and in spite of all the modern means of producing food and other forms of wealth, under government rule the standard of living drops. It drops when, with the advance of science and technology, it should be rising and rising with great rapidity. Yet Mr J. Callaghan, when Prime Minister, said, "I say with all the force I can command that it is not possible to have an increase d standard of life at present."=20 9 THE STARVATION IN THE WORLD IS DUE TO GOVERNMENT RULE, NOT OVERPOPULATION Other than their wars, the worse failure of governments is their total inability to organise the production and distribution of food. In the third world, a child dies of hunger, or a hunger related illness, every 2.4 seconds. This tragedy is horrifying. A ll of us would think so if we were the next to die. In Somalia alone, in 1992, a million people were on the brink of death. A thousand died every day and the entire population was in danger of being wiped out. In sub-Saharan Africa, according to The Food and Agriculture Organisation, 40 million people were threatened with hunger.=20 =09Well-meaning people, who have not done their homework, say that the world is overpopulated, and so it is impossible to provide for all. The resources of the world, they say, are not enough to feed so many people. They point out that every minute there ar e three hundred extra people to feed, as if the rest of the population were obliged to feed them while they did no work themselves. With every new mouth there is also a new pair of hands and with those hands more wealth can be created. Nobody has to feed more people; they will feed themselves. Each new pair of hands can create enough wealth to feed at least fifty people. It is simply not true that the world is overpopulated. It would appear so because governments are incapable of organising society so tha t everyone has enough to eat.=20 =09The starvation in the world is due entirely to the way governments organise our social life. It is not due to overpopulation, inadequate resources, or insufficient food production. The world is not a food larder with contents so limited that there is not enough for everyone. The world is a food larder that - even with governments - produces 2.4 pounds of grain as well as beans, potatoes, fruit, and vegetables every day for every person. Even now, there is 50 per cent more food produced than is necessary to feed everyone. Much, much more could be produced. As Dr H. Kissinger said, as long ago as 1976, "For the first time we have the technical capacity to free mankind from the scourge of hunger."=20 =09The starvation in the third world could be lessened if the governments there bought food in the world market. It cannot be said that they do not have the money because, as is evident, there is always enough to maintain large numbers of well-equipped arme d forces and often to develop atom bombs.=20 =09People starve in some sections of the world because food is stored without being used, deliberately destroyed, unequally distributed, and used for political bargaining. Food is managed in this way because it is used as a source of privilege, profit, and world power. Starvation is produced by drought, civil war, war, and ecological collapse. It is increased because some governments export food while their own people starve. The use of money makes all this possible.=20 =09So today people starve not because they have no food but because they have no money. During 1992, in Somalia, people starved on the outskirts of towns where the markets were full of food. Rich people never starve. If there is no food, it is soon created when there is a market for it - that is, if people can sell it at a profit to those who have money. It is the poor who starve. It is those with power in North America and Europe who increase the poverty in the third world. They decide that low prices shal l be paid for third world products, that national debts shall not be cancelled, and that corrupt and evil regimes shall be supported.=20 =09Those worried about the birth rate must remember that it is reduced when people have a decent standard of living. For the very poor, children are a form of wealth. They are the means of providing for old age.=20 10 GOVERNMENTS DO NOT PROTECT THE PEOPLE OR THEIR PROPERTY =09In the state there is a massive amount of violence by individuals who use it for themselves and for their government. This causes untold suffering. Consequently, neither property nor person is protected. An immense amount of personal property is stolen a nd vandalised by individuals, and a greater amount is destroyed when governments make war. It =09Children are bullied in school and attacked in their homes. Nurses, teachers, police, and women in their homes are attacked. People are robbed and murdered. Women and children are raped in their homes; children are raped while in governmental care. It is dangerous for children to be alone day or night and for women to be alone in isolated areas. The number raped by the sexual psychopaths, however, is nothing compared with number raped during the wars. There were 30,000 raped in Bosnia in 1993. Rape is part of the spoils of war, the officers get the paintings and jewellery, and the lower ranks get the women.=20 =09People are kidnapped by criminals for ransom, and a far greater number by governments for punishment (in prisons) and for fighting (in war).=20 =09It is during the wars and the civil wars that people are in most danger from living in the state societies. Criminals murder people every day, but when governments murder, they do it on a massive scale. When governments fought one another in Rwanda, in 1 994, more than a million people were massacred and half the population, emaciated and famished, spread in terror accross borders. Wars and civil wars produce millions of refugees and displaced people. Since 1945, there were 6m from Afghanistan, 4m from Y ugoslavia, 1.4m from Kurdistan, and 3m from Rwanda. Those from Rwanda died from starvation and disease at the rate of one a minute. The size of the governments' battles during a war is also incrediable. In 1943 German forces were engaged in Hitler's Opera tion Zitadelle on the Kursk salient. The ensuing battle involved 2.7 million men and over 6,000 tanks, 34,000 guns and 4,000 aircraft. The governments' air raids are even more violent. On 13 February 1945, the allies dropped 1,223 bombs on Dresden, a city of little strategic importance. As a result, 35,000 people were killed and 15 square kilometres of the city were destroyed. When the American forces dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima they killed 80,000 people at the time and an untold number who have di ed since. There were about 56 million people killed in World War 2, and another 22 million died as the result of it up to the year 1992. More have died since. Millions of people are killed in wars, mostly civilians. Now, with their atomic bombs, governme nts have the means to kill the whole human race many times over. Only the rich can buy physical protection, and even they may not be able to do so in a nuclear war.=20 =09With all the facts available, those who believe that governments exist to serve the whole country and not just a part of it must believe in fairies. Governments rule with partiality and no part of society can be explained unless this is understood.=20