The Unseen Hand - Ralph Epperson |
The Accidental Theory of History: Historical events occur by accident, for no apparent reason. Govermental rulers are powerless to prevent the event from happening.
Capital Good: Goods utilized for producing or acquiring consumption goods.
The Conspiratorial View of History: Historical events occur by design, for reasons that are not made known to the people.
Cartel: A few sellers in a market place set the price of a good or service sold.
Conspiracy: A combination of people, working in secret, for an evil or unlawful purpose.
Consumption Good: Goods acquired for consumption purposes.
Capitalism: Any economic system that utilizes capital goods in acquiring or producing consumption goods.
Creationism: The theory that all basic animal and plant types were brought into existence by acts of God using special processes which are not operative today.
Demagogue: A speaker who seeks to make capital of social discontent and gain political influence.
Economic Systems:
Free Enterprise System: Where the capital goods are owned and controlled by the individual.
Fascism: Where the capital goods are owned by the individual and controlled by the state.
Socialism: Where the capital goods are owned and controlled by the state.
Communism: Where the capital goods are owned and controlled by coercive monopolies.
Fiat Money: Paper money of government issue which is legal tender by fiat or law, does not represent nor is it based upon gold and contains no promise of redemption.
Governmental Types:
Humanism: The religious belief that man shapes his own destiny. It is a constructive philosophy, a non-theistic religion, a way of life.
Inflation: A relatively sharp and sudden increase in the quantity of money, or credit, or both, relative to the amount of exchange business. Inflation always produces a rise in the price level.
Liberty: Rights with responsibilities.
License: No rights with no responsibilities.
Money: Anything that people will accept in exchange for goods or services in a belief that they may in turn exchange it for other goods and services.
Monopoly: One seller of a particular good, or a provider of a particular service, in a given market place.
Natural Monopoly: Created freely by the personal preferences of the people in the marketplace.
Coercive Monopoly: Created by the government, where force is used to restrict the access of others to the marketplace.
Monopsony: One seller in a marketplace.
Organic Evolution: The theory that all living things have arisen by a materialistic evolutionary process from a single source which itself arose from a dead, inanimate world.
Privilege: A freedom to act morally but only after permission has been granted by some governmental entity.
Repudiation: The refusal of a national or state government to pay real or alleged pecuniary obligations.
Right: A freedom to act morally without asking permission.
Symbiosis: The intimate living together of two dissimilar organisms in a mutually beneficial relationship.
Treason: "Treason against the United States shall consist in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort" (Article 3, Section 3, U.S. Constitution).