Needless to say there was no such thing as finance in the dawn of an emerging human race. Every able-bodied thing we now call a prehistory person fended for himself in the hunt for nutrition, placing him in the midst of the animal kingdom and not yet barely above. Able-bodied females and children not far from the mouth of the cave gathered twigs and branches to keep the cave fires burning for the hunt’s yield. Scattered extended families merged into tribes in realizing the pooling of meager resources was more efficient, not only in yield but in the reduction of waste. By joining identities they diminished inbreeding; thereby developing diversity and senses of variety in tastes, styles and perceptions. Tired of the toughness of Mastodon, they took to fishing, and tracking more delicate game. They found alternative housing through animal skins and fallen timber. Finding plant roots and leaves medicinal soon led to edible vegetables and an agrarian enterprise for balanced nutrition. When they discovered territories of abundance, leisure and culture sprung up together with the division of labor and subdivision of arts and crafts—trade and bargaining came into play. Crude capitalism slipped into pre-historical tribal societies.
Unfortunately the rise of ancient civilizations—rejecting the natural flow of human industry—relied on brute power leading to enslavement of tribal society and thus a hierarchy of labor separating talent from raw, brutish sweat. Just as 19th century moguls of capitalism, tuned into symbolism and imagery, were magnified by ingenious engineers and risk-taking laborers building skyscrapers, the Ancients of power from pyramids to other wonders of the world established their power as divine. How easy it is to divide labor so that the very few talented are rewarded at the expense of others’ sweat and blood. This transfusion of labor brought untold wealth to magnets of power and ultimately inbreeding of beauty, and symbolism of leisure and godliness on a grand scale, so very like the glamorous scale of Vegas, Hollywood and Wall Street.
Obviously, then, humanity is capitalistic in nature, striving to be on top at the other’s expense but only because of nature’s will to power preceding it. The drive to make money without power is for the idle rich and average savers to abrogate their holdings to others who by their wit and self-interest enrich themselves first and only then pass the collateral profits to the source. This is, of course, modern democratic capitalism—in gods we trust. These gods from the Pharaohs onward have exploited mercilessly across the classes from the wealthy to the hapless saver and most brilliantly and blatantly the common laborer. For without the universal sucking action of blood sweat and talent capital would cease. That is why the Steve Jobs, the Bill Gates and the Warren Buffets are gods because they had the power of innate talents to draw upon idle capital and make it grow but mainly for their own and cohorts benefit, collaterally adding footprints on an improved world, heretofore walked upon by the ilk of Fords, Edisons, Teslas.
Despite the current angst toward the realm of finance, wrongly alleged of not producing anything, it too, when in the mode of good behavior, engages in power plays to improve the world with tangibles—better housing, growing small and large enterprises, growing the economies of third world countries, and through bonds aiding community infrastructure.
However, value of these tangibles, do not come cheap, precisely because the motives, not real costs, of producing are valued too highly. It is far more important for power to be held close to the vest in order to preserve divinity, rather than to be more open to the common good. Even great philanthropic institutions are reluctant to relinquish their power unless shamed as, for instance, Harvard and other Ivy League trusts now releasing some of its massive capital to reduce tuitions. Another case in point is the stock market: why does it even exist? Advocates claim it is a democratic avenue to ownership; yet it is no more ownership than a depositor owns a bank. It is in reality a giant roulette wheel that belongs in Vegas, not New York, Chicago and London. An average shareholder might just as well sit in on a poker game with professional gamblers than trust traders on the floor or brokers who claim rights to the crystal ball. Enterprises go public because they need capital to reach objectives which is mainly to reduce debt, but at the same time they compound their debt with even more shady loans and trades in order to enrich the company by always growing on borrowed money. In short, the shareholder—surely, no owner—is a creditor, whether stock or bond, and always at risk. It would be laughable if not tragic when you absorb the pandemonium of wasted activity that goes on daily in the stock market—just think CNBC—yet the hapless little stockholder is advised to hold, which in effect means his capital is leased for a longer period for others to play with—and all, hopefully, for a few percentage points more than a certificate of deposit. Stockholders, too, have delusions of power—occasionally seduced by the dividend, a financial tool to rob Peter to pay Paul—when in truth they are adrift in a stormy sea churned by men of power and great wealth addicted to more power and wealth, and depending on their mood swings perhaps allowing a few cronies who make even greater deals for them.
Broadened and complex corporate and financial powers are adept at deviant behaviors that always reduce the great question to "where the hell did the money go?" We are like children who are always inquisitive but are always told by parents that we really don’t want to know. This, of course, is the great question today over bailouts. We the people want to know the answer but we are told, like an ‘R’ movie, we are not ready for such obscenities in finance—transparency is for another time when we forgo worshiping the beautiful and powerful.