Prisoners of Paradise

by Brandon Lars Erikson

  “Reward my ass!” Rex shouted passionately, “You need me as a scapegoat so that Glik and Semnor don’t get ousted from the High Senate for getting their hands caught in the cookie jar! If they get booted out, Rammy Klunka and Wram Karamotzain are in trouble because they need those jerks to back them up in committee for this Aurorian Economic Revampment program that you need to stay alive! It sucks to be a leach who realizes his victim’s blood supply is limited, doesn’t it?!”

  “Rex, I’m only going to say this once,” Van Dien said. “We have people at the Bureau of Taxation who can doctor your books to make them look any way we want to. We can also doctor Glik and Semnor’s books to look anyway we want them to as well. All we have to do is make a switch. You leave in shame, they stays for more fame, that’s the way it works.”

  “You’re going to make it look as if I gave those illegal contributions! You are going to slander my good name by saying I offered bribes!”

  “Yup,” Van Dien said. “You will go to court, plead no contest, pay a small fine, turn over your business to the government, pack your stuff…and leave for Earth with a lot of money. Now please, don’t call us ungrateful leaches…we are allowing you to have the opportunity to leave Ailana alive…and quite rich to boot, what more could you ask for?”

  “Bullshit!” Rex screamed, “I have only started to make money here! I could have made a whole lot more if it weren’t for you! Everyone on this planet could be making a lot more money if it wasn’t for you and your league of good ole’ boys and the huge bureaucracy that protects you!”

  “Pity, isn’t it?”

  Veins began to pop from Rex’s forehead as he said, “Yes, it is a pity that you’ve destroyed Ailanian Capitalism and replaced it with a quasi-socialist farce that made the morally corrupt rich, while it made decent, hardworking people into paupers! Do you honestly think that the people of this planet are going to believe that this economy will get better if they just follow their leaders’ misguided Moralist principles?”

  “I only need for them to keep believing it for a little while longer…”

  “What are you talking about?” Rex said as his face became maroon in color, “Do you actually think it’s fair to force hardworking people to put their money into these banks, who then loan that money to billionaires, just so that these rich, sons-of-bitches can invest in high risk ventures that are based on nothing more than some asshole’s prediction? Don’t you understand that this recession could have been avoided if certain people would have just played by the rules?”

  “Rules? Rex, under a Capitalist system, individuals have the right to make money however they see fit. Government regulations infringe upon the rights of the individual.”

  “What you are doing is wrong!” Rex shouted, “The Ailanian economy has been nothing but one big pyramid scheme for decades where rich people have been allowed to legally steal and lie in order to make money! A few people win because so many people lose! When the lies and thefts aren’t stopped, investments fail, the banks are forced to stop loaning money to middle class people and small business owners! When mom and pop stores can’t get credit they lose out on business opportunities! When credit dries up, a recession happens, which can becomes a full scale depression that destroys peoples’ lives when they become unemployed and homeless! Your current system puts good people at the mercy of a government, which allows these terrible things to happen…how can you bastards call yourselves Objectivists when you continuously lie, cheat and steal from your fellow man? How can you allow peoples’ lives to be destroyed, by those who claim to be honest Capitalists, and still sleep at night?”

  “Why ask a forest fire its motives, Rex?” Van Dien grinned as smoke fell from his lips, “it only does what it does to serve a higher purpose…from all that death and destruction…comes new life.”

  “Bullshit! The only thing that comes from your corrupt system is slavery! You lied to the people in our struggling middle class! You told them that tax cuts for the rich would create jobs, when in fact it caused more job losses and tax hikes for those poor saps that believed you. Instead of allowing people to go out and make some money and a better society, you allow the Moralists to believe they are making a difference by putting the unemployed in jail. Some Moralist revolution! When The Military quit buying all the stuff this planet used to make, you gave the Moralists a mess that they knew they would never be able to fix, and all they have been doing is profiting from corruption ever since!”

  Van Dien exhaled a cloud of smoke with a smile, “said the pseudo-capitalist who just got caught for tax evasion and other offenses…including offering bribes to certain High Senators.”

  “How dare you call me a pseudo-capitalist! I came here to make good, honest money and make a positive difference in peoples’ lives…I didn’t come here to help you play some sick game with the Ailanian economy! During the war it made sense to run The Hydroplantations and all those supporting industries in a manner that wasn’t profitable, but you can’t keep creating more enterprises that are designed to fail just so that you can continue this bullshit charade of yours. It’s time to start listening to some new ideas, like that guy, Keiki Karatau, or that scientist name Dr. DeWolf Miller. Hell, even Chief Tipsy and that group of people known as The Evil, who were making all that fuss with their websites…those people have some good ideas and you should listen to em’!”

  “What? Listen to political activists and crazy people?” Van Dien had a look of disapproval on his face as the smoke danced above his head. “You can’t be serious…”

  “I am dead serious! I refuse to play your game, and so do a lot of people on this planet, who are sick and tired of the way things have been done around here! It makes no sense to entice these rich people to create businesses, and then purposely run them to fail, just so that the rich and powerful get short term rewards and the common people get shafted!”

  “Shafted?” Van Dien smiled, “What I am doing has the peoples’ best interests at heart…”

  “Bullshit! What you are doing is changing the basis of humanoid life on Ailana, to make Ailana run according to the Conservative Moralist worldview! This bullshit with Glik and Semnor is meant to make it look as if the corruption lies within the Unions, that way you can convince the masses that Unions are evil and need to be crushed. Your plan is nothing more than an assault on workers’ rights so that corporations can legally get away with practicing slavery in what is supposed to be a democracy!”

  Van Dien’s smile began to erode as he began to grind his teeth, “Rex…you don’t understand, there is a reason why I am doing all of this…”

  “I know what that reason is! You have the people fooled into believing that you are attempting to reduce the Ailanian budget deficit and save this planet from financial ruin! But you are actually just trying to consolidate power! You killed the economy on purpose! Despite the high overhead involved with The Hydroplantations and the other Military industries, this planet had a budget surplus after the war! You and your Moralist comrades pissed that surplus away by providing corporate tax breaks and now you want to use the deficit, which you created, to break the Unions, and destroy small business owners and Independents, so those once proud people will have to come crawling, either to the government, or some giant corporation, begging for a job that offers a fraction of the pay they once ensured for themselves!”

  “You need to be careful when you start talking about humanoid rights, Rex…rights can be interpreted entitlements. In a true Capitalist society, no one is entitled to anything.”

  “Oh yeah, I see where you’re going with this,” Rex sneered, “Sure, I can understand the Objectivist principle that there is no right to a wage, except for the wage that is offered, but when the free market is considered to be the ultimate decider, and when corporations can buy political favors to ensure that THEY become the only employer…then those who seek a wage become slaves because there is no competing bu
siness to apply at! The free market cannot ensure an abundance of work when crooked politicians and their wealthy constituents manipulate an economy as to ensure perpetual cycles of high unemployment because of stock market crashes and credit crises that a decent government could help to ward off!”

  “Again, Rex…you insist on the destruction of Ailanian civilization through taxation and regulation, these have no place in a Capitalist, democratic society because they suppress human rights and steal from those who have earned what they have worked for…”

  “The point I am trying to make is that the wealthy people of this planet have not earned what they have! They are just as guilty as theft as any welfare abusing Immoral! There is plenty of money on Ailana, and it is located at the top. The disparity in financial assets is unethical!”

  “Oh come on now, Rex…some of the greatest dictatorships arose because someone believed that the common man was being treated in an unethical way by those who provided employment…”

  “And some of the greatest and bloodiest revolutions came about because the top one percent controlled more financial assets than the bottom ninety five percent. Wages and benefits on this planet have been flat and even decreasing for over half a century while the wealth has floated to the top.”

  “Again, Rex…those that create wealth deserve to keep it…everyone else simply needs to understand that they only have a right to the wage that is offered…”

  “Again, you have it all wrong! The wealthy on Ailana did not create anything! They refused to bring about enterprise unless they were given tax breaks and tax loopholes! They refused to create anything for the sake of creating it, unless they had government backed loans, in other words, free money, which originated from the bank accounts of the lower and middle class, who were forced to part with that money, which they earned honestly, through taxation!”

  Van Dien yawned as he said, “Jesus, Rex…you still don’t get it…do you?”

  “Oh I get it! The rich people of this planet have bribed our High Senators into passing laws that ensure they don’t have to part with the money that the labor of the middle and lower class generates for them. This fits the Conservative Moralist way of life, but not the Ailanian way of life. Ailana is a planet with a wide spectrum of people, and those people have needs, the services of the free market alone cannot meet these needs because the free market demands that profit be made from such services. Environmental protection, affordable health care, community infrastructure, law enforcement as well as support for the arts and education are all essential for a civilized society to remain civilized, yet taxation is thus seen as taking money away from those who have earned it and giving it to people who don’t deserve it. Why is it that taxation cannot be seen as a legitimate means of providing the necessities of life, a civilized society, which is necessary for business to prosper? Why do you distort the words of the prophet of profit to say that taxation is evil, when it is applied as a means of bettering peoples’ lives, but yet you allow for it to be a way of enticing rich people to start businesses that later need to be bailed out by citizens’ tax dollars because these corporations and financial enterprises are deemed as being too big to fail?!”

  The white haired man’s eyes narrowed, “Rex, you don’t understand…I have to do this…my plan is essential for Ailana’s survival.”

  “Bullshit! It is necessary for the Moralists’ survival! Deficits can be addressed by raising revenue, plugging tax loopholes, putting people to work through deficit spending and developing the economy long-term in all the ways the members of The Evil have discussed in their blogs and the way the Moralists’ political rivals have defended as part of their campaigns. But deficits are not what really matters to Conservative Moralists…power is what matters to Conservative Moralists. You people have been misinterpreting the words of the prophet Ayn for centuries! That which you claim as a means to create freedom, is nothing more than a means to create slavery!”

  “Really, Rex? How so?” Van Dien took another drag and felt his level of anxiety going down again as he realized how enjoyable it was to see the fat man’s skin turn shades of angry red.

  “Those leaders, throughout the ages, who accurately described the basis of democracy, all stress one common denominator, empathy. Ailana is about citizens caring for each other through the means of social and personal responsibility. People who truly wish to leave a moral life do so without infringing upon the rights of others and acting on that care is an ethic of excellence just as important as making money. It is from empathy, that our freedoms and our way of life follow. You claim that freedom means that big business must be left alone, yet you tax the poor and middle class, and give those tax dollars to those big businesses in the form of incentives so they will create meaningless, low paying jobs. You claim that freedom means that big business must not be regulated, but yet you insist that tax dollars, which you collected from the poor and middle class, must be turned into corporate welfare and bailouts when those corporations deemed too big to fail squander their capital and destroy entire economies with bad financial decisions!”

  “And where does the government fit into all of this, Rex? Assuming that government can fix every problem on this planet without bankrupting companies and tying the hands of those who have capital to invest?”

  “The proper role of government is to protect and empower everyone equally. That government protection must include safety, health, the environment, and the right to receive a living wage. Governments must protect the citizens’ rights to empowerment themselves, and empowerment starts with education and communities that are safe because people are working honest jobs and creating honest, empathetic business rather than stepping on each other’s backs in order to get ahead. Where there are people living in fear of criminals and criminal behavior, there is not freedom or the environment to produce businesses that can provide a living wage which can be spent in a way that sustains a strong family unit and a healthy community. No one can be free if only the rich and politically connected are allowed to receive the protection of the government.”

  Van Dien smiled again as he said, “Yes, and now comes the part where you tell me how the Conservative Moralist worldview rejects all of that happy go lucky stuff.”

  “The point is that you are trying to twist the words of the prophet Ayn in order to make the citizens of Ailana believe in individual responsibility alone, not social responsibility. Conservative Moralists don’t think the government should help its citizens. Because they have the ideals of Objectivism backwards, they don’t think citizens should help each other. Moralists don’t want to impose taxes on the rich to wipe out deficits, but they refuse to cut funding to The Military, they refuse to cut government subsidies to corporations, they only want to cut out the part of government that helps people. Why? Because their central tenant revolves around the falsehood that a government, which helps its people, violates individual responsibility! I find this whole philosophy rather odd since the rich corporate pigs that the government does help, should be able to obtain their wealth and power without a government that was bought off and instructed to trample on the rights of common citizens! Admit it! You allowed the rich to destroy this planet now you must go about the messy task of covering their tracks by extolling the virtues of how a moral person is the means to their own ends!”

  “Wow, Rex…that was quite insightful…”

  “The fact is, the Moralist High Senators have saturated their citizens’ minds with the virtues of how individual responsibility is what creates freedom, but secretly they are allowing corporations to receive handouts and special treatment in the form of legislation, which allows them to create a society with slavery.”

  “So what exactly is your point, Rex?”

  “My point is this shit needs to stop! The people of this planet want to be a part of something they can be proud of, not your bullshit game, and they are starting to realize that this treadmill you have
them on is not getting them anywhere! How many peoples’ hopes and dreams have you destroyed because your philosophy keeps crashing the economy? I tell ya, I’m not the only person who knows how you do things around here! I’m not the only one who understands how you let these greedy bastards borrow all sorts of money from the government and then allowed them to run their companies into the ground! I’m not the only one who knows about what you’ve done to the hard working people of this planet, who toil for an overtaxed wage, which gets replaced by a meager welfare check when they lose their jobs because the bullshit companies they slaved for went belly up while the politicians and executives profited! This is proof-positive, bullshit economics!”

  Van Dien exhaled smoke and said, “Rex, it’s a pity how ungrateful you are. Come on now, I’m not asking you to kill someone, I just want you to admit to the Ailanian Attorney General that it was you gave those funds at that dinner party, hoping to live the Ailanian dream. And now…you’ve lived it, but you are still actively campaigning against those who gave you the Ailanian dream in the first place. Dog trainers call it, ‘biting the hand that feeds you.’ That’s a no-no on this planet, Rex.”

  “We’ll see about that!” Rex shouted, “You’ve been sitting there, with that smug look on your face, denying the fact that what is happening on Ailana is not about some sort of sick, Moralist power grab, but I’ve got some serious dirt on you, and your Moralist comrades, pal.”

  Van Dien rolled his eyes as he smoked and said “like what, Rex?”

  “For starters, I know how the Ailanian government gave money to those corrupt corporations. I know how some of these corporations were hired to construct overly priced buildings, which caused the Ailanian housing market to crash when those investors from Earth found out they couldn’t make their money back.”