Back in the day, the day when internet forums were mainly on Usenet instead of bulletin boards like this one, and mostly unmoderated, the following piece of spam showed up constantly. It was a chain letter, usually posted under a title like “MAKE MONEY FAST,” that promised that one could receive tens of thousands of dollars for an investment of $6 and six postage stamps. In recent years it seems to have become extinct, because of the strict spam control on bulletin board forums today. I actually had to search pretty hard to find the text of the letter. Which I have done because, one day, I had an epiphany: this letter was the perfect microcosmic illustration of the economic system, and why it MUST continue to grow, even if it is committing suicide in the process. I saw that this letter was the lie that was being sold to “developing” countries in the process of globalization.

Chain letters asking for money are considered fraud and are illegal. Even if they work exactly as described and no one cheats, chain letters are frauds

Yet, while most people seemed to recognize this spam as a scam whenever it showed up in a Usenet forum, very few people seemed to be able to explain exactly WHY it was a scam, or WHY chain letters are frauds. .

But if you understand just WHY chain letters are frauds, then that is a key to understanding why the promise that globalization will make poor countries rich is a fraud, why corporations are compelled to expand to every corner of the globe, and why the system is COMPELLED to rip the Earth apart for every possible resource, and is unable to stop until it collapses, and why it is doomed to collapse.

So it is worth studying this letter and comprehending the flaw.

Here is the text of the spam, edited, with explanatory comments added in brackets.

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[BEGINNING OF TEXT]

READING THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

I found this on a bulletin board and decided to try it. A little while back, I was browsing through newsgroups, just like you are now, and came across an article similar to this that said you could make thousands of dollars within weeks with only an initial investment of $6.00! So I thought, "Yeah right, this must be a scam", but like most of us, I was curious, so I kept reading. Anyway, it said that you send $1.00 to each of the 6 names and address stated in the article. You then place your own name and address in the bottom of the list at #6, and post the article in at least 300 newsgroups. (There are thousands) No catch, that was it. So after thinking it over, and talking to a few people first, I thought about trying it. I figured: "What have I got to lose except 6 stamps and $6.00, right?" Then I invested the measly $6.00. Well GUESS WHAT!!... within 7 days, I started getting money in the mail! I was shocked! I figured it would end soon, but the money just kept coming in. In my first week, I made about $25.00. By the end of the second week I had made a total of over $1,000.00! In the third week I had over $10,000.00 and it's still growing. This is now my fourth week and I have made a total of just over $42,000.00 and it's still coming in rapidly. It's certainly worth $6.00, and 6 stamps, I have spent more than that on the lottery!! Let me tell you how this works and most importantly, why it works. I promise you that if you follow the directions exactly, that you will start making more money than you thought possible by doing something so easy!

Here are the 4 easy steps to success:

STEP 1: Get 6 pieces of paper and write your name and address on them. Get 6 US $1.00 bills and place ONE inside each piece of paper (to prevent thievery). Place one paper in each of the 6 envelopes and seal them. You should now have 6 sealed envelopes, each with a piece of paper with your name and address and a $1.00 bill. Mail the 6 envelopes to the following addresses:[/b]


[Note: The list of addresses, of course, would be different in every spam. Let's use the following list:

#1) Alice A. Affable, Box 1, Appletree, Alabama
#2) Betty B. Boop, Box 2, Buffalo, Benin
#3) Carlos C. Casteneda, Box 3, Caterpillar, California
#4) Daffy D. Duck, Box 4, Doodlebug, Denmark
#5) Emily E. Everclear. Box 5, Essence, Ecuador
#6) Francis F. Frankenstein, Box 6, Foofoo, France

Following the instructions, you send $1.00 to each person on the list.]


STEP 2: Now take the #1 name off the list that you see above, move the other names up (6 becomes 5, 5 becomes 4, etc...) and add YOUR Name as number 6 on the list.


[Note: Say your name is Gus G. Gopher. When you following the instructions the list now reads:

#1) Betty B. Boop, Box 2, Buffalo, Benin
#2) Carlos C. Casteneda, Box 3, Caterpillar, California
#3) Daffy D. Duck, Box 4, Doodlebug, Denmark
#4) Emily E. Everclear. Box 5, Essence, Ecuador
#5) Francis F. Frankenstein, Box 6, Foofoo, France
#6) Gus G. Gopher, Box 7, Goopy, Greece.]


STEP 3: Copy this article into your computer, but substitute the altered list of names.

STEP 4: Now, post this article to at least 300 newsgroups. (I think there are close to 25,000 groups). All you need is 300, but remember, the more you post, the more money you make!

STEP 5: Wait for the money to start coming in!

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

Let us say that when I post this message with my name in position #6, only 5 persons reply (a very low example). So then I make $5.00. Now, each of those 5 persons sends this message with my name in position #5 and say that only 5 persons respond to each of those 5, that is 5x5 or 25 persons responding, and another $25.00 for me. Now those 25 people sends this message with my name in position #4 and say there are only 5 replies each -- that is 25x5 people or 125 people, an additional $125.00 for me! Now, each of those 125 persons turns around and send this message with my name at position #3, and if they only receive 5 replies each, that is 125x5 or 625 people responding, I will make an additional $625.00! OK, now here is the fun part, each of those 625 persons send this message with my name at position #2 and they each only receive 5 replies, that is 625x5 or 3,125 people each sending me $1, that just made me $3,125.00!!! Then those 3,125 persons send this message to 300 newsgroups with my name at #1 and if still only 5 persons respond to each of those 3,125 persons and send $1, that is 3,125 x 5 or $15,625,00 for me! With an original investment of only $6.00! AMAZING!

When your name is no longer on the list, you just start all over again -- find the latest version with the latest version of the list of names, and send out another $6.00 to names on the list, putting your name at number 6 again, and start posting again.

It's easy. It's legal. [Note: that is a lie, it is illegal.] And, your investment is only $6.00 (Plus postage) Follow these directions EXACTLY, and $50,000 or more can be yours in 20 to 60 days. [/b]

[END OF TEXT]

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The chain letter is also the model for multi-level marketing, like Amway. Multi-level marketing is not illegal because actual products are being sold, but they recruit through the same fraudulent claim: THESE folks here (look at their pictures!) have now retired with steady incomes of hundreds of thousands of dollars (true enough) and (here is the lie) if you join us you can do that too.

Although most companies are not multi-level marketers, the global capitalist system as a whole operates like a multi-level marketing scheme or a chain letter.

The pyramid scheme, as this is called, is a funnel designed to get money from the many and concentrate it in the hands of the few.

And, just as the chain letter must keep expanding or collapse, so must the global capitalist system keep expanding or collapse.

The continued income of the people higher up in the chain depends on continually expanding the base. After all, you only sent the people $1.00 once. But, through you, others are recruited to send their dollars, and they in turn recruit others.

Why is the chain doomed to collapse? Why is it fraud?

Because you are being recruited under the false promise that you can make as much money as the people on the top of the list. And even if you make some money (by getting in near the top) the people you recruit in turn will not, and with each generation of recruitment it becomes more impossible.

Although likely all six names in the first level are the same person, because Alice A. Affable would not have sent it out with only her one name, let us pretend that all six people on the list are different people.

Let us also pretend that everyone recruits exactly 5 people, all different people, no duplicate recruitments.

So Alice sends the letter to five people whose names start with B, asking them each to send her $1, and to each recruit five people whose names start C with who will send them both $1, who will each recruit five people whose names start with D who will each send $1 to C, B, and A, etc., until there are six levels on the list. Whereupon you, Gus G. Gopher, receive it.

This is what has happened:

A (1 person on level 1)

BBBBB (5 people on level 2)

CCCCC CCCCC CCCCC CCCCC CCCCC (25 [5x5] people on level 3)

DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD (125 people [25x5] on level 4)

EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE (625 [125x5] people on level 5)

FFFFF etc (3,125 [625x5] people on level 6)

You, Gus Gopher, are of one 15,625 (3,125 x 5) lucky recipients of a letter from one of the 3,125 Level Fs. When you and your 15,624 fellow Gs send your dollar, that, along with the dollars sent by the Fs, Es, Ds, Cs, and Bs, adds to a total of $19,530 for Alice Affable, who sits at the top of the pyramid. (As I said, the pyramid is a =funnel= that funnels money upward.)

After sending your dollar to each of the six people on the list, you change the list by taking Alice off the list and moving Betty B. Boop into position 1, and then send the letter on to try to recruit more people. When the people you recruit join and send their dollars, it is Betty B. Boop's turn to receive $19,530. In each level, another name moves to the top of the list and has its turn to receive $19,530.

(In real life, of course, those at the top continue at the top, as the pyramid base keeps expanding. But the chain letter has to be kept simple.)

You eagerly await your turn to move to the top of the list and receive your $19,530. You, along with the other 15,624 Gs, have each recruited five more people (15,625 x 5 = 78,125 people in the level below you), who dutifully each recruit five more, and in only six more levels of recruitment (since there are six positions on the list) you finally move to the top of the list!

But look at what has happened in six levels:

Level G: 15,625
Level H: 78,125
Level I: 390,625
Level J: 1,953,125
Level K: 9,765,625
Level L: 48,828,125

Of course, Level L was recruited under the same fraud as the other, and they keep on recruiting, so the growth continues. The next six levels:

Level M: 244,140,625
Level N: 1,220,703,125
Level O: 6,103,515,625
Level P: 30,517,578,125
Level Q: 152,587,988,275
Level R: 762,939,941,375

(If you never got anything else out of math class, understanding exponential math is essential to understanding what is happening with our world at a lot of levels.)

Now, you may have noticed that the entire human population of Earth has been exceeded over a hundred times over by this point, including babies and the portion of our species for whom the $6 investment would represent many days' income. This is why chain letters are fraudulent and illegal.

But in the real world, the pyramid scheme that is the capitalist system has gone beyond the human base, and into the Earth herself. The Earth, fossil fuels, the energy that runs the system -- this is the base of the pyramid now. The human species has, on the average, moved up a rung or two on the “standard of living” ladder (in the conventional sense of standard of living, know what I mean) because fossil fuels and the Earth's resources as a whole are serving as the base of the pyramid, from which wealth is funneled upward. I have heard it said that the average person in the wealthy countries of the "developed" world has the equivalent of 300 human slaves, thanks to technology and energy. That is why the system is frantically, compulsively consuming the Earth (aka “developing resources” and “creating wealth”). If the pyramid stops growing, it collapses.

Basically, a profit system requires this. Because profit means that you expect to receive more than you gave. In fact, you try to maximize profits -- you try to MAXIMIZE the differential between what you gave and what you receive. You try to maximize IMBALANCE.

As long as the use of resources is seen as an investment, which must return more than what was invested, the pyramid MUST keep on expanding its base, some people MUST be lower on the pyramid in order to funnel wealth to those higher, and the pyramid MUST keep frantically digging into the Earth as it tries to expand.

This is one way in which indigenous economics and modern capitalism are built on fundamentally different premises. (“Indigenous” I use to mean: following the leadership of the land.) Indigenous economic and social systems are built on the fundamental notion of =reciprocity.= Not tit for tat, I'll give you something worth exactly the same as what you gave me, but a generalized reciprocity and balance, a network of reciprocity in the community. Rather than feeling like a winner if you have received more value than you have given, you would feel uncomfortable. Everyone wants to be more on the “giving” than the “receiving” side of the equation -- not because they are somehow specially “virtuous,” but because generosity and sharing is rewarded with prestige and respect. People do not intrinsically want “stuff”; we are constantly told that wanting more and more “stuff” is just human nature, but even a cursory examination of anthropological data demonstrates this is a lie. What people =do= want is prestige, respect, and acceptance by their peers. Whatever behavior is rewarded with prestige and respect, that is the behavior that people will follow. And indigenous tribal systems give prestige and respect to certain kinds of behavior that prove to be both socially and ecologically sustainable, and that is why they have succeeded for thousands of years.

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It turns out that I am far from the first to have had this epiphany -- googling capitalism + "pyramid scheme" had 22,000 hits -- but that's not a huge number, either. But then, it is surprising how few people, when you ask, seem to understand exactly =why= the chain letter is a scam, either.

Yet understanding the chain letter gives a clear understanding about the fraudulent promises of capitalism that it can make everyone rich. Like, there is an implicit promise that all of us, if we had the smarts, could become the head of a wealthy corporation and become billionaires. It is only due to our personal lack of ambition and ability that you and I are not billionaires, each running a corporation with thousands of employees. Or at least be millionaires running corporations with hundreds of employees.

Of course, for everyone on Earth to become a millionaire with hundreds of employees... there would have to be an endless source of employees somewhere. Where would we find the employees if everyone is a millionaire with their own corporation? Aha! Machines and technology run by fossil fuels take the place of much of the labor, making it possible for substantial numbers of people to move up a rung, off the very bottom. Capitalism has "lifted people out of poverty." Wow, look, Taiwan jumped on, and look at their "economic miracle." They have lots of rich people now. (Lots of poor factory workers too -- way more of them than rich people -- and they will =never= share in the riches, no matter what the promises.)

The very premise of profit is that you get more than you put in. If you manufacture a product, then you must sell it for more than it cost you to manufacture it. And that cost includes labor. Therefore, you =must= sell the product for more than your employees can afford to pay. Or else, at least, the employees make a lot more of the product than they can buy; make 40 cars, buy one. The other 39 cars have to be sold to people other than the workers.

But let's say you are on a desert island, with a population of 100, all of whom work for your factory and that is their sole income. You can't export anything from your island, it is a closed system. It costs you $1,000 to make a car, of which $500 is labor costs, and you sell the car for $2,000. You make 100 cars, with the idea that all your employees can buy one. But how can they afford to buy the cars since they have been paid only 1/4 of the price of the car? Your employees decide to pool their money, so they can afford cars. Four employees each buying one car results in only 25 cars sold, and you go bankrupt.

The only solution is to export the cars. You have to find people off your island to sell to, or you will go bankrupt.

But in this system, there HAS to be a large class of people who will and work for you at a wage that only a fraction of the price you are charging. In other words, there HAS to be a large portion of the population that cannot afford to buy your cars.

And as corporations take over the necessities of life -- food, shelter, even water -- and make it necessary to have money to buy those things, giving them control over people's lives -- there HAVE to be people who CANNOT afford those things. This is built in to the corporate system, and as they destroy the independence of people who live outside the money economy, primarily by destroying their landbases, and make people dependent on money for the necessities of life, they ensure that there will always be a supply of people willing (or forced) to work for them, no matter how much they may hate their jobs. There may be people who like their jobs, but the hatable jobs will be filled as well.

Countries with many people living at subsistence level are said to be "poor." Subsistence means you produce for your own needs, neither for the market nor dependent on buying things. Like independent tribal peoples, subsistence farmers live outside the money economy, and independence from money cannot be tolerated. Such countries must be "developed," by corporate investors who come in for the natural resources -- cutting down forests on which people depend for life, forcing people off their small self-sufficient farms to create monocrop plantations for export crops, or otherwise destroying the base of people's independence, which forces them to work for money.

By making people's very lives dependent on money, the population is controlled in the "land of the free." This is why homeless people are treated as outlaws and their lives made hell -- because that is the threat if you try to live in freedom from the money system. You will be made to live in hell.

And note that those aforementioned monocrop plantations, in the "developing" countries, are for =export=. The workers on the plantations can not afford the products for the same reason that the workers in the island car company could not afford the cars. But if you don't work for the plantation, you will starve -- you know that, there are plenty of starving, or at least, malnourished people all around you.

Every country in the world in which there is starvation or hunger is producing export crops for the rich countries. People are hungry not because their countries can not produce food, but because they cannot outbid the rich. Money determines who eats and who does not. Corporations pocket the profit, and the people who were once self-sufficient are reduced to poverty. Poverty is built in to the system.

But fossil fuels have taken the place of much of the human labor, and the pyramid needs an ever-expanding base of consumers to buy their products, as well as laborers. So that is why corporations are marketing so aggressively around the world, trying to turn people into consumers of their products.

So the a continual process of turning resources into consumable products is built in to the profit system. There are now movements toward "natural capitalism," with a more intelligent and frugal use of natural resources, and that could certainly sustain the pyramid longer and could slow down the destruction of the Earth. But capitalism by definition means investment for profit, and that means that the base of the pyramid MUST continue to grow. That is why the economists are always talking about "economic growth" -- fast growth is good, slow growth is bad, and no growth is an emergency. Capitalism and steady-state, sustainable lifeways are incompatible. The growth cannot stop or the system collapses.

That is the reason for the corporations' push to globalization, aka a world run by the search for profit as its most important guiding principle. Globalization and capitalism will not solve the problem of poverty, because poverty is built in to the system by necessity. And capitalism cannot stop devouring the natural world. "Free trade" simply means removing the last barriers to corporate profit -- labor laws, environmental laws, laws to protect local markets must not stand in the way, because the pyramid must continue to grow or it will collapse.

Of course, it will collapse eventually. The question is how much of our world will be left.