Wharton Global
Spreadsheet – Price of Everything / Value of Nothing – Ministry of Plenty
I use and or blame the Wharton School of Business at the U of Penn in Philly
for the present Global Spreadsheet that either discounts humanity into nothing
or as a negative figure (valued at less than zero), by which to get a tax
subsidy/discount/rebate on theoretical virtual losses from the Ministry of
Finance.
I have on many
occasions called it the Global Spreadsheet invented at Wharton, Brown and
Harvard but have since dropped the other two institutional accomplices.
I have by way of a
sibling been hearing about the “Service Economy” since the 1960s by which hard
dirty sweaty work would be exported to the third world while the white first
world nations would only have to sit around air-conditioned and central heated
office space and clip coupons (boy, is that an old term) at the expense of rest
of humanity.
Of course, my sibling
never provided me with a bibliography and so I naturally assumed that the
Service Economy con originated at Wharton in my native Philly.
Whether that sort of
economy thing, the service economy, was a real and or viable theory and or
concept at one time, the thing that really fucked everything up was the advent
of the corporate and personal computer beginning in the 1980s that sucked all
the air and life of humanity out of the first world office buildings since and
to the advantage of the ones who first owned, had or programmed the computers
to rig the global game for everyone since.
Old office space on
Wall Street is more likely recycled these days into condo living space and or
with fitness centers and coffee shops at street level. The virtual life of the
present virtual con “city”.
The Ministry of Plenty is in control of Oceania's planned economy. It oversees public access to food, supplies, and goods. It is also in charge of rationing these goods. As told in Goldstein's book, the economy of Oceania is very important, and it's necessary to have the public continually create useless and synthetic supplies or weapons for use in the war, while they have no access to the means of production. This is the central theme of Oceania's idea that a poor, weak populace is easier to rule over than a wealthy, powerful populace. Telescreens often make reports on how Big Brother has been able to increase economic production, even when production has actually gone down (see Ministry of Truth).
The Ministry hands out statistics which are "nonsense". When Winston is adjusting some Ministry of Plenty's figures, he explains this:
But actually, he thought as he readjusted the Ministry of Plenty's figures, it was not even forgery. It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connection with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connection that is contained in a direct lie. Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version. A great deal of time you were expected to make them up out of your head.
Like the other ministries, the Ministry of Plenty seems to be entirely misnamed, since it is, in fact, responsible for maintaining a state of perpetual poverty, scarcity and financial shortages. However, the name is also apt, because, along with the Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Plenty's other purpose is to convince the populace that they are living in a state of perpetual prosperity.
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