Ron Paul and Proudhon: the cry against global racketeering

The current system is not inevitable. It is a human construct. It's up to us to act. Don't let this rigged Monopoly game swallow you up. Wake up, get informed, and take action.

By Xavier Azalbert for France-Soir

Imagine a world where wars were not the stock-in-trade of the powerful, where taxes were not used to fatten elites, where money had real value, anchored in gold or silver, and where the State was content to protect your freedoms without interfering in every corner of your life. Ronald Ernest Paul, born August 20, 1935, in Pittsburgh, carried this world with rare conviction. A physician, politician, and member of the Republican Party, he ran for president in 1988 under the banner of the Libertarian Party, garnering only a meager 0.5% of the vote. Nicknamed “Doctor No” for his categorical refusal to vote for any law violating the American Constitution, increasing the privileges of elected officials, or raising taxes, Ron Paul embodied a revolution. A revolution stifled by a corrupt bipartisan system, fueled by lobby money—oil, weapons, pharmaceuticals—and protected by a complacent media. If Ron Paul had triumphed, would the world have escaped the vicious spiral of permanent wars, colossal debts, and global financial scams? We think so. But the establishment has decided otherwise. And we are paying the price, every day.

International Aid: A Global Fraud

Ron Paul summed up the fraud with brutal clarity in his 2008 book (The Pillars of Prosperity: Free Markets, Honest Money, Private Property): "International aid is taking money from the poor in a rich country and giving it to the rich in a poor country." (Ron Paul speech, 2008.)

But this shocking phrase, declared in 2011 to the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), is only the tip of the iceberg. International aid, touted as a show of solidarity, is a three-part deception, in which the people are systematically left behind while the elites line their own pockets.

Act 1: Legalized theft.

In rich countries, elites—bankers, industrialists, politicians—extract crushing taxes from citizens, particularly the middle and working classes. This money, presented as humanitarian aid for impoverished nations, is in reality a drain on the work of the poorest. In 2022, the United States allocated $50 billion to international aid, often in the form of opaque loans. In France, the French Development Agency (AFD) plays the same game, injecting €13 billion annually into projects presented as altruistic. Generous? Not at all. It's plunder disguised as generosity.

Act 2: orchestrated embezzlement.

This money almost never reaches populations in need. The elites of poor countries—dictators, oligarchs, corrupt bureaucrats—grab it through lucrative contracts with Western multinationals: oil pipelines, arms sales, agribusiness or pharmaceutical projects. The example of Greece is instructive: between 2010 and 2018, IMF and EU loans, supposed to "save" the country, mainly bailed out European banks, while the Greeks suffered brutal austerity and rampant unemployment. The poor saw only crumbs, if not their lives collapse. And it took family solidarity for the elderly to survive, with many Greeks sending money to their parents left in need.

In France, the AFD (French Development Agency) is no exception. According to a France-Soir investigation, funds intended for sustainable development projects in Africa were allegedly diverted to companies linked to private interests, with opaque contracts favoring dubious partners rather than local populations. These scandals, far from being isolated, demonstrate that aid is a facade to enrich the powerful.

Act 3: Eternal Debt.

Here's the climax: aid is not a gift, but a loan. The poor in recipient countries, crushed by local taxes and rampant inflation, repay exorbitant interest to the creditors of rich countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, up to 20% of national budgets are used to pay debt interest, to the detriment of education and healthcare. The AFD contributes to this trap: poorly managed projects, such as unfinished or inadequate infrastructure, leave indebted countries without tangible benefits, while interest accumulates. The people suffer, the elites prosper, and the vicious cycle continues.

As can be deduced from the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in the 19th century, political economy is a science serving the powerful or a science that legitimizes exploitation (1) (What is Property?). This pioneer of anarchism already denounced a system where the powerful enrich themselves by exploiting the labor of others, under the cover of laws and institutions. International aid, with its toxic loans and embezzlement, is the direct heir to this brigandage. Proudhon, like Paul, saw the state and financial elites as accomplices in organized plunder.

Their convergence is no coincidence: they call for breaking the chains of a system that robs people in the name of "solidarity."

If Ron Paul had been elected, he would have put an end to this global racket. His non-interventionist policy would have curbed the wars orchestrated by the CIA and military-industrial lobbies, which, since 1945, have thrived on chaos—from Vietnam to Iraq, including dirty tricks in Latin America like Operation Condor. He would have demanded that international aid be transparent, conditional on measurable results, or, better yet, replaced by free and fair economic trade.

Public Debt: A Rigged Monopoly

The other major scandal is public debt. By 2025, it will reach $100 trillion worldwide, a staggering figure. Almost all countries—except for a few rare countries like Brunei, Norway, and Qatar—are crumbling under this burden. Who do they owe this money to? Private banks, asset managers like BlackRock (not a pension fund, but a financial titan), which buys Treasury bonds. These securities, issued by governments, are an illusion: no gold, no land, no diamonds to back them. Just paper, or rather, numbers on a screen. Yet, people pay very real interest. In France, for example, this interest swallows up 50 billion euros per year, the equivalent of the national education budget. This figure could rise to 71 billion per year, or even more, if nothing is done.

This system is a giant Monopoly game, but rigged.

Governments issue debts with no intrinsic value, while creditors—banks, investment funds—reap very tangible profits. During the 2008 crisis, trillions of dollars “evaporated.” Where did they go? Into the pockets of speculators, insiders betting on collapse. And who bailed out the “too big to fail” banks? You, me, the taxpayer. The bailouts in the United States and Europe have cost more than $10 trillion, while bankers have awarded themselves record bonuses. Meanwhile, our leaders refuse to touch their perks: congressional allowances, private jets, lavish receptions. When it comes to closing the deficit, it's always the people who have to "make an effort"—higher taxes, fewer public services, even taxes on savings or inheritances, as if your work never really belongs to you.

Proudhon, again, understood this in 1840: "Property is theft! ». For him, property - and by extension financial wealth - is often based on exploitation, legalized by the State. Public debt, with its interests paid by peoples for securities without substance, is a modern flight, orchestrated by the same "brigands" that Proudhon denounced. Ron Paul, advocating a return to the Order Stonal, sought to cut the wings of this speculative system, where the money created ex nihilo enriches the powerful to the detriment of the workers.

Paul proposed a radical solution: to reduce the state to its simplest expression, to return to a currency backed by gold to stop inflation and fictitious debts. Utopian? Maybe. Mainstream economists argue that the gold stallion would slow growth by limiting monetary flexibility. But, faced with a system where the debts accumulate endlessly and where the peoples pay for the excesses of the elites, who would dare to defend the status quo?

Why didn't Ron Paul won?

In 1988, Ron Paul was an UFO in an America dominated by the republican-democratic duopoly. The Libertarian Party, marginal and sub-financed, had no chance in the face of political behemoths watered by the lobbies. But Paul did not stop there. In 2008 and 2012, under the republican label, he shook the public debate. Its positions against the federal reserve, imperialist wars and public deficits inspired the Tea Party movement and a whole generation of libertarians. However, the mainstream media ignored or caricatured it as an eccentric. For what ? Because his ideas threatened the establishment: bankers who speculate on debt, industrialists who sell weapons, politicians who thrive on chaos. A president Paul would have been a nightmare for these vultures. It’s a missed revolution.

Let’s break the chains, now

Ron Paul is no longer a candidate, but his message is still burning.

The current system is a machine to crush peoples, fueled by your taxes, your work, your future.

AFD scandals, where French public funds have been diverted to questionable projects for private interests, show that even France is stuck in this world racketeering. Proudhon had seen it, Paul denounced it, and we live it. To break this infernal machine, here is how to act:

Find out.

Read end the Fed or Liberty Defined by Ron Paul, or immerse yourself in what Proudhon's property. Explore analyzes of the institute bets to understand the roots of the problem. Knowledge is the first weapon against oppression.

Require transparency.

Where is the money of public debt? Who touches interest? Why do the elites refuse to reduce their privileges? Why do agencies like AFD finance opaque projects that do not benefit populations? Ask these questions to your elected officials, on X, in the ballot boxes, everywhere.

Support the change.

Vote for candidates who reject war, obese state and paper currency. They are rare, but they exist. Find them.

Think back the currency.

Ron Paul defended the gold stallion to stop inflation and debts. Mainstream economists object that it would slow growth. But faced with rampant inflation and astronomical debts, isn't it time to reopen this debate?

The current system is not inevitable. It’s a human construction. International aid, public debt, endless wars: all of this forms a money pump for the elites. Proudhon and Paul sounded the alarm, each in their time denouncing this world racketeering. It's up to us to act. Do not let this fake monopoly swallow up. Wake up, inform yourself, act.

The free world they imagined is still at hand, if we have the courage to grasp it.

1) Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (what is the property?): “The capitalist, it is said, paid the days of the workers; to be exact, it must be said that the capitalist paid as many times a day that he employed workers every day, which is not at all the same thing. Because this immense force which results from the Union and the Harmony of the Harmony and the Harmony of the Harmony and the Their efforts, he did not pay it. "

Xavier AZALBERT