When is Rome, Do...

In the New Deal of President Franklin Roosevelt, there were what were called the “alphabet soup agencies” under which massive projects were done. The most famous of these was the Tennessee Valley Authority, or the TVA. The utility built the Tennessee Dam to bring power to the Tennessee Valley, an area greatly affected by the Great Depression. It also had other aspects to it such as flood control and irrigation for farms. It still exits today. The TVA is an example of the numerous agencies created by President Roosevelt in hopes of bringing relief from economic hardship to the country.

Rome too had agencies to create employment and bring social services to the Empire. From welfare to public housing there were a wide range of programs and bureaucracies in ancient Rome. One of these was the PWA, ( using English initials) or the Public Works Administration which built everything from roads to the aqueducts which brought fresh water to every part of the empire. The Romans also built sewage systems.

Now, while the Romans did not have modern toilets, they did have public restrooms ( hence the word lavatory which is derived from the Latin) with seats with oval holes in them. Water ran through channels under the seats to take waste away to rivers at junctions downstream from the population.

The Roman Empire also built roads, often using the army. The roads were built to move troops rapidly across the Empire. One reason for using army labor was to keep troops occupied between campaigns since an exhausted, preoccupied solider is not as prone to rebel. Also the soldiers were quite well paid anyway, making $70,000 a year in modern money, so they might as well get paid for working.

Ironically, Haskell was distressed in his book about the New Deal. He first supported it, but being a student of history, he realized where it was leading. For in ancient Rome, as each Emperor came to power, they wanted to make a name for themselves. So they spent more lavishly on public programs which had to be maintained by the next generation.

Unfortunately, the next generation was always a Roman population where 95% lived in poverty or on public assistance because of usufructual use of land, a primitive banking system and slavery. Under the usufructual system, the Caesars owned everything with certain people using the land at the Caesar's pleasure. This led to no private incentive to produce, innovate or make land improvements because everything could be taken off you by the next Emperor.

Even without this, the banking system was too primitive to provide for equity capital loans for industrious poorer citizens. The ability for citizens to have and use equity is what distinguishes rich nations from poor nations. 70% of all small businesses in America are started using home equity loans.

As for slavery, while providing free labor, it meant that ordinary people could not find jobs. So they became even more dependent on the state; hungry ones too.

You can't squeeze taxes from poor people. Therefore, the Empire maintained itself with loot stolen from conquered people. When they ran out of worlds to conquer, doom was near.

By

Jeffrey Ruzicka

Jeffrey Ruzicka is a retired executive of a small company that specializes in industrial water treatment. He is happily married and lives with his wife in Western Pennsylvania. He is a contributing writer to UtilitiesJobs, UtilitiesJobsBlog and Nexxt.