BEYOND CAPITALISM
Capital” may be most briefly described as wealth producing more wealth; and “capitalism” as the system directing that process. This latter term came into general use during the second half of the 19th century as a word chiefly signifying the world-wide modern system of organizing production and trade by private enterprise free to seek profit and fortune by employing for wages the mass of human labour. There is no satisfactory definition of the term, though nothing is more evident than the thing. [J.L. Garvin, “Capitalism” in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1929]
Following the collapse of communism the only alternative left was capitalism. Capitalism was and is the embodiment of good against the forces of evil. Change is inevitable though reluctantly as we are creatures of habit. Capitalism today has mutated into a different form which no longer benefits the good of the masses or the planet and must be reigned in. Free enterprise is inherent in the human psyche, but there are different ways of implementing it. At this stage and without a counter ideology, capitalism has evolved into a raw in-compassionate system of pure profit regardless of social or environmental collateral damage that is hurting individual psyche and the environment in which we live. This has become a serious problem.
“They’re like us. They’re free enterprisers.” Would explain Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise in the Star Trek television series, when the crew met a new life form. Better than that Klingon ilk which constantly swarmed around the neighborhood causing trouble.
No one person is able to reinvent such a complex world system in detail, as most money managers and economists are not very good at predicting or controlling trends either. Besides economic planning is like most interactions, very organic and unpredictable. There is however common sense which is crucial, regardless of education or specialization.
So unlike communism before it, capitalism proved to be a better system if not the only economic system left on our planet, even for the few remaining communist states. It is however obvious that it is not the best way for our civilizations to survive in the way that it has evolved and is being implemented at this point in time.
Between abuse of resources and the distribution of wealth in a system so entrenched that it seems almost impossible to reform. It therefore seems that in a world of impending environmental collapse and massive populations, that an alternative must be created. An option not only for a better economic balance but also of the social and mental obsession and corruption of materialism it creates. This obsession which has overtaken all peoples of the world to accumulate wealth and live for pure material gain. The fallacies that economies must grow by a certain percentage each year in order to properly compete is no longer viable in a physical world where resources are increasingly scarce and few people reap any of the benefits. One percent of the world population own about sixty percent of the worlds wealth. As history repeats itself in stealthier ways because people change and must be hoodwinked differently, the fact is this discrepancy creates better illusions nowadays but is not statistically very different from feudalism.
So is it to be a combination of free markets and socialism? Maybe, but these free markets need controls and must again become smaller, more manageable, and more accountable. This is the final result of post colonial policies of taking the same advantage from Third World economies to serve the needs of the developed nations which has now come to roost on the home front.
Now as in Third World nations people in the US have to hold a number of jobs to stay afloat. Practically unheard of not too long ago.
Social programs and big government are a necessity for large populations. One cannot leave it to the private sector to control itself as was proven time and again. It’s really no different from letting kids unsupervised in the schoolyard. Incentives, regulations, and punishment must be present. In micro economics in our personal lives if we are broke, then we are broke, but macroeconomics as in governments is like an elastic stomach which moves in all directions and never gets indigestion. So most governments are broke but it’s fine.
Capitalist controls must revert back to protect local industries. For instance when banks were only allowed to operate within their own states. Nowadays all these regulations have been deregulated which gives control to major industries in fewer hands. This is exactly what was to be avoided to promote the opportunity of business incentives to the greater population. This completely defeats the purpose and creates oligarchies. Not what one needs to have for a productive system of incentives to benefit the whole? It simply emulates a Third world system of wealthy elites and a vast underprivileged class with few benefits, education, incentive, and voice. It reverts back to the ways of the 19th Century. The pitfalls in the declining or overpriced education system further widens this gap to further benefit the oligarchs in a society which really doesn’t produce much in terms of industry anymore, but abstract exchanges of wealth and services.
Healthcare, state incentives, and controls must be present no matter who is against it. These opponents are ignorant, or simply preserving their interests at the expense of others in order not to have their taxes raised. This is no longer a forward thinking society to lead the world, but simply a group of entrenched business interests and politicians who have slipped into degeneracy and have no will, patience, or foresight to create a better system. This is something, which would only take a few years to retool and later generate much greater returns for new kinds of products. This is actually beginning but at a trickle and thirty years late.
Many of these elected individuals or groups who constantly criticize progress and have no alternatives to offer, and want to bring religion to the fore of a secular government and just protect their power are nefarious to the welfare of the people and the state and become national security risks. This is especially true of any official who supports illegal acts by other elected officials. But they are also bound by their base who also refuses to see the truth. An unhealthy society in body and mind is headed for collapse. But then that’s the nature of all things isn’t it? Birth, death, make room.
A sclerosed system of government which must be opened up. The Republican party was ripe for Donald Trump, not the other way around. That’s why all the pegs could fall in place around him. This can only stop if the system is reformed, or this will continue with other ersatz demagogue candidates, which the system has created.
If bread is on the table and health care is available, all will follow.
Many Russians after the collapse of the Soviet Union would often say that under Stalin at least they had power, and bread on the table. Regardless of the fact that most had at least one family member who disappeared under the paranoid man of steel.
Just tax incentives are not enough. The US has in essence become a complex government where the majority is unwilling to deal with complex issues, much less ideals. Short sightedness is the motto. Again Third world. How much can one keep now regardless of what can be achieved later? The same goes for retooling for better environmental technology. Why waste time.
It was always perplexing that a few years of retooling to actually create greater revenue with a whole string of new environmental products is just not acceptable or contemplated because it is not fast enough and would upset the status quo, regardless of how much more profit could be made in the near future. Again creatures of habit and instant gratification. Sclerosed thinking at its best. This is systemic degeneracy and more new concepts must prop up to sweep away this dangerous world thinking.
Every leader no matter how noble their ideals gets stuck in this system’s status quo and becomes corrupted or lost. Radicalization is a must in order to sweep that away and implement true reforms. It is unlikely that the two entrenched and therefore privileged existing political parties can achieve that level of desired radicalization, and that unless the system opens up to allow for wider political representation it will be mired in ever greater stagnation.
Many political party officials in this new era are unconstitutional in their new virtual reality thinking purely to retain power and please their other delusional cohorts. It no longer has anything to do with good government. Same as the companies who are allowed to rob the public and then punish that same public for their bad policies from whom they benefited and got bailout money from the state, and later tax credits, without offering the masses the opportunities to rebuild through loans because there is better money to be made elsewhere with our money.
Unfortunately or fortunately we have not sunk low enough yet for this to occur.
How exactly this must be done can be complicated and require more dire circumstances as in the Great Depression, but it is the only way since no matter who gets in will be stifled by these obstacles. Do things have to get so bad in order to implement such reforms. Most probably as history shows in desperate times populist movements like the New Deal, Communism, Kemalism, Fascism, National Socialism took root. Capitalism in pure form as its own ideology won out but is not the ideal as it has gone astray as everything does because humans are corrupted through greed. Extreme capitalism with few benefits coupled with its objective for pure consumerism, lacks any form of humanity. Therefore a change or metamorphosis is required. Large complex societies do require a mixture of capitalism and socialism. The latter is a bad word in this society, but so be it. Socialism is not communism. The US was looked up to by most of the world for its ability to offer new opportunities. This seems to be a part of the past, but must be revived if there is any hope for reform and leadership. Governments are only as legitimate as what they can do to serve the majority of their electorate.
Why should the US lead? Because realistically since the end of World War II it has done so and other nations have often just waited for it to do so. Also regardless of political and other massive blunders, and being one of the most inefficient colonialists in history, it still has greater credibility throughout the world than any other nation.
So all these factors like the speculation of the stock market no longer represents true value or security in the long term, unless one is a player. Multinationals wipe out the average smaller business. Deregulation further exasperates this problem for local businesses. Globalization serves by taking away jobs to be replaced by quasi slave labor.
American capitalism is crude and socially oblivious and now decadent. Promoting business for its own sake and compensating a corporate elite whether they perform well or not. So it is not really even about the shareholder whose interest they always claim to represent above all else.
Currencies previously backed by precious metals to ethereal cryptocurrencies. Literally living and getting lost in the dream.
A system which cannot deal with basic social issues such as schools, public works, and the like is no longer viable and must be altered, as it is destroying its future generations. Like communism when a system stops delivering it loses legitimacy.
Most forms of beneficial social programs we inherited from the FDR era. FDR had written a Second Bill of Rights which gave the US all it needs now. From affordable housing to free education. Truman swept it under the rug. Imagine if Bush Jr. had achieved his wish of social security investing in the stock market and the banks actually did collapse shortly thereafter, where would we all be now. A very dangerous administration it was. Paving the road for types like Trump. It really doesn’t matter who is in power. There are good policies and bad policies, and thats it. You mean well or you don’t.
When representative’s seats cost so much to be elected it is hardly a representation of the people. Too elitist the candidate who has the funds, or too many concessions to the funders for the one who has no funds. Where does this leave the average individual? Pretty much in the same position regardless of who is in power.
In the latest economic bailouts, the bonuses were handed to the higher executives, while benefits and stock options were erased for the lower echelons, and lines of credits and loans were frozen for the average client as well as regular bank employees. If economics is based on trust this will be a tough one. And it continues as no one wants to rock the boat.
Corrupted minds are difficult to be altered, for they are bad seed, and must be replaced as they will just repeat their past deeds. It is their nature. Unless the punishment is so severe then that it may actually make a difference for others in a revamped system of ‘Compassionate Capitalism’ instead of socialist capitalism. It’s all about the right terminology.
The irony is that in the end no one really owns anything unless the majority, or actual minority of 99% who own 40% of the wealth, pay tax and other dues, and more are still collected after their death.
The ultimate mind bender after all this is when you look at most of the world other than a handful of smaller nations who have balanced social systems, military power aside, the US is still the best of the Third World. So where do we go from here?
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