Occupy All Streets

Although stirrings of discontent are increasing and are world-wide, we still need to recognize the gravity of the situation. We are in real trouble and it's going to take more than taxing Wall Street to get out of it. We need to recognize that we have become dependent on a way of carrying out the business of surviving that we can no longer depend on. We need to recognize that we are under the imperial rule of the corporation; an entity that is far more toxic and dangerous than terrorists or psychopaths. It is not only toxic but its basis is utterly ethereal. It is ether that is based in straightforward exploitation. It is a system of incredible absurdities and contradictions.

There was a time not so long ago when it was generally believed that eventually, capitalism will get to all or most of the problems of deprivation. The trajectory was positive. No serious economist worth his or her salt would make that argument however. Serious economists will say that capitalism is not responsible for feeding the hungry or housing the poor. And they are correct.

We then must ask the question: Do we, as a society, let babies, children, mothers, the elderly, the disabled and so on suffer and even die due to material deprivation?

Like children in the 30s walking bare foot past closed shoe factories, factories sit idle in rust while millions are looking for work. Homes sit empty as millions of evicted homeowners no longer have a place to live. If an enterprise or activity can’t fortify investors wealth, it can’t happen. To suggest that this process is rational reflects a logic of stupefying myopia. To take it for granted smacks of hyper-dependency or addiction.

Our Collective Addiction


We have become dependent on capital derived from surplus value to survive and we are at its mercy. We are at the mercy of a simple formula (buy or make for x - sell for y), a formula that, like all formulas, has no mercy. It also has no substance. But we cannot seem to survive without it. The bad news is, we have to. The good news is, we can.

The fact that we have developed a mentality of dependence on surplus value capital as the only viable catalyst to get us out to work, to trade, to start an enterprise or to repair a bridge is a very serious problem.

We need to take responsibility for ourselves, our communities, and our nations. We have been relying on residual capital from underdeveloped hungry ghosts (investors) to feed us, clothe us, and house us. We have been reliant on an abstraction (surplus value) that, even in its glorious heyday, was heavily reliant on the plunder of the hinterland for resources and sweet Keynesian deals in the homeland. In other words, it never worked. And, even in its heyday, capitalism has been highly unstable. That is the nature of the beast and again, no economist will make the argument that liberal and unfettered capitalism is or can be a stable system of financial governance.

Like any addiction, the way to health is by first admitting that it is an addiction. To do so, we need to contemplate and discuss our dependence on capital. We need to ask ourselves tough questions:

-Can we open a factory without excess capital?
-Can we trade without it?
-Can we provide services to others without capital derived from taxes?
-Have our elected representatives, the politicians, been utterly subservient to the owners and controllers of surplus value?
- Are we so weak that we need to beg capitalists to invest in ways that will help us survive?


The Value of Work


We could have opened that factory and we could have let those children wear shoes. We can not only move into existing houses, we can build houses for everybody. We can provide medicine and food for every person that needs it. It is us that have been doing it all along and it has been the greed of HMOs and other vultures that have been wilfully killing people for profit. Capitalists don't make useful and necessary things that we need to survive. We do.

Our dependence is on a glorified middleman with zero social conscience. This middleman’s relations to the production process is not innate. If the middleman can make profit without the bother of employing human beings that fall ill, complain, need ‘benefits’ and so on, he or she will certainly do it as you or I would do it. And he is doing it all over the world. Playing and gambling with finance capital is far more exhilarating and profitable than running a grimy factory. As capitalism matures, and the possibility of squeezing a dime from a unit of human labour diminishes, the connection between capitalism and providing goods and services becomes more remote and untenable.

When we consider the unstable and illusory nature of capitalism and the fact that the actual provision of services is provided by us, the workers. And that each and every item we use, computers, cars, food and drugs, have been mined, shipped, manufactured, and delivered by us, the workers, we can see that the future is not only possible, it is fantastic. The possibilities are endless.

Each and every capitalist dollar can be traced back to its genesis; work. And all the wealth that exists and will exist is rightfully ours. Best of all, we can make as much as we want. We just need to get over our illusion of dependence on speculators, gamblers, and thieves.

Our Wealth is Our Work

Economists and politicians behave and speak as if wealth somehow emanates from the wealthy and makes its way down to the rest of us. In reality, everything we see and use begins in the ground and is made into useful products either by human hands or by natural processes. Exchange value (profit) is a simple matter of exploiting and taking ownership of that process. In fact, wealth flows from the bottom and is vacuumed to the upper echelons with increasingly efficient means.

The notion that marketing and profit grabbing will produce what is best for society is a precise and specific point we need to contemplate. For example, a given society may need more cancer research or health care or housing. The market suggests however that more profit can be made by producing cigarettes or guns. Very serious meetings decisions will be made to research and develop the production and sale of cigarettes and guns. Capitalism is very good at producing trinkets, shiny toys, and killer hamburgers.

Basic human needs are considered a nuisance from the point of view of investors and their governors; even when there’s a profit to be made. It is the self serving child with ‘getting the most stuff’ as his life’s goal that we have become dependent on. No wonder we are in serious trouble.

When we consider what can be done with labour power in terms of developing goods and services, we may then consider possibilities beyond the poor and short sighted rationality of the marginalists, popularly known today as neo-liberals. We might abandon the superstitious nonsense that the expansion and theft of the money value that is produced by labour as an indispensable ingredient to financial security and progress. In other words, we can afford to abandon the notion that exploitation, war, and theft are necessary evils for societies to function well. At that point, we may go beyond the tyranny of psychopathic greed and develop a sane, stable, and humane world.

When we really examine the situation, the capitalist class (and it is no exaggeration to label them the ruling class) can be seen to function merely as parasites. They don't even manage businesses. They simply play the grand casino and hire workers to manage it for them. Managers are not them; managers are us. As dispensable functionaries, they stand on the same precipice we all do. While a firm may replace an individual manager, the function itself is essential.

We are all in this together and we are the ones that make this world work. We can afford to rely on each other and we can afford to have confidence in ourselves. The ethereal monarch can take its rightful seat in the history of social and economic development and we may salute them all. But their time and usefulness has passed.

Creating Wealth


The semi socialist system of production (capitalism) and distribution (Keynesianism) has worked reasonably well in some situations. It is possible but not probable that we can return to Keynesian formulas to rescue our deteriorating standard of living. Social safety nets are being ripped to shreds because the diminishing rate of profit is forcing capitalists to squeeze wealth from every nook and cranny. They are in no mood to throw us any crumbs whatsoever. On the contrary.
We are getting to a point where we must take matters into our own hands. There are some elemental social and economic conditions and standards we need to adhere to. We cannot tolerate a condition where an individual's body may die due to deprivation. We certainly cannot tolerate conditions where whole collectives of individuals may die due to material deprivation. This condition is silent violence and it is class war. It is ongoing and it is getting worse.

To push back, to take back what is rightfully ours, we need to become politically alive. We need to not ask, but demand, a vast expansion of our public infrastructure. We need it to include service to the vital needs of each and every individual. And we, not them, can make that happen and make that work.

As towns and cities infrastructure is neglected and falling apart, we need to recognize that we, and not them, need to fix it. It is ours and it is our children's inheritance. Money does not fix bridges and roads, even if you believe deep down inside that it does, it is in fact real, tangible work that does it. Money is merely a catalyst. We can build it as elaborately and as beautifully as we wish. But it will not happen as long as politicians are in the pockets of corporations. And they certainly are.
We have enormous volumes of capital and latent capital (labour). We need a new catalyst.

At the end of the day we can blame capitalists and capitalism for the social and financial ills plaguing increasing numbers of individuals, communities, and nations. It isn't their fault. The ultra wealthy have merely secured themselves and their families in a system, a context, where they could conceivably fall into destitution. With enough wealth, they can rest assured they will be okay.

It is not a matter of blaming individuals, the problem is systemic and that is what needs to change.

Rather than blaming any individual or individuals, we can take responsibility for ourselves, our homes, and our communities and we can roll up our sleeves and get to work.

But before we can do that, we need to take control of our political and financial systems.

Ay. There's the rub.

Workers of the World Unite...

'The more things change, the more they remain the same'. This rather hokey expression seems almost prophetic nowadays. In the past few decades homes have been equipped with technology that would be inconceivable a generation ago. It has illuminated and connected every corner of the globe. And yet, there are 18 million empty homes in the United States of America while 3.5 million are homeless. That works out to about 5 empty homes for every homeless person. Manufacturing plants rust as millions remain unemployed. The stock market is soaring, billionaires are making billions, and there isn't enough money to pay teachers.

The analysis of Karl Marx, believed archaic and irrelevant only a few short years ago, have again become highly relevant. Our social and economic conditions, for all the bluster and noise of the 20th century, are fundamentally unchanged from where they were in the 1800s.

The 20th century was a time of optimism. The American dream was validated. The radicalism of the previous century was forgotten after World War 2. Radicals like Karl Marx were proven to be wrong. Since 2008 however, the jury has reconvened. And in that jury box we come cannot help but be impressed. Consider, for an example, these two quotes from the Communist Manifesto, written 1848:

The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. The cheap prices of commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.

And...

Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. This union is helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by modern industry, and that place the workers of different localities in contact with one another. It was just this contact that was needed to centralise the numerous local struggles, all of the same character, into one national struggle between classes.

If Marx were alive today, if he were witness to the struggles through Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and America he would not be surprised. He saw it coming. He saw it coming because he understood the nature of capitalism.

While we may not want to run out and join our local band of communists, we may want to reconsider many of the observations that were relevant in the 19th century not only from Marx, but from others. Strangely enough, for all the progress we have made over the past century, we seem to be back, more or less, where we started from.

Social Democracy

Through the latter part of the 20th century, the belief that we were on the right track was widespread. It seemed the sky was the limit. That the energy of private capitalism would eventually float all boats. This success depended greatly on the influence of Fabian Socialism.

In Canada, progressive voters tend to vote for the New Democratic Party. In the UK, they vote Labour and in the USA, they vote Democrat. Fabian principles represented by social democratic policies pushed for universal medical care, state pensions, adequate social assistance and so on. Tremendous gains have been made and unions helped ensure that workers were paid decent wages. This all contributed to vastly increased demand for goods and services and in turn, manufacturing firms thrived.

Since the 1980s small business owners would parrot the ideological madness of right wing predators, unwittingly taking part in their own demise. Globalization, cuts to social services, cuts in union wages were all initiatives they supported. Used like useful idiots, they too fell victim to the ravages of monopoly capitalism and its concomitant neo-liberal ideology. They didn't know it, but the social democrats (aka socialists) they decried were their collective meal ticket. The attack has been especially virulent in the USA where the term 'socialism' has become unequivocally pejorative.

Austerity budgets are turning social progress back to 1930s levels, rendering the gains made by unions and progressive social democrats over the decades, void. Three decades of cries to 'get lean and mean' in the New World Order's race to the bottom has resulted in the middle class getting lean and the billionaire class meaner than ever.

Utterly Powerless

We now live in a time of ruthless, predatory capitalism. It takes no prisoners and when it does, it tortures them. Since the 1980s workers have faced stark choices. Threats to move manufacturing abroad have actually been promises. Unions have become crippled and powerless.

The influence of social democratic idealism has been relegated to non economic issues. For example, social democrats may still make progress in terms of women's and minority rights or other types of soft liberal legislation but when it comes to anything related to money, the soft left is powerless. While the Governor of Wisconsin rapes the workers, and while workers are under attack in every corner of the Western world, the elites maintain and increase their wealth and power. The stock market thrives while the people on the street suffer. And the war on the working class is just beginning.

The two pillars of working class strength, strong unions and public spending, have been reduced to ineffective shadows of their former selves. The social democratic response is limited to asking for more, for a larger piece of the pie. That is because the fundamental ideology of social democratic movements and parties are reformist. The aim is to reform capitalism; to redistribute wealth. In the past this objective has been met in some places more so than in others. And if we learn anything from history, we know that you don't 'ask' the billionaire class for anything. You demand and you are prepared to back your demands, or stay home.

Today, unions are powerless because the bosses have become radical and right wing to the extreme. The only principles they adhere to beyond cold pragmaticism are cold and calculating neo liberal policies, policies that boldly proclaim, it's every man for himself. Sink or swim. They would rather ship jobs away or close shop than negotiate. Social democratic political parties merely parrot the wishes and policies of the private sector. If social democrats want to strengthen the safety net, a powerful assault from the right, from bond rating agencies and even the IMF will efficiently put them down.

The Growth of Monopolism

The ideology that best serves the monstrosity that is monopolism is neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism was proclaimed the New World Order by disciples such as Reagan, Thatcher, the Bushes, and fascists like Pinochet in Chile. And it has been followed to the letter by 'new labour' and other so called moderate Western governments.

Neo-liberalism isn't in fact neo (or new). It is essentially the doctrine of laissez faire economics; the doctrine that suggests that the market is self correcting if governments would stop meddling. It abhors social programs and public infrastructure. It is rehashed classical economics. It is worth noting that when the crisis of 2008 occurred, those same neo liberal ideologues that caused the crises in the first place saw nothing wrong with socialism for the ultra wealthy.
Neo liberal policies have been devastating for developing countries. Enforced by the IMF and the World Bank, they ensure easy pickings for the vultures. Loans are conditional on the recipient nations adherence to widespread privatization, further impoverishing those that need aid.

There is nothing stable about capitalism. To survive, it needs constant growth. It is a virus and a virulent one at that. It has exploited the post industrial world and is no longer satisfied with the terms of exploitation. It has naturally gone where it can get the most bang for its buck.

The old and cozy arrangement where business would invest to the satisfaction of local politicians and in turn receive favourable treatment in terms of taxes, standards, regulations, and subsidies isn't enough. Now they are coming for the social safety net. They will scour the meat from every bone before they are through with us. They are salivating at the profits that could be made if they could privatize Canadian and European public health care. They will privatize those programs, it is only a matter of time.

Class War

The fight back is just beginning. The people of Wisconsin, North Africa and the Middle East have been the first to stand up in this immense struggle; a struggle we cannot afford to lose. We are locked in and there is no turning back. The virus is pernicious and can't be reformed. That ship has sailed. Who or whatever within that system is humane or soft will perish. A CEO that may decide to increase wages or offer better benefits will be thrown to the wolves and with good reason. If they don't, a more ruthless and efficient enterprise will destroy us.

We live in interesting times. Whether we want to or not, we are in a fight for our lives. We need to be clear about that and we need to understand, the enemy does not respect weakness. They have not a wisp of fear. They believe we are powerless. And that will be their fatal mistake.

The time has come to organize general strikes from Beijing to Mumbai, from Al Jubayl to Tel Aviv, from Wisconsin to Lima and from London to Moscow.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Don't Do That Voo Doo that You Do Do

World financial systems were devastated in 2008 and 2009. Now, in 2010, nobody is sure where we're headed. There seems to be general agreement that we will not get back to where we were. Wall Street is doing okay apparently. Profits are soaring. Main Street continues to suffer and ominous clouds remain on the horizon. They seem to have dumped their financial fiasco on the lot of us. We can look forward to gutted social programs and decaying public infrastructure throughout the once thriving capitalist world. Main Street appears to be in a long term downward spiral. An economic nightmare.

As ordinary citizens we appear to be at the mercy of politicians and capitalists. Economists and mainstream media appear devoid of courage and savvy. We cannot continue to rely on them as if they can provide sound and critical analysis about what is happening with the economy. They are like schooling fish following bait. Stunned to a fault.

We need to examine the totality of the system we are at the mercy of without prejudice or emotion. We need to look at the good and the bad. We can no longer rely on paid whores and their glib superficial analysis. They are wrong over and over and over again. The people that go to work day in and day out are getting screwed, directly or indirectly, by capitalists and their paid shills.

The absurdity of closed and rusting manufacturing plants rotting as millions look for work; of millions homeless while homes are empty and boarded up is a sign. These are signs that speak far louder and with much more authority than the politicians, the shysters, and their pitiful talking heads. These signs are telling us that something is seriously wrong.

We need to revolutionize our thinking and our sense of responsibility. The days of being responsible for only ourselves and our families are over. We can no longer afford to let the self professed financial wizards hold the reigns. They turned out to be self serving criminals and they got all of us where it hurts. The time to fight back is here.

The Bottom Line

Capitalism tends to certain outcomes and contradictions. This doesn't mean that capitalism has or will necessarily get to its preferred outcomes, but it does mean there will be constant pressure to fulfill these tendencies. For example, steam tends to rise but many factors may retard that tendency. Given the pervasiveness and power of capitalism in the modern world, it is important to understand and debate the tendencies of this force that impacts upon all our lives.

Without abandoning Marx entirely, we will consider a less scholarly and more user friendly look at the tendencies of capitalism.

The most obvious starting point is to name the bottom line. The goal and reason for its existence is profit; benefits to human beings are beside the point - it doesn’t care. It tends to benefit humans in meeting wants more-so than needs. It has no inherent compulsion or mandate to meet them. It is nothing like a personal or human force. Playstations, colourful wrappers and advertizing are important; curing leprosy and aids and providing medicine to the sick are also important, but only if there is profit in it. Capitalism has no responsibility whatsoever to cure the sick or feed the hungry. To make this assumption, as both apologists and detractors sometimes do, isn't constructive or fair. It simply isn't the case. The extent to which the capitalist system has been beneficial to human beings is a matter of auspicious coincidence on the part of both capitalists and consumers.

Tendencies of Capitalism

- The tendency to sell cheap: Otherwise, somebody else will sell cheaper; this is the fundamental tendency to competition.

- The tendency to buy low and sell high: This tendency includes wages; that is, to pay as little in wages as possible and to sell the produced item for as high a price as possible. The potential for competition from other capitalists tends to keep the margin between the output for wages and the price of the commodity at a small and ever decreasing margin.

- The tendency to reduce or eliminate overhead costs: This tendency requires capitalists to use the most efficient and cost effective technology possible resulting in the technological revolution that has occurred over the past century. Ironically, if the process is devoid of labour input, the value of the product decreases. The general labour theory of value (Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Marx) addresses this tendency. That is, the general value of a commodity depends, in part, on the labour that has gone into it.

- The tendency of the rate of profit to fall: As production becomes more efficient and more is produced with less effort, the rate of profit falls. The result is the need for capitalists to find new ways of making a profit and to squeeze a dime out of a worker. There is also an increased need to acquire public services and infrastructure, to plunder, and to expand markets where no market existed before and to profit from public utilities and human needs.

- The tendency to reduce real wages: And to reduce the workforce. As the rate of profit diminishes, the most obvious place to gain extra profit is exactly where the wealth was created in the first place, from the producer (the worker) by paying him or her less in real terms.

- The tendency for big firms to consume smaller firms: This process not only builds the assets of the capitalist, it reduces competition.

- The tendency to pit the consumer against the worker: It is the dual life of the average citizen; we are both. We want service to be efficient and products to be of high quality but we resent bosses cracking the whip.

- Tendency to co-opt and control the state: This is not a conspiracy theory; it is the grandest conspiracy of all. The marriage of modern capitalist states and capital is almost complete. Real decisions are made behind closed doors with lobbyists, lawyers and politicians.

- The tendency to reduce regulations and safety standards: These are costly and inefficient.

- The tendency to aim for short term profit: Investing, especially with the advent of computer technology is as easy as pushing a button or implementing a program. However, this does not erase the tendency for large capitalists to work and invest in fertilizing the overall context for investing in the long term.

- The tendency to privatize everything: Including natural resources such as water, land, and the air we breathe; the latter is difficult to control.

- The tendency to value human beings in terms of exchange value: Correspondingly, there is a tendency to de-value or ignore human beings that do not play a part and a true tendency to de-value human beings that are an obstacle to profit. These tendencies have many psychological and other ramifications depending on the extent to which capitalist ideology has been introjected by the local population or the particular individual.

- The tendency to invest in and develop profitable commodities: While human needs may demand medicine, housing, and food, the concentration of capitalism will be medicine, housing and food only if these items can fetch profit. If not, more tasty hamburgers or better game boy graphics will be the areas of research and development.

- The tendency to laterally acquire all aspects of production: Large firms aim to control all aspects that go into production from owning and controlling primary industries to shipping and advertizing.

- The tendency to contract out: Rather than pay union wages or maintain a workforce, it may be more cost efficient to buy services or goods.

- The tendency to force the state (taxpayer) to absorb costs: Paying for necessary roads, railways, general infrastructure tend to be offloaded to taxpayers as much as possible.

- The tendency to shape shift: Capitalism's tendencies and appearance changes through time. For example, the logic of Fordism has been lost to the tendency to expand markets to poor countries. The domestic market, once vital, is now forgotten. There is more profit to be made elsewhere. The logic of Keynesianism has also been lost to globalization. The general political wisdom had stated, however reluctantly, that the more wages/money locals have, the more they demand goods and services, requiring more employees to provide commodities to demand of consumers. This domestic economic stimulation tends toward inflation, an accepted necessary evil.

Another change has been the increased focus on capitalists to invest in capital as opposed to produced commodities. Although capital is devoid of value without labour and manufactured commodities to back them up, modern capitalists have been living off and getting wealthy from false financial bubbles; they have been living off a credit card without a real job. This has resulted in enormous pain for many millions over the past several years.

Voodoo

The logical extensions of capitalist ideology appear to be most closely articulated by the ideological formulations of the Austrian and Chicago Schools of Economics and by such individuals as Milton Freidman, Ludwig von Mises, and right wing politicians like Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and fascists like Augusto Pinochet. The ideas have gained tremendous currency and even current liberals have come to accept neo-liberal perspectives. Liberals like Obama pay lip service to leftist policies but concede important economic matters to voodoo. This strain is more consistent with advanced capitalism in the sense that it articulates and aims to satisfy its global needs. One such need is to usurp what they see as interference from the state which tends to put limits on the need for excess and unbridled theft. In the USA, Tea Party protesters are demanding the reduction/end of government. They advocate for pure capitalism and challenge and attack government based redistribution mechanisms. The end result for most of the tea-partiers would be utter devastation.

The logical conclusion to such an environment would be that wealthy classes would own and control not only market based commodities but public utilities as well. It is a system of capitalist anarchy.

So far their performance has been dismal. Their free trade and globalization initiatives from the 80s have devastated manufacturing; the heart of the economy. Their unfettered and unregulated voodoo have magically blown financial bubbles resulting in financial disasters as these bubbles (false economies) collapsed.

As painful as these voodooistic machinations have been on the middle and lower strata of society, they have created delirious glee on Wall Street. They are diametrically and unapologetically opposed to social responsibility.

From a rational point of view, wealth begins with production. From the marginalist point of view the genesis of wealth is a fuzzy concept but generally, they believe that wealth emanates from the wealthy and down to the middle classes (the workers that produce). This view would suggest that the best way to stimulate the economy would be to give wealth to the wealthy and they will be in a position to "trickle" money all the way down to the rest of us. With the billions granted to the ultra wealthy these past few years, Bush and Obama could have paid off mortgages and put money in people's pockets to buy cars and other goods and services. They are children of the high priests of magical thinking.

The logical extension of the mess we find ourselves in today is similar to the social and economic configuration of feudal Europe several hundred years ago. Kings and Lords are replaced by the most powerful of the capitalist class. Ironically, our social and economic configuration could conceivably return to something reminiscent of the social configuration that capitalism pulled us out of.

We have been subdued through Keynsian policies and Keynes was explicit in his intend to curb working class revolutionary sentiments. The deal worked quite well. Those days are over. Massive unemployment and massive cuts to social programs are here to stay.

As a result we are in for a period of social upheaval. The ugly past has returned and we are in it.

The Nature of Capitalism

We may ask ourselves how capitalism, the -ism we associate with democracy and freedom, with social and technological progress and with justice, could be turning on us. This is why we need to examine the true nature of the beast. The nature of capitalism is multifaceted. While it has potent liberating potential it also has the potential to turn on us with a vengeance.

When we examine it we find that capital does not provide anything but compulsion. It is completely ethereal. Illusory. Unlike commodities, it doesn’t exist in the tangible world. Money has little or no use value, it is all exchange value. Capital exists as an abstract compulsion. What is not so abstract is the real impact it has on each and every one of us. It has radically changed the way we behave and the way we live. It has changed the way we value and see ourselves.

Ultimately capitalism isn't an ideology. It isn't right wing or left wing. It is a sleight of hand, a trick to gain profit from any given unit of exchange. It is a sleight of hand that comes dangerously close to theft. But that is a human judgment. Capitalism on its own is amoral, apolitical, it is devoid of substance or ethics. Paradoxically, it is also the most potent political, immoral, and ruthless force the world has known. It is fully intent on taking over the world and its mission is almost accomplished. We are slaves to it and there is no good reason to believe that we will not continue to be slaves to it. As a tool it has been enormously useful and inadvertently, it has propelled us well into the future of human development. But the time has come that it is no longer a tool. It appears to have become a malevolent spirit that has turned the tables and has taken control of humanity.

Magical Thinking to Critical Thinking

As a subject and an area of study we may find the whole thing too unwieldy and difficult to understand. As a subject it is loaded. We either love it or we loathe it. To criticize it is to be risk being labeled a communist and a Marxist. To point out its strength, its ability to improve the lives of individuals and nations, and its power to develop and enrich us all, we run the risk of being criticized as a tool of the rich and powerful. As a subject it appears to be off the radar for most; it has traditionally been a subject area only intellectuals and economists dared to probe.

The time has come to examine the true nature of this phenomena and what it is. We need to examine the very basics from the ground up; literally. It is the single most relevant context of our lives. Everything we see are commodities or potential commodities. Cars, computers, cups, and tables are modified rock. Everything around us is all extracted from rock or water. This are base of all things, even our bodies. Workers and nature modify rock and water and turn them into commodities. We need to start from there and to not be afraid to look at the whole process. It is all our own inheritance. We are part of it. It is our world.

Capitalism has been and is the most powerful social force in history and it directly impacts you. It will impact you until the day you die. It will impact your grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is nothing to shy away from.

As long as it is only the intellectuals, the economists, and the capitalists that examine and understand it, we will remain utterly at its mercy. The problem with that is, it has none.

We Need to Talk

The sentence "We need to talk" is a powerful one. When it is used in a marriage it either means that the request is to deal with difficult problems or, in the case of an abusive relationship, that phrase may mean the victim has had it. It's over.

If you're old enough you may remember when we fell in love. We had just emerged through tough times; a depression and a war. It was the 50s. The grim years had passed and we were courted by a spirit; the spirit of capitalism. The grim bleakness of the past was giving way to televisions, household conveniences of all sorts, rock and roll and a world of optimism and colour. And over the next few decades the trajectory was clear and it was aiming toward heaven. The sky was the limit. Everything was getting better.

We collectively fell in love with the spirit of capitalism. It was youthful and charming and it was a fantastic provider. Our lives were improving. Wages were rising and demand for goods and services demanded more goods and services.

In Western Europe and North America we not only fell in love with capitalism, we got married. Our past flirtations with socialism were forgotten. Capitalism loved us and we loved capitalism. It demanded fidelity and we grew to trust it. We became loyal. It was a marriage made in heaven.

Something happened along the way.

We assumed that capitalism would remain faithful. But it hasn't. Instead, it began its affairs. We looked the other way. Capitalism had its 'needs'. It dated throughout Latin America and in Asia but we remained confident that it would always come home. It spent weekends in the Middle East and assured us that it was a matter of bringing home the bacon. It was business.

At first, we could look the other way. After all, this was just sex. It wasn't love.

Have we fooled ourselves? Has capitalism just used us? We thought it was genuine love and that love would last forever. Are we in denial? We still dream of yesterday and superimpose it on tomorrow. We continue to believe the lies; we want to. We believe that this is just the natural cycle of boom and bust and that the good times will return. We want to believe it in the face of some very hard realities.

Our partner seems more and more inhumane as time goes by. Sometimes it behaves like a psychopath. And maybe it isn't "sometimes", maybe it is a psychopath all the time. Maybe that is just what we have been married to all these years.

We must examine ourselves; our own dual nature. We are a consumer and we are a worker. Capitalism has always served and smiled at the consumer side. And it has been served by the worker side. It has been far more ruthless to the worker that it has depended on for its very sustenance; capital. It has turned vicious to the worker while still flirting with the sexy consumer side of us. But we are one and the same. Kill one and the other dies as well. Abuse the worker and the consumers wilts.

Capitalism flirts and smiles at others and still rules the household with an iron fist. In the past we ignored its nasty side when it would come home drunk and beat the hell out of us. We were forgiving when it raped Vietnam and punished us for protesting. We have forgiven and forgotten all the violence, the cruelty, and the disappointments.

But now things are getting serious. We are at a point where we have to ask ourselves whether this marriage is good for us. We thought the violence would end, that the system would mature and settle down. It matured alright but instead of settling it has become more virulent. Like the saying goes - 'be careful what you wish for'. It matured and is becoming less stable and predictable. It is ripping all we had built to shreds. It still rules the roost and what do we get out of it? The house is falling to pieces. We are running out of food and medicine and capitalism is off running with that whore in China. In the past we put up with the abuse but we were getting something out of it.

What we have to face up to is the fact that we fell in love with and married a psychopath and that psychopath is now an addict. While the house falls to pieces capitalism it is still borrowing and spending like there's no tomorrow. It is feeding its insatiable gambling habit. And where is the money coming from? Need we ask? We are in hock to his communist whore and we have no idea how we'll pay it back. We never see a paycheque anymore and the kids are getting hungry.

Taking Stock

It is time to take a sober second look at what we have been married to.
To be fair, capitalism never did promise loyalty. It always said that it was interested only in making profit. We assumed that we were part of it. And we were as long as we were needed to create capital. In return we got shiny new cars and a feeling of security. We didn't complain or even notice the ugly moods as long as we got what we wanted. We sold ourselves to them. We needed the money. We knew we were being exploited and we all said, in unison, "what's good for GM is good for America". We knew it was a marriage of exploitation. We considered it mutually beneficial and it was.

Our failure to look at the ugly nature of our partner is something we all need to take responsibility for. Our partner went all over the globe killing and dominating poor people and what did we do? We turned away and pretended it wasn't happening. Their theft was our hegemony and we glazed over the invasions, the assassinations, and the proxy fascism that our masters used to bring home the bacon. We accepted it and called it 'national security'; obedient to a fault.

Within the hegemony the terms of exploitation we had agreed on are no longer satisfactory to our partner. Gambling finance capital is far more lucrative and far more attractive than dealing with ugly blue collar workers demands and complaints. Gambling is a lot more fun, even when the gambler knows he will win. The shell games have been hard to keep up with but they are worth watching. These games expose the lack of loyalty our partner has for us.

We have just witnessed massive criminal activity on the part of capitalists resulting in further gutting to our manufacturing infrastructure. They created a false economy through leveraging to overvalue stocks. They have operated using any means available to increase short term gains for themselves and have been rewarded for their criminal behaviour with massive bailouts granted to them by their employees (politicians). They have created bubble after bubble staving off reality. Pretending everything's okay - telling us everything's okay. Lying.

Our partner continues to spend and buy flashy things and as time passes he spends less on the house and family and more on himself.

Reform

Before running to a divorce lawyer we may want to look at the possibility of reforming the relationship. If two parties want to make it work it has a chance. But we need to ask ourselves; What would reform look like? After all, the marriage itself starting within a context of reform. John Maynard Keynes recognized flirtations back and forth between workers/consumers and capitalism and he dressed capitalism up in a shiny new suit and taught it to speak and act like a gentleman.

In the 1980s the magical belief that supply creates demand was pushed by politicians, right wing think tanks and economists. These voodoo ideas took hold and this redefined the relationship. The Keynesian marriage was now standing on precarious ground. Supply side economics implied that wealth emanates from the wealthy class and dismissed the value of work and workers in favour of a myopic focus on increasing short term capital. It was as if the marriage didn't matter anymore. And to the capitalists, it didn't.

Keynes was on the demand side and said that demand creates supply. Keynes made sense. The former does not. The crisis of 2008 drives that reality home in spades. And even though it makes no sense to you or me, Bush and Obama were instructed by their betters to deliver boatloads of tax dollars based in dead labour to bail out the criminals. The story line was that those deemed "to big to fail" were supposed to stimulate the economy by loaning our tax dollars back to us.

That cynical thought that just crossed your mind is pure intelligence. Recognize it.

The model that has been successful worked with the understanding that to stimulate the economy it is necessary to stimulate demand for goods and services. Instead of bailing out the capitalists the Treasury should have saved homes and jobs. They should have provided massive infrastructure projects like Roosevelt's New Deal. That would have stimulated the economy. But it would have caused inflation. The same people that wrote up Obama's bailouts are those that would be hurt most by inflationary pressures. And it was not done.

But there is more to it than that. The context we are operating with is one of advanced and matured monopoly capitalism. Products are produced as cheaply as possible (for the benefit of the consumer) and any and all means to cut costs are utilized as the capacity to squeeze a dime from a unit of labour decreases. As it is, capitalists are becoming ruthless. And it is far easier to squeeze a dime from a unit of labour in China than it is in North America or Europe.

Not only is John Maynard Keynes dead; so is Henry Ford. Capitalism in 2009 - 2010 is not the same partner that we married in the 50s. It has morphed into monopolism. It has lost its facade, its charm.

Raw capitalism is cruel. People are sacrificed every day in wars and over 40,000 Americans die each year because they cannot afford health insurance. This is a health care holocaust. It is easily and completely avoidable but the problems persist and persist for the sake of profit. Monopolism has shown itself to be a more ruthless psychopath than any human could possibly be. Decisions are made every day in boardrooms that result in human misery and death. The system is pernicious and incorrigible.

We also need to consider the outcomes that reform (if at all possible) would result in. If we could resurrect Keynes and get the production machines back in gear in the post industrial world, the outcome would be exactly the same as it has been. We would stave off the inevitable but the nature of the beast would remain unchanged. Staving off the inevitable is exactly what Greenspan, Paulson and Bernanke have done. It is what the smoke and mirrors bubbles of the past few decades have done; bought time.

In all this we tend to our daily lives and ignore the deterioration of our economic and social realities. We have been doing so since the 80s when capital began its 'globalization' emphasis. Leftists like Michael Moore and scores of protesters were pointing out red flags to no avail. And here we are twenty years later and we can see that the leftists were right. And at this point, time is not on our side.

Or Revolution

The metaphor here points toward divorce. As we search the metaphorical singles bars looking for a new marriage partner we can see that there is none. The old communist order has fallen to pieces for good reason. Communist and clerical totalitarians smile and wave from the dark corners. The psychopath told us its either him or them. We have but two choices. The dictatorship of the psychopath or totalitarianism.

Looking into a crystal ball for the way forward we consider the status quo and see shades of Colombian drug gangs or Somalian style anarchy in our streets. We may see shades of Mussolini fascists beating them back. No matter what way we look we see poor people trembling over burning barrels. It is capitalism without Keynes and it could morph into any of a number of styles of barbarism.

The status quo has got to go.

Collectively we are pioneers. We are going where no society has gone before. For the most part, we have no idea where we are going. We really need to take this matter seriously. And we must look at facts.

To begin with we need to recognize that the psychopath had never been our provider. It was always the other way around. It is the workers that have fashioned every item of value in our world; the cars, the streets, the buildings and everything in them. The capitalist hires managers who are workers and people to organize the trading and the buying and selling; also, workers. Everything that is done is value from mining the ore to building the cities is done through work. If we examine it, it was us all along. It is us that built this infrastructure that now rots and rusts. And it rots and rusts because Joe Psycho can't make a profit.

We lack confidence in our ability to survive without our abuser. But this is nothing to be alarmed about. Slaves have always felt dependent on their master and on some level feared independence.

We have more choices than we imagine. We don't have to decide between one tyrant over another. We can roll up our sleeves and stand together, independent of rulers and tyrants.

We need to develop a vision where each and every human being has his and her vital needs guaranteed. THEY will tell us we can't do it without 'them'. THEY will tell us we will perish without 'them'. Abusers always need to make victims feel dependent and helpless. But if we examine what has really happened and how wealth is actually created, we can see that all the wealth, including capital, has been manufactured by us; the people that get up and trudge off to work every day.

We believe that the abuser has the power but in fact, we have all the power. The abusers power is based in illusions and scams.

We need to talk.

The Capitalist Religion

Capitalism has done a lot to rid the world of superstitious beliefs
and behaviours. But the rational paradigm is far from solid. If we
look at the irrational responses to the financial crisis we can see
that capitalism itself has replaced religion to a large extent as a
faith based belief system.

Part of this is cowardice on the part of the working/middle classes
believing that we need a powerful master in charge of things in spite
of the fact that the masters themselves are nothing better than
parasites and criminals.

But the knee jerk irrationality on the part of media, politicians, and
the general public is baffling in its acceptance of the worship of the
rich and powerful. The faith people have in a system that is
fundamentally flawed and on its last legs is something for social
psychologists to study for years to come.

Irrational cowards are in no short supply.

So far, the American taxpayer has handed over 300 billion to the rich
under the TARP program. Much more is coming. The belief is that if the
rich and powerful are well fed, they will feed the rest of us. Logic
that comes from the rich and powerful and filtered through CNN, CTV,
Fox etc.

Now Obama, a seemingly well meaning and intelligent man, is going to
continue to shovel massive amounts of tax dollars to the rich. In
other words, he is shoveling tax dollars into a black hole, never to
be seen again.

How can this all be explained?

Part of it has to do with the fact that it those very same rich and
powerful welfare recipients that are receiving the money are the ones
that are really at the helm of the American state. Obama might know
better but he also knows he'll wind up another dead Kennedy if he acts
as if he is the boss. Obama assures his betters that they have nothing
to worry about; that he believes that nationalization, if needed,
would only be a short term measure so the taxpayers can absorb the
losses. But when the season of profits mass profits returns, the very
wealthy can again collect the money. The rich collect, the workers
pay. Nothing new there.

In case you didn't notice, while this disaster is playing out, the
culprits are protected. The middle class and poor are not.

The upshot is, nothing has changed. The irrational and stupid neo
liberal thinking that has brought America and the rest of the world to
the brink and over the abyss is still entrenched against all logic and
rational thinking.

The middle classes in America, Canada, and the rest of the world will
bail out the rich. And what will the middle classes get in return?

There is no logic here. This is, as Deets coined it, the religion that
is America.

The Times They are A-Changin

This isn't simply a natural down end of a business cycle. This is the real McCoy. These are the times most of us have only read about.

There will be a lot of unfortunate and ugly side effects of this economic disaster. It is argued that this crisis is more like 1914 then 1929 in some ways. Hopefully, the response won't come in the form of a major world war. But it might.

Then there will be some lesser but still nasty effects.

Early on we will see increased provincialist thinking and initiatives. Politicians will be begging private industry to invest in 'our' location. And if you do, you won't have to pay taxes, you will be subsidized, we will make your lives comfortable with kick-backs, prostitutes, and all the caviar you can eat. Don't worry about regulations or standards. You can do as you please in my hometown - you are the King.

Begging from the same thieves and criminals that are out to steal all they can is perhaps the most bizarre spectacle in history. In the future, when historians and social scientists look at this time, they will be amazed at how hoodwinked whole populations could be. The very same people that have sold us out and ran with massive profits will be the people that the victims will be begging to; Come back and exploit us some more.

This all has to do with the erroneous assumption that wealth emanates from the ultra rich. A forgivable assumption within the context of the extent of brainwashing that has occurred throughout the cold war and the fact that it was up to the whims of investors to say where a plant or an industry will be built. The psychologist Skinner would be fascinated by this attitude - like a pigeon pecking a key for food.

There is also a more fuzzy logic that is based on the reality that capitalism has the immense power to remove whole populations from miserable feudal existence to modern and comfortable lives. While capitalism has tremendous power and while capitalism is certainly the most radical and changing movement humanity has seen, it carries with it its own seeds of destruction and it also carries more inequality and violence than any other movement in history, including religion; and that's quite a stretch.

Capitalism is and has been an effective mechanism with severe limitations and with plenty of ugly side effects. It has set the stage for a new era. But until we get there, we will be suffering 'interesting times'.

We can't remain underneath a system that is as wildly unpredictable and volatile as capitalism has become. If capitalism is to remain the primary historical force for humanity, it has to be tamed and stabilized. All human beings vital needs must be guaranteed. Food, medicine, housing and anything that is required to sustain a human body has to be guaranteed. It must be free of charge. The necessity of paying money for life's vital needs keeps us pinned under a very real form of slavery. You might have the choice of who your master is to an extent, but the compulsion to give your life to somebody that will feed your children remains. It is not freedom.

At the point where vital needs are guaranteed, all human beings will be stable and secure. If capitalist mechanisms are utilized to that end, so be it. If they are a hinderance, to hell with them.

To get there though, the time when capitalists actually run the state and hold power over the citizens has to end. It is time that the upper classes are stripped of their privilege and power. We have no choice and we will soon have no choice but to take control. Up to now its as if the children have been running the household; party now and party loud with no view of the consequences. The time has come for adults to take the sharpe things away from little Johnny.

Wealth after all, is not equal to capital or money. You can't be blamed if you equate the two under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Wealth is the computer in front of you, the desk it sits on, the stuff all around you. We can't stop building this stuff just because the privileged class isn't making something from the process. We can build a stable and sane society without the selfishness, criminality, and greed that we have had to endure up to now.

If you don't believe that, you should seriously consider the possibility that your mind has been programmed.

------------------------------------------------------

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

- Dob Dylan

Where has all the money gone?

$700 billion of taxpayers dollars went to the same criminals that made a killing using smoke and mirrors and phony money. We might have the audacity to ask; Where is the money?

http://www.propublica.org/feature/bailout-bucks-to-banks-1028

The Associated Press asked the question. Here's what they got:

They sent questionnaires to banks, recipients of more than $1 billion each in tax dollars and asked:
How much has been spent?
What was it spent on?
How much is being held in savings?
What's the plan for the rest?

They didn't answer.

J.P. Morgan Chase - a big winner of $25 billion in bailout money said, "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to.

Isn't that clever of them. They are "declining" to.

Others declined to say and asked that the media not say that they refused.

An AP report shows that CEOs at firms which have received $188 billion in bailout money received an average of $2.6 million last year. These same firms also received many more billions in loans from the Federal Reserve.

The reason for it all - to put liquidity into the system - they say. They made the injection but the economy still tanks. The scheme didn't work. The whole idea is based on false premises. Do they know that? The ugly answer has to be, they have to.

Meanwhile, the lower classes are devastated through job losses and devaluation of their property.
And what do they get? Nothing.

The twit class in America are operating with the mind of a psychopath. They exhibit no conscience whatsoever and will continue to steal, lie, and demand nothing more from government than complicity and cowardice.

The explicit collusion of this grand theft by the American government, by all participants including the Democrats (including Obama) and Congress shows that the marriage of the corporate elite and the government is complete. The American government is run by these very same criminals.

And while this bonanza in tax dollars reaches the pockets of the extremely wealthy to spend with impunity, millions are thrown out of work across the USA and across the globe.

Until this upside down thinking and unbridled criminality gives way to an understanding of what it is that constitutes real wealth, the crisis will be with us.

The Nature of Capitalism

It's going to stop feeding us. But it never had feeding us as a goal or even a priority.

We have to understand the nature of capitalism if you believe that tweaking or reforming this system will make everything all right again.

Capitalism has provided us with a very comfortable life style and we owe a lot to it. But it also has some very malevolent aspects. The upshot is, it has done its job. It has served its grand purpose. But now it is time to plan for it's death.

We can now see that the Lords of the New World Order are revamping the capitalist order. That means cutting wages, jobs, and generally making life more difficult for middle classes and working classes.

The point here is, it isn't capitalism that going to save us. It can't. Saving us isn't in the nature of the beast and, you should be forgiven if you think otherwise. It has pulled us out of feudalism and it has given us all this stuff. And it also has control of the media which is pathologically reluctant to criticize it.

The nature of capitalism isn't to feed you or anybody else. It isn't even about making cars, computers or Big Macs. Its about making capital. Making and selling commodities (stuff) is an inconvenient necessity to making capital.

You fit in this equation this way. Capital is used to own the manufacturing implements or the business that will be used as a tool to make money. It also buys you, the worker - the cost of your labour. This may be seen as a commodity - it is. The value of this commodity (your wages) is less than the value you contribute to the production process. This difference is the root source of capital.

The capitalist process cannot stagnate. It is a matter of necessitating constant growth and change. Profit accumulation depends on increasing the productivity of labour. The pressure to make the production process leaner and meaner drives manufacturing owners to buy and develop technology that will be more efficient (and drive you out of work). Your wages and your benefits are a drain on profit. A machine is more profitable and dependable than you are.

The problem is, for capitalists to sell products, workers must be paid a decent wage (as noted by Henry Ford). Credit is vital to this process, especially in our mature capitalist stage of development.

Credit allows us to buy things from a wage that doesn't yet exist. The idea being that when we make the money, we are good for it. But there are other problems and pressures developing in this process.

The capitalist needs more than to just squeeze more profit from a unit of labour (which gets increasingly difficult to do), he must also expand markets and this is accelerated as real wages decline (and with it, demand for goods and services). And as he does so, he becomes less reliant on domestic wages and more reliant on foreign wages. Workers are competing now with the lowest wage possible on a world scale.

In this process, capital itself becomes a commodity. This commodity is always, in reality, dependant on real profit which is based in real labour. Credit is based on labour that may not exist. For example, the trillions that the American taxpayer owes has to be paid from American taxes. But at this point the manufacturing sector has moved to China. Its like running credit cards to the max knowing you'll never pay it or, if you do, it will be a painful struggle.

So, capital suppliers (banks) provide capital and in return receive a portion of the money (profit) that was originally created by a worker (you). This is called interest.

The whole thing now is more to the capitalists liking. No more does he deal with the mess of a factory floor. Now he is dealing with stocks, bonds, and interest. He is buying and selling money. He is dealing in imaginary capital. The larger this world becomes, and it is a world of illusion, the more the profile of the worker is diminished. The less important he or she appears to be.

The recent money manipulations through sub prime mortgages and hedge funds are a clear example of this.

And now it appears to the capitalist that you are expendable. He forgot where he got his wealth in the first place.

The problem for the capitalists and for us all is that, for all its impressive gyrations and weight, imaginary capital is based in profit that is derived from skimming some profit from a unit of labour or selling products made from the labour. All the glitter of the gods of high capitalism isn't gold, it's made of rust.

The buying and selling of money; packaging it and breaking it up and repackaging it had become an industry on its own. It is an industry of schemes, illusion, and theft. Alan Greenspan and the neo con armies had believed that this is real, a real economy, or so it seemed. They had trillions in assets but the assets had no base in reality.

The real question now is; How much excess value can be derived from a unit of labour? How much wealth is there in the system?

The real answer is; Not much.

And as a result there will be an intensification in the process of squeezing an extra dime from a unit of labour. It will be called restructuring and a myriad of other new Orwellian terms that will surface to euphemize the degradation, the exploitation, and the impoverishment of the worker (you). They will have to expand the aggregate of surplus value (profit) through your degradation. There will also be considerable slashing and burning of capital and capitalist entities. We will be left with a bare bones and ruthless capitalist society.

What is most telling in terms of the de-valuing of workers and consumers and the worshipping of the criminals that have herded us to the edge of an economic abyss is the bailouts of the capitalists and especially the creditors. And, the ignorance of workers and consumers (you). Your tax dollars are meant to bail them out.

Many of them and many of you actually believe that wealth comes from the wealthy. The fact is, wealth comes from work and it comes from workers activity. This is the basis of wealth.

Until this fact is recognized by a critical mass, we will be marching in step as the Alan Greenspans and the thieves and billionaires that have caused this situation to occur.

And when it is recognized by a critical mass, we will take matter sinto our own hands. At that point the children stop running the household and we will develop an economic order based on human needs and based in basic sanity.