The possibility of reformation of the economic system to a degree where citizens may enjoy a standard of living similar to the 'middle classes' in the 20th century may not exist (as implied in the previous article). This article will make the argument that even if reformation was possible, doing so is not desirable. But, that is debatable.
Reformation aims to maintain the existing institutions, tweaking them to suit our needs. Revolution on the other hand, aims to take control of the institutions that dominate our lives. It aims to place control of them into the hands of those that have made them work in the first place. It aims to remove control from those that have a goal in mind and one goal only. To serve themselves to the detriment of everybody else. Instead, the aim should be to abolish or change institutions that do not serve the public good.
Fundamentally, the plight of the general population is the same now as it was for hundreds of years under feudalism. Under feudalism, wealth was created on the ground and made its way, forcibly, to the lords and monarchs. The serfs, slaves, of yesterday and wages slaves today have little control of the whims of power that control our lives. Under feudalism, power was exercised through violent repression. Whatever arbitrary whim His majesty may entertain, at His pleasure, would be adhered to. Under capitalism, it is not a matter of arbitrary decisions made by some personality with power but rather, the fluctuations of global capital dictate life on the ground.
These fluctuations and processes affect us and our response is far from homogeneous. On the one hand citizens swallow the notion that we have but two choices; free market capitalism (so called) or, communist totalitarianism. They will naturally gravitate toward reform (if they can muster any tolerance of change at all). The second strain will see a myriad of choices about how we can produce and distribute goods and services. Unfortunately for the former group, there has never been any system and probably never will be as radical and shape shifting as capitalism. Especially now. Instability and insecurity are two features the system will never shake. Just when we get used to certain ways of doing things, more efficient and innovative means are invented. The results can be both good and bad.
In times of great upset and insecurity, as are occurring now, more radical overall changes are demanded by citizens, many of whom are now out of work and without income. They become less reform minded and demand revolutionary change. We are entering these times. The days of relative stability and security are behind us.
The Current Context
Over the past three decades the so-called 1% have declared, through institutions like the World Bank, the IMF, and their runners (politicians), that government is the enemy and particularly, wealth redistribution. They have called for alarming reductions in government influence and control of financial and non financial matters. And as we have seen, they have ensured that government programs and institutions that serve the 99% are reduced or abolished but have made sure that the 1% is protected through bailouts and vast sums spent on their collective bodyguard, the military. As has been observed, it is a system of socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.
The upper classes, the 1%, are fast becoming explicit controllers of states. They are tossing political baggage such as Berlusconi and Papandreaou out into the street. Governments have been put into the hands of economists in the service of his majesty's pleasure. They demand, through the IMF and other sock puppets that governments follow the neo liberal line to the letter. This always means; privatize and control everything that can be bought and sold and to slash and burn anything and everything that looks like wealth distribution. The infrastructure that large portions of the population relied upon can't be scrapped quick enough for them. We are entering a bizarre and frightening twilight zone.
In response to all this, citizens are voicing outrage and disaffection with the capitalist system itself. Mainstream media and wealthy capital gamblers repeat endlessly the lie that the protesters do not articulate their anger. And in the meantime, the protesters repeat, over and over and over again that the top 1% have everything and are taking more and they (we), the general population, have little and are getting less. Implicit in this complaint is a call to end the capitalist system altogether. Perhaps the ruling class can't hear it out of disbelief; they may be in a state of shock and awe.
Protests like this are not altogether new. Prior to the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, anti-capitalist protests were large and angry. The most memorable occurred in Seattle and in Quebec City. They were spreading and becoming a force to be reckoned with. After 9 11, the protests disappeared, the mood changed.
Anti capitalist protests had been absent in the heart of the hegemony prior the Seattle/Quebec City uprisings. Protests themselves however, are nothing new. We have become accustomed to single issue protests that are implicitly reformist in nature. There were civil rights protests, women's rights, gay rights, environmental protests, and protests for many various issues. They all had in common the underlying desire to tweak the system, to make the plight of a certain segment of the population better.
Protests against capitalism itself are a direct result of the excesses of modern monopoly capitalism. This is a result of neo liberal policies that have been shoved down our collective throats. This is a result of the policies of governments that have been at the beck and call of the ruling class. These statements would be viewed as excessively radical and unrealistic only a few short years ago. Now, they are hardly controversial.
Organizing A Substantial Movement
The breadth and depth of this organic movement is truly revolutionary. This movement is both radical and widespread. These are the conditions that make capitalist monarchs shudder, and with good reason. These are conditions that are revolutionary. The capitalist world is pregnant with revolution.
Thus far however, the comfortable minority have little to fear. So far, it is a protest movement and that's all it is. This movement is simply a reaction to excessive money hoarding and Imperial brutality. To take it a step farther would require organization.
Taking that step requires vision. An alternative to the status quo needs to be articulated. What would that society look like? How do we get there?
For the most part, much of our collective mentality is mired in traditional reformist mode. Reformation is all about redistributing wealth and tinkering and modifying the current system. At this point, there isn't much stomach for it either in the halls of parliament or on the ground. There certainly is not any ideas about redistribution of wealth amongst the rulers of us all. It's not that they don't want to. They couldn't, even if they did want to. The reasons for that are discussed in the previous article (Reform or Revolution: Facing Into the Abyss).
We are collectively in a bit of a pickle, so to speak. Do nothing and we are going to lose jobs, homes, and many of our vital needs. We need to do something but we are utterly unorganized. We can continue to protest. We can complain and make noise. But so what?
Our first step is to bring the debate out into the open. We need to reach some consensus as to where we go from here and we need consensus on broad goals. Will we aim to reform the crippled capitalist system? Can we? These questions need debate. If we can, and if we want to, let's get at it. Let's work together and make sure it happens. If we agree that we cannot, we have a lot of work to do.
At this point we need to sustain the protest movement. And as it develops, we will need to build solidarity and alliances. We need to develop broad goals and specific tactics. Secondly, we need to formalize alliances between individual organizers, writers, news outlets, and organizations. We need to call on past reformist groups; women's rights, gay rights, unions, anti-poverty activists, greens, and reds. We also need socialists, communists, social democratic parties, anarchists and we need to communicate in a genuine way. We need to accommodate and compromise within this movement and we need to develop a vision; a grand goal.
There will be distrust and conflict within the movement but that cannot deter us. There will be great efforts to fracture and splinter the movement. There will be fights among broad sections and there will be groups aimed at controlling and commandeering it. In response, we accept nothing less than democracy. If the majority want reform, we reform. If the majority want revolutionary changes, we aim for that. If the majority want to live off the avails of crass capitalism, so be it. It is vital to listen to others and to be willing to change our minds.
Let the best, and hopefully the most democratic and rational arguments carry the day. Now is no time to be rigid. The time for energetic, honest, and fearless debate has arrived.
One thing is clear. Reform occurs only when the threat of revolution is real.
This blog is an archive of articles I've published in MWC News, Indymedia, and on Newsgroups.
Showing posts with label revolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label revolution. Show all posts
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Reform or Revolution: Facing Into the Abyss
The gravity of the current economic situation appears to be sinking in. Day by day, week by week, and month by month, we are waking out of our docile slumber. People are hitting the streets. This is not the handiwork of some dissident group with an ideological agenda. It is the natural outpouring of citizens anger, frustration, and hopelessness. The nature of the problem; capitalism, corporate greed, and careerist politicians has been expressed and expressed very well in many different forums. There seems to be some general consensus that we are in deep trouble.
Solidarity is crucial. We need to stick together and work together. The 1% will aim to fracture this new organic movement. We need to ensure that we don't do their dirty work for them. And no doubt, we will have enormous disagreements. Reformers will argue with revolutionaries, liberals will argue with socialists and so on. We need to use those differences of opinion to strengthen ourselves. The crux of the problem needs to be assessed and thoroughly analysed.
What is crucial is that we don't get mired in 'my opinion' or 'my ideology' and that we listen to each other. Debate is important and it is healthy. That is how we learn and grow. It is vital that you look at what I say and that I look at your analysis. After all, we all want the same things. We want stability, peace, and we want governance 'by, for, and of the people'. We want our kids and our neighbours to be able to eat. We are bound together by common goals. How we get there will need to be worked out.
What is presented here is a view, an opinion. You may not agree with it but please, take a minute to read it. If it is correct, our collective response then must take on a particular shape. If it is wrong, then we will need to point that out. We need to develop an assessment. We need to uncover the crux of the problem. If we can find some agreement on the nature of the problem, and we can, we may then develop a plan of action to correct it.
This then is an assessment of the current problem.
Analysis
The following analysis may describe the nature and scope of the problem. And if this analysis is correct, there is no easy way out. The upshot of this analysis is that capitalism itself has outlived its usefulness. Further to this, it has become financially toxic to all but those on the top of the heap. And the longer we depend on it, the worse the situation will become.
This view suggests that capitalism, due precisely to its efficiency and energy, has become antithetical to human needs. While the profit motive has served the majority in the developed world well, it will no longer do so. It will render the lot of us serfs without lords, slaves with no master. It will impoverish us and it will kill us. It will steal our vital needs or prohibit them from ever being produced.
The efficiency aspect, while impressive, is turning on us all. The wizard technology we've become used to has rendered many occupations obsolete. It can manufacture all we need with very little labour input. And, given time, it may be able to produce all we need with the push of a few buttons. While that may sound good, this condition does not suit capitalism. In fact, capitalism cannot survive this condition. It is impossible.
While capitalism may spit employees out onto the street, it needs consumers. Unfortunately for capitalism, an individual needs to be a worker before he or she is a consumer. The worker and consumer inhabit the same physical body.
The Diminishing Rate of Profit
As capitalism matures, the rate of profit from a given unit of labour diminishes. That is, it becomes more difficult to squeeze a dime of profit from an hour of labour. To make matters worse, global competition has rendered the old formula where firms were subsided by the state to pay decent wages, dead. Workers are now competing with the most oppressive terms of exploitation on the planet. The old (so called) 'American dream' is finished. It's time to wake up.
Individual firms are under constant strain from two sources; competition from other firms and ongoing costs such as maintaining payment of wages to employees.
Firms aim to increase productivity as much as possible. This is accomplished through improving technology and through squeezing as much work from a worker as is manageable. It is in their interests to get workers to work as hard as possible for as little pay as possible. On both counts, they are doing very well.
It is vital to out-compete other firms; to drive costs down. This allows the firm to lower prices. Efficiency and low prices are the objective. Profit is the goal.
Large scale production has become impressive in its efficiency. To lower costs firms utilize lateral acquisition of resources that are required goods and services that go into production or, they contract out to sources that will fetch the product at lower prices than anyone else. Generally speaking, the pressure to cut costs also cuts the rate of profit.
Suppose the rate of profit were to remain constant. In that case profit would expand according to what was invested in stocks. If the rate is falling however, profit is naturally more difficult to achieve. And when this occurs, the incentive to invest in manufacturing diminishes. As investing in stocks grows more risky, the growth of capital in stocks falls. The rot of the integrity of the value of liquid capital spreads. Capital itself loses its integrity and value. And as long as they depend on worker's wages to pay the bills when in reality they can't, the crisis related to the value of money is magnified.
Additionally, the ensuing lack of wages results in not only lack of demand but in an evaporation of the tax base. Workers that depend on the tax base such as civil servants and teachers are thrown out of work as a result, further eroding the diminishing tax base. This exacerbates the problem by driving down demand for goods and services which in turn forces more firms out of business and workers onto the streets. We are entering an economic black hole, a period of crisis.
This crisis is fundamentally different than cyclical fluctuations (recessions) which may be remedied in various ways such as investing in public works with tax dollars and borrowing until the ship is righted again. Similar crisis occurred in the periods 1873 to 1893 and from 1929 to 1941.
In its heyday, the capitalist system saw increased real wages in western economies. From 1947 to 1967 real wages grew in the United States by approximately 50%. Unemployment was not an issue, and deficits were miniscule. The so-called Western world was the base of manufacturing and consumption. But, as Professor Ismael Hossein-Zadeh points out in a recent article: "By the late 1960s and early 1970s ... both US capital and labor were no longer unrivaled in global markets. Furthermore, during the long cycle of the immediate post-war expansion US manufacturers had invested so much in fixed capital, or capacity building, that by the late 1960s their profit rates had begun to decline as the capital-labor ratio of their operations had become too high. In other words, the enormous amounts of the so-called “sunk costs,” mainly in the form of fixed capital, or plant and equipment, had significantly eroded their profit rates."
As the rate of capital accumulation decelerates, and capital, like a shark, needs to continually eat and grow, or die, the shark itself becomes more aggressive and ruthless. It will squeeze an extra dime from any unit of labour it can and, when that dries up, it will look elsewhere.
Since the 1980s capitalists and politicians have been kicking the can down the road. This mess has been coming at us for some time. Avoidance was helped by real growth due to the building of high tech infrastructure, which in turn has helped crucify the employee. The infrastructure, once built, will not need to be built again. And it's maintenance is not going to save us.
Various bubbles (like the dot com bubble) had put the reality of our collective abyss out of view. Some bubbles were based in widespread criminal behaviour on the part of large corporations, bodies like the Federal Reserve in the United States, and scores of politicians. They have propped up the illusion (with the help of mainstream media and whores that have degrees in economics) that all is well - for three decades. In the meantime, the rot of the capitalist system has been eating away at our real security. We have continued to depend on something we can no longer depend on.
John Maynard Keynes is Dead
In the coming months and years there will be sincere and intelligent arguments from the left to return to Keynesian economic policies. After all, this formula has worked, arguably, better than anything else in history to provide a decent standard of living for the most people. The good ship Fabian appears to have sailed however. As Professor Hossein-Zadeh points out:
"The US capitalist class pursued the Keynesian-type policies in the immediate post-war period as long as political forces and economic conditions, both nationally and internationally, rendered those policies effective. Top among those conditions, as mentioned earlier, were nearly unlimited demand for US manufactures, both at home and abroad, and the lack of competition for both US capital and labor, which allowed US workers to demand decent wages and benefits while at the same time enjoying higher rate of employment.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, both US capital and labor were no longer unrivaled in global markets. Furthermore, during the long cycle of the immediate post-war expansion US manufacturers had invested so much in fixed capital, or capacity building, that by the late 1960s their profit rates had begun to decline as the capital-labor ratio of their operations had become too high. In other words, the enormous amounts of the so-called “sunk costs,” mainly in the form of fixed capital, or plant and equipment, had significantly eroded their profit rates.
More than anything else, it was these important changes in the actual conditions of production and the realignment of global markets that precipitated the gradual abandoning of Keynesian economics. Contrary to the repeated claims of the liberal/Keynesian partisans, it was not Ronald Reagan’s ideas or schemes that lay behind the plans of dismantling the New Deal reforms in fact, steps to hammer away at those reforms had been taken long before Reagan arrived in the White House). Rather, it was the globalization, first, of capital and, then, of labor that rendered Keynesian or New Deal-type economic policies no longer attractive to capitalist profitability, and brought forth Ronald Reagan and Neoliberal austerity economics."
Let's not get caught up in the notion that the capitalist class and their paws (politicians) had decided to be kind to working classes or middle classes. Each and every benefit, including decent wages, social security, free medical care (except the USA), in developed countries were won through hard and sometimes deadly struggle. It was the threat of revolution and the preservation of the privileged class that compelled Keynes himself to distribute wealth.
We are about to witness a period unlike anything we have seen before. The tension on global capital, the increasing and continuing falling rate of profit, and the ensuing hunger of capital itself will reduce or eliminate your wages, your pension, social security, and it will find the change under the cushions of your sofa.
As we become increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo, as our kids lose hope for a decent future, as homeless people stand alongside burning barrels next to empty and foreclosed homes, we will hit the streets. Predictably, we will aim, at first, to resurrect John Maynard Keynes. We will discover, eventually, that Mr. Keynes is as dead as a doornail. Perhaps it is best to let him rest in peace.
Solidarity is crucial. We need to stick together and work together. The 1% will aim to fracture this new organic movement. We need to ensure that we don't do their dirty work for them. And no doubt, we will have enormous disagreements. Reformers will argue with revolutionaries, liberals will argue with socialists and so on. We need to use those differences of opinion to strengthen ourselves. The crux of the problem needs to be assessed and thoroughly analysed.
What is crucial is that we don't get mired in 'my opinion' or 'my ideology' and that we listen to each other. Debate is important and it is healthy. That is how we learn and grow. It is vital that you look at what I say and that I look at your analysis. After all, we all want the same things. We want stability, peace, and we want governance 'by, for, and of the people'. We want our kids and our neighbours to be able to eat. We are bound together by common goals. How we get there will need to be worked out.
What is presented here is a view, an opinion. You may not agree with it but please, take a minute to read it. If it is correct, our collective response then must take on a particular shape. If it is wrong, then we will need to point that out. We need to develop an assessment. We need to uncover the crux of the problem. If we can find some agreement on the nature of the problem, and we can, we may then develop a plan of action to correct it.
This then is an assessment of the current problem.
Analysis
The following analysis may describe the nature and scope of the problem. And if this analysis is correct, there is no easy way out. The upshot of this analysis is that capitalism itself has outlived its usefulness. Further to this, it has become financially toxic to all but those on the top of the heap. And the longer we depend on it, the worse the situation will become.
This view suggests that capitalism, due precisely to its efficiency and energy, has become antithetical to human needs. While the profit motive has served the majority in the developed world well, it will no longer do so. It will render the lot of us serfs without lords, slaves with no master. It will impoverish us and it will kill us. It will steal our vital needs or prohibit them from ever being produced.
The efficiency aspect, while impressive, is turning on us all. The wizard technology we've become used to has rendered many occupations obsolete. It can manufacture all we need with very little labour input. And, given time, it may be able to produce all we need with the push of a few buttons. While that may sound good, this condition does not suit capitalism. In fact, capitalism cannot survive this condition. It is impossible.
While capitalism may spit employees out onto the street, it needs consumers. Unfortunately for capitalism, an individual needs to be a worker before he or she is a consumer. The worker and consumer inhabit the same physical body.
The Diminishing Rate of Profit
As capitalism matures, the rate of profit from a given unit of labour diminishes. That is, it becomes more difficult to squeeze a dime of profit from an hour of labour. To make matters worse, global competition has rendered the old formula where firms were subsided by the state to pay decent wages, dead. Workers are now competing with the most oppressive terms of exploitation on the planet. The old (so called) 'American dream' is finished. It's time to wake up.
Individual firms are under constant strain from two sources; competition from other firms and ongoing costs such as maintaining payment of wages to employees.
Firms aim to increase productivity as much as possible. This is accomplished through improving technology and through squeezing as much work from a worker as is manageable. It is in their interests to get workers to work as hard as possible for as little pay as possible. On both counts, they are doing very well.
It is vital to out-compete other firms; to drive costs down. This allows the firm to lower prices. Efficiency and low prices are the objective. Profit is the goal.
Large scale production has become impressive in its efficiency. To lower costs firms utilize lateral acquisition of resources that are required goods and services that go into production or, they contract out to sources that will fetch the product at lower prices than anyone else. Generally speaking, the pressure to cut costs also cuts the rate of profit.
Suppose the rate of profit were to remain constant. In that case profit would expand according to what was invested in stocks. If the rate is falling however, profit is naturally more difficult to achieve. And when this occurs, the incentive to invest in manufacturing diminishes. As investing in stocks grows more risky, the growth of capital in stocks falls. The rot of the integrity of the value of liquid capital spreads. Capital itself loses its integrity and value. And as long as they depend on worker's wages to pay the bills when in reality they can't, the crisis related to the value of money is magnified.
Additionally, the ensuing lack of wages results in not only lack of demand but in an evaporation of the tax base. Workers that depend on the tax base such as civil servants and teachers are thrown out of work as a result, further eroding the diminishing tax base. This exacerbates the problem by driving down demand for goods and services which in turn forces more firms out of business and workers onto the streets. We are entering an economic black hole, a period of crisis.
This crisis is fundamentally different than cyclical fluctuations (recessions) which may be remedied in various ways such as investing in public works with tax dollars and borrowing until the ship is righted again. Similar crisis occurred in the periods 1873 to 1893 and from 1929 to 1941.
In its heyday, the capitalist system saw increased real wages in western economies. From 1947 to 1967 real wages grew in the United States by approximately 50%. Unemployment was not an issue, and deficits were miniscule. The so-called Western world was the base of manufacturing and consumption. But, as Professor Ismael Hossein-Zadeh points out in a recent article: "By the late 1960s and early 1970s ... both US capital and labor were no longer unrivaled in global markets. Furthermore, during the long cycle of the immediate post-war expansion US manufacturers had invested so much in fixed capital, or capacity building, that by the late 1960s their profit rates had begun to decline as the capital-labor ratio of their operations had become too high. In other words, the enormous amounts of the so-called “sunk costs,” mainly in the form of fixed capital, or plant and equipment, had significantly eroded their profit rates."
As the rate of capital accumulation decelerates, and capital, like a shark, needs to continually eat and grow, or die, the shark itself becomes more aggressive and ruthless. It will squeeze an extra dime from any unit of labour it can and, when that dries up, it will look elsewhere.
Since the 1980s capitalists and politicians have been kicking the can down the road. This mess has been coming at us for some time. Avoidance was helped by real growth due to the building of high tech infrastructure, which in turn has helped crucify the employee. The infrastructure, once built, will not need to be built again. And it's maintenance is not going to save us.
Various bubbles (like the dot com bubble) had put the reality of our collective abyss out of view. Some bubbles were based in widespread criminal behaviour on the part of large corporations, bodies like the Federal Reserve in the United States, and scores of politicians. They have propped up the illusion (with the help of mainstream media and whores that have degrees in economics) that all is well - for three decades. In the meantime, the rot of the capitalist system has been eating away at our real security. We have continued to depend on something we can no longer depend on.
John Maynard Keynes is Dead
In the coming months and years there will be sincere and intelligent arguments from the left to return to Keynesian economic policies. After all, this formula has worked, arguably, better than anything else in history to provide a decent standard of living for the most people. The good ship Fabian appears to have sailed however. As Professor Hossein-Zadeh points out:
"The US capitalist class pursued the Keynesian-type policies in the immediate post-war period as long as political forces and economic conditions, both nationally and internationally, rendered those policies effective. Top among those conditions, as mentioned earlier, were nearly unlimited demand for US manufactures, both at home and abroad, and the lack of competition for both US capital and labor, which allowed US workers to demand decent wages and benefits while at the same time enjoying higher rate of employment.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, both US capital and labor were no longer unrivaled in global markets. Furthermore, during the long cycle of the immediate post-war expansion US manufacturers had invested so much in fixed capital, or capacity building, that by the late 1960s their profit rates had begun to decline as the capital-labor ratio of their operations had become too high. In other words, the enormous amounts of the so-called “sunk costs,” mainly in the form of fixed capital, or plant and equipment, had significantly eroded their profit rates.
More than anything else, it was these important changes in the actual conditions of production and the realignment of global markets that precipitated the gradual abandoning of Keynesian economics. Contrary to the repeated claims of the liberal/Keynesian partisans, it was not Ronald Reagan’s ideas or schemes that lay behind the plans of dismantling the New Deal reforms in fact, steps to hammer away at those reforms had been taken long before Reagan arrived in the White House). Rather, it was the globalization, first, of capital and, then, of labor that rendered Keynesian or New Deal-type economic policies no longer attractive to capitalist profitability, and brought forth Ronald Reagan and Neoliberal austerity economics."
Let's not get caught up in the notion that the capitalist class and their paws (politicians) had decided to be kind to working classes or middle classes. Each and every benefit, including decent wages, social security, free medical care (except the USA), in developed countries were won through hard and sometimes deadly struggle. It was the threat of revolution and the preservation of the privileged class that compelled Keynes himself to distribute wealth.
We are about to witness a period unlike anything we have seen before. The tension on global capital, the increasing and continuing falling rate of profit, and the ensuing hunger of capital itself will reduce or eliminate your wages, your pension, social security, and it will find the change under the cushions of your sofa.
As we become increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo, as our kids lose hope for a decent future, as homeless people stand alongside burning barrels next to empty and foreclosed homes, we will hit the streets. Predictably, we will aim, at first, to resurrect John Maynard Keynes. We will discover, eventually, that Mr. Keynes is as dead as a doornail. Perhaps it is best to let him rest in peace.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
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.
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
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.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
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.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
The New Terrorists
There will be a new terrorist threat emerge in the next few years. And that threat will be you.
The new Director of National Intelligence for the USA, Dennis Blair, recently testified in front of a senate committee on intelligence. He said that the threats that are inherent with economic catastrophe are the major threat to state security. He might be right.
Previous to this, it was Al Queda or Muslim terrorists that made top billing as terrorist threats. But the paranoid keepers of the state apparatus seems to be casting a malevolent gaze toward the lot of us.
Blair is concerned about the security of places like Iceland, Ireland, as well as former second world (Eastern European) or present third world countries. He is also worried about the stability of what was thought of as first world countries and especially, the USA.
This report (linked below) indicates the developing state of paranoia that will emerge in the coming years within the security functionaries for the American state.
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB890.pdf
The report suggests that the resources that are employed abroad may be needed to take care of domestic security.
These are dark clouds but at the moment they are on the horizon. The American state will prepare itself to stem social upheavals associated with the turbulence financial insecurity that is coming.
Prior to 9-11 there were anti-capitalist protests in Seattle, in Quebec and other places. This was unique. Anti-capitalist protests in the USA were unseen since the dirty thirties. This was alarming to state security functionaries and their employers. 9-11 happened and the protests disappeared like magic. There was now a new mood in the USA.
9/11 has been used to excuse legislation that has placed rot under basic freedoms that were birthed by the Magna Carta almost 1000 years ago. These notions include such basics as the right to representation, to be charged with a crime, and to actually commit a crime before an arrest is made. The road has been paved with the Patriot Act and other similar types of legislation to an era of fascist type repression of the population.
If you believed that the USA and capitalism are natural bastions of freedom and democracy, you can't be blamed. The prosperity ensured by American plundering of resources from all over the planet as well as the voodoo practiced by Alan Greenspan and others provided an environment of what appeared to be natural security. We lived large under the umbrella of American hegemony. But America and the capitalist world are about to hit reality and the party that we all have enjoyed for many decades is just about over. It's time to sober up.
America will respond to threats to its security (read: the security of the upper classes/ American or not) with brute force. What Blair is saying and what is said in the report (linked above) are our first wisps of a coming ugly age of political repression and violence within the USA and other (post) industrialized countries (such as Canada).
Just as there was a phony economy based on nothing but capital, there is also a real economy based on production, use value, and work. And similarly, just as there is a state apparatus that is based in the security of the extremely wealthy and powerful, there is also real security concerns for the men, women, and children that need food, medicine, and the vital necessities to survive.
These are two very different worlds. The former will eat you if you have sustenance for them and does not care about you if you don't. The latter is the the real world of everyday life we live in.
If a war between the two occurs, we have no choice but to win.
The new Director of National Intelligence for the USA, Dennis Blair, recently testified in front of a senate committee on intelligence. He said that the threats that are inherent with economic catastrophe are the major threat to state security. He might be right.
Previous to this, it was Al Queda or Muslim terrorists that made top billing as terrorist threats. But the paranoid keepers of the state apparatus seems to be casting a malevolent gaze toward the lot of us.
Blair is concerned about the security of places like Iceland, Ireland, as well as former second world (Eastern European) or present third world countries. He is also worried about the stability of what was thought of as first world countries and especially, the USA.
This report (linked below) indicates the developing state of paranoia that will emerge in the coming years within the security functionaries for the American state.
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB890.pdf
The report suggests that the resources that are employed abroad may be needed to take care of domestic security.
These are dark clouds but at the moment they are on the horizon. The American state will prepare itself to stem social upheavals associated with the turbulence financial insecurity that is coming.
Prior to 9-11 there were anti-capitalist protests in Seattle, in Quebec and other places. This was unique. Anti-capitalist protests in the USA were unseen since the dirty thirties. This was alarming to state security functionaries and their employers. 9-11 happened and the protests disappeared like magic. There was now a new mood in the USA.
9/11 has been used to excuse legislation that has placed rot under basic freedoms that were birthed by the Magna Carta almost 1000 years ago. These notions include such basics as the right to representation, to be charged with a crime, and to actually commit a crime before an arrest is made. The road has been paved with the Patriot Act and other similar types of legislation to an era of fascist type repression of the population.
If you believed that the USA and capitalism are natural bastions of freedom and democracy, you can't be blamed. The prosperity ensured by American plundering of resources from all over the planet as well as the voodoo practiced by Alan Greenspan and others provided an environment of what appeared to be natural security. We lived large under the umbrella of American hegemony. But America and the capitalist world are about to hit reality and the party that we all have enjoyed for many decades is just about over. It's time to sober up.
America will respond to threats to its security (read: the security of the upper classes/ American or not) with brute force. What Blair is saying and what is said in the report (linked above) are our first wisps of a coming ugly age of political repression and violence within the USA and other (post) industrialized countries (such as Canada).
Just as there was a phony economy based on nothing but capital, there is also a real economy based on production, use value, and work. And similarly, just as there is a state apparatus that is based in the security of the extremely wealthy and powerful, there is also real security concerns for the men, women, and children that need food, medicine, and the vital necessities to survive.
These are two very different worlds. The former will eat you if you have sustenance for them and does not care about you if you don't. The latter is the the real world of everyday life we live in.
If a war between the two occurs, we have no choice but to win.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
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
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
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