Unstable capitalism driving class warfare

[FreakinDJ]

Unstable capitalism driving class warfare

Many scoff at the idea that we have class warfare in the United States. According to Richard Wolff, author of "Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism," we have class warfare in spades. He says, "It is the corporations and the rich who are waging class warfare against the rest of America." His conclusion is based partly on a remark by billionaire Warren Buffett, who said, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that is waging war, and we're winning."

Wolff says that part of the problem stems from the reluctance of Americans to discuss capitalism. He says, "There's a kind of mystique about it. In the last thirty years, the greatest taboo in America was the discussion of capitalism. It's a serious problem when individuals in a culture can't talk about something as important as their economic system. Capitalism has resulted in great extremes of wealth and poverty. There is nothing sacred about the system."

He says that most people believe they belong to the middle class, a mistaken notion. "The middle class is small and growing smaller," he says. "Because of the failure of governmental regulation, the rollback of New Deal reforms, the growing inequalities of wealth and income, and new austerity programs, the capitalist system itself must be questioned. Capitalism is an inherently unstable system -- its history is punctuated by a series of busts, depressions, and recessions."

He traces the decline of capitalism in the West. "At the end of World War II, for every tax dollar Washington received from the people, it obtained $1.50 from corporations. Now, for every tax dollar the government receives from the people, it obtains only 25 cents from corporations. There has been a tremendous shift of the tax burden from corporations to the people. This adds up to class warfare, especially since the rich have also found ways to greatly reduce their personal income tax. The rich paid up to a maximum of 91 percent of income tax after World War II, yet today they must pay only about 35 percent."

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times_news/opinion/guest/unstable-capitalism-driving-class-warfare/article_3de8d697-d9ec-5151-ad4a-f997389ccdeb.html

[pampango]

1. Excellent article.

His remedies include a national jobs program. He says, "We should do what President Franklin Roosevelt did during the Depression. He used government money to put people back to work. We need to improve our infrastructure. Our roads need repair as well as our bridges. We should have started this program shortly after the recession began." The Republican Party, as usual, voted against this jobs creation program.

Wolff believes our tax system needs a major overhaul. He says, "While we tax tangible property, we don't tax intangible property such as stocks and bonds. Most rich Americans own much or most of their property as stocks, bonds, money balances and other securities. We could revolutionize the financial condition of every American city and solve all or most of our revenue problems if we extended taxes to intangible property."

republicans and the conservative Supreme Court voted against FDR's jobs creation programs, too. They just did not have the numbers to block progress - except in the SC which was a problem for the New Deal.

[Blanks]

2. The reason capitalism has such a huge following...

Is because it encourages competition in the marketplace.

Competition can be a good thing, but there is no reason competition can't be encouraged in a socialist or even a communist system of government.

I would argue that with the current climate - we have less competition. Limiting monopolies is what keeps the competition alive, that's what is broke about the system.

That and we need a higher marginal tax rate on high earners.

[TBF]

4. Along with a much higher capital gains tax -

it used to be the same as tax on income but has steadily decreased since about 1980 through various administrations.

[Blanks]

5. Good point. eom

[Brickbat]

3. K&R

[socialist_n_TN]

6. One thing that a lot of folks don't understand about Marx's economic theories....

is that they analyzed an ideal version of capitalism, a version that only comes into play when it IS unregulated and uncontrolled. That's the very reason that his analyses about capitalism seem to be more prescient today that ever. BECAUSE the capitalism of today is closer to an ideal version of the system than at any time in history.

Of course the regulation and control that government used to put on capitalism had to be taken into account by the followers of Marx AFTER his time. These latter followers (Lenin, Trotsky, Preobryzhinski, and today Michael Roberts and Wolfe among others), have realized the problem as a lot of others are realizing too. But the problem today and in an ideal capitalist state is in attempting to "regulate" and "control" a system that actually OWNS and calls the shots in the political realm. And by extension, controls the judiciary. It's impossible without a mass movement to actually overthrow the system itself and institute something else. They have to be SCARED of losing it all before they will agree to be "regulated". And of course, history has shown that they won't STAY regulated. Which is why my question for reformers of the system is always, "Do you want your grandchildren to be fighting this same battle we're fighting today?" My answer is "Not no, but HELL no!" That's why I say smash the current system and institute something fairer, like socialism. An economic, political, and social system that is for the masses of the people and NOT for the masses of money.

Regulating capitalism is like riding a tiger. It's VERY difficult to do and you're always in danger of being eaten.

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. It's a pretty one-sided war.

Eat the rich.

[Egalitarian Thug]

8. Warren Buffett has been trying to tell people about the class war since at least the '90s.

He's also been pointing out that the war was started and is being waged by his class. It's not capitalism per se, it is the group of parasites that control the capitalist system.

Capitalism isn't a government nor a philosophy, it a tool. A methodology to facilitate the efficient circulation of currency within the economy. Like any tool, it can be used well to achieve or badly to destroy.