Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
 

NewDeal_Dem

(1,049 posts)
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 04:49 AM Dec 2014

Capitalism is eating our future

Stagnation aggravates all the great historic problems associated with capitalism. Economic inequality mushrooms, poverty increases, public services are slashed, there is tremendous downward pressure on wages. And at the same time, corporations and wealthy investors successfully demand ever greater concessions from governments and communities as the quid pro quo for their investment. Capital generally struggles to find profitable investment outlets, but today the problem is particularly acute. In 2014 there is by some accounts as much as $2 trillion in capital sitting on the sidelines while there are tens of millions of workers unemployed or only partially employed. It has been this way for years. By any objective measure, this is socially absurd.

The current pattern for capital is to zero in on public services like a heat-seeking missile and to take over those government operations and convert them into profit-centers for corporations. Many government activities have been, or are in the process of being, privatized or outsourced, from the military to surveillance to prisons to education. The evidence demonstrates these privatizations and outsourcings basically benefit the investors, who often reap monopoly profits, but degrade the quality and cost efficiency of the services otherwise. They are corrosive to effective democratic governance.(7) Likewise, government regulations to protect workers, consumers, and the environment have to be jettisoned to encourage the "job creators" to get off their butts and swing into action. These have proven to be palliative measures for ravenous investors, but a disaster for everyone else. To stay alive today, capitalism is eating our future...

Many liberals who wish to reform and humanize capitalism are uncomfortable with seemingly radical movements, and often work to distance themselves from them, lest respectable people in power cast a withering eye at them. "Shhh," they say to people like me. "If we antagonize or scare those in power we will lose our seat at the table and not be able to win any reforms." Yet these same liberal reformers often are dismayed at how they are politically ineffectual. Therein lies a great irony, because to enact significant reforms requires a mass movement (or the credible prospect of a mass movement) that does indeed threaten the powerful. The influence of mild reformers rises greatly when people in power look out the window and see a million people demonstrating. If there is an iron law of politics, this is it.

People in power certainly know this. Nothing frightens them like popular uprisings they do not and cannot control. For that reason, cynicism and political apathy are generally encouraged in the United States. It is not a fluke that voter turnout in the United States is well below that of nearly every other nation in the world. In the 1970s, on the heels of the popular uprisings of that era, people in power spoke candidly (to each other) about the need to have young people and the dispossessed return to apathy. Much of their work since then has been to achieve that goal. When we tune out politics, when we abandon hope, we aren't being cool or hip or ironic or even realistic—we are being played.

This elite fear of genuine democracy should encourage all those dedicated to building a more humane and sustainable post-capitalist democracy. Those atop the system know we have the numbers on our side. They know the system is rigged for them, and they want to keep it that way. They know they cannot win a fair fight. Hence billionaires' energy goes to matters like wholesale voter suppression and flooding election campaigns with unlimited secretive spending. They must feed the machinery of pessimism and despair because they know they cannot defeat an aroused citizenry. That tells me that if we do effective organizing it will be like planting a seed in rich Iowa topsoil. Put this way, I like our chances. I like them a lot.


http://truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/28273-robert-w-mcchesney-capitalism-as-we-know-it-has-got-to-go

15 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Capitalism is eating our future (Original Post) NewDeal_Dem Dec 2014 OP
K&R.... daleanime Dec 2014 #1
crapitalism. pansypoo53219 Dec 2014 #2
Capitalism and democracy don't mix. nt craigmatic Dec 2014 #3
K&R silverweb Dec 2014 #4
Unfettered capitalism is a monopoly game. nt Live and Learn Dec 2014 #5
We don't have Capitalism.... RichGirl Dec 2014 #6
And.... RichGirl Dec 2014 #7
A few quotes I have saved ashling Dec 2014 #8
I must disagree........ socialist_n_TN Dec 2014 #10
+100 NewDeal_Dem Dec 2014 #11
Interesting. When it falls, capitalists live off their wealth, fortified from social disruption? appalachiablue Dec 2014 #12
I doubt it. When it falls....... socialist_n_TN Jan 2015 #14
What is your source for considering this to be "real capitalism?" Starry Messenger Jan 2015 #15
+1 We have inverted socialsim. nt raouldukelives Dec 2014 #9
Minimum wage is a giant "fuck you" to poor people. Initech Jan 2015 #13

RichGirl

(4,119 posts)
6. We don't have Capitalism....
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 06:09 AM
Dec 2014

We have pure GREED. George Seros was asked on Charlie Rose which is better Socialism or Capitalism. His answer was that either one would work out perfectly if THE PEOPLE AT THE TOP CARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE AT THE BOTTOM. That's the key.

Capitalism is kind of like a 3 legged stool. The legs would be 1) owner/CEO 2) employee 3) customer. Each leg has to do well...if not, the stool collapses. All three are necessary and entertwined. For example: I read recently that stores like Walmart are not doing well and just realizing that their employees, who are underpaid, are also their customers.

Greed is mental illness. The stupidity of it is that these high flying businesses don't realize that if people don't have money they can't buy the crap they are selling.

RichGirl

(4,119 posts)
7. And....
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 06:16 AM
Dec 2014

If we had real Capitalism...people at the top caring about people at the bottom....then everyone would be well-paid, get health benefits, etc. Customers would get good product for a fair price. It would cut back on the need for government programs.

It use to be that welfare was primarily for children, old people and handicap. It's greed that has made it hard for able bodied people to get jobs and full time employees to be paid minimum wage.

ashling

(25,771 posts)
8. A few quotes I have saved
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 10:38 AM
Dec 2014

"In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of."
Confucius


"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business."
Henry Ford


"Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service."
Henry Ford


"An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics."
Plutarch

socialist_n_TN

(11,481 posts)
10. I must disagree........
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 12:42 PM
Dec 2014

You are imputing human characteristics onto a political-economic-social system with it's own internal rules and laws. It's not "greed". That's a human failing. The system doesn't give a rat's ass if you're greedy or not. It does, however, work BETTER for you if you are greedy.

And this "If we had real Capitalism...". This IS "real capitalism". The more unfettered and unregulated that capitalism IS, the more it defaults to it's basic internal rules and regulations. In this I agree with the Freidmanistas and the neo-liberals. "Real capitalism" doesn't care about "people at the top caring about people at the bottom". Real capitalism cares about one thing and one thing ONLY. To make as much profit as possible. Anything else is an accidental byproduct.

The only times when capitalism can work for "everybody" is when there is plenty of room to expand and plenty of resources to use for that expansion. Then the value of an individual's labor power goes up because there's plenty of jobs and, by the laws of the system, capital MUST PAY FOR THAT LABOR POWER. Or lose potential profit. The days of plentiful resources to fuel plentiful expansion are over. In today's world the only way to expand for capitalists is for them to take over OTHER capitalist holdings. And resources are running out which also provides a check on any growth potential.

The age of capital is over, it just doesn't want to admit it. Capitalism WILL fall relatively soon in an historical perspective. It's just a question of how many it takes with it WHEN it falls. We are rapidly approaching the "socialism or barbarism" stage. I know which side I've chosen.

socialist_n_TN

(11,481 posts)
14. I doubt it. When it falls.......
Thu Jan 1, 2015, 01:48 AM
Jan 2015

their money won't mean much. That's if it falls without a plan for taking it down and saving the rest of us.

Starry Messenger

(32,342 posts)
15. What is your source for considering this to be "real capitalism?"
Thu Jan 1, 2015, 03:34 AM
Jan 2015

"If we had real Capitalism...people at the top caring about people at the bottom"

I've never heard any economist define it this way.

Initech

(100,381 posts)
13. Minimum wage is a giant "fuck you" to poor people.
Thu Jan 1, 2015, 12:37 AM
Jan 2015

As Chris Rock said "Minimum wage is corporations'way of saying if we could pay you less, we would."

Meanwhile the Koch Bros are bankrupting entire continents.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Capitalism is eating our ...