Human nature, capitalism and the global crisis

[dcsmart]

Alan Greenspan has just turned 83 years old. He was Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank for over 19 years before he stepped down in January 2006, just before the great boom turned into the awful credit crunch and brought global capitalism to its knees.

President George W. Bush presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Alan Greenspan. Photo by Shealah Craighead. Greenspan presided over the biggest credit boom in capitalist history and the largest rise in property prices that the US had ever seen. He was praised to the heights during those years and as the helmsman of capitalist success globally and in America. Bob Woodward, one of the journalists who exposed the Nixon Watergate scandal back in the 1970s, wrote a book about Greenspan in the year 2000, in which he described him as ‘the maestro’.


Capitalism and human nature

Greenspan argued that what brought everything down was sheer greed. The bankers knew they were being reckless; they knew that what goes up must eventually come down. But they just went on because they had to make more and more money for their shareholders and for their bonus payments. Greed was the driver. But Greenspan said greed is ‘human nature’, so this boom and bust will happen again some time in the future.

There we have it. For Greenspan and the ideologists of capitalism, it is ‘human nature’ that caused the crash and the slump, not the particular form of social and economic organisation that he operated under and supported. Human beings can be ‘greedy and selfish’ and they can be ‘cooperative and selfless’. It depends on the circumstances. Capitalism is a system of production of goods and services for profit; it is built on competition, on the drive to make more money (not things or services people need). It is a system designed to promote greed and selfishness. The ‘human nature’ that Greenspan blames for the economic crisis is nothing more than the human nature required to survive in the capitalist system.
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FULL ARTICLE
http://www.marxist.com/human-nature-capitalism-global-crisis.htm

[frebrd]

1. Greed is the driving force behind capitalism....

any benefit (if any exists) to society/humanity/the rest of the planet is not even secondary - it's simply accidental and peripheral.

[stanleycup1]

2. It wasnt greeds fault it was the gov't!

First. The bankers were being reckless because the fed and fannie and freddie gave them money and told them to be reckless! They were told to give out more loads, even to people who would not be able to pay them, the ones who normally would not have been given that loan!

Second. Capitalism and the Free Market system works if there is no interference in it. the Free Market was going good untill the gov't decided to get involved with these GSE's. we are in the problem we are in because the gov't decided to stick their fingers in it. well ya people can be what you call "greedy" but if i start a business i want to make money! i want to be succesful! Capitalism and the Free Market works if left alone. It does not work like right now when the Gov't and the FED stick their fingers in it!