Capitalism vs reality

[nadinbrzezinski]

ok folks, I am tired of readying about the evils of capiltalism... so it is time to make some things clear

but first lets go down myth lane

According to the American Myth you can work hard, apply yourself and make money... the Horatio Alger story. We've heard it a thousand times.

Now for the cold splash of reality no you can't

And no, it is not because we live in a capitalist system. Just as Soviet Citizens did NOT live in a Socialist paradise

Anybody apart of me ever read The Wealth of Nations? If you have... you will note something particular

When you have an industry that does the research, extraction, transportation, processing, and distribution you do not have a capitalist Enterprise, but what Adam Smith called a Monopoly. When you have many sectors of the economy working this way... you have a monopolistic economy.

There is no hand of the market at work here... and Adam Smith wrote that Monopolies were toxic to the Capitalist system he envisioned. It was toxic since it affected the invisible hand, as well as the ability of labor (yes he used those terms) to sell their assets, aka labor, to employers.

So this is the first thing to understand, we no longer live in a happy capitalist system with an invisible hand of the market... or if we do, Soviet Citizens lived in a socialist paradise.

That said, my humble analysis of the Stock Exchange, we are having a crisis of capital, and capital is increasing laying idle and canto move anywhere. All economic systems come to this point sooner or later, and when they do, it ain't pretty... but first things first, we need to diagnose what is going on... and we live in a monopolistic system, with a tight control of the flow of goods, ideas and money, that is also undergoing possibly, the end of an imperial phase.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. And what happens when the CEOs at the top

of the heap control everything and outsource until most people don't work and starve? Will we have a worker's revolt?

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Again what you are describing is a monopoloy

and we have two choices, as I see it

Either the proles will revolt, mostly out of hunger and desperation, or they will be kept at the edge of starvation and we may see a rise of a new neo feudal system, with the workers being your serfs and the rise of a new global class that will basically rule over them

Why cyberpunk is no longer that apealing since it is slowly becoming reality

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Yeah, I was describing what might be the result of a monopoly

sadly, we've become lazy. I really believe quite a few Americans would give up many if not all of their liberties to have securities--a TV, a car in the garage, enough beer to swill while watching the game, and the faint hope of "cashing in" via the lottery--an important part of the capitalist monopolistic scheme--giving many the false hope of riches so that they don't object to the privileges of the wealthy.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Remove the word capitalism and you've got it

we don't live in any form of capitalism any longer, just like Soviet Citizens did not live in a socialist paradise

[baldguy]

3. In a free market, WalMart & Microsoft wouldn't exist.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Exactl;y

[Selatius]

4. What do you do to break a monopoly?

Nothing.

That's what the federal government has essentially done.

Why?

Because many of those same monopolistic enterprises are also some of the biggest lobbyists on Capitol Hill.

When you have an election system run on private money, the ones with the most money have a per capita competitive advantage.

If government were intent on protecting the workers, it would break these monopolies, and it would set up a social program that establishes and funds and expands worker co-ops across the nation of myriad sizes and industries. In such situations, workers wouldn't necessarily have to undersell their labor to employers because they would be self-employed in one sense, and they would be able to exercise decision-making power in their respective workplaces through democratic means.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Historically the last time

we faced a similar situation we had a small event called the Great Depresion... and monopolies were broken by government

I fear it will take similar event

[pnorman]

6. One thing to bear in mind,

is that the "Wealth Of Nations" mentioned, was NOT created by so-called "Adam Smith principles". England then was just at the starting point of the Industrial Revolution when he wrote that book (1776). The "seed money" for that, was the accumulated wealth of all the previous years of "diverting" some of the immense bullion flow of those Spanish galleons. "The pirate robbing the thief", so to speak --- ie: "Primitive accumulation", in Marxist jargon.

Noam Chomsky frequently referred to and quoted from Adam Smith, and with general approval.

pnorman

[LostInAnomie]

10. Smith didn't advocate Capitalism.

Smith advocated the free market. Two completely different things.

[AdHocSolver]

11. Capitalism, free markets, competition, and other economic topics commented on.

Capitalism is basically an economic system in which the people with money determine what goods are produced and who gets them. In Communism, the government determines what is produced and who gets it.

A free market economy assumes no one producer or group of producers controls the production and distribution of a good or service and similarly no one consumer or group of consumers controls the purchase of a good or service. In other words, no individual controls supply and/or demand. There are numerous sellers of a product or service competing for your dollar and there are numerous products that can satisfy the need. Similarly, no producer has to depend on one buyer of its products.

The price of a product is set at a level where supply equals demand. Supply is whatever is for sale; Demand is what people with money are willing to spend. If supply is higher than demand, producers try to get rid of inventory by lowering the price to attract more buyers, hence big rebates on cars at the end of model year. When supply is less than demand (or demand is greater than supply), sellers ask for more money and people have to pay more or do without.

Sellers increase their profits by promoting demand through advertising or limiting supply by eliminating competition. Buyers can improve their position by reducing their need for a particular product by limiting purchases or finding an alternative product.

Producers are always trying to gain monopoly status to control a "market" so as to be able to dictate price. People trying to form unions or co-ops are acting as good capitalists should act in the face of collusion by the corporations. In the case where monopolies exist, the health of the economy mandates that the government regulates the one-sided market control in order to level the playing field. Monopoly control inevitably leads to market "crashes" and economic depression, unemployment, and monetary inflation or deflation. Witness the Great Depression which began in 1929. With all the mergers, buyouts, outsourcing of jobs, lack of savings, huge amount of public and private debt, and the ever increasing price gouging by Big Oil which is spurring inflation, this country is heading toward economic collapse.

Big Oil and the US car companies have colluded for years to increase and maintain high demand for oil by working actively to eliminate and prevent mass transit (competition), and prevent or limit access to electric vehicles, and slow the adoption of hybrid technology. They also skew their production towards large, gas-guzzling vehicles by convincing the public erroneously that large SUV's are "safer" than standard size cars (which statistics show is not true).

The best way to reduce the price of gasoline and keep it down is to reduce consumption (demand). This will not only save the economy by limiting inflation, but reduce pollution and reduce global warming at the same time. This can be a win-win situation folks. If it takes government mandates then blame the oil and auto corporations, but it has to be done or this country is headed for second-class status.