This column serves up fish caught by casting our hook into the waters of recent correspondence, thus abstaining from our usual practice of blogging on anything whatsoever.You know that old saying about people who do not learn from history being bound to repeat it? The world is proving that today.
Only fish will be served that we think will be good for you, either for information or for provocation to think about something new, or about something old but from a different perspective.
The problems with cleaning up capitalism are two-fold: 1) it has gained acceptance simply because it has survived so long; 2) it has done so with much government aid, yet has avoided the "socialism" tag because much of that backing was military and infrastructure support.
The main reason capitalism has succeeded is because instead of ending slavery in the Western Hemisphere, it "offshored" it. This gave Western capitalists a huge advantage over less savvy, less mercenary regions of the world.
The second reason capitalism has succeeded is it never had to factor the cost of environmental ruination, human suffering, military support, and industrial subsidies into the true expense of doing business.
With those advantages so deep-seated and accepted, only a revolution will ever change it—a revolution not unlike the one that brought Castro and similar individuals to power.
For business people to claim that capitalism is the opposite of socialism is absurd. If not for all the "non-capitalists" paying taxes for military support, environmental clean-ups, and the highway/railway/seaport infrastructure that make capitalism function, it could not possibly succeed.
On July 13, at a hundred campaign offices nationwide, thousands of MoveOn members delivered a message to Mitt Romney demanding that he release his tax returns. It's working. Pressure is mounting from all sides.
Romney's campaign is now saying he "retired retroactively" from Bain Capital before Bain really hit its stride outsourcing American jobs. He also earned a $100,000 annual salary while supposedly not involved in Bain "in any way."
And from just one year of past tax returns, we know Romney has tucked away potentially millions in a Swiss bank account and notorious tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.
Even Romney's Republican allies are publicly telling him he has to release more of his tax returns.
[–Justin Ruben, MoveOn.org Political Action]
It seems to be a normal "guy" thing (and lately also more of a "girl" thing) to want to keep score at anything we do. In my view, that has been the real secret of the success of Facebook: a place for people to flaunt their friends "score" and their presumed superior lifestyle to others. Isn't 98% of it basically Hey, look at me?
A lot of the Facebook addicts I know today were cocaine addicts back in the 80s and 90s—models, art directors, ad execs, etc., and I can tell you they were slimmer, better looking, and a lot more productive and fun when hooked on cocaine instead of Facebook.
It's amazing to me how so many people today live absolutely dead-end boring lives because they are on Facebook eight hours or more a day, yet they keep posting, Hey, look at me!
Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting. Well, for example, the other day my wife and I went into town and went into a shop. We were in there no more that ten minutes. When we came out, a cop was writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and said, "How about giving a senior citizen a break?"
He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him a turd. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires.
So my wife called him a shit-head. He finished the second ticket, put it on the windshield with the first, and started writing a third.
This went on for about twenty minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote. Personally, we didn't care. We had come into town by bus and noticed that the car had a Romney sticker on it.
Geez... where did that "capitalism" fish come from? It's quite a piece of disinformation. Throw it back!
ReplyDeleteKen, throw it back? No way, mount it and put if above the mantle! Did you notice how part of it ties nicely with your theory in the "Thor's Day" post about God designing in flaws to avoid being a showoff? What else would explain the GOP (God's Own Party) showing a level of dysfunction usually reserved for the Democrats?
ReplyDeleteAh, my guess was correct.
DeleteMoto, your contribution tells me that you don't know what capitalism is or understand its place in history. What you've written is a mix of superstition and pop culture. I hope you'll take the time to do some reading on economics.
Ken, my point is simply that capitalism succeeded in times past, and continues to succeed today, only because it is so solidly backed by governmental intervention and so heavily subsidized by tax dollars paid by private citizens. Citizens may benefit from capitalism, but they pay an exorbitant price for the privilege.
ReplyDeleteFrom the time of the American Revolution, when citizens paid n blood and treasure to win freedom from the British, to the war that toppled Saddam Hussein and paved the way for private companies to enrich themselves in Iraq, capitalist entrepreneurs benefited greatly from the military might funded by the masses. Just as government-backed seizure of private property so the railroads and interstates could be built enabled capitalist commerce to explode across our own country. And if not for private tax dollars being used to bail out corrupt bankers in 2008, many of them couldn't be practicing corrupt banking in 2012.
My point isn't to argue pro or con for or against capitalism or socialism. Both are so dependent on overt governmental involvement and taxpayer support that neither could succeed without such, and much of the time both look so much alike they seem different in name only.
Moto, there's a tiny mall near where I live. It has a health food store, a barber shop, an optometrist, a manicure/pedicure place, a Mail Boxes, a small restaurant, and miscellaneous shops. All the owners of these places are capitalists. About 80% of the employers in our country are owners of such small businesses. This is the core of American capitalism, not Walmart or Exxon or Apple or GE or Verizon or Bank of America or Goldman Sachs. But clearly, these financial aggregates are all you think of when you think of capitalism.
ReplyDeleteAs to your point about government intervention, presumably on behalf of the aforementioned behemoths, it is also misguided. The problem is quite the reverse: our government's laissez faire policy. The debacle we're living through now is Exhibit A. The financial sector has been allowed to run amok. Government regulation, a bulwark after the Great Depression, has become feckless and all but invisible. The Justice Department has dried up and blown away. The idea that our armed forces are an arm of large capitalism is sheer paranoia. Of course, some people get rich during wars. Hell, many people get rich during depressions. Wherever there's upheaval, opportunity is knocking.
Human greed and corruptibility are constants in any social system you'd care to name. Capitalism is no different in this respect, but it is different in the degree of freedom that people have to make a living as they choose. But just like our republican democracy, it needs a system of checks and balances to protect you and me against imbalances of power.
Ken, as a business person who has rented many a space in the type of tiny mall you describe, and who once owned half of such a mall, I well understand they could be called capitalist endeavors. However, when one looks at the reality of doing business on such a small scale, it is much more like having a job than being a "real" capitalist.
ReplyDeleteSmall businesses such as that take all the risks involved in capitalism, but they don't receive the socialist perks our government and society gleefully dole out to large capitalist ventures. You are probably correct that 80% of the employers are small businesses. If you look at the 10% of our populace that allegedly owns 90% of the wealth, however, I will wager they are in the ranks of major capitalists, not little ones.
You are absolutely correct in most of what you write. Where I would differ is that I would use words such as "enable" and "encourage" rather than your word "allow" in describing how government has aided large capitalists at the expense of smaller businesses and individuals. And I don't see any paranoia in recognizing how military efforts have also aided large capitalist ventures. From the American Revolution that arose in large part from the merchants' response to Britain's "Tea Act" in 1773, to the untold billions of dollars the U.S. government started paying Halliburton in 2003 to allegedly help tidy up the mess the U.S. military created in Iraq, military might and capitalism have indeed partnered in many efforts.
Moto, you are very fond of inventing history and making up your own facts. It would be foolish of me to continue this dialogue.
ReplyDeleteKen, my friend, I am merely a person who believes in the math of equations rather than the myth.
ReplyDeleteMost Americans are as ill-informed in the facts of their country's early development and modern workings as they are in the facts of the religions they profess to live by. From the use of the military to exterminate Native Americans for the benefit of wealthy land speculators, to the use of taxpayer dollars to bail out corrupt Wall Street entities, the facts of how our economy functions often collide with the comfortable myths people choose to believe.