Tag: Capitalism

AWhy Poverty Reduction Under Capitalism is a Mythugust 27, 2024

Why Poverty Reduction Under Capitalism is a Myth

The Global Trade in Passports Is the Latest Boom Industry Catering to the Superrich

If you can afford to pay, there are a growing number of states willing to sell their citizenship and the privileges it brings. The lucrative trade in “golden passports” exposes the dark side of capitalist globalization and its unequal valuation of human lives.

Source: The Global Trade in Passports Is the Latest Boom Industry Catering to the Superrich

“Yes” will say “No” to Trumpism and US-like social disintegration – Pearls and Irritations

Greg and his dog Fred-in Canberra.

All living in a land with increasing income and wealth gaps called Australia’s (Shush) Capitalism built on land where the original owners are the most disadvantaged and have been so for 240 years

1) because they were never meant to be here

2) because they’re noticeably Black and therefore….. simply not equal

3) because when they say “Welcome”  Whites don’t believe they mean it

4)  It’s been Australia’s  Shame since 1788

I’m voting “Yes” as a proud Australian of Aboriginal, European and Middle-eastern ancestry. Australia’s Constitution needs to catch up with the nation we are today. We’re a multicultural superpower and Asia-Pacific democracy, founded on 65,000 years of heritage and culture. Our Constitution needs to reflect that.

Source: “Yes” will say “No” to Trumpism and US-like social disintegration – Pearls and Irritations

Patents were meant to reward inventions. It’s time to talk about how they might not

They are meant to be a bargain between the inventor and the public: tell us how your invention works, and we’ll give you a fixed time – a patent protection period – in which you’re the only person who can make use of it.

Source: Patents were meant to reward inventions. It’s time to talk about how they might not

Informed Comment- Individual Data – Public Ownership, Colonisation of the Internet, Delinking from it’s Globalisation.

Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community | Common Dreams|Cutting Labor Costs

robotic coffee machine

Worker pay, already failing to keep pace with cost-of-living increases, is at risk of being further suppressed as artificial intelligence and other technologies threaten to automate 27% of existing jobs in wealthy countries.

Source: Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community | Common Dreams

Property, Race, Colonialism, and Capitalism

Labor to lay out key elements of its Indigenous Voice by Christmas | The  Australian

An Indigenous fact that speaks to Power : “I wasn’t born in Australia. Australia was born on our land!”

The colonial state treated indigenous populations as either less than human or as incapable of owning property privately.

The idea that indigenous peoples do not cultivate their land — going back to that Lockean fantasy that America existed as this uncultivated wild — is a racial trope

Interview

https://play.acast.com/s/jacobin-radio/dig-colonial-lives-of-property-w-brenna-bhandar

Transcript

Source: Property, Race, Colonialism, and Capitalism

True Democracy Is Incompatible With Capitalism

In the past two decades, a succession of crises has led to the rise of authoritarian states, acutely showing how capitalism and democracy were never compatible to begin with.

Source: True Democracy Is Incompatible With Capitalism

Old DogThought-Fossil Fuel sponsored Science

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 18/6/23, Fossil Fuel Technology, The human side if the Referendum, Dutton, Capitalism, Democracy,

Opinion | The Far-Right’s Culture Wars Are Just a Distraction So Oligarchs Can Keep Looting the Working Class | Common Dreams

Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.) fist-bumps Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.)

People like Marjorie Taylor Greene don’t just emerge out of nothing: there’s a hand above these puppets, feeding their bellies and pulling their strings.

Source: Opinion | The Far-Right’s Culture Wars Are Just a Distraction So Oligarchs Can Keep Looting the Working Class | Common Dreams

If You Care About Human Freedom, You Should Reject the Capitalist Work Ethic

The capitalist work ethic insists that we keep our heads down and work endlessly, even if our job is degrading. Democratic socialists want to free workers from drudgery so we can develop our full human potential and simply enjoy the one life we have.

Source: If You Care About Human Freedom, You Should Reject the Capitalist Work Ethic

Has capitalism captured the world? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day

Never in the history of this nation have the rich and the privileged been so openly brazen. (John Lord)

Source: Has capitalism captured the world? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Old Dog Thought- How on earth is this “winning”?

Fighting Fake News with REAL 2/1/23, Covid 2022, Corporations are Licenced to kill, Capitalism Individualises, 2nd Top Story,

Merry Christmas! We’re All Being Murdered by Capitalism.

DALL·E-2022-12-22-12.10.29-photo-of-rich-people-drinking-aperol-spritz-on-the-almalfi-coast-during-Christmas-copy

Capitalism has truly perfected the creation of wants and left needs behind

Source: Merry Christmas! We’re All Being Murdered by Capitalism.

Trump, Bankman-Fried and Musk are the monsters of American capitalism | Robert Reich | The Guardian

Elon Musk and Donald Trump on 30 May 2020 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

For them, and for everyone who still regards them as heroes, there is no morality in business or economics. The winnings go to the most ruthless

Source: Trump, Bankman-Fried and Musk are the monsters of American capitalism | Robert Reich | The Guardian

China keeps aggressively surrounding itself with US bases: notes from the edge of The Narrative Matrix – Pearls and Irritations

U.S. Naval Base runway Subic Bay Philippines.

You can say “But communist regimes are authoritarian blah blah” all you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that capitalism has zero answers for the most important problems facing our species. This still needs to be addressed, and moaning about Mao and Stalin isn’t an answer. Don’t like the iterations of socialism we’ve seen so far? Okay. Then find another answer, and remember we’ve already established that capitalism is not an answer; it cannot address the problems we’ve discussed here. So we need to find an actual answer that does actually work.

Dismantling capitalism, if we ever achieve it, will be the most difficult thing that humanity has ever accomplished. As hard as everyone becoming a buddha, and essentially not much different. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is existentially necessary for us to do so.

We’ll either move from competition-based systems to collaboration-based ones, eliminating all the obstacles necessary for us to do so, or we will go extinct. We are at our adapt-or-die juncture as a species.

Source: China keeps aggressively surrounding itself with US bases: notes from the edge of The Narrative Matrix – Pearls and Irritations

China Mieville on Why Capitalism Deserves Our Burning Hatred

“The point for Marx and Engels isn’t the ‘eradication’ of individuals, but of the bourgeoisie as a class — which is to say, of capitalism.”

 

Source: China Mieville on Why Capitalism Deserves Our Burning Hatred

The Case for Democratic Worker Control

no one wants to talk about what I see as the root cause of America’s economic malaise – work under contemporary capitalism is fundamentally flawed.

As a political philosopher studying the effects of contemporary capitalism on the future of work, I believe that the inability to dictate and meaningfully control one’s own working life is the problem.

Democratizing work is the solution.

The Problem of Work

Source: The Case for Democratic Worker Control

Old Dog Thought-

No description available.

Fighting Fake News with REAL 28/10/22, The Shovel, Liz Truss, Joys of Capitalism, Fox News,

Independent Schools: Aspiration for the few, desperation for the many – Pearls and Irritations

Coins and cash, a black graduation cap, a certificate

 

These ‘exclusive’ schools argue that it is for them to decide which students they exclude and the circumstances in which they exclude them – and not for any regulatory authority, in this case local councils.

Source: Independent Schools: Aspiration for the few, desperation for the many – Pearls and Irritations

A quick grab for power? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

So forget about the time for reflection, the possibility of making the monarchy more democrat friendly. You have been awe-bombed by a family which relies 100% on our ability to quiet our inner voices, which naturally know the absurdity of a ruling family placed above the populace.

If we ask why do they continue to ‘serve’ we note their lack of political weight, their potential capture by those lucky enough, or devious enough to hold prime ministerial power.

The only ‘sweetener’ in this for a British sovereign seems to lie in the need to satisfy the personal mission of service, and the vast wealth and prestige attached to the office. In a month or so, as the novelty of a new king wears off, he will probably tail off in his relentless efforts to legitimise the existence of a hereditary monarchy, and simply continue the family tradition of opening things.

Source: A quick grab for power? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Queen Elizabeth II’s Reign Glamorized Britain’s Political Backwardness

During Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year reign, the UK witnessed immense social transformation. Throughout this tumultuous period, the monarchy served one purpose: suppressing Britain’s political divisions in the name of unity and deference to the Crown.

Source: Queen Elizabeth II’s Reign Glamorized Britain’s Political Backwardness

and

Rather than doing away with the old aristocracy, capitalism has found its own uses for the British monarchy. The two now function in tandem to preserve the status quo in Britain — and should be opposed together.

The British Monarchy Has Woven Itself Into the Fabric of Capitalism

 

Why the poor suffer poor health: A capitalist legacy

‘Inflamed: Deep Medicine And The Anatomy Of Injustice’ reveals a critical observation — that inflammation repeatedly connects poor health and structural injustice, writes April M Short.

Source: Why the poor suffer poor health: A capitalist legacy

High-End Art Fairs Give Capitalism a Glow Up

Art is an essential expression of human creativity. But today’s high-end art fairs are a carnival of consumerism for the ultra-wealthy rather than a celebration of creative expression.

Source: High-End Art Fairs Give Capitalism a Glow Up

Why Albanese needs to protect capitalism from the capitalists

 

The message for the new government is clear: keep giving big business what it wants – weak merger and competition laws, plus prohibitions on union activity – and the economy will continue performing poorly. Profits will keep growing while household income shrinks.

Source: Why Albanese needs to protect capitalism from the capitalists

Capitalism Creates Chaos. The Carceral System Is a Bad Attempt to Contain It.

Capitalism creates social disorder and relies on police and prisons to manage it. Until liberals recognize this link between criminal justice and the economy, their reform programs will be ineffectual — and racist policing and mass incarceration will persist.

Source: Capitalism Creates Chaos. The Carceral System Is a Bad Attempt to Contain It.

Old Dog Thought- A budget covered in gifts yet to be delivered of $0.70 a day for Pensioners and $1.10 for middle-income earners by an a-hole who we pay $250 a day. They have been the highest taxing Government this century and lie to boot

Fighting Fake News with REAL 30/3/22; The Budget, Capitalism, Workers, National Planning , Cuba,

Why are young Australians locked out of home ownership? The answer is politics | Intifar Chowdhury | The Guardian

A sign displaying a property sold for Auction in Sydney, September 2021

 

Indeed, treasurer Josh Frydenberg remarked back in June that the rise is good for the economy. The federal government extended lukewarm sympathies for those who are struggling to get a foot in the property door for the first time, while merrily pointing out that many households are gaining from continued property price inflation. Therefore, price hikes are here to stay because simple solutions – such as building more houses and properly taxing property investments – are not as politically sound. That’s the reality of things: those with power and money impact the market more than those without. That’s why the winners become fatter winners and the losers continue to lose. What we are facing today is not an unsolvable crisis, but there is a lack of willingness to solve it among those in a position to do so.

Source: Why are young Australians locked out of home ownership? The answer is politics | Intifar Chowdhury | The Guardian

In Six Weeks Ahead of Christmas, Rich Nations Snagged More Vaccines Than Africa Got All Year

A healthcare worker prepares a coronavirus vaccine dose

“Extinguishing the threat of variants and ending this pandemic requires vaccinating the world.”

Source: In Six Weeks Ahead of Christmas, Rich Nations Snagged More Vaccines Than Africa Got All Year

All capitalism ‘can do’ is destroy our planet

Private Enterprise created the very problem Morrison says it will now fix. Capitalism is the problem that fucked the climatic “norm” in the first place.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s new slogan is hypocritically telling us that our planet’s saviour from the climate crisis is the very thing destroying it, writes Dr William Briggs. NOW THAT COP26 has come and gone, the world seems to be getting back to business. Our Prime Minister assures us that this “business” will be our saviour. All we have to do is to accept that capitalism is the cure and not the disease.

Source: All capitalism ‘can do’ is destroy our planet

Pfizer refuses to share vaccine knowledge as it announces $US36 billion in vaccine revenue – Michael West Media

Pfizer, Covid, pandemic

While rich countries like Australia are reaching 80% or more double vaccination rates, less than 5% of people in many low income countries have received COVID-19 vaccines. Millions are dying while new more infectious strains of the virus develop, reports Patricia Ranald.

Source: Pfizer refuses to share vaccine knowledge as it announces $US36 billion in vaccine revenue – Michael West Media

Inside the “weird” world of DWAC, Trump’s already soaring social media SPAC | Salon.com

US President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally at Pittsburgh International Airport in Moon Township, Pennsylvania on September 22, 2020. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

DWAC and SPAC are the sounds you’d expect to see in a cartoon voice bubble. DJ Trump is currently the total commercialized product of a comic character like the Joker, an entertainer, a fraudster, a wannabe politician and the living head character in a updated version of Springtime for Hitler on Wall st. He’s the total package and he’s being marketed by people far smarter than him. Money Guns and Lawyers are all involved and are there to protect their asset.

DWAC is what’s known as a “SPAC,” or special purpose acquisition company. The strategy, which has become popular in recent years as a way to sidestep the typically onerous regulatory process of taking a company public, typically occurs when a non-public company merges with a shell company that is already public. In this case, DWAC is set to merge with “Trump Media & Technology Group.”

Source: Inside the “weird” world of DWAC, Trump’s already soaring social media SPAC | Salon.com

What’s Left of Communism in China? | The Nation

China Marks 100th Anniversary Of CPC's Founding

Thus the CCP’s role in the private sector increasingly resembles the one it has in state-owned enterprises. Focused on its own survival,displaying pragmatism, and even an ideological vacuum, it is bringing a growing number of capitalists into its ranks, as it becomes ever more present in companies. This asymmetrical alliance is found outside national borders: The Belt and Road Initiative is accelerating the internationalization of Chinese companies, both private and public, which are creating party cells abroad to supervise their employees. While it has set aside Maoist internationalism, the CCP is now exporting its organizational mode and disciplinary tools.

Source: What’s Left of Communism in China? | The Nation

Old Dog Thought- Dutton was Morrison’s Minister for Home Affairs “keeping us safe” attacking Muslims, Africans and Rugees in Australia. What were ASIO and the AFP’s focus if merely 2 journalists could reveal the extent our homegrown Nazis

Graffiti in suburban Melbourne painted by members of the National Socialist Network.

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 17/8/12; Trump’s Afghanistan; Fox News and Capitalism, Germans and Climate Change; Australian Nazis and the Government;

The planet cannot survive our remorseless pursuit of profit | Oil | The Guardian

Residents of Java, Indonesia, evacuate their homes, December 2020.

Oil companies knew 50 years ago the huge damage they were doing. Their motive to ignore it is the same now as it was then

The planet cannot survive our remorseless pursuit of profit | Oil | The Guardian

A new book asks whether capitalism is compatible with public health. (The answer is no) | Salon.com

main article image

Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg thinks that capitalism is damaging to both human health and to the planet. And after reading his new book, “At What Cost: Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health,” it is hard to disagree. The food we eat is filled with toxins. The planet is heating up uncontrollably. And that was true long before 2020: since last year, we have learned the hard way that liberal capitalist societies like ours are barely capable of addressing their most basic responsibility, protecting public health.

A new book asks whether capitalism is compatible with public health. (The answer is no) | Salon.com

Drug Lobby Asks Biden to Punish Countries Pushing for Low-Cost Vaccines

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - 2021/03/03: A healthcare worker holds a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine during the first phase of the country nationwide vaccination drive at the Hospital UiTM in Sungai Buloh, outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. (Photo by Wong Fok Loy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

administration is being asked to punish Hungary, Colombia, Chile, and other countries for seeking to ramp up the production of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics without express permission from pharmaceutical companies. The sanctions are being urged by the drug industry, which has filed hundreds of pages of documents to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative outlining the alleged threat posed by any effort to challenge “basic intellectual property protections” in the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Drug Lobby Asks Biden to Punish Countries Pushing for Low-Cost Vaccines

World Faces Covid-19 “Vaccine Apartheid”

OLIVE BRANCH, MISSISSIPPI - DECEMBER 20:  Boxes containing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped at the McKesson distribution center in Olive Branch on December 20, 2020 in Olive Branch, Mississippi. The federal government plans to distribute over the coming week a total of 7.9 million doses of vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer Inc. (Photo by Paul Sancya - Pool/Getty Images)

Even countries that hosted vaccine trials — like Argentina, South Africa, Brazil, and Turkey — will not receive adequate supplies.

World Faces Covid-19 “Vaccine Apartheid”

Is it the Trump-Monster or capitalist Plutocracy? With 250,000 Dead, why is the US Virus Response so Particularly Bad?

the United States has passed the grim milestone of 250,000 deaths. Trump had predicted a worst case of 50,000 deaths last spring, but then Donald Trump could not find his ass with both hands.

Is it the Trump-Monster or capitalist Plutocracy? With 250,000 Dead, why is the US Virus Response so Particularly Bad?

The Top 1 Percent Owns Nearly Everything in the US. We Need to Seize Their Wealth.

wealth disparity in America: the gulf between middle-class white families and middle-class black families. In 2019, the median black family had a net worth of $20,730 while the median white family had a net worth of $181,440. The difference between the two — $160,710 — seems like a lot of money and, to most families, it is a lot of money. But this is because we often don’t realize how much wealth there really is in America. The $181,440 net worth of the median white family is less than one-fourth of the $746,821 they would have if all the country’s wealth were distributed evenly.

The Top 1 Percent Owns Nearly Everything in the US. We Need to Seize Their Wealth.

Don’t Blame Social Media. Blame Capitalism.

A new Netflix film, The Social Dilemma, would have us believe that increasing social division and polarized political rhetoric is the product of Facebook and Twitter, and not the fact that income inequality has returned to pre–Great Depression levels.

Don’t Blame Social Media. Blame Capitalism.

Old Dog Thoughts- There is no progress without criticism but not all criticism is progressive

Cuts to JobSeeker, Jobkeeper: out of the frying pan and into the fire

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 28/9/20; JobSeeker, JobKeeper, We aren’t a Public Service; The technology isn’t to blame; Fake News,

Citizen Musk | The Smirking Chimp

The problem isn’t only that Elon Musk has a net worth of about $100 billion when tens of millions of Americans are barely getting by. It’s that he’s made this money while treating his workers so badly. His wealth quadrupled during the 4 months Tesla forced all workers to take a 10 percent pay cut.

Citizen Musk | The Smirking Chimp

Capitalism Isn’t Working. But What Would a Viable Socialist System Look Like?

via Capitalism Isn’t Working. But What Would a Viable Socialist System Look Like?

The Black Death Killed Feudalism. What Does Covid-19 Mean for Capitalism? | The Smirking Chimp

via The Black Death Killed Feudalism. What Does Covid-19 Mean for Capitalism? | The Smirking Chimp

In Desperation, New York State Pays Up To 15 Times The Normal Prices For Medical Equipment | HuffPost

A sad and tired healthcare worker is seen by the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York, United States on April 1, 2020. (Photo

Trump’s doing nothing but scapegoating 1) the Chinese, 2) Impeachment,3) the States (ODT)

WIthout federal intervention, states and hospitals may only become more vulnerable to the demands of brokers and speculators outside the normal supply chain, said Chaun Powell, vice president for strategic supplier engagement at the national health care consultant Premier Inc., which helps negotiate contracts for hospitals and health systems.

State data shows that New York is paying enormous markups for vital supplies, including almost $250,000 for an X-ray machine. Laws against price gouging usually don’t apply.

via In Desperation, New York State Pays Up To 15 Times The Normal Prices For Medical Equipment | HuffPost

Where Are All the Woke Capitalists Now? | The Smirking Chimp

Price Gouging the States (ODT)

via Where Are All the Woke Capitalists Now? | The Smirking Chimp

Old Dog Thoughts- Can’t find a Stadium to Rally in Do a Press Announcement and waffle

No photo description available.

Fighting Fake News with REAL,22/3/20; UK Gov will pay up to 80% worker wages; Capitalism as we know it is obsolete;

America, the Vulnerable: COVID-19 and the Exposure of a Broken System

via America, the Vulnerable: COVID-19 and the Exposure of a Broken System

Old Dog Thoughts- Capitalism Covid-19, Scott Morrison.

Fighting Fake News with REAL 17/3/20; Coronavirus Capitalism — and How to Beat It, Scott Morrison & Hillsong;


This crisis — like earlier ones — could well be the catalyst to shower aid on the wealthiest interests in society, including those most responsible for our current vulnerabilities, while offering next to nothing to the most workers, wiping out small family savings and shuttering small businesses. But as this video shows, many are already pushing back — and that story hasn’t been written yet.