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.
Tag: Capitalism
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
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
Capitalism has truly perfected the creation of wants and left needs behind
Source: Merry Christmas! We’re All Being Murdered by Capitalism.
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
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.
“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
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
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
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
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
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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
‘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
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.
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 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.
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.
“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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
Even countries that hosted vaccine trials — like Argentina, South Africa, Brazil, and Turkey — will not receive adequate supplies.
World Faces Covid-19 “Vaccine Apartheid”
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?
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.
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.
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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
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.
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.
While making decisions about migration people should not just follow the superficial perceptive reality. They should try to understand higher and deeper levels of reality. The intellectuals have a moral duty in helping the people to understand the deeper and the higher reality of capitalism.
via Americans are the happiest people in the world – Opinion
Unless, of course, government and regulators decide to take an active interest. On the current outlook, any such move will not be led by Australia, a country still trying to figure out an electric power policy and how to hook up a national broadband.
Unfortunately, here in the land of the Luddites, we are still struggling with the problems of the last century while Big Tech invisibly decides how we will live in the next. Alexa might know the answer, but “she’s” not telling.
Recent highlight interviews on capitalism.
Corey Pein examines work, death and disruption in the digital economy. [01:19]
Julie Wilson views life within, and beyond, the neoliberal frame. [47:38]
Nomi Prins explains how central banks became a global superpower. [1:32:46]
Pavo Jarvensivu and Terre Vaden explore near future economics of a world in climate crisis. [2:19:14]
Helena Norberg-Hodge looks towards localization, worldwide. [2:57:47]
Jeff Dorchen imagines a world that can no longer afford itself [3:44:13]
Geoff Mann and Joel Wainwright explore the possible political and economic futures of a planet under rapid climate change. [1:08]
Writer Maximillian Alvarez explores the sanctity of waste and ownership in the digital age. [50:36]
Policy researcher Stacy Mitchell examines the rise and risk of Amazon’s ascendant monopoly. [1:37:40]
Writer Adam Kotsko explains why we are all trapped in the moral logic of neoliberalism. [2:15:05]
Writer Pavlos Roufos dives deep into eight years of managed disaster for the Greek people under Europe’s austerity regime. [2:56:25]
In a moment of truth, Jeff Dorchen bites the invisible hand that feeds. [3:50:27]
Writer Maximillian Alvarez explores the sanctity of waste and ownership in the digital age. [50:36]
Policy researcher Stacy Mitchell examines the rise and risk of Amazon’s ascendant monopoly. [1:37:40]
Writer Adam Kotsko explains why we are all trapped in the moral logic of neoliberalism. [2:15:05]
Writer Pavlos Roufos dives deep into eight years of managed disaster for the Greek people under Europe’s austerity regime. [2:56:25]
In a moment of truth, Jeff Dorchen bites the invisible hand that feeds. [3:50:27]
Ten years after the behavior of over-leveraged and fraudulent banks created a global financial disaster that resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in losses; a multi-trillion bailout using public money; and millions of people losing their homes to foreclosure, but saw not one high-level financial executive go to jail, a man in Florida has been sentenced to a 20-year prison term for stealing $600 worth of cigarettes from a local convenience store.
Prince’s idea, which first surfaced last year during the president’s Afghanistan strategy review, envisions replacing troops with private military contractors who would work for a special U.S. envoy for the war who would report directly to the president.
via Here He Comes Again: Erik Prince Pushes To Privatize Afghanistan War | Crooks and Liars
Capitalism never fights for fairness or equality of opportunity, only for what it can wring out of those who have not, in order to make richer those who have.
Sports people no longer play for the sheer joy of it. In local competitions they demand to be paid for their unexceptional talents.
Large companies screw down wages and ask their suppliers to supply for less than a fair price then try to pay as little tax as possible, if any at all.
via Society versus Capitalism. And the winner is … – » The Australian Independent Media Network
In Australia, a similar situation is developing. Wages growth is at an all-time low and the government seems intent on keeping them so. The problem though is that without wages growth consumers don’t have expendable income sufficient to meet consumer demand for goods and services. America has found that out. Conservatives don’t seem to comprehend that you may be able to obtain growth on the back of low wages but if the low wages prevent people from buying what you produce, you have defeated your purpose.
Of course inequality is not just confined to the United States. It is truly universal. The two countries with the highest populations have chosen to improve the quality of life of their citizens with greedy economic capitalism, which is the same system that has caused inequality in the advanced economies. The advances in China, particularly over the past forty years have been spectacular. And at the same time, it is breeding billionaires like confetti. And all on the back of a low wage work force. In 50 years or so, if they continue on the same path, they will face the same problems that the west faces now.
Robert Reich outlines a plan to resolve the issue which is sound in economic rationale.
In the absence of another economic system, capitalism is what we have. The problem with it is its inherent greed and misuse. It is a system that could be moulded and shaped for good. However, the conservative forces of the right of politics seem determined to enshrine the existing hungry evil greed of unregulated capitalism on us.
Revolutionised morally regulated capitalism could if legislated and controlled enable everyone an equitable opportunity for economic success. With equality of opportunity being the benchmark of all economic aspiration and legislation.
via Day to Day Politics: Is capitalism stuffed? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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