Capitalism's Self-Inflicted Apocalypse

[Hannah Bell]

After the overthrow of communist governments in Eastern Europe, capitalism was paraded as the indomitable system that brings prosperity and democracy, the system that would prevail unto the end of history. The present economic crisis, however, has convinced even some prominent free-marketeers that something is gravely amiss. Truth be told, capitalism has yet to come to terms with several historical forces that cause it endless trouble: democracy, prosperity, and capitalism itself, the very entities that capitalist rulers claim to be fostering...

Democracy

Let us consider democracy first. In the United States we hear that capitalism is wedded to democracy, hence the phrase, "capitalist democracies." In fact, throughout our history there has been a largely antagonistic relationship between democracy and capital concentration...

Prosperity

The corporate capitalists no more encourage prosperity than do they propagate democracy. Most of the world is capitalist, and most of the world is neither prosperous nor particularly democratic. One need only think of capitalist Nigeria, capitalist Indonesia, capitalist Thailand, capitalist Haiti, capitalist Colombia, capitalist Pakistan, capitalist South Africa, capitalist Latvia, and various other members of the Free World--more accurately, the Free Market World...

Capitalism

The capitalist state has two roles long recognized by political thinkers. First, like any state it must provide services that cannot be reliably developed through private means, such as public safety and orderly traffic. Second, the capitalist state protects the haves from the have-nots, securing the process of capital accumulation to benefit the moneyed interests, while heavily circumscribing the demands of the working populace, as Debs observed from his jail cell.

There is a third function of the capitalist state seldom mentioned. It consists of preventing the capitalist system from devouring itself. Consider the core contradiction Karl Marx pointed to: the tendency toward overproduction and market crisis. An economy dedicated to speedups and wage cuts, to making workers produce more and more for less and less, is always in danger of a crash. To maximize profits, wages must be kept down. But someone has to buy the goods and services being produced. For that, wages must be kept up. There is a chronic tendency -as we are seeing today- toward overproduction of private sector goods and services and underconsumption of necessities by the working populace. In addition, there is the frequently overlooked self-destruction created by the moneyed players themselves. If left completely unsupervised, the more active command component of the financial system begins to devour less organized sources of wealth...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/20-9

[Rex]

1. Regulation really does work if you give 2 shits.

Problem is you have to find a group of ultra wealthy landowners that don't mind if they don't own 99% of everything! Goodluck with that one.

[Klukie]

2. Great read ....spot on!!!!!

[OneGrassRoot]

3. K&R n/t

[Blue_Tires]

4. k+r

[proudohioan]

5. K&R!!! n/t

[dumpdabaggers]

6. Capitalisim does not work either.

Not the way the biggest supporters of it claim

Capitalisim by nature is predetory. Competition is what makes capitalisim thirve but is is also what ends up taking it down. Littlel by little as competition builds for a product or service, the price goes down. After a while all of the profit is sucked out of a product. As a result, wages go down, people lose jobs, companies cut back on benefits, and jobs end up overseas.

[Bullet1987]

7. I liked Moore's new documentary

But I think he missed the opportunity to make stronger points on capitalism.

[whattheidonot]

8. vote

democracy does not have to be capitalistic. or does it have to be unregulated. Obviously the current system is not working. There was no real economy before the bubble burst. A real economy under the current system may be impossible. When money makes more money hoarded rather than put into production the economy dries up especially when the hoarded money is not taxed.

[blindpig]

9. k&r

[Supersedeas]

10. K&R

[leveymg]

11. Millenialist movements are always dangerous. If they can't last forever, they tend to destroy

themselves and take everyone and everything they can grab with them.