CAPITALISM, MAKING A KILLING (REALLY!)
64SINKING
CASH FOR CATASTROPHE
A gift from one corporate person to another
Happy profits from your new Viral pandemic
The current big news in our world, that being the prospect of a global swine flu pandemic, is just another shining example of the coincidental blessings of “efficient” capitalism. In the rabid pursuit of endlessly increasing profits, a goal which simple common sense tells us is unattainable; one corporate person could be giving at least one other the ultimate gift among such entities, a sweet opportunity for one to capitalize on a crisis created by the other.
It’s beginning to look like the source of the burgeoning outbreak is indeed centered in Mexico, just as the racist, isolationist, fanatic nationalists have been screaming. There’s one thing they won’t be shouting from their rooftops however. There are growing indications that the source in Mexico is most likely an American owned factory farm, a subsidiary of Smithfield Farms in Veracruz state, near the village of La Gloria where the outbreak seems to have started.
http://www.truthout.org/042809K
This possibly life threatening scenario, only one among many which may reach global proportions, is the direct result of the mindless capitalist obsession with “efficiency”. Read make more profit by any means necessary regardless of consequences.
You may wonder, what makes this a “gift” from one corporation to any other? Just think about it for a moment. If this does in fact turn out to be a full-blown medical “crisis”;
- Pharmaceutical corporations are among the biggest, most powerful in existence.
- Nearly all hospitals have been turned into for-profit, corporate owned businesses.
- Many ambulance and paramedic services are provided by privately held, for-profit companies.
- Even the MSM could cash in. If it bleeds, it leads.
Would these corporations, or any others, actually intentionally create disasters or crises in order to capitalize on the resulting suffering and hardship they caused?
In my personal opinion, in a New York minute.
- After thirty years and thirty billion dollars worth of research we are nowhere near a “cure” for cancer. Corporations make more than thirty billion in any given year by treating cancer rather than curing it.
- The auto industry built cars for decades that were known to be lethally unsafe. It continues to do so to this day. Auto makers would rather pay the occasional wrongful death settlement than incur the expense and bad PR for the recall of dangerously defective vehicles.
- The tobacco industry is still killing at least half a million Americans each year, close to forty thousand from second hand smoke.
This is not to say that Smithfield acted with the specific intention of causing this exact crisis or one like it. On the other hand, they won’t be particularly concerned if they do so.
They and other similar corporations have, despite decades of warnings from medical researchers and virologists, pursued a policy of concentrating more livestock on fewer farms in order to increase efficiency. In corpspeak, efficiency always translates to cut costs/make more profit by any means necessary.
For example, there were fifty three million hogs on over one million farms in 1965. Now there are sixty five million hogs but only sixty five thousand farm factories.
Has this increased efficiency? Indeed it has. Especially the efficiency with which viral strains can propagate, mutate and flourish. The high concentration of animals, exposed to a brew of heat, excrement and pathogens provides an ideal environment for the creation of really cool unknown viruses that will almost certainly result in strains better adapted to transmission between humans.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/27/swine-flu-mexico-health
Crisis or disaster capitalism is becoming a preferred method for generating profits where none could previously be found. The beauty of this method is simply this; if no crisis is in the offing, one can simply be created.
War, of course, is the first artificial disaster that springs to mind. We have seen this put into practice in Iraq. The profiteering is ongoing. In a number of South American countries the U.S. has fomented numerous coups de tat to remove democratically elected leaders who were seen as an obstruction to the spread of capitalism.
The first step in the building of this market is already underway in America. The privatization of all means for responding to any imaginable crisis or disaster, natural or manmade, is the first priority. The work of some first responders has already been sold off to private corporations. Other functions, normally performed by NPOs, charities, local, state or federal agencies are being targeted by corporations, with government compliance, for transition to for-profit operations.
Consider the implications. When a tornado hits your town, if you haven’t signed a contract with a natural disaster response company, you’ll just have to clean up your own mess. If you have signed such a contract you will pay whatever price is demanded, under whatever conditions are dictated or… you’ll just have to clean up your own mess…and, we’ll sue you for breach of contract.
The government could, without our consent, simply contract all such activities to companies like Halliburton, Bechtel and Xe (formerly Blackwater). In that case, our tax dollars would be funneled to these companies, whose corruption and sub-standard work is well documented, through no-bid, cost-plus contracts.
The same thing could be applied to any disaster you care to name.
It is for this reason, usually under Republican administrations, that disaster response by FEMA and other agencies has been deliberately mismanaged, underfunded and obstructed. The objective is to make the idea of privately owned companies handling such functions seem more attractive. What is never discussed is the fact that such an arrangement would drive the costs through the roof, think healthcare, and reduce the effectiveness of the services to the lowest possible level in order to increase profits for the corporations involved.
There seems to be a push toward a completely privatized governing corporation, including all aspects of military operations.
http://www.unique-design.net/library/aristocracy.html#privatization
As this blog is being posted, the news is spreading that the H1N1 flu, which has caused so much consternation, is actually not a big deal after all. We are being told that it’s not much different from the seasonal types we deal with every year. I said as much in a comment yesterday.
If this turns out to be true, that’s fantastic! It means the world has been spared a terrible disaster from which a few big corporations won’t be making any windfall profits.
This time.
Recommended reading: SHOCK DOCTRINE by Naomi Klein.
I have a PDF version I will happily email as an attachment upon request.
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Comments
Actually, these are horrible but correct facts. There are people who dance in jolly when a disaster befalls bcz it means more money...
It's disgusting. Privatized medical care now means turning away sick people. We personally know a woman with cancer who can't get treatment--no money. If a pandemic breaks out that DOES kill, many will die because only some can be treated. What good will money do then? I'm disgusted by the current backlash or hyper-right wing types. I say if the South wants to secede again this time we should let them. Depressing but great hub, as usual.
A first-rate piece, CWB. As frightening as we let it become - but what it should be is a call to action. If we continue to drudge for and buy into the machinations of greedy madmen, we deserve the 'gifts' they give us.
Please send me the Klein .pdf. Thank you.
Thumbs up CWB.
The truth which pharmaceutical companies know very well is - that there is no ultimate cure for any desease on this world: each person is unique, so deserves unique approach. They also know very well that human mind and emotions DIRECTLY influence the health of the body: if they cause global panick, THEY KNOW THAT MANY PEOPLE WILL GET ILL; DUE TO THE FACT THAT FEAR IS KILLING IMMUNE SYSTEM. Plus they know if the media is all the time repeating simpromes of certain illness, while frightening the people that this is deadly, highly infecitve (!) disease, that many people will gett all mentioned symptomes on self-induced basis (As in "the Secret")... This is old, succesful manipulation.
Frightened people will rush to buy various medicines or will accept vaccinations (which is extremely dangerous because allows various viruses and other pathogenes to be injected directly into the blood, and immune system of anybody is not prepared for such a shock for sure). Vaccinations so often create new deseases, what is great for pharmaceutic industry, because they have new illnessess which they can "cure" again. With drugs or new vaccination. Drugs so often also cause new diseases and new health disorders.
People are naive, because they are not informed.
If you are interested, please read my hub about the Mexican flu: http://hubpages.com/hub/swine-flu-H1N1,
I think you might like it.
Well done, thanks for this Hub.
Your welcome justmesuzanne.
I’m sure some folks get tired of hearing it from me but, nine times out of ten, when something really bad is happening somewhere, and it’s not a natural disaster, a modicum of investigation will quickly lead directly to the profit motive as the root cause.
Righteous anger, as usual mistargeted :)
Greed is all the more reason we need to be as independently self-sufficient as possible. Who can we trust, the government crooks or the private ones? what a dilemma.
Marisue, did you solve this dilemma for yourself already? I thought you are optimistically trusting government crooks :D
It’s sad but true shamelabboush.
The psychopathic lust of a small minority for wealth and power has been oppressing, enslaving and killing people by the millions throughout human history.
Until that trait, which apparently is actually a genetic defect, is evolved out of the human genome, this cycle of suffering will continue as it has for millennia.
Yeah, I know pgrundy. I just can’t help it.
If I could afford it, I’d be putting up billboards and running thirty second spots on network TV hammering people with all these depressing realities.
Dubya actually almost did of a favor by shocking us out of our complacency. That’s why we now have brand Obama, to lull us back to sleep before the shit really hits the fan.
Maybe I’ll do another graphic arts tutorial or something…not!
This is the kind of stuff everyone needs to be aware of. It needs to be in the limelight instead of which “celebrity” is getting cut from Dancing With the Stars.
The longer it goes unopposed, the harder it will be to stop. It’s already so deeply entrenched globally that its own inevitable self-destruction may be the only thing that will stop it.
Gee, too bad it’s taking so many millions of innocent people along with it.
That's the trouble--all this snickering between the right and the left, but 99.9% of us are going down no matter what our opinions are. I think even our debates are manufactured for us by the media. I'm so sick of all of it.
I'm just waiting for it to all fall down. Today I am shooting a cap gun at the squirrel who keeps hitting my bird feeder, which is fun. I feel very much in Mad Max mode. :)
Thanks MindField. I know I’ve told you before but I really love that moniker.
I agree to a point with “we get what we deserve”. Keep in mind however that, for many generations now, we have all been subjected to a continuous, mind numbing Pavlovian indoctrination process, which has only become increasingly effective as technology has advanced. It affects us all to a greater or lesser degree, depending upon the individual. Remember, this process begins virtually at the moment of birth and continues non-stop throughout nearly our every waking moment.
I’ll get the book to you ASAP.
Thank you Tatjana-Mihaela.
I agree with much of what you say regarding the mental and emotional aspects of illness.
A body which starts life in good health and is allowed to grow in a sane, healthy and natural environment would have a much better chance of remaining healthy.
You’re also correct about the manipulative nature of corporate marketing. It’s one of the bulwarks of capitalism.
I’ll be off to check your hub as soon as I’m done responding to these comments.
And here’s Misha the instigator.
Loves to disagree just for the sake of argument.
I’m not gonna play Misha.
I won’t delete you but neither will I waste my time responding to your pointless provocation.
Your right marisuewrites, we can’t trust the ones who worship wealth and power.
It’s my own opinion however, and that’s all it is, that not everyone is naturally greedy and predacious. I really believe that the vast majority of us are generous, cooperative and would prefer to share and live in peace.
I believe, in fact, those are the very characteristics that allow a small, psychopathic minority to prey upon the majority as they have done for centuries.
Ya might want to invest in something with a little more punch than a cap gun Pam. Just in case something along the lines of the Mad Max syndrome does in fact develop.
I’m sick of it too, but is it really too late to turn it?
Probably.
It's all about the bottom line, isn't it CWB? Anything goes as long as those profits light up the corporate horizon! Would love that pdf, thanks!
Incredibly great CWB. It's a lot like when governments justify their existence by siting all the problems they created as things we need them to protect us from.
You’ve got it right Shalini. Profit is all that matters. Buy or die.
I’ll get the PDF to you ASAP.
We do have 'real' guns, but since I can't walk across the kitchen without injuring myself, I avoid them. Might have to rethink that. :)
That's a frightening thought: Pam, armed. Yikes.
That’s a really insightful observation EYEAM4ANARCHY. More of the “blame the victim” paradigm. It goes along nicely with all the wedge issues that are constantly used to keep us all bickering with each other instead of going after the real source of the problems.
I truly hope it doesn’t have to come to that Pam.
CWB,
Another great piece, That is all I can say.
TMG
That's enough for me. Thanks TMG. Always appreciate your support.
Unfortunately in the E.U. we have many clean up sites where toxic companies once poisoned the land. many are in the eastern states that recently came out from Soviet tyrrany, but far too many are right here in weatern europe as well. There is no lack of land that is now contaminated with filth, radioactivity and other garbage that will last longer than mankind.
We clean up as best we can, but we are still pulling unexploded shells from 1914-1918 from farm fields and every year a farmer here or there is killed when his tractor detonates a bomb from one of the many wars our greedy former leaders forced upon us.
Yes, there are even landmines still in many parts of Europe!
Corporate farms go against the whole idea behind farming, which is to care for the land and coax it to produce. You can't force land beyond its natural capacity and then expect things to remain the same. It's kind of like keeping a horse running twenty four hours a day and then wondering why it falls dead of exhaustion.
There are 1,305 Superfund sites in amerika Ivan. That’s just the number that is acknowledged by the government.
Check it out: http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/land/
It’s still cheaper for corporations to pay for PR lies and cover an occasional minuscule fine than it is to operate responsibly.
As we all know, profit is far more important than anything else.
That apparently includes the survival of the human species.
Beating a dead horse is certainly an exercise in futility. That's exactly why capitalism is doomed to fail. It always kills the horse. That's part of its essential nature.
CWB, if I didn't thank you before I'll thank you now for liking my moniker. I borrowed it from a now-deceased man in a writing class I was in. It was the title of one of his stories. Perhaps he borrowed it himself. In any case, I love it too much to give it up and only wish I'd thought to buy the domain name back in 1998 when someone else did!
You're absolutely right about the fact that we've been brainwashed. My analogy has always been this: A child is born and lives in a cave. He has never been outside the cave nor can he see outside the cave. You ask him to draw the sky. "What is the sky?" he wonders. "That which you see when you look up," you say. And, of course, what he draws is the roof of the cave.
What I meant by 'we get what we deserve' is that there are some who know better (or appear to know better) who still work against the good of all, either because of apathy or perversity. But this may be a circular arguement and you may be right. Perhaps they are, in the end, also just drawing the 'sky' they see.
Thanks for sending the .pdf file. It's flabbergasting, isn't it? And I've only read the first few pages....
I like the mindfield moniker as well! Keep it moving forward!
I really like the cave story MindField.
The child is the mass of consumer zombies that has been kept in the cave created by the kapitalist marketing machine.
As for those who “know better”, they are mostly the parasitic elite who depend upon the labor and productivity of the rest of us for their very survival.
It’s in their best interest to keep us confined to the cave. Otherwise they’d be forced to work for a living and they’re really not capable of that.
They are the Eloi of H.G. Wells “Time Machine”. I find it perversely satisfying that, in Wells’ story, the co-dependent elite devolve into the source of food for the Morlocks who were once in a very real sense their slaves.
I don’t think you’ve seen this yet MindField. I think you might like it.
http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Genetics-of-Oppression
I know we’re not supposed to promote our own hubs here but I think it will make my viewpoint clearer.
Shock Doctrine is an important work. It should be part of the curriculum for our high school history classes. If everyone were made really aware of how the kapitalist system works and what its real goals are they might be less prone to thinking of socialism as inherently “evil”.
Well, Coldwarbaby, we always seem to fear that which we don't understand. In Viet Nam I was told the "enemy" wanted to end my way of life. So, I ended his on an individual basis. Knowing what I know now I would never have fallen for that garbage. The average Vietnamese was no different than me, he or she wanted a decent life, good food and a good home to raise the kids in. Why was I lied to and enticed to fight against my brother and sister over there? I was young, stupid and I believed the propaganda I was fed. I am older and wiser now. I feel sorry for the men and women and children who have died in Iraq because of lies and deceits. Bush and Saddam were two of a kind in my book.
Well Ivan, I'll say this much. As bad as things were, the Iraqi people were doing better before we showed up. Bush and the u.s. have killed more innocent people in Iraq in the few years since the invasion than Saddam killed in forty.
As far as things I don't understand are concerned, I tend to be more curious than afraid.
I totally agree with what you say and your comment to. How so many people could go on this pro-war band wagon is beyond me. Everything about it signals "no."
There is no way to Peace. Peace is the Way.
Hi CWB,
Reading this hub, it occurs to me that an awful lot of people have already made substantial profits from the projected swine flu epidemic, not least the manufacturers of the anti-viral medications that have been so relentlessly promoted. Over here the government just spent millions on printing and distributing an information leaflet to every home in the UK. Pointless and expensive, but of course someone will have benefitted financially from the exercise.
There is a real virus. Many have been infected and a small number have died. That it might have it's origins in those huge factory farms is unsurprising. But even if the link is proven, will compensation be paid? I doubt it.
It plays too well with the newest paradigm for profit Amanda. Capitalizing on crises or disasters is the flavor of the month.
When a tsunami wipes away all the local fishing families that have been reducing the potential for profit on a tropical beach, you jump in and capitalize on their misfortune.
When the surviving families return to rebuild they find a new law has been passed in their absence. Fishing huts and boats will no longer be allowed on the beach. It is now only for the use of tourists.
If there is no disaster in the offing, one can simply be created, war being the simplest and most obvious.
Here’s an excerpt from Shock Doctrine that sums it up nicely:
“Lockheed Martin has gone furthest in this direction. In early 2007, it began "buying companies in the $1,000bn-a-year healthcare market," according to The Financial Times, and it also snapped up the engineering giant Pacific Architects and Engineers.The wave of acquisitions signified a new era of morbid vertical integration in the disaster capitalism complex: in future conflicts, Lockheed is poised to profit not only from making the weapons and fighter jets but from rebuilding what they destroy, and even from treating the people injured by its own weapons.”
Get paid for the WMDs used to destroy a targeted infrastructure, get paid to rebuild the infrastructure you got paid to destroy and get paid for treating the injuries you got paid to inflict upon the population.
Do you imagine there are depths too low for these people to mine for profit? Not a chance.
They have found a self-perpetuating profit machine which will only stop running when there aren’t any people left to exploit.
I'm in total agreement with this one. So I'll just take the opportunity to say that I also greatly enjoy your graphics work. That's a fine talent.
Well Paraglider, I don't know what to say except you just made my day! Thank you most sincerely.
Who profits the most. Pharmaceuticals, war mongers and big oil. Thankfully GW is out, but what a lot of damage he has done,... I mean, what a lot of profits he has spurred.
And Kafkaesque immorality!
Capitalism is supposed to be under state or government control or regulation.I'll wait for you to stop laughing before I continue.
OK ?
Welcome Paper Moon and thanks for reading.
Dubya was definitely a corporate servant. He took Reaganomics to new heights, I mean depths.
I'm not sure what that's aimed at specifically Writer Rider but it's a pretty apt description of capitalism in general.
OK someonewhoknows, I'll bite.
Yes, the system is supposed to be regulated by the government.
Unfortunately, as long as the banking system is a privately owned for-profit operation, nothing will improve.
The "control" factor has been reversed. It's capitalism and the corporations that control the government. In fact, at this point there really is no government to speak of. It has become almost completely privatized.
Thanks for an enlightening hub. The Iron Triangle (defense-government-big business) just keeps growing.
The privatization of everything is upon us tdarby. It will soon be no exaggeration to say that Earth is, quite literally, the private property of relatively very few individuals.
iT'S CALLED THEFT BY CONVERSION,USING UNCONSCIONABLE METHODS TO CONVERT ANOTHERS PROPERTY TO YOUR CONTROL USING FRAUD AS THE VEHICLE.
And when fraud is too time consuming there's always "Eminent Domain" of just good old fashioned violence.
I was finishing Paper Moon's statement. Yes, under Bush things were happening that seemed right out of a Kafka novella...bizarre, twilight zone type of things.
Yes WR, things have really gotten strange. I see the term "Orwellian" used frequently. It seems quite apt.
The future oligarchy is already among us, using fear and hatred to drive us into giving up what few freedoms still are left to us, and we're biting like a fish bites a worm. We just don't realize the hook is in our mouths yet.
I'm not biting Ivan and I don't think you are either.
With Cheney running off at the mouth every thirty days, I'm concerned about the possibility of another 911. That would definitely bring most Americans back into the fold. And the would be the end of any hope of stopping this insanity.
Here's something interesting. It's the most hopeful thing I've come across in a long time.
Yes, of course I mean the collective "we". there are many people who know what the bait is and are not biting as well, and bravo to them!
I was reading an old newspaper long ago, a paper from the 1880's when the heighth of robber baron capitalism was in vogue. The men ran the railroads and said boldly that capitalism would prosper as long as men were greedy. It reminded me that capitalism is a system based upon a human weakness, greed, and leads to another human weakness, the hunger for power. History in the U.S. and Europe shows that this double avarice of greed and seeking power lead to many wars, millions upon millions of deaths, and has done the world scant good for all the misery it has brought us.
I would dare say that the greed of the current robber barons is evident in the way we treat criminals of petty crimes, who usually go to jail and people applaud, while huge criminals, those who steal from the poor and make themselves fat with profits. They are like drug dealers, dispensing poison and bringing in huge profits from the misery of others.
In short, true capitalists care nothing for you and me, just for themselves and their bottom line. There is nothing inherent in the system, even for those who rape us and then practice altruism, because the system is inherently wrong.
I have often toyed with the idea about what is the world were truely set up for anarchical systems, which in its truest sense is governing by local units, a true democracy where everyone has a voice and a vote. No unit goes to war over things it doesn't have because it produces all that it needs. trade is strictly local, with neighbors, and there is no need to hate, no need to fight, and people are just living wonderful, peaceful lives. A dream perhaps, but that's what the religious people would call a paradise, is it not? So why do so many religious people want capitalism, which is about as anti-god as one can get?
Your last paragraph is extremely to the point Ivan.
Given the electronic world now at our disposal, the smaller, locally governed social units you describe could be independent without being isolationist. In a cooperative global community, information would be freely exchanged with no profit motive involved.
If I found a way to improve the efficiency of my wind turbine, I would let the whole world know about it immediately. I wouldn't keep my discovery a secret in order to claim that I "own" it so I could extract "profit" from everyone who would benefit from its application.
If you came up with a way to improve the regenerative properties of soil for crop production, it could be common knowledge, worldwide, in a matter of moments.
There really is no reason why such a global society should and could not be realized within a few decades. The only thing preventing it is the obstructionism of the supremacists who believe they are of a superior "race" and should own and rule the world.
What seems likely in the short term, historically speaking, is a planet covered with what we now call "third world" countries. Each will have its islands of opulence, populated with the ultra rich members of the "super race" while the rest of the worlds population lives in the squalor of a planet made largely barren by our gluttonous consumption.
This is the most fascinating article I have read for a while yet! Capitalism is evil apparently. It is to blame for all or our woes apparently. Give me a break! Capitalism is not good or evil, it is amoral. Greed is the cause of some of the problems mentioned above. I suppose the question is, what option is better then Capitalism? Socialism? Communism? I prefer take the risks of my freedom to the misery the other two options. The problem with our current social philosophy is that we seem to have forgotten the Golden Rule (gasp! A Judaeo-Christian Value! This must mean I am one of those racist, conservative freaks!). The sad bit is that most people don't understand that the Golden Rule applies to all points of life INCLUDING... drum roll please!... The environment, treatment of animals and care for our fellow men. I love this so much! I drive my conservative and liberal friends nuts! So please don't use logic fallacies to attempt to drive home your points. Good job on the facts, not so good with the philosophy bit.
You are cetainly welcome to your preferences ObamaZombie?
There are no "logical fallacies" in the essay nor do I venture into anything remotely resembling “philosophy”. There are only facts and information readily available to anyone who cares to look.
If you don’t care for the reality of the facts and information, if you disagree, no problem. We will simply agree to disagree.
Judaeo-Christians don't have a monopoly on morality. If you believe that they do then you are not necessarily a racist, conservative freak. You may in fact be such a person or not. I really don't care.
It would however make you a religious fundamentalist. You know, like those Islamofascists who hate mericuns kuz they got freedum.
Study a little history.
"Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the Field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere -- so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive -- that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." - Woodrow Wilson
“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The end of democracy and defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of the lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.
The Bank of the United States is one of the most deadly hostilities existing against the principles and form of our Constitution. The system of banking is a blot left in all our Constitutions, which if not covered will end in their destruction. I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity is but swindling futurity. “
Thomas Jefferson
I never stated that Judaeo-Christians have a "monopoly on morality". Nor do I think that everyone should be christian. Part of my family is Buddhist and I am best friends with Hindu, Jewish and Atheists. I am "Mormon", which many traditional Christian believe is not Christian at all, even if I share the majority of their beliefs. As for philosophy, to understand history, politics and religion I believe that you must understand the philosophy behind them. It is like trying to understand Trigonometry without knowing Algebra or Geometry, it may possible, but you miss so much. But your points are valid. Capitalism is a means to an end, but it has been corrupted by men and women who put the lives or others beneath the value of money and power, which, by the way, has happened before. I for one think Adam Smith's Enlightened Self Interest (watch after your self and your family but be aware of others and be willing to help) is the system we need to return too. That in my opinion is what true Capitalism is. I am a Capitalist. I help my fellow men.
Like anything else, as long as everyone involved is completely benevolent your capitalist system will work just great.
Unfortunately, enlightened self-interest is a non sequitur. Noblesse Oblige is a myth and trickle down economics doesn’t work. All the trickling is upward.
The invisible hand that Mr. Smith worshiped so adamantly is generally only useful for crushing the life out of society.
Although Smith was well aware of human corruption he still maintained that the market would somehow magically serve the best interests of everyone. We can all see how well that’s worked out.
"People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or some contrivance to raise prices."
Adam Smith
I’ve researched Smith at length in the past for other essays. In my opinion, his logic was flawed and his vision of the market delusional.
I have delved deeply and long into the history of money and capitalism. Everything I have learned tells me that the for-profit paradigm leads inevitably to ruin for the great majority of people who are exposed to it.
Greed and deceit are part of its indispensable properties. It is a system deliberately designed to elevate non-productive individuals into positions of wealth and power through the exploitation of those who work and produce all wealth.
You might want to take a serious look at what Milton Freidman’s Chicago School style capitalism did to countries like Argentina, Nicaragua or Chile.
I seriously advise you read The Shock Doctrine.
You are, as I indicated before, welcome to your opinion. The fact that I disagree with it is not relevant.
It is my opinion that capitalism does not need to be corrupted as it is in fact a flawed concept, which is corrupt intrinsically.
So, our beliefs are in diametric opposition.
There is little if anything to be gained from prolonged confrontational exchanges. Such would be counter productive and of no value to either party.
We can agree to disagree.
CWB- the Shock Doctrine sits on the table next to my reading chair, I haven't finished it, but I read enough to know the anger it provokes in me. I concur, anyone who want to see the strategy of big business with government should pick up the book. It is a sad state when chaos and emergency is exploited to make the ol' might dollar.
Thanks goldentoad. As I've indicated here, I have a PDF version I'd be happy to send as an attachment to anyone who wants it and is willing to part with their email address. Can't send attachments through the HupPages email module.
Cool avatar by the way.
I hired a stylist.
Do tell!
So what system do you think does work, to re-ask a previous question? I would love to know.
Why do I get the feeling that this is nothing more than bait being used to keep a pointless argument going?
Almost any "system" would work if everyone played by the rules. Systems that seem to be working the best are compromises between capitalism/socialism. Check out some of the hubs by Ivan the Terrible. He's a former American citizen who now lives in Spain.
Social Democracies seem to do the most good for the most people at the moment.
None of the systems that have been devised so far have ever really worked. There are always rotten apples in every barrel.
Some of the nationalist economies of South America would have worked if America hadn't sabotaged them.
At this time, none of them are working. The free market paradigm has infected the global economy which is about to go in the tank. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the collapse.
Just go have a look at this site and read some of what's there. If it doesn't work for you, all you've lost is a little time. No more than you're wasting here trying to argue with me.
Another tight well written and scary hub CWB. I cannot disagree with it though I wish I could!
Thank you earnestshub.
Who knows? I could be entirely wrong.
Maybe we'll all wake up tomorrow and everything will be grand.
That was some reading! But I can not disagree. I've been veggie for 20+ years due to the factory farming systems we have. Our push to produce bigger/faster/better/more profitable food just leaves us wide open to disaster. Which is good news for the corporates who profit and bad news for humanity.
Lady Seren, we see pretty much eye to eye.
The worst thing is, being a veggie is getting harder unless you grow your own. The same livestock factories are polluting the environment so badly that it's poisoning a lot of the agricultural land.
The only hope I see is that these mindless corporations, in the endless, blind quest for more, more more profit are destroying themselves along with the rest of us.
We may have to start over again but maybe this time we'll do a better job.
ObamaZombie?, I live in the evil country of Spain, a democratic socialist country where we actually subject our population to free medical care, help our elderly take vacations to spas twice a year, give people the money they need to get through unemployment and then work hard to force them back into the workforce by finding them a job! My God, how can I live with myself knowing I am bring such evil joy to my fellow human beings! Shame on me for taking care of people who, through the fault of greedy U.S. Capitalists, now find themselves in dire straits! Better they should curl up and die in the streets than subject themselves to a God-forbidden Socialist regime!
Get your facts straight about Socilaism before you knock it, you ignorant fool!
Whoa Ivan! Man, I appreciate the backup but I don't know if it's necessary to get quite so heated about it.
It's bad for your blood pressure you know.
Seriously though, that kind of response is often just what folks like ObamaZombie? are looking for. It's what they feed on and gives them the opportunity to spew more baseless rhetoric. I'm not even convinced yet that Zombie? is quite that extreme but I always try to handle these situations with reserve. Once people who only want to make trouble find out that nobody wants to play, they usually go away and look for excitement elsewhere.
Still, it's great to know you've got my back.
I have spent the last year studying forms of government and alternatives to the present system. I know you are afraid I will continue arguing with you, but the reason I ask my question is that I want to know what your end motivation is. Right now all I see is a socialization agenda, but I do not want to make that assumption. A LOT of what you say rings of truth. I suppose that the "arguing" is a way of finding truth, which I am always open too. As I said before, I drive both my liberal and conservative friends nuts because I side with neither of them on all the issues. On environmental issues I stand more to the "left", and monetary issues such as spending and taxes and stand on the right. On social issues like abortion and gay marriage I drive all parties nuts because I think it is a state by state issue and I think the federal government should butt out. Now that I have rambled on for a while, I still would like to know what form you think works best. If it is something new or a variation upon and old theme, great! Is is a producer revolution, is it a form of socialism, or perhaps a rehashing of capitalism with regulations that hopefully prevent the abuses that you have mentioned. I promise not to attack/argue with you over this. You can hold me to that too...
I answered your question in my response above OZ?. If you wish to pin me down to a specific ism, how about humanism with a healthy dose of environmentalism just to keep it real?
CWB I just want to thank you for these excellent articles. I learn so much. Do you think the people will ever get a fair break in this world?
Thank you very much Tom!
I'm hopeful that eventually our species will be united as the family they are. By sharing, cooperating and working together we could create our own "break" just by making a better world for all instead of just a few.
Tom, in my opinion people need to be vigilent and keep their government from going to one extreme or another. I never forget that even in a socilaist nation it can be far-left or far-right, as witnessed here in Spain by our late and not much missed Generalisimo Franco, who ran many of the same people-friendly programs (heath care, care for th eelderly, etc.) while executing those on the left. In Stalinist Russia, a Communist nation gone awry, a dictator did much the same to people who Stalin considered his enemies. But the USSR was never really a Socilaist nation, it just took some of the ideas and then ran with them.
People need to be aware, contantly vigilent and always on guard against extremism.
CWB, yeah, I kind of get heated up when I see someone writing what seems to me to be pure garbage. But we get this excited in our tertulias as well, our cafe sessions where we tackle the world's problems.
Did I say already: Great hub!
Thanks Ivan. You know your thoughts and comments are always welcome.
nice article, how about nationalist?
Welcome prasetio30.
Nationalists are, in some senses, not unlike socialists but nationalism in its extreme is very dangerous. I think, if I had to choose an extant system I would vote for Democratic Socialism. It was working very well in South America before amerika sabotaged it. It's working well now in parts of Europe, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain and is finally resurgent in South and Central America.
"Despite the CIA-funded propaganda campaign painting Allende as a Soviet-style dictator, Washington's real concerns about the Allende election victory were relayed by Henry Kissinger in a 1970 memo to Nixon: "The example of a successful elected Marxist government in Chile would surely have an impact on—and even precedent value for—other parts of the world, especially in Italy; the imitative spread of similar phenomena elsewhere would in turn significantly affect the world balance and our own position in it."21 In other words, Allende needed to be taken out before his democratic third way spread."
“During this dizzying period of expansion, the Southern Cone began to look more like Europe and North America than the rest of Latin America or other parts of the Third World. The workers in the new factories formed powerful unions that negotiated middle-class salaries, and their children were sent off to study at newly built public universities. The yawning gap between the region's polo-club elite and its peasant masses began to narrow. By the 1950s, Argentina had the largest middle class on the continent, and nextdoor Uruguay had a literacy rate of 95 percent and offered free health care for all citizens. Developmentalism was so staggeringly successful for a time that the Southern Cone of Latin America became a potent symbol for poor countries around the world: here was proof that with smart, practical policies, aggressively implemented, the class divide between the First and Third World could actually be closed.”
As I've mentioned above, if you haven't read THE SHOCK DOCTRINE by Noami Klein you really should check it out. I'll be happy to send you a PDF version of it if you like.
I agree with your case that swine flu is not a viralent form and is akin to Beijing flu, a virus we already have a vaccine for, but sadly you are wrong about the opportunity for profiteering. In the UK over 60,000,000 new vaccines have already been ordered, nice work if you can get it. Capitalism is on the march in earnest, and I feel the over-reaction to swine flu has had great merit. Whilst commentators give the general public the horrors over yet another impossible pandemic, lovely, cuddly Obama opens up Guantanemo again, and pretends he's not Adolf Hitler. There is one saving grace from research undertaken in The Good Old US of A; it seems that over 60% of Americans under 30 believe Socialism would be a better form of society. Even in the darkness there is always the light of hope.
Welcome michael.
As I said in closing, "It means the world has been spared a terrible disaster from which a few big corporations won’t be making any windfall profits.
This time."
Since you've been on board such short time, I'll assume you've read few if any of my other essays. Should you elect to do so, it's possible you may find we share some common views. Or not.
Your poem is excellent and I'm considering downloading your book although I'm not particularly enamored of fiction at this time. There's enough of that coming from the houses of power at the moment. It's well titled. Very intriguing.
Democratic Socialism would be a vast improvement over our "democracy" without doubt. That is, as they say, a no-brainer. The question is, can the people create, apply and sustain adequate pressure, in the correct fashion, long enough to produce the desired result?
As anyone knows, it takes only the smallest ember, applied to tinder and properly fanned, to create a roaring conflagration.
Thanks for your observations.
Corporations are behind many things ... all for the profit ...who is going to save us ? Corporation are above everything ... too bad
Jey
Erudite and needed hubs
Corporations are behind nearly everything and capitalism is behind nearly all corporations.
You can't kill the weed if you don't get the root milavrab.
Another great piece, ColdWarBaby. As usual, I see things just as you do.
Capitalism and corporations are surely behind virtually all of our problems, but they could not survive if there were not so many greedy people willing to do their bidding -- for a price. Until the human species understands that we're all in this world together, no system, alone, will put us on the Road to Utopia.
Thank you William. I appreciate your concurrence.
I couldn't agree more with your observation about us humans.
Will we ever put aside our petty differences and realize our potential for good?
Not if we don't survive as a species.
I'm trying to remain positive, Coldwar, but the greed that some industries are practicing makes me feel a bit disillusioned. Maybe all of that will change but I never imagined the scope could be so severe as it has been.
It's getting more difficult to maintain optimism every day Writer Rider.
I let myself become hopeful about the new administration. All those "progressive" democrats in charge.
I'm not usually one to be easily deluded.
The Obama campaign was the single most masterful piece of marketing in the history of presidential elections.
I'm ashamed I let myself be hoodwinked.
I'm just curious, I saw the comment that you would not engage Misha? My question who exactly are you trying to persuade in your Hub, you already have the Kool aide drinkers why not engage differing opinions?
I'm pretty sure I know the answer just wondering what you have to say?
Misha has made it very clear that he has no interest in facts. His "belief" in capitalism is faith-based, as in religion.
It's really not my objective to "engage" or "persuade anyone. I evaluate and offer data in the hope of inciting critical thinking, which seems to be in short supply these days.
It can't be helped that what I say is influenced by my anger and frustration at what has been and is being done to the people of America and the world.
If we disagree, fine. Why waste time arguing? The rational, reasonable thing to do is simply agree to disagree and get on with life.
Your "Kool aide"[sic] comment makes it reasonably clear that extended exchange between us would be pointless.
If you want to argue, try the forums. They're usually a regular mud-slinging, name-calling brawl.
I very rarely delete any comment, regardless of how intentionally inflammatory or irrational it may be. I just won't waste my time responding to those that are clearly belligerent and made with no other purpose than to be insulting.
justmesuzanne says:
7 months ago
Thank you for pointing out that this mess was caused by factory farming! I was wondering if anyone was ever going to make that connection!