capitalism

The Looting Machine Called Capitalism

I have come to the conclusion that capitalism is successful primarily because it can impose the majority of the costs associated with its economic activities on outside parties and on the environment. In other words, capitalists make profits because their costs are externalized and born by others. In the US, society and the environment have to pick up the tab produced by capitalist activity.

Global Capitalism Has Written Off The Human Race

Economic theory teaches that free price and profit movements ensure that capitalism produces the greatest welfare for the greatest number.  Losses indicate economic activities where costs exceed the value of production, thus investment in these activities is curtailed.  Profits indicate economic activities where the value of output exceeds its cost, thus investment increases.  Prices indicate the relative scarcity and value of inputs and outputs, thus serving to organize production most efficiently.

Free Markets are Fraudulent Markets

How the Financial Elite Con Us into Wanting the Wrong Thing

Competitive or self-regulating market economies promote dynamic creative destruction and rebirth—led by people’s needs, wants and desires, thus properly directing economic progress. Historically, competitive market economies are a relatively new economic system, and while very productive, they are not self-sustaining, are unstable and require significant state support and regulation to function properly.

World-Market State vs. Democracy: Why We Should Go Over the Fiscal Cliff

International corporations use “free market” capitalism ideology to justify globalization and create a “world-market-state.” Supposedly, “free market” capitalism makes America’s economy efficient and, therefore, far more prosperous. In practice, however, international corporations promote laws based on “free market” capitalism—for their own benefit.

Unpublished

Why Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand’s Objectivism glorified wealth-creators over moochers, but Wall Street traders might  surprise surprised to learn which category they’re in. <!--break-->

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Egypt and the False Dilemma - Decline and Fall (Maybe) Jan 31

By Michael Collins

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Image: Cairo, January 2011

The people of Egypt have had enough of a failed dictatorship masquerading as a democracy. As events unfold, we're seeing a cautionary message entering the corporate media coverage of this event. Having never exposed the dire conditions that prompted the massive protests and demands for change, we're now told that this could negatively impact oil supplies, the stock market, and anti-terror efforts. No foundation for the claims was provided but they're repeated regularly on CNN, the NBC's, Fox, and the print media.

Thus, a false dilemma is created for the public: support the right of people to determine their own fate or protect your safety and the current standard of living, as it were.

The Way the World Works

By Numerian
Chances are if you are a typical American consumer you have purchased something made by Foxconn Technology Group. This giant Taiwanese-owned company is under contract to make Sony’s Playstation, the Xbox 360, the Wii, motherboards for Intel, routers for Cisco, and Apple’s iPhone, iPod, and iPad. As profitable as Foxconn is, it is in a fundamental sense a failure of capitalism. At a time when machine tools and robotics are available to make these products at high speeds, Foxconn uses manual labor to craft tens of thousands of electronic devices each hour, 24 hours a day. (Image)

To accomplish this, Foxconn employs over 800,000 workers in mainland China alone, and 420,000 of them at a massive “campus” in Shenzen. The workers in Shenzen are required to live on campus in dormitories with bunk beds, cafeterias, a medical unit, and a few recreational facilities. The overwhelming number of them range in age from 18 to 24, have moved to Shenzen from rural villages with no job opportunities, work six days a week at the factory for 10 hours a day including overtime, and make about $130 a month.

American Capitalism Has Failed: A New Manifesto - Part 1

We need a new economic system because the old has failed. American Capitalism has failed so many people in so many ways. We need to transform our economy to one that works for the most people possible. We need a new form of capitalism.

What is the state of American capitalism today? As Professor James Galbraith has stated American capitalism is not what we are told by politicians, media or textbooks: benign competition leads to a greater good for most people. We are far from that. The defining feature of American capitalism today is predation – where a class of people – the oligarchs – feed off the demise of people not within this class. This oligarchy, or as Professor Galbraith calls them the predatory class, has control over the government and the capital in our economic system.

There are other features of American capitalism:

1) Financial sector that is too big.

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