My opinion is that the reason most people are dissatisfied with the status of business and politics is that we have all bought into the myth or at least tolerated the myth that capitalism IS democracy. It isn’t.
Capitalism is an economic system whose basic premise is to make as much money as possible. Democracy is a political system whose basic premise in our country is to regulate imbalance, injustice and over-reaching by the rich and powerful.
We have reached another tipping point in which capitalism is affecting our political decision making and voting. It should be the other way around. Democracy (or in our case a democratic republic) should be affecting capitalism such that the country benefits from capitalism, not just a few successful people who come to dominate our laws.
They are both good systems and a healthy debate between the two is what our founders intended. But capitalism is a vehicle of democracy as it was intended. Democracy is not a vehicle of capitalism. Democracy is the antithesis of capitalism. Only democracy can preserve a free market system with relatively equal access and opportunity. No capitalist wants that. Once they get in they want only to preserve, control and enlarge their share of the market. So it’s up to government, not business, to make the necessary corrections.
Capitalists attempt to equate, with some success, the requirements of democracy with the imposition of a totally new economic system — like Marxism or Socialism — to scare people into voting for people who will preserve “america’s greatness.” What they’re really doing is using their considerable influence to preserve their power and their never ending quest to make more money.
see Why Are Workers getting Paid Less
The American economy has become more ruthless, as declining unionization, increasingly demanding and empowered shareholders, decreasing real minimum wages, reduced worker protections, and the increases in outsourcing domestically and abroad have disempowered workers — with profound consequences for the labor market and the broader economy.
The reason for this imbalance is really very simple, Business owners did it because they could. Business owners did it because stockholders think they should. And that is fine in a capitalist system. And such imbalances would never have worked but for the availability of and the marketing of credit options in lieu of salary and other compensation to workers. Debt replaced wages.
And now the businesses that supply credit are inventing ever more abundant ways to sell us on more credit, which results in a playground of “investing” and gambling in the securities markets. In the end only the intermediary securities brokerage firm make any money. Don’t blame them. That is what they are supposed to be doing.
Fundamentally the problem is that as long as we cling to the view that capitalism is the government system rather than just an economic vehicle for our democracy, we will accept the party line from Wall Street which sees consumers, workers and homeowners not as victims, which they are, but as worthless individuals who are demanding undue benefits.
Take a step back. With some entrepreneurs reaching the trillionaire mark, who is getting undue benefits? We have people now that could purchase, without any help, more than 4 million homes in America at at an average of $250,000 each.
It is not an undue benefit to seek the opportunity to bargain for a fair share of American Prosperity. That opportunity does not exist with laws and policies that discourage worker unions, consumer unions and a judicial system that virtually hands the control over to the mega rich companies who are torturing consumers and especially homeowners with forfeitures and losses while the banks, as intermediaries, are making a fortune.
American law is based upon the proposition that nobody should be able to even ask for a remedy in court without there being pleading and evidence to show that that the object of their attack has done something wrong to them and that the claimant suffered injury. In the current world of securitization no such injury exists and yet we continue to pile profits onto the intermediaries that created this system. Don’t blame the banks. Hold your government accountable and wake up to the reality of a government system that is tipping toward corporate ownership and control.
All politics is local (quoting former Speaker of the US House of Representatives). This November vote for people who are committed to making your life better in concrete ways.
Filed under: foreclosure |
I knew the Great Financial Crisis was coming in early 2007. I watched and waited. When they finally starting addressing, I was glued to the TV. I expected full disclosure of the bank fraud. That is not what we got. We got a cover-up. And, Pelosi, was begged to accommodate the fake bail out. She did. Obama did. Biden did. They buried any further investigation with settlements for WHO???
And, if we continue this path, we will destroy our country completely. There will be no chance of ever returning to freedom.
Correct – it does not matter where the banksters make their money. And, do not think for a second, that it was not condoned by those in power for decades.,
@ Summer ,, You are 100% correct ,, “Bankers Said So” is the rule of the land ,, goes back to the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 … “free” money for the government to spend coupled with the weight of compounding interest over the last 100 years on every single dollar printed into existance has inevitably lead to where we are now. Since we fully decoupled from CONSTITUTIONAL money with the gold window closing inflation has run rampant, middle class wages have stagnated and actually fallen for about 40 years and the rich have just gotten richer. The bankers set up China to be the “next USA” in 1970 with Nixon/Kissinger and it accelerated through the 90’s and 2000’s … It’s OVER for them .. Trump is returning jobs to the middle class … it’ll be ugly just as the 1970’s were ugly while they were stripping jobs from us … but we’ll get through and it’ll be far better for everyone with real opportunities.
Once upon a time America had laws. Now all laws can be defined by three words: bankers said so.
I don’t blame banks. Their crimes are results of judicial and the Government corruption – plus lack of integrity.
95% of all IL Judges in Illinois obtained their jobs in corrupt manner and only serve those who pay them directly – top lawyers, banks and corporations. No surprise Chicago is sinking in crimes and full of homeless.
It was planned and paid for. I guess by Putin.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/special-report-thousands-u-judges-120502736.html
Worth reading if anyone thinks judges are not corrupt and or biased. This article relates to the injustices in the criminal and family court, but the breaches of duty, and the lack of following the rule of law are egregious. This extends far beyond the sight of average people. I have always said, judges are in many cases, working over their pay grade and jurisdiction, then too just making some of their rulings up…because they don’t like the law.
This system needs to be purged and judges need to fired-held accountable for destroying economies and people lives.
Just mt $.02…
This is all true. There are extremes to both sides, and we have reached an extreme in capitalism. However, we abused our own democracy by the giving away of American jobs to across the world. Those trade deals were highly destructive under guise of global democracy. We must be very careful to not weaken our own freedom due to very bad decisions of our past leaders. Not the least of which was the cover-up of the banking mortgage fraud. We cannot go backwards. Be careful what you ask for, and remember not one government official held anyone accountable. .