We Are Between Capitalism and Communism
If the start of the Democratic Party Presidential Primary Debates is a shape of things to come its pretty uninspiring, or to quote the Donald, boring.
A remark from one of the candidate’s, can’t remember who, was about the need to restrain the power of big corporates.
At this point I yelled; it’s too late you fool, the window of opportunity has passed so that train’s pulled out of the station.
Look at the rise of the multi billionaires since the late eighties, early nineties, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Sergey Brin with companies like Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon, Facebook and Google.
The Facebook founder funds a lot of causes like education and immigration reform, also sponsoring many Silicone Valley Tech initiatives.
Remember, apart from these modern day billionaires we’re not taking into consideration the old money of some of the U.S. and the world’s richest families going back generations.
The trouble with excessively wealthy individuals is high net worth works hand in hand with the desire to shape society in their own image.
The bottom line is wealth allows them to buy influence of the unequal kind.
Philanthropy is just another word for advancing pet causes often diametrically opposed to the public interest.
Also the wealthy diversify their interests by acquiring companies across the board expanding their influence further.
Examples like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post or Microsoft’s Bill Gates rumored to be a major shareholder of Genetically Modified Food and Chemical giant Monsanto.
Obviously politics isn’t immune with wealthy donors funding political parties and candidates to the tune of millions, not forgetting the army of ‘special interest groups’ who petition government behind closed doors, bags of incentives in-hand.
Why Capitalism isn’t controlled
The left has a strange attitude toward unrestrained capitalism, sure they make appropriate noises about reining it in now and then, but one is left with the distinct impression they don’t mean business.
Elizabeth Warren’s remark about the need to break up Google limiting its power was pure theater, even jumped on by one of the company’s senior executives who made it clear she didn’t agree, stressing big companies have far more resources than smaller ones to meddle in the U.S. elections to ’stop Trump’.
The fact Google is a major sponsor of the Democratic party puts paid to ideas like Warren’s.
And here’s the thing, because big capitalists support Democrats policies they have no interest in limiting their undue influence.
Sure Dems would be happy with the redistribution of some of that dough but it still doesn’t detract from the reality their overall objectives line up with those of the oligarchy.
But most of all the uber- wealthy class is the overlord of both America’s political parties and they nurse the ambition to be the overlord of the State.
In what is known as the political-big business revolving door, a steady stream of personnel move between government regulation departments and businesses affected by these regulations speaking volumes about the covert alliance between big business and the state.
A spider’s web network of philanthropic foundations and non-governmental organizations with big budgets create huge conflicts of interest and blur the distinction between business, civil society and government.
Caught between two Big C’s
It’s assumed we have only two choices pick either Capitalism or Communism and be done with.
By criticizing Capitalism its assumed one is a de facto communist and vice versa.
But where do such perceptions come from?
I’d hazard an educated guess and say Capitalism and Communism are rich men’s tools.
If we reject unlimited capitalism because it’s a threat we should reject the revolutionary workers’ paradise also because most, if not all revolutions are rich men’s ones with Party names and objectives just variations of the revolutionary theme.
If communism is seizing the means of production than unregulated capitalism Is buying up everything in sight until the means of production is in private hands.
Or private slash government hands as in Fascism.
How did we get here?
Well in just two words, unregulated capitalism.
This and some other things like privatization, private and corporate greed, endless company acquisitions and mergers, corruption, rampant consumerism, with the interconnectedness of capitalism, civil society and government making it difficult for anyone to escape the grid.
Bill Clinton’s to Blame
In 1999, Bill Clinton’s Administration along with congressional Republicans passed the most sweeping banking deregulation bill in U.S. History.
It just about lifted all restraints on the giant monopolies dominating the financial system.
Called the Financial Services Modernization Act, it eliminated restrictions on the integration of banking, insurance and stock trading called for by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 following the Great Depression.
Before that, banks and others were barred from entering each other’s industries with investment and commercial banking separate entities.
The Wall Street Journal wrote at the time; “With the stroke of the president’s pen, investment firms like Merrill Lynch & Co. and banks like Bank of America Corp., are expected to be on the prowl for acquisitions.”
The vice president of Independent Community Bankers of America warned; We’re moving to an oligopolistic situation.”
But the reason for the bills success was due to the biggest campaign lobbying in history by the financial industry.
Most of all, the bill tied the banking system and the insurance industry more directly to the volatile US stock market, guaranteeing any significant plunge on Wall Street would have an immediate and catastrophic impact throughout the US financial system.
And the rest as they say is history.
Where to from here?
We’ve arrived at the place called Advanced Capitalism, basically it’s the final stage of Capitalism characterized by concentration of ownership and increased State intervention in the economy as it lurches from crisis to crisis.
Recognize us anywhere?
But there’s much more, we are en route to a transition to Socialism then to Communism.
Don’t believe me?
Here’s an interesting bit of information you may not know, the individual credited with the philosophy of advanced capitalism was renowned Italian Communist, Antonio Gramsci.
Proving Capitalism and Communism are really different sides of the same coin, or different methods of arriving at the same destination with a return ticket.
Gramsci identified the signs of Capitalism in its last stages as financial, political and cultural control of society by a class of wealthy elites making revolution improbable.
The problem is Capitalism has come to the end of its life cycle so a replacement system has to be put in place.
Look around, outside of the Tech Industry people are being retrenched left, right and center.
The Banking Industry used to be the most stable to work for, before the banking crisis that is, but recently Deutsche Bank announced they’re laying-off 20 000 employees.
But retrenchments are happening every day and everywhere right now.
The problem is there’re not enough jobs to go around for the skilled, never mind the unskilled.
In about ten years plus, minus, many public and private sector jobs will be taken over by robots and that’s why the tech industry is flourishing; someone has to do the programming.
The cost of living is on the up and up regardless of people’s circumstances.
It’s recognized Capitalism won’t destruct by itself even if in decline because it can be kept alive artificially by manipulation.
So it’ll have to be ended by some orchestrated crisis or other.
In the U.S. barring revolution, this might be the opportunity for the ruling class to consolidate power in a socialist type dictatorship.
Polls indicate 28% of Democrat has veered far left, backing a Presidential candidate more progressive than Obama, so coupled with the 65% who support his progressive policies to the tee, that’s a whole lot of left right there.
Only the remaining 7% of Dems would like a Presidential candidate less liberal than Obama, making them a tiny centrist minority in a former moderate party that’s now 93% Progressive.
