Comments by "Michael Mappin" (@michaelmappin1830) on "Intercollegiate Studies Institute"
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@CesarGarcia-og8rz , that simply isn't true. Capitalism is not the only system that allows competent people to be free. I can't believe you said that. Capitalism is about owning for a living. It's the idea that you don't actually have to work. You can just accumulate capital and live off of other people's labour. Capitalism is literally economic feudalism.
Just like with the Monopoly board game, capitalist one to accumulate as much Capital as possible. It ends up going to the richest members of society. For example, Bill Gates is now the largest owner of Farmland in the United States. He even owns a big chunk of the Canadian Railway system. The more Capital you own, the faster your wealth grows in relation to everyone else. So now we have this situation where the riches 1% owned most of the capital on the planet. Therefore they get to make most of the decisions in regards to what is produced, how things are produced, where things are produced how much workers get paid, what kind of environment people have to labour in, Etc. That's why most things are made in China and why wages are so low. That's why they get most of the wealth produced by labour. Obviously you should get most of the wealth produced by your labour, not someone else. And by default they control the government and economic system. That's why regardless how people vote or complain, the banks keep getting bailed out, the military budget keeps expanding, Wars are unending, Etc. Under capitalism the government does not represent workers. It represents the owners of capital; the owning class.
The founding fathers were very clear that workers should be relegated to Mere spectators. All workers can do under this system is fight for Privileges and protections under the law. The capitalist class did everything they could to prevent the eight-hour day, the five-day work week, minimum wage, child labour laws, consumer safety standards, old age pensions, Etc. If they had their way, we'd still be working 16 hours a day along with nine-year-old children.
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@rogerburn5132 , how can you say that capitalism is the best system? That doesn't make any sense. Sure, the billionaires spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually on propaganda trying to convince people that it's the best system. We don't need capitalism in order to have a business, have production, aftermarket, have people selling and trading things. Capitalism allows the richest members of society to control most of the capital on Earth! That allows them to get most of the wealth produced by labour and to be able to make most of the decisions in regards to what is produced, how things are produced, where things are produced, how much workers get paid, Etc. That's why wages are so low and why most things are made in China. So why would you think capitalism is the best system? Also, it is one of the most wasteful and destructive systems ever devised. Most of the labour energy of workers ends up in the landfill while the majority of what's left over ends up in the pockets of the richest members of society. Do you have any idea how insane that is? And since you don't even need capitalism in order to have a business or production, exactly is your reason for supporting it? There are only two types of people that support capitalism. Those who have enough Capital where they don't have to work for a living. And those who have been indoctrinated by Propaganda. Here is part 1 of A six-part series on capitalist propaganda just since 19:45. I would recommend you watch all six parts: Part 1: http://youtu.be/EIk6-4KosE0
"It is reliably estimated that species extinctions now proceed at 1000 times their normal rate, and that up to 99% of the materials used in the US production process end up as waste within 6 weeks. For every ton of garbage, in turn, there are 5 tons of materials to produce it, and 25 tons extracted from nature to yield these materials."
~ .jaunimieciai.lt/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/the-cancer-stage-of-capitalism.
At this stage of the global market system’s reproduction of transnational money sequences to unheard-of volumes and velocities of transaction and growth, a systematic and irreversible destruction of planetary life-organization emerges for the first time in history. If we consider the defining principles of carcinogenic invasion and eventual destruction of a life-host, and do not avoid or deny the symptom profile in evidence, we discern a carcinogenic pattern increasingly penetrating and spreading across civil and environmental life-organization.
There are 7 defining properties of a cancer invasion which medical diagnosis recognizes at the level of the individual organism. These seven properties can now be recognized for the first time at the level of global life-organization as well. And this is the pathological core of our current
disease condition.
That is, there is:
(1) an uncontrolled and unregulated reproduction and multiplication of an agent in a host body; that
(2) is not committed to any life function of its life-host; that
(3) aggressively and opportunistically appropriates nutriments and resources from its social and natural hosts in uninhibited growth and reproduction; that
(4) is not effectively recognized or responded to by the immune system of its hosts; that
(5) possesses the ability to transfer or to metastasize its growth and uncontrolled reproduction to sites across the host body; that
(6) progressively infiltrates and invades contiguous and distant sites of its life- hosts until it obstructs, damages and/or destroys successive organs of their
life-systems; and that
(7) without effective immune-system recognition and response eventually destroys the host bodies it has invaded."
"The essence of capitalism, its raison d'être, is not to build democracy, or help working people, or save the environment, or build homes for the homeless. Its goal is to convert nature into commodities and commodities into capital, to invest and accumulate, transmuting every part of the world into its own image for its own realization. The modern capitalist imperative is simply to create more money for idle investors by any means possible. This growth is often enabled by predation on the publicly-held resources that represents real value, thereby diminishing the community's ability to sustain itself in the long run. Forests are clear-cut; public utilities are privatized; social programs are gutted; and so on. The net result is that the quality of life for the vast majority of the world's citizens has declined." ~ Michael Parenti
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@rogerburn5132 , capitalism is not merely selling the product of your labour. If you write a book and you sell it in the market, that is not capitalism. If you grow vegetables in your garden and sell them in the market, that is not capitalism. Capitalism is only about 250 years old and didn't exist prior to the Scientific Revolution and enclosure movement. It was the Scientific Revolution and enclosure movement that actually made capitalism possible in the first place. The conversion to capitalism was extremely violent and bloody because people had to be forced off of the land and separated from the resources before they would tolerate and submit to wage slavery. Back then wage slavery was considered to be almost as bad as chattel slavery.
And no, the workers and consumers do not get to decide what is produced, how things are produced, where things are produced, Etc. That's a luxury that belongs mostly to the upper 1%.
In order for a company to be capitalist, not only does it have to be privately owned, they have to be capitalizing on other people's labour for profit. Otherwise, it's not capitalism. If merely selling the product of one's labour was capitalism, that would mean that capitalism existed prior to the Scientific Revolution, dating back 500 years. Markets and production existed long before capitalism. Plato and Aristotle absolutely despise the markets because they allocate scarce resources to the wealthiest members of society. Market started appearing shortly after the Egger cultural revolution 12 to 13 thousand years ago.
Capitalism is a completely new concept. It's the religion that says the richest members of society can basically own all the capital on the planet and then charge access and usage fees. Because they almost the capital, the vast majority of people on the planet have no choice other than to sell their labour for a fraction of what it's actually worth. That is modern slavery. That's what the enclosure movement was about. Putting people in a state of dependency so they would be forced to work in capitalist factories. And then, the capitalist class can then store the labour energy of other people in the form of money. They can do that in perpetuity. You see, there is a reason that John Locke came up with the concept of labour theory of ownership. Basically, if you don't work for it, you can't own it. People should only be entitled to the wealth they actually work for! But capitalism is the concept of being able to accumulate wealth without working. That is the main function of capitalism. The capitalist imperative is the maximization of capital accumulation for the purpose of extracting wealth from labour. It's the concept of owning for living rather than working for a living. That's why the owning class likes to make jokes like, don't work hard for your money, make your money work hard for you. Another favourite of theirs is, if you can't find a way to make money while you're sleeping, then you're actually going to have to get a job!
There are billionaires that are making hundreds of thousands of dollars per second. Per second. Not per minute. And that's just from their Capital Holdings! Where do you think that money comes from? There was a guy that won the lottery a few months back. He has his money in a low-interest savings account. He's getting $6,000 a day just from the interest! LOL. And unless he spends more than $6,000 a day, he'll be making even more money with every passing minute. If you have to work 40 hours a week, well now you know why. If you want to know why labor-saving technology has introduced working hours, well that's why. Every time you get a blood test, buy toothpaste, wipe your rear end with toilet paper, you have to pay some billionaire for the privilege. And that individual will then pass that privilege onto his children and his children's children. His entire family line from this point never have to work. They can make thousands of dollars a day and live off of other people's labour. Basically, they're living in a world where basic Commodities are free. They can go into any restaurant and get served. They can go into any car dealership and buy a car that other people had to make.
Anyway, worker-owned companies are not capitalists. They are a form of Socialism. A form of collectivism. The company is collectively owned and democratically operated. The workers are doing their own work. They're not capitalizing on other people's labour. And that is more conducive to a free-market and thriving economy because when the wealth is going to the workers they spend that into the economy. That creates more demand. The economy expands. The labour theory of ownership. If they produce $70,000 worth of wealth with their labour, they are now entitled to $70,000 worth of consumption. That's how a free-market works. That's what Adam Smith meant when you talked about free markets and the Invisible Hand. He do that economic democracy was necessary. Under capitalism Market is free for the capitalist owners.
You see, what are the central goals of Economics is to achieve equilibrium. Capitalism is an anti economic system. You can't achieve equilibrium when you have production output expanding many times faster than income. It's just insane. That's the problem with silly religions. And the capitals class has to spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually disseminating Pro capitalist propaganda in order to keep people believing in that silly religion.
Can you imagine if you were a brown-eyed person and some blue-eyed individual came up to you and said that we should have a law where the blue-eyed people get to own most of the capital on the planet and thereby get most of the wealth produced by labour? What would you say to that? You should be entitled to most of the wealth produced by your labour. Not someone else. Pretty smart religion. Because when you control the capital you control everything else by default.
And of course there's a huge amount of corruption under capitalism. That's what happens when you have hierarchical systems of organization that are extremely undemocratic. Corruption is guaranteed. It's almost like saying that the combustion engine isn't responsible for exhaust.
Crony capitalism is just capitalism. And this is why https://youtu.be/L0Sr9lupjNA
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@lobotomizedamericans , Michael Parenti once said that wealth was one of the worst addictions.
Yeah, I stopped reading James's comments a long time ago. I see the first line or two, but as you point out, there's no need to expand the comment because you know everything he's going to say is complete nonsense. And he lies. And he's a disgusting hypocrite. He will criticize someone up and down for something they didn't do, and then, five minutes later, he'll go and do the exact same thing himself! He basically accuses other people of all the things he does. He says that he hates governments but yet he behaves just like the American government. Just lie, doesn't matter if you're caught, doesn't matter what the evidence is, just lie anyway. And always accuse the other side of evils that you do or are planning to do. 😀
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@jamesolivito4374 , morality is a problem for capitalism, not socialism. Socialism is a bottom-up, democratic non-hierarchical system of organization. When workers own and control their own means of production and have equal voting power, corruption is almost impossible. If you were to try to be greedy or dishonest, your fellow workers wouldn't think too kindly of you. And since worker-owned companies are tied to the community, if workers decided to cut safety standards or use harmful ingredients in their products, the community wouldn't look too favourably on them either. Individuals are not going to poison their own environment and the children of their neighbours.
Look at all the Socialist companies in the United States. What does the data show? Not only do you not have to worry about corruption or greed or destruction of the environment, workers are happier, more efficient, more Innovative, there's less than two days of mental illness, workers take fewer sick days, there's less incidence of substance abuse, Etc.
You see, bottom-up systems of organization are not prone to corruption the way top down systems are.
Capitalism guarantees corruption! In fact, people don't do everything they can to compete, then they're more corrupt competitors will end up dominating market shares.
Capitalism is prone to corruption because those are the top have extreme power over those underneath. Capitalism allows the richest members of society to own most of the capital. That gives them massive power over workers and government. Those who own most of the capital get most of the wealth produced by labour. That's why the riches 1% now has almost as much wealth as the poorest 91% of the American population. The two richest people, all by themselves, have almost as much wealth as the poorest half of the American population.
When workers own and control their own means of production democratically, you have most things being made at home and most of the wealth going to the workers who spend that money into the economy.
When rich people control the Capital, they get most of the wealth produced by labour and most things end up being made in China.
If you're worried about greed and morality, then socialism the ideal system. Capitalism is definitely not the system you want to have. You can't give massive control over the world, the economy and the government to a small Rich minority. Research has shown that a lot of these extremely wealthy capitalists are actually sociopaths. As it turns out, the less empathy a person has the more likely they are to be successful at outcompeting their competitors. You end up with the concentration of sociopaths at the top of the Apex because it's precisely those types of individuals that are mostly attracted to power and wealth.
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It's very simple. Capitalism is economic feudalism. Under this system most of the capital ends up being owned by the richest members of society. So not only do they get most of the wealth produced by labour, they get to make most of the decisions in regards to what is produced, how things are produced, where things are produced, how much workers get paid, Etc.
And what is the consequence? Most things are made in China and most people can no longer afford a family on a single income. Before the pandemic there are 40 million Americans depended upon food stamps in order to survive. That's more people than the entire population of Canada. And that's because with every passing day more and more of the GDP ends up going to the owners of capital rather than the actual citizens and workers. That has resulted in the richest 1% owning almost as much wealth as the poorest 91% of the American population. The two richest people, all by themselves, have almost as much wealth as a poorest half of the American population. The 8 richest people have almost as much wealth as the poorest half of the Earth's population!
However, if we had most of our GDP coming from worker-owned companies and factories, then most things would be produced at home rather than a third world country. Most of the wealth would flow to the workers who would spend that money into the economy. That's why socialism is actually more conducive to a free-market and thriving economy. Labor-saving technology would serve to reduce working hours while increasing prosperity for everyone. That would also make it easier for people to start their own small businesses because the be more demand for coffee, Pizza, beer, trips to the bowling alley, Etc.
For example, there's a socially own bread factory in the United States where the assembly line workers make between 65 and $70,000 a year. That's because they own the product of their labour. How much does a an assembly line worker make at Walmart or Amazon? 20000? Which workers are going to create more demand in the economy? Obviously it's the people making 70,000 a year.
Worker-owned companies are tied to the community. They make workers and communities less dependant upon the government and exploitive of capitalist corporations.. They decentralize power.
And because there's hundreds of thousands of worker-owned companies around the world, because we have data going back almost 100 years, we know exactly how well they compare and measure up to capitalist modes of production. Not only are workers more efficient, more creative, they also have better mental help. There's less incidence of depression, substance abuse, workers take fewer sick days, Etc.
https://youtu.be/-VdbFzwe8fQ
Capitalism is actually an anti economic system. One of the central goals of Economics is to achieve equilibrium. How can you achieve equilibrium when the main goal is to maximize profit by keeping wages as low as possible while getting workers to produce as much as possible? So, literally, the more successful the capitalist company is, the less purchasing power workers have! One of the reasons why there's so much debt. It should be obvious that it's not viable to have an economic system where production output increases at a faster rate than income. Especially when jobs are tied to consumption. And of course pumping credit into the system will keep people consuming temporarily, but ultimately the interest attached will serve to reduce purchasing power even further in the future. People call that economics?
Economics comes from the word economy, the absence of waste. But capitalism is one of the most wasteful and destructive systems ever devised. Ninety-nine percent of the materials we extract from nature for production end up in the landfill after only six months! 99%! We should have been able to cut working hours and half a long time ago. But because capitalism drives wages down work, people remain depended upon a 40 Hour Work Week even though it's no longer necessary to work that long to produce all of the goods and services required by Society. That's also why planned obsolescence isn't necessary feature of the capitalist system, along with fractional Reserve banking.
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@bluessoul1286 , what does any of that have to do with the type of socialism that Richard Wolff is talking about? What does that have to do with the fact that worker-owned companies and factories are better for workers?
And do you have any idea what the United States was like before the labour movement? Back in the days of Rockefeller, JPMorgan, Carnegie, Etc? It was hell on Earth! You had nine-year-old children working 17 hours a day, 7 days a week! Laborers were often worked to death. Thousands of people would die everyday because there were no consumer safety standards, no labour laws, Etc. Do you have any idea how many people had to fight and die in order to achieve the eight-hour day, the five-day work week?
"In fact, we did practice something close to a pure capitalism in 1893. The result was economic depression and widespread unemployment, nine-year-old children working fourteen-hour days, typhoid and cholera epidemics in Philadelphia and other eastern cities, malnutrition and tuberculosis, and contaminated water and food supplies for the poor.
We had uninhibited environmental devastation and horrible work conditions, no pension programs or minimum wage, no occupational or consumer safety regulations, no prohibitions against child labor, and no Social Security, collective bargaining, or industrial unionism. We had unrestrained monopolies and trusts – and enormously high profits.
Conditions in the United States in 1893 were not unlike what they are today through much of the Third World. But for the capitalists of that era, these dismal conditions were not seen as evidence of the system's failure. For them, capitalism in the good old days was working quite well. Success was measured not by the quality of food, drinking water, housing, schools, transportation, and health care, but by the rate of capital accumulation.
The function of capitalism then and now has been to invest capital in order to accumulate more capital, and in that sense the system has performed superbly, for those who own and control it.
Today, the conservative goal is the Third Worldization of America, to reduce the U.S. working populace to a Third World condition, having people work harder and harder for less and less. This includes a return to the "free market,” free of environmental regulations, free of consumer protections, minimum wages, occupational safety, and labor unions, a market crowded with underemployed labor, so better to depress wages and widen profit margins.
Conservatives also seek the abolition of human services and other forms of public assistance that give people some buffer against free-market forces. Underemployment is a necessary condition for Third Worldization. Alan Budd, professor of economics at the London Business School candidly observed (Observer, June 21, 1992) that the Thatcher government's cuts in public spending were a cover to bash workers: ”Raising unemployment was a very desirable way of reducing the strength of the working classes. What was engineered was a crisis in capitalism, which recreated a reserve army of labor, and has allowed the capitalists to make high profits ever since.” With underemployment and poverty come the return of turbeculosis, homelessness, and hunger, and a sharp increase in the number of people who work at nonunion, low-paying, dead-end poverty-level jobs.
The essence of capitalism, its raison d'être, is not to build democracy, or help working people, or save the environment, or build homes for the homeless. Its goal is to convert nature into commodities and commodities into capital, to invest and accumulate, transmuting every part of the world into its own image for its own realization."
~ Michael Parenti
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