CAPITALISM? NOT REALLY.

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CAPITALISM? NOT REALLY.

This article was written by Douglas Castle for The Global Futurist . The author apologizes to the female gender as a class, for he has used a "young boy" as the principal example in making his case in this writing. He is aware that there are also young girls, too, but he has only admired them from a distance (and sometimes up close), and has never actually been one. The author would like to extend his heartfelt thanks to friend and colleague Adam J. Kovitz, who recently wrote an article titled "A World Without Money" (for THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter, October, 2009, Week 2) with which the author takes some issue -- but Adam's courage in making a statement about how wrong things have begun to feel for so many Americans is the author's inspiration for this article. The author has just become aware that he is speaking in the third person, and that he sounds very pompous. 

Dear Friends:

As a young boy growing up in the United States, I was taught that democracy was the best possible form of government -- that it was ethical, that it was equitable, that it was "of the people, by the people for the people." It was a system of political organization that afforded its fortunate constituents an equal opportunity (i.e., an equal right) to prove their inequality. There was an implication of inherent meritocracy. That is, despite the circumstances of my birth, I could rise to the most-respected, wealthiest position in society, ot I could wind up in the gutter. A poor farmboy could become the president; a boy born into privilege could become the "black sheep" and join the ranks of the lowly underachievers. The "magic" was that we, each of us, had a fair and honest chance at success or failure.

Similarly, we were told that democracy's brother was capitalism, and that capitalism was what had made our country great. Capitalism was a wonderful, competitive system (rather like the noble notion of Democracy), where the most innovative, the most ingenious, the most industrious could become RICH. A poor boy could strive and succeed; he could think and grow rich; he could be lavishly compensated (and respected!) for his contribution to society. No person was barred from this great race to capture the grand prize. The government was merely a provider of certain necessary services for the benefit of the private sector, and the private sector was a breeding ground for entrepreneurship, invention and advancement. Competition was the decider.

In the United States, people still speak of "democracy" and "capitalism". But very few of these same people could define either term. And very few of these people understand the etymological distortion that occurs with the passage of time -- that "Republican" and "Democrat" no longer mean what they did thirty years ago, and that "friends" can be "enemies" depending upon the circumstances and the context...and that there are no absolutes. In fact, absolutes, which sound like "standards" are as politically incorrect as requesting that someone respond to your question with a "yes" or "no."

Getting back to the point, we have some of the vestiges of a democracy in the United States, but it seems to many doubting and increasingly restless souls that we now have a sort of "ruling class" and a "peasant class". And while the "ruling class" is small (in terms of population), it seems to be exclusive, impermeable, above the law and in control of the fate of the enormous and swollen ranks of the "peasant class". But we speak of democracy, and we are prepared to spread it throughout the world, like peanut butter or herpes -- and just like the Grand Inquisitors, we will occasionally encourage this democracy at gunpoint, with a democratic government of our very own to install where the heathens once dared to tread. Puppet governments seem to be at odds with the old spirit of democracy...but then again, etymological distortion has me twisted.

Getting back to the point and sharpening it yet further, we call our country's economic system "capitalism." Yet, it seems odd that we can have a special refined form of capitalism where there is no free enterprise; where their are tremendous barriers to industry entry and to competition; where government and the private sector (or at least parts of it) sit so close to each other at the bar, and where words like "bailout" and "subsidy" and "stimulus" are a regular part of everyday speech. There is a very unique, refined, reformulated type of capitalism that exists in the United States as I see it. It is a "capitalism " where gains are privatized and losses are socialized. Where there is awesome, unchecked and unchallenged power in the hands of a privileged few -- and where the many are called upon to make limitless sacrifices so that those few can remain in power. Where the many are called upon to pay for the mistakes of those few. Yes, my fellow Americans. We have a unique, refined, reformulated and reconstructed form of capitalism where many slaves serve a few elite masters.

If I weren't so favorably disposed toward being politically correct, I would say (but very, very quietly because any of the phone lines may be tapped without the "hinderance" of a lawfully obtained court order) that this capitalism smells a great deal like oligopoly. In my opinion, what we might be doing in calling our economic system capitalistic, is somewhat like calling horse manure chocolate mousse.

Capitalism? Not really. Not anymore.

Please don't  curse capitalism for the cloud that enshrouds our economy today. Capitalism left quite some time ago, a piece at a time (as did the spirit of The Constitution), and was replaced by oligopoly -- a political and economic system where a small number of incredibly powerful persons or entities rule over the fortunes and fates of everybody else.

I actually miss capitalism. It was a great game, with great promise. But then, that was long ago.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
BRAINTENANCE
THE NATIONAL NETWORKER
HUMANITAS MAXIMUS
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http://twitter.com/douglascastle

THE TRUTH ABOUT ETHICS AND RESPONSIBILITY IN BIG BUSINESS

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Dear Friends:

You can read a fascinating article about the modern day "Pirates Of the Caribbean" by clicking on http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15AIG.html?_r=1&hp.

A very brief synopsis follows for those of you who are impatient, or pressed for time in your struggles to find employment, pay debts and keep your lives (and sanity) together:

Breaking News Alert: The New York Times, Saturday, March 14, 2009 -- 8:23 PM ET-----

A.I.G. to Pay $100 Million in Bonuses After Huge Bailout

Despite being bailed out with more than $170 billion from theTreasury and Federal Reserve, the American International Group is preparing to pay about $100 million in bonuses to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year. [End of summary]

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After Merrill Lynch's pilferage, and numerous other widely-known and shameless acts of incredible selfishness and brazen wastefulness, this should not strike anybody as particularly unexpected. Rest assured that there will be some balking on the part of numerous regulators and the usual background white noise of the public "outcry," but that these generous rewards for fiscal irresponsibility, gross misconduct and profligate lifestyles of shameless entitlement will be paid out in full to each of the crew members. Rest assured that there will be no major civil investigations or criminal proceedings brought against any of these payees, or of the government policymakers and politicians who have failed to stop this leakage in the once-proud American Republic. The mythical character Gordon Gekko was a petty thief by comparison.

Those who have violated the basic tenets of moral decency shall be richly rewarded. Those who have been displaced, dispossed, foreclosed upon and destroyed emotionally, as well as fiscally -- perhaps the American Public At Large -- will continue to 1) be punished, and 2) to pick up the tab for the unindicted criminals and social miscreants who victimized them. Liars, thieves, con-artists, hypocrites, as well as their cadre of aiders, abetters and enablers, shall live more comfortably than ever before, while the impotent, disenchanted, war-weary people receive no relief, and ever-heightening abuse. For some, the United States was once indeed perceived as the land of opportunity. The once highly-regarded notions of fairness and justice have been exiled, leaving a sorrowful vaccuum in their wake. I am in mourning for the United States, the country that my grandparents came to to find opportunity, a fair chance at success, human dignity and constitutional justice.

Banks are getting out of the business of all consumer and commercial lending. They are cutting back on credit card credit limits, without reasonable notice and due cause, and have the unmitigated temerity to charge good, paying customers "surprise" over limit fees. New credit solicitations are going out, but they are purely a public relations ploy. If banks no longer finance either production or consumption, they are merely safe deposit deposit boxes with overly-large offices. They are worse than useless -- they are economically destructive. But their executives are being rewarded with colossal bonuses and an absence of controls, oversight or regulation. Jeez...don't you wish you owned a bank?

Insurance companies are getting out of the business of writing insurance policies or paying reasonable claims. This means that your premiums are merely an extorted, one-sided annuity for the companies that are supposed to protect you when you are ill, unable to earn income, unable to pay your bills, or to collect on debts owed you by defaulting creditors. If you become disabled or die, you cannot count on them to provide promised payments to your family to permit their survival -- and if you have a medical procedure, regardless of how critically necessary, expect to do battle with their legal counsel in order to be reimbursed for the inflated and exhorbitant costs of your treatment. Like the banks, they are in the business of stealing your money, and never returning it to you. And like the banks, their executives continue to be richly rewarded.

Automobile companies, long-known to be inefficient and low on quality, want government subsidies (and are receiving them) so that they may continue to pay out large bonuses to key individuals while they actually decrease production of automobiles and continue to layoff thousands of workers.

It has become virtually impossible to draw the line, any line, between an incompetent and ethically-compromised government, and the heads of the large corporations that control them like mad puppeteers. These carpetbaggers are filling their pockets and every other available container with all of the money that they can take.

It comes down to bahavioral psychology. Simply, when there are no rewards for ethics and responsibility, people, particularly those in power, will abandon them for other, more remunerative pursuits.

Capitalism, without any parameters of ethics and responsibility, has a propensity to self-destruct and deteriorate to a form of feudalism. It is happening today. There are even some who believe that the stage is being set for revolution in the United States. I find this prospect very frightening.

Capitalism is not the enemy, per se...it is the perpetrators, both in government and in corporate America who need to be brought to account.

Within these next few years, the only people who will be left standing in this science-fiction desertscape will be 1) the thieves and miscreants who are busily stealing at the expense of the national and global economy, and 2) the few entrepreneurs and networkers among us.

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Neither the government or the large corporations can save us. Look to the ingenuity of the entrepreneurs, the business visionaries and the newly-emerging leaders of small business and private entrepreneurship to rebuild from the rubble.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. Please click on http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com and subscribe to receive my blogs via RSS feed or by daily EMAIL. Thank you, one and all.

p.p.s. If you do not currently subscribe to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER, 1) subscribe now (it's free, and fabulous), and 2) choose wheteher you would like to receive your updates via RSS feed or by daily EMAIL. Again, thank you.

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