It has nothing to do with capitalism, socialism, feudalism etc. It has everything to do with the objective and universal law of accumulation and distribution of wealth! All other words are just made up motives, fake conclusions and emotions! This is why we have what we have now! It is the same process that brought down the Roman Empire and other well-built wealth re-distribution/accumulation systems. Nothing more nothing less! http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~yakovenk/econophysics/ http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~yakovenk/econophysics/animation-2.avi http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~yakovenk/econophysics/animation-1.avi Cheers, MAESTRO P.S. Besides, I know what is going to happen next!
Nope, monopolies and cartels are almost always the result of regulatory capture, not laissez faire capitalism. Sometimes it's Big Ag, Big Pharma or banks using their influence to create new laws and regs to crowd out smaller firms. At other times, it's a local group of merchants who team up with bureaucrats to disallow new competitors. This is especially true of taxis and moving services. In some places, they basically require new businesses to get the approval of all existing services before they can open shop. We haven't had anything like laissez faire since the pre-Fed, pre-income tax, pre-regulations-gone-wild days of the late 1800s. That's when we had unprecedented growth and deflation was rightfully understood as a good thing.
Oh hi, another libertarian. I bet you think that railroads or steel plants being very profitable and holding a lot of power in the market, or even Standard Oil, are all things that didn't happen in that golden era of yours. If you're going to call others ignorant, you might first want to understand the basic concept of a business being "capital intensive" and how that creates a natural moat.
Yes, Union Pacific, the Central Pacific and Northern Pacific were predictable failures given how they were subsidized and had no incentive to operate efficiently. Thanks for bringing that up. Keep believing the comic book version of history if you want, though. It's easier to buy into the public school/PBS documentary version of history than actually engage your brain and think critically.
I read your interesting original post once more, and yes, we are essentially in agreement, but there is a fine point which on reflection I would think you might also agree with. I made the observation that we are not suffering a failure of capitalism but a failure of democracy, because in fact capitalism has succeeded marvelously in the United States. It has succeeded so well in fact that the capitalists are now in charge of government. It is common knowledge that they achieved this primarily through five actions: (1) direct monetary contributions to political campaigns; (2) Virtually unfettered financing of political action groups; (3) Ownership and hence control of the mainstream media; (4) Hiring of former legislators as lobbyists, who actually draft some of the legislation that eventually gets passed; (5) A relentless campaign extolling the virtues of capitalism and the evils of socialism. All of the foregoing actions are natural to capitalists and capitalism, but none are essential. The only thing essential, by definition, is that capital and the means of production be in private hands. In that latter respect the U.S. is a shining example. In the U.S. virtually everything that can be privitized is, even the issuing of passports! Those few things not yet privitized, e.g., Social Security, are under constant attack from those who believe they too should be privitized. Even medicare is almost entirely privitized, only a small part of it, mainly the collection, regulation, and payment of fees, is in government hands. Those delivering care are virtually all in the private sector. The U.S. is not a very democratic society compared to say India. Only the legislative branch of government is elected democratically. (The Senate wasn't always such) The other two branches, the executive and the judicial, are not democratically elected. So my point is this, it is simply incorrect to say that capitalism has failed in the United States. Just the opposite is true! What people perceive as a failure of capitalism is nothing of the sort, rather it is a failure of government to hold the capitalists in check and prevent them from taking over the government. That is what I meant when I said it's not a failure of capitalism, but perhaps a failure of democracy, or better put "a failure of our democratic institutions".
I am often encouraged to read a book based on someones recommendation. This one does just that: So many words in this text that must be understood deeply, perhaps the most important being "creative destruction" and its consequences. It is the price we [society] pay for progress, and specifically technology. [Some] Corporations no longer have natural predators [due to strong allegiance with government/politicians], hence the [economic] ecosystem grows way out of whack. http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Capitalism-Capitalists-Unleashing-Opportunity/dp/0609610708 Great questions await. For example, the title of the first chapter is "Does finance benefit only the rich?"
It has nothing to do with capitalism but the failure of liberal democracy. This is what happens when individual freedom takes primacy over communal interests. It is the tyranny of the individual now and this fixation on individual freedom has evolved to an extremist state where everything which is consumable is now a "human right." The line between productivity and what is a human right has been increasingly blurred. East Asia is thriving under capitalism and will overtake the West. It's a simple function of culture, attitude and political systems. East Asia has orderly societies, and its people are well disciplined, personally and financially. The West is anarchic. Western countries are increasingly impossible to govern as they do not understand that sometimes individual rights must be subsumed to communitarian rights. Look at the West today, we have a "democracy" in shambles where extremists of the political spectrum hold the country to ransom. The US is descending into all-out civil strife, led by hate-mongering demagogues in the media and in government. The direction that America needs to take to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world economy is obvious - infrastructure, renewable energy, education - but they cannot be implemented because you will never get consensus from 300 million quarrelsome individuals spending billions every two years waging crippling political battles - money much better spent on just anything other than conflict creation. The political stability and social harmony of East Asia are conditions necessary for thriving economies - they are all but impossible to achieve in modern Western states.
Capitalism is failing because the people have figured out it was all a game. -------------------------------------------------- WRONG. Capitalism is failing because the US moved away from Capitalism a long time ago. Many think they know capitalism but they have zero clue. The basic building blocks of CAPITALISM, Land, Labor (The ability to work) and Capital Goods applied to production. ALL THESE PRIMARY FACTORS (STOCKS= Land & Labor) are to create PRODUCTION! Entrepreneurship is sometimes considered a factor of Production. You can not build a Capitalistic Society if you do not build on these solid principles. THE US HAS DESTROYED THESE VERY PRINCIPLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO FUCKING WAY a nation that produces DEBT and very little product is a Capitalist Nation. Nor is a nation a Capitalist Nation when their GDP is 70% consumer spending ie: BANKING SYSTEM, WALL STREET, FED all anti-capitalistic in by nature now a days. These three "Industries" have grown to be SOCIALISTIC BY NATURE! I happen to be involved in the very last stand in the name of Capitalism- The Oil Industry "Manufacturing/Infrastructure I am on the Capital end of the equation. The rest of the shit out there is smoke and mirrors and is coming crashing down. I was just on the phone with one of our Shipping Lines that we funded out of Spain. I was talking to the owner...he said SPAIN has 25% unemployment right now!!!!! that is about 4 Million unemployed Spaniards. SPAIN is a Debtor nation and a Consumer Nation. We are heading down the same path because the FOOLS in this country do not understand the basic building blocks for Capitalism.