Occupy This!

[GliderGuider]

Note to mods: my own writing.

If global industrial capitalism has a Prime Directive, it is “Grow or Die”. To achieve this modest goal, modern corporations work tirelessly to cast off any regulation that might impede their growth. Constraints on borrowing, restrictions on the international flow of profits, environmental regulations, unions, minimum wage laws and other forms of workers’ rights are among the impediments they seek to evade, along with the law of nature decreeing that infinite growth is impossible on a finite planet.

This precept is fairly well recognized, especially by the "ecologists of civilization" and the Left in general. However, modern capitalism operates under a Second Directive that is equally important, though less recognized. The Second Directive can be stated simply in one word: “Concentrate”.

In this context, “to concentrate” means to direct corporate wealth to flow into as few hands as possible. Since wealth is really just the monetary abstraction of power, this imperative means that power and money flow up together from the base of the economic pyramid (aka Us, the 99%) to the tip (aka Them, the 1%). This “trickle-up” process manifests itself in ever-widening wage disparities and the interlocking trans-national networks of corporate ownership at the level of their Boards of Directors.

Either of the principles of corporate growth or the concentration of wealth and power is socially harmful by itself, but together they amplify each other in a continuous feedback loop. The more an enterprise grows, the more power is available to be concentrated, and the more concentrated the power becomes the easier it is to ensure continued growth. Together these imperatives work hand in glove to create a complex, malignant, metastatic brew that has poisoned the world’s finances, our environment and our social fabric simultaneously.

Other hierarchical socioeconomic frameworks from feudalism to fascist corporate dictatorships have exhibited such behaviour in the past. Capitalism’s unique claim to fame is that it has become the most efficient, effective mechanism yet devised to turn the world’s resources (from air and water to metals, plants, animals and other human beings) into waste for the benefit of an ever-shrinking power elite.

The power elite have a lock on the political and legal systems, giving them the built-in guarantee that the teeth of regulation will be pulled before they can bite. In addition, their control of politics and the law assures the power elite's access to the legal use of violence, gving them the means to defend their position “vigorously”.

In a cunningly diabolical move, the power elite has also infiltrated education systems world-wide. Thanks to that surreptitious influence most of us have been turned into compliant consumption engines, ardent supporters of the existing system who celebrate its ability to fulfill the needs it has itself created. It has become difficult for most people even to see there is a problem, let alone recognize the extent to which our society has been suborned by those who claim to be managing it in our best interest.

These effects are equally visible in the industrialized, “democratic” West as in places like Russia and China where state capitalism is now the norm.

“OK, so the system sucks,” I hear you say. “Well, bright guy, what are we going to replace it with? After all, most of the other systems humanity has tried over the centuries have done even worse.”

What might we replace it with? That depends very much on how and when the current system fails, and how much of the world’s natural and human capital have been ground into waste by the engines of progress before that happens. It’s very hard to predict an outcome and even harder to force a change - even if the direction we needed to go was obvious.

Hard doesn’t mean impossible, though - the future is inherently and endlessly surprising. For now, we need to awaken as best we can those around us who are still sleeping, rebuild our solidarity and mutual trust down here at the base of the power pyramid, and encourage each other to remain steadfast in our commitment to an ideal – that a more just, compassionate, cooperative and sustainable world is our true birthright.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. Infinite expansion models can run into trouble.

Hitler failed with logistics when he thought to attack Russia...and also because of the Russian soul. Rome expanded too far and collapsed back in upon itself. A model of infinite consumption eventually must feed upon itself.

You are correct however that a sustainable "kings and queens" model has been initiated against the world, one in which the top eaters would laugh at all of the disposable serfs and peons, and enjoy keeping them in fear, for fun.

You are also correct that things are changing, rapidly, and sleep is no longer an option. America may not end up a financial powerhouse yet still find a new compassion and need to take care of each other. This is already beginning, and it is a model of living in its own way. This idea is already being seeded into the many, and anything less than that will have to be forced upon us. Not that we'll allow it.

[Amonester]

2. "What might we replace it with?"

First and foremost: separation of big money interests and public interests. By law.

Until that step is implemented EVERYWHERE (including ALL fiscal 'paradises'), no other 'effective enough' measure (like Medicare For All in the U.S., for example, for a start) can be.

My suggestion:
#1. End corporate welfare.
#2. Use all the people's tax-money saved with #1 to pass, implement, and fund a Public Campaign Funding Act that OUTLAWS all bribes.
#3. USE the power of the FCC to issue LICENSES to mass-media corporations to allow FREE air-time to PUBLIC-SERVANTS wannabe pols EQUALLY divided from all official parties. No FREE air-time? NO LICENSE!

First things first.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

3. Whoa, Nelly!

Magnificent!

[GliderGuider]

5. Thanks!

:hug:

[Fantastic Anarchist]

6. Credit where credit is due!

:toast: :hug: :fistbump: :pals: :headbang: :yourock:

[GliderGuider]

4. The role of interest in the unfolding crisis

The core flaw in our monetary system, the one that makes indefinite growth inevitable despite its impossibility, is that it allows those who hold money to rent it to the community at interest. This means that the money accumulates into the hands of the people who receive more interest than they pay from the larger population of people who pay more interest than they receive. Because the money tends to pool into ever few hands, the entire system must grow by exploiting ever more resources. Growth allows commerce to continue by keeping those who pay interest from becoming progressively more and more impoverished.

This expansionary model can only be temporary. It works as long as there were 'new worlds' to exploit. Unfortunately, there are no new worlds left to exploit any more. As a result our expansion is slowing to a halt. As it winds down, the inevitable impoverishment of those who pay interest is gradually becoming apparent.

Essentially we are now living in a bimodal economy: the 99% are experiencing deflation (there is less and less money in "our" part of the economy) , while the 1% are experiencing inflation as more and more money pours into "their" part of the economy. Deflation raises the relative price of everything for the 99%. Most notably, it raises the price of food. And according to this study, http://sapkotac.blogspot.com/2011/08/does-high-food-prices-cause-political.html">rising food prices are a sure and certain trigger for social unrest and revolution.

Change will come, as it always has. wWat form it will take in impossible to predict, except for the general statement that it will bring hardship to many. The best bulwark against that sort of hardship is community. It's time to find (or found) our tribes.