Capitalism is a rotting Corpse~

[Pharaoh]

Time to bury it and find a new way.:dem:

[closeupready]

1. So make a suggestion...

?

[The_Commonist]

2. I call it Commomizm

It starts with the notion that we are all in this together.

[izquierdista]

3. It still has its uses

Just like a rotting corpse can be used for fertilizer.

Capitalism works for non-essentials: towels, tomatoes, trowels, tampons, turnips, tissues, things you can buy at a swap meet. In fact capitalism is nothing more than a big swap meet. For the really important things, transportation, education, medical care, electricity, there needs to be some planned distribution system to make sure everyone has access and can afford it. That is where **centralized planning** comes in, you know, the kind of things that governments everywhere except the United States try to do well for their citizens.

[MineralMan]

4. OK. What's your idea for how such a thing might be

accomplished. It's easy to say that we should eliminate capitalism. Without a plan, it's just idle talk, though. So, how do you want to start this rather large project?

[leftstreet]

18. That question is strange

If I'm pounding my leg with a mallet would you say "But what other instrument could you bludgeon yourself with?"

:shrug:

[MineralMan]

19. How is it strange? If capitalism is to be abolished, there must

be some way that makes that happen. I'm asking for the way the OP plans to accomplish the job.

[MineralMan]

5. I know. I have a really, really large quartz crystal.

Let's take it to the Library of Congress and pass it over the Constitution they have on display there. What do you think?

[ncguy]

6. This should interesting

So, what should our laws be?

Is private property going to be allowed?

Are people allowed to contract?

To join together in partnerships?

[SteveM]

7. Sure it isn't just vaudeville? nt

[Vidar]

8. The way we do it, it certainly is.

[formercia]

9. Someone who will give us a square deal.

;)

[NightWatcher]

10. Captialism is a Cancer and it has reached the terminal stage

as Edward Abbey so put it,

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell

[lame54]

11. Actually the SCOTUS just gave it huge dose of chemo

[NightWatcher]

12. (to extend the metaphor) chemo kills good and bad cells

and strong, entrenched cancers use it as an opportunity to spread

[paulsby]

22. no, you have it all wrong

the white race is a cancer.

cmon.

oh, i'm sorry, this isn't susan sontag?

just another anti-capitalist know-nothing?

nevermind (tm) cheddar

[Gregorian]

13. No. Greed is. Bartering is all we have.

I've got vegetables, you've got cloth, let's work this out so we both have something.

But then someone found something that everyone wanted. And when they had more money than everyone else, they had power.

There isn't anything wrong with the concept, just the users.

[HughBeaumont]

14. I wish we actually practiced it.

We're using Friedman Unbridled Corporatism, which seems to contain the worst elements of Fascism and Capitalism turned up to 11 in all the wrong directions.

Mere "Profit" isn't good enough anymore. It's got to be obscene profit all of the time, or bye, bye 2 to 4 thousand workers.

[PinkoDonkey]

15. Yes, but a zombie corpse.

It keeps coming back and asking for "BRAAAAAINZ" (and oil).

So we need an alternative that is neither "capitalism with a human face" nor a return to twentieth century state socialism.

We agree. I just don't trust the corpse to stay in the ground.

[jotsy]

16. Thought I was trying to say something similar,

It was straight to the bottom of the basement for me, glad to see someone getting action on a thread.

[harkadog]

17. You are on the wrong side of history

Anyone who travels knows that capitalism is flourishing in the developing world.

[The_Commonist]

20. Capitalism is a great way to move products and services...

...but it makes for a lousy State religion.

That being said, there is really only one way to stem the damage that capitalism has caused.
And that is for each of us, every single day, to be responsible consumers.
That means that we have to carefully consider each and every purchase that we make.
There are tools, such as organizations and various websites that we can use to help us make our purchasing decisions, and we have to build new tools to make it easier.
It means that we have to be consistent.

One way to start is for each of us to pick certain companies that we will never buy things from, or media outlets that we will never lend our eyeballs to.
For example - News Corp. is the propaganda arm of the right-wing, and yet, as much as people around here complain about it, they willingly give News Corp. their money.

I used to have a link in my sig line to my band's MySpace page.
MySpace is owned by News Corp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace

In order for me to be consistent, I have decided that my band will no longer have a MySpace presence.
We've removed the link to MySpace from the materials that we distribute, and we are in the process of removing our content and eliminating the page altogether.
This decision is certainly made easier by the fact that MySpace sucks and is dead anyway.

Another decision that I have made, is to never see the movie Avatar.
It is now the highest grossing film of all time, and it was made by 20th Century Fox, a News Corp. company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_%282009_film%29


There was a thread here a while ago about Avatar, and people were saying things like "If you let politics make your entertainment decisions for you, you are lost."
If that's how you feel, so be it.
Feed the beast.
Bread and circuses all the way to the concentration camp.


The other side of being responsible consumers is to be responsible workers.
Do you work for the New York Post?
Another News Corp. company?
You are part of the problem.
Which is exactly what I told a good friend of mine.
He was long conflicted about it, and eventually quit his well-paying job taking photos of accident scenes that enriched Rupert and pals.
He took a big financial hit, but earned beaucoup karma points, and was much happier for his decision.
I was proud of my friend, and I haven't talked to him in a while.
I think I'll call him today.

We all have choices to make, and we pay the price for our choices.
We can't wait for "legislation" to get us out of the mess we are in.
We have to do it ourselves, each and every day, with every dollar that we spend, and every dollar that we earn.

Next step for me?
Joining the local community credit union, rather than use the Chase on the corner.
My wife has banked at a credit union for over a decade.
It's a bit of an inconvenience, but well worth it...

What are you gonna do?

[paulsby]

21. we've heard this crap before

from chicken littles. they say it all the time, but their chirping becomes louder during recessions and depressions

they haven't learned from history and never will

fortunately, they are all sound and fury, braying endlessly, but achieving nothing.

capitalism works. it works better than any other economic system ever developed

[The_Commonist]

23. Yet...

it works better than any other economic system ever developed - yet.

[paulsby]

25. true

i'm not saying there is not a yet UNdiscovered superior alternative.

[Pharaoh]

27. If you happen to be

on top of the pyramid...

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

24. Capitalism would work better if the regulators weren't corrupt.

[blindpig]

26. Regulation just makes work for the capitalist's lawyers

as has been proven time and again they will game the system, pretty easy to do when you own the law writers.

We must tear it down.