Is Capitalism drowning to death due to its greed and incompetence

[txlibdem]

How many "bailouts" do we, the tax payer, have to come up with till we realize that this system JUST DOES NOT WORK.

I give Capitalism 20 years till it's dead and gone.

[MrSlayer]

1. By its own nature it seems that it must.

If left unfettered it will just eat and eat until it becomes the proverbial snake swallowing its own tail. However, capitalism can work for the bulk of the people if it is strongly regulated and offset with a healthy dose of socialism. We did ok for a good forty years until Reaganomics and corporatism came along and began this descent into the Abyss.

[txlibdem]

6. I give you a penny, you are forced to give me a dollar

Then I tell you how great Capitalism is; you just got a penny! "You did ok." Meanwhile I made out like a bandit.

[DeSwiss]

2. What is happening now.....

...is the natural progression of CAPITALISM. Greed (the Capitalists) and incompetence (that would be us the ''Consumers'' as we've been redefined) are necessary traits CAPITALISM requires in order to function at all.

And it is the ''http://www.liveleak.com/view?c=1&i=f0b_1293605342">fractional banking system'' that is the greatest of all frauds within the CAPITALIST BANKING SYSTEM. It makes ''money'' out of thin air. It creates debt from nothing. The banks make ''loans of invisible money'' to us and we have to repay them for lending us ZERO, NOTHING, NADA of real value. So why is it that we owe them anything for lending us nothing?

- The only way to change what is happening to us now, is to withdraw from the CAPITALIST system and let it starve to death.

The reality is that institutional establishments, institutions of codified thought, and institutions of societal influence and power, meaning philosophies, dogmas on one hand and corporations and governments on the other, each have a high propensity to engage in denial, dishonesty, and corruption to maintain self-preservation and self-perpetuation. The result is a continuous culture lag where social progress by way of incorporating new socially-helpful scientific advancements is constantly inhibited. It is like walking through a brick wall as the established power orthodoxies continue to perpetuate themselves for their own interests and comforts.

The profit mechanism creates established orders which constitute the survival and wealth for a few groups of people. The fact is that no matter how socially beneficial new advents may be, they will be viewed in hostility if they threaten an established financially-driven institution. Meaning social progress can be a threat to the establishment. So to put this into a sentence: "Abundance, sustainability and efficiency are the enemies of profit."

Progressive advancement in science and technology which can solve problems of inefficiency and scarcity once and for all, are in effect making the prior establishment's servicing of those issues obsolete. Therefore in a monetary system corporations aren't just in competition with each other, they're in competition with progress itself. That is why social-change is so difficult within a monetary system. In other words, the established monetary system refuses to allow free-flowing change.

We have to understand that government as we know it today, is not in place for the well being of the public, but rather for the perpetuation of their establishment and their power. Just like every other institution within a monetary system. Government is a monetary invention for the sake of economic and social control and its methods are based upon self-preservation, first and foremost. All a government can really do is to create laws to compensate for an inherent lack of integrity within the social order.

In society today the public is essentially kept distracted and uninformed. This is the way that governments maintain control. If you review history, power is maintained through ignorance. ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPmHaTirnCc">Peter Joseph

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hklqkwyISuk">''All tyranny needs to gain a foothold, is for people of good conscience to remain silent.'' ~ Thomas Jefferson.

[txlibdem]

9. The incompetence on the part of the Wall Streeters and their enablers in congress and the White Hous

Those are the incompetents I wrote of.

And the height of incompetence: not jailing a single one of the crooks who destroyed so many lives from 2008 onward.

[DeSwiss]

12. Yeah, but it was our own incompetence of what was going on that allowed them to. n/t

[txlibdem]

14. Really? You knew all about credit default swaps in 2008????

You received info that you could set up a special fund, fill it with the worst junk mortgages imaginable, then bet against it???

Funny. Where was I?

[DeSwiss]

21. Yeah I did.

I even posted an article that refers to what was going to happen. I think it was late 2007 or early 2008 you can look it up in my http://journals.democraticunderground.com/DeSwiss">Journal if you choose. But that's not the point I was making. It is an overall lack of knowledge of all things financial (among other things) that I was referring to. Which is amply demonstrated daily by those who think we can correct the inherent problems built into this system.

- It. Can't Be. Fixed.

[txlibdem]

22. I withdraw my criticism - I misread your post and wholly agree with your position

Some things are too far gone to fix. Our sick (and sickening) system is one of them! Let it die and let's start anew.

[DeSwiss]

25. That's the ticket....

[txlibdem]

27. I'm a convert to the resource economy for sure

[Firebrand Gary]

3. If "Capitalism" acquires Social Security then they will have solved their problem.

That is why they have been so aggressive in privatization. Wall St cannot get enough.

[newfie11]

4. it maybe much sooner than that n/t

[blindpig]

5. No, it is in crisis because of it's endemic internal contradictions.

But it will likely not collapse on it's own, it will limp along by desperately drawing it's sustenance from the working class.

It will need to be pushed off the stage of history.

[PETRUS]

10. And I hope we accomplish that...

...while the planet is still somewhat liveable.

[blindpig]

11. We must....

we have a great responsibility.

[txlibdem]

24. I agree 100%

[econoclast]

7. Greed and fear are both required

For free markets to work well requires BOTH greed AND fear. Greed is what calls forth risk taking which is necessary for the creation of new ventures. But it MUST be tempered by fear. Fear of loosing one's capital.

Humas being human, there in never a shortage of greed. However the events of the recent years Have been brought about by a lack of fear. Call it moral hazard if you will. But governments and their institutions have over the past decade had been engaged in reducing fear. Economists and policy makers told all who would listen that "this time is different" .... "the business cycle is over" ... "The New Economy". Etc.

Moreover, they enshrined these beliefs in policy structures and regulation. In particular in the US, the regulations regarding acceptable lending standards and which types of loans were acceptable for purchase by Fnma Fhlmc and FHA. While it is true that these agencies did not actually purchase many of these loans until quite late in the process ... The salient point is that the regulations ALLOWED them to be purchased. This signaled to the market that THESE THINGS ARE SAFE! The GSEs themselves didn't HAVE to buy them because be declaring that they WOULD induced private market participants to step in and buy these loans themselves. Only late in the game, when private market participants began to exit the market, did the GSEs begin to pick up the slack and begin ramping up their own purchases of these loans.

I have looked at the prospectuses of some of the failed mortgage collateralized securities. Under the section describing the collateral they say " underwritten to the standards of FNMA". And they were. In effect declaring to potential buyers "these are things that FNMA would buy ... Why shouldn't you?"

Fear was removed from the calculus. It was all risk-free reward. Small wonder, then, that investors piled in head first. Turned out to be reward free risk.

But don't complain about overabundance of greed. That's not what got us here. It was too little fear. Brought on by the assurances of government and it's agents assuring the market that "this time it's different"

[Donald Ian Rankin]

8. No.

[Cal Carpenter]

13. Yes, and this was inevitable

and predicted as long as 150 years ago by many economic theorists.

Capitalism relies on endless expansion and growth and always results in a concentration of wealth and power. That is at the core of the theory despite the rhetoric we hear of capitalism equating to freedom and democracy and other nonsense.

We live on a finite planet with finite resources, markets and workforces. Capitalism cannot go on forever.

Capitalism is likely nearing its end game.

Whether or not it will be dead and gone in 20 years remains to be seen (it ain't gonna go down easy), but it is beyond the time that we begin examining the truth and figuring out what can come out of it.

Fortunately a lot of the legwork as far as theory and examination of history has been done. Unfortunately it has been suppressed by the dominant ideology through censorship and propaganda in our schools, media, and national myths.

Thank goodness for OWS for getting the conversation started. If that is all it accomplishes, it will be a great success.

[txlibdem]

18. That is the reason for the endless boom and bust cycles

The 1% pull their money out early before taking heavy losses and miraculously manage to be invested in just the right places when the next bubble starts.

Capitalism has died 15 times over the past 100 years. This time I think we should just pull the plug. Now is the time.

[randome]

15. The only reason we gave bailouts...

...is because Congress didn't do its damned job and regulate the economy!

Capitalism on its own -free to build and sell what you think and letting the market decide if it's any good- is not bad in itself.

Just about every country that is non-Capitalist aspires to be more like America.

There must be a reason for that.

[Nye Bevan]

16. Capitalism is by far the worst economic system there is

except for all of the others.

[DeSwiss]

28. Except the one based only upon unconditional love.

We haven't tried that one yet.

[meow2u3]

17. Capitalism must have strict rules to work

You can't change human nature, no matter how good one's intentions are. You have to have regulation in a capitalist economic system because without such rules to protect the many from the greed of the few, the selfish sociopaths will make it to the top and you have what we're going through now.

Left to their own devices, the sociopaths at the top will stop at nothing to try to rule the world. They end up rigging the game to suit themselves, and like a drug addict, won't stop unless someone stops them.

Give the greedy an inch and they'll take a mile. Oops, I take that back: give'em and inch and they'll take the world's economy down with them.

[randome]

19. I think the worst idea to couple with capitalism...

...is the idea of a frictionless economy. Fewer regulations and more money equals more power for America. But instead it's meant more power concentrated in the hands of corporations.

Regulations are essential for Capitalism to function appropriately.

[harun]

20. Corruption is killing it. Without campaign finance reform, 20 years max.

[EVDebs]

23. My bank has a $2 POS fee...can I get them to drop it ?

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2011/06/the_12cent_victory.html

[AntiFascist]

26. Capitalism is a reflection of those who make use of it....

Imagine if everyone only paid for those things that they really needed and saved all the rest of their money. Imagine also if capitalists (regular store owners as well) decided to keep prices as low as possible so that the money that was saved could go further. We would be living like socialists, but people would still have savings to draw on.

The system is ruined by those at the top taking advantage of those in the middle and at the bottom. There needs to be balance restored, and that's why we have the 99% movement.