We live in a world of brutal Capitalism, where money largely runs our lives in political systems of capitalism exploitation whether it be Chinese Communism, American Democracy, Singapore Tolerationism , Brazilian Corruption, Venezuelan Socialism Russian Pictorialism, North Korean Isolationism, money rules the roost.

Today our culture celebrates money and wealth as the benchmarks of success.

“The dominant class at the world level . . . has become the enemy of all humanity.”    

Capitalist society is indelibly marked by structural violence, as the vast inequalities in wealth and access to which it gives rise lead small minorities to be overwhelmingly privileged, while large groups of others are prevented from meeting their basic needs.

In a recent post I stated that if we define the future as a time that looks different from the present, then most people aren’t expecting any future at all.

Why?

Because radical change cannot be advanced within the capitalist framework we have at the moment.

Poverty is deepening and the gap between rich and poor is growing.

About one in four Americans already lives in real poverty.

Capitalism’s periodic crises always increase poverty.

Even a cursory examination of the depth of human suffering perpetuated historically and contemporarily by the hegemony of capital should lead disinterested observers to agree that the catastrophic scale of violence for which this system is responsible can be considered nothing less than genocidal, however shocking such a conclusion might prove to be.

What is today is beyond comprehension is the puzzling consent granted to this system by large swathes of the world’s relatively privileged people – specifically, those residing in the imperial core of Europe and the United States in light of the ever-worsening climatic and environmental crises.

A serious commitment to end poverty and its costly social effects requires us to face that capitalism has always reproduced widespread poverty as the other side of profits for a relative few.

Here are a few horrendous supporting facts:

Obesity taking the place of hunger as a problem in modern capitalistic countries.

216,000 farmers committed suicide between 1997 and 2009, largely out of desperation over crushing debts they accumulated following the introduction of genetically-modified seed crops, as demanded by the transnational Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS, 1994)

Merely consider the millions who succumb to AIDS on the African continent each year or the other millions who perish in the region annually due to lack of medical treatment for complications within pregnancy or conditions such as diarrhea and malaria, themselves catalyzed by pre-existing background malnutrition.

The capitalist pharmaceutical industry, which famously and “logically” invests an overwhelming percentage of its research and development funds in highly profitable schemes for lifestyle drugs directed at first-world consumers.

Societies subjected to the rule of capital since its historical emergence – and that particularly felt by the world’s presently impoverished social majorities – is, instead of being an aberration or distortion of market imperatives, central and inherent to the division of society along class lines and the enthronement of private property.

The ever-increasing annual death toll for which capital-induced climate destabilization is responsible will merely cause the overall number of 10 million annual preventable deaths to burgeon, leading ultimately perhaps to the deaths of “millions – or even billions,” in what may well develop into the extermination of humanity altogether.

Do we care? Not really.

Most people’s worldviews currently reflect the values of capital,” at least within more affluent northern societies, and that capitalism proceeds with its genocidal proclivities while enjoying “the apparent consent of a significant portion of the world’s population.”

We are well on the road whether through impending nuclear war, environmental collapse or a combination of these two to extermination.

We all missing the point.

Our economic problems go far beyond rich bankers, too big to fail financial institutions, hedge funds billionaires, off shore tax avoidance or any other particular outrage.

Market capitalism is broken. For the past decades, finance has turned away from its traditional role. Only a fraction of the money makes it into mainstream Business.

THE MAJORITY OF LENDING IS AGAINST EXISTING ASSETS. MAKING THE RICHER RICHER.

THERE IS NO SUCH THINK AS FREE MARKETS. THEY ARE STATE DRIVEN- DIRECT MARKETS.

We are in desperate need of a new and more inclusive style of Capitalism to enable long-term decisions.

As the Pope recently said; And I quote, ” idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy” in which ” man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption. ”

By engaging in mindless consumerism, thus perpetuating the vicious cycle.

The unintended consequences of consumption at all costs belief is now coming home to roost and manifesting itself in myriad ways.

For example;

Billions are now left insecure in their old age because tax code favours debt over equity.

Global debt levels hit $57 trillion distorting local economies.

Debt has become indispensable to maintaining any growth where 70% of output is consumer spending.

We seen Government pumping trillions in monetary stimulus into their economies in the form of Quantitative easing which enrich mainly the wealthiest 10% of their populations that own 80% OF ALL STOCK.

Big tech companies are underwriting corporate bonds.

This year US presidential Election has nothing to do with democracy. It is funded by hedge- fund barons.

Globalisation and technology advances are leading to job destruction.

Apple one of the most successful companies over the last fifty years has around $200 billion sitting in the bank yet it borrows billions because it cheaper to borrow than use their own cash and pay taxes. 

The system itself cannot be overthrown or dismantled we must use the existing structure of Capitalism against itself. 

There is no longer any prospect for the outright, peaceful replacement of capitalism even if it is showing signs of changing for the better. 

If prosperity is created by solving human problems, a key question for society is what kind of economic system will solve the most problems for the most people most quickly.  

There is also a growing awareness among businesses large and small that screwing over people and the environment is bad business in the long run.

As capitalism struggles with questions of social responsibility, corporations increasingly realize that they do not and cannot exist in isolation pursuing self interest.

We must take what is good in all systems and create a new Eco-socialism.

Instead of looking at GDP as an important metric, run a country as if it had a corporate balance sheet. This should include things like the value of everyone’s leisure time, the value of natural resources not yet used, and the overall health of the people

It is the world’s poor who so far have suffered the most from capitalism’s degradation of the climate, despite having contributed next to nothing to the perpetuation of this world-historical problem:

Inequality is something that isn’t addressed by capitalism.

So the question is:

In which system can we be more happy?

It is collective thinking and arrangements versus individualism.

I say neither. Capitalism is a dog-eat-dog system. What we have is crony capitalism,

The conventional economic theories we have relied upon for the past century have misled us about the workings of capitalism. Only by replacing our old theories with better and more modern ones will we build the deeper understanding necessary to improve our capitalist system.

We have the ability to turn away from products that we don’t like and go to businesses we support.

The possibility of the overthrow of capitalistic governments by armed force cannot be excluded. Yet, it is no longer inevitable, or even likely, that in the event of armed conflict all communist countries would be united against capitalistic countries. The likelihood of global nuclear devastation if war does break out, however, removes this eventuality from the realm of economic or political analysis.

It is not capitalism’s inability to produce national income that is responsible for these remnants of poverty.

It is rather sectoral, organizational, and distributional difficulties, which have not yet been overcome. Whether through impending nuclear war, environmental collapse or a combination of these two only time will tell.

(See previous post on one Solution to solve Inequality. A world Aid Commission)

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