The Pain You Feel is Capitalism Dying

[KamaAina]

https://medium.com/%64joe_brewer/the-pain-you-feel-is-capitalism-dying-5cdbe06a936c#.8n7eulu81

A Global Architecture of Wealth Extraction has been systematically built up to rig the economic game against you. This is why a tiny number of people (current count is 62) have more wealth amongst them than half the human population. Decades of those using tax havens to hide their wealth, unfair trade agreements designed to extract wealth from poor countries, banking regulations and austerity measures meant to destabilize entire economies so massive transfers of wealth can go from everyone else to a tiny financial elite, and election rules that all-but-guarantee only those who become whores to these financial pimps will ever sit in high office....

Why do I say that capitalism (in its corporatist, wealth-extracting form) is dying? There’s a long, detailed story that could be told about this. For the sake of brevity, I will answer with two essential pieces that show how business-as-usual is finished. It is physically impossible for it to continue much longer....

As eloquently described in the writings of Jeremy Rifkin and Paul Mason, the primary motivator for capitalists — to extract wealth from consumer exchange in the form of monetary gain — is crippled by the fact that the science of wealth extraction has become so advanced that every new wave brings diminishing returns. What is called “marginal cost” by economists, the difference between how much it costs to produce something and what people are willing or able to pay for it, is nearly zero now for everything we manufacture or provide as a service. This zero marginal cost trend is breaking capitalism down by the unexpected outcome of its own spectacular success.

Add to this that most of the growth in the global economy in the last 40 years has been in speculative finance. The money system grows faster than the productive “real” economy — with the predictable outcome of market crashes, financial collapse, and structural adjustments (wealth extraction) when the mismatch grows too large. What we end up with is bloated debt too large for everyone to pay back. Combined with the end game of wealth hoarding mentioned above, this is a death knell for capitalism as we’ve known it in the last 100 years.

Buckminster Fuller divided capitalism into stages. For him, the Great Depression was the end of finance capitalism, which was replaced by lawyer capitalism. Now that that appears to be on its last legs, the question is, what is it morphing into? I strongly suspect that the TPP and similar agreements are the blueprint for what Fuller might have called global capitalism.

[virtualobserver]

3. so you believe that 9 years of ZIRP policy by the Federal Reserve is a sign of good economic health?

[7962]

16. Their first stop will likely be fast food,

especially if burger flippers are going to insist on 15.00 and hour. Although they will never admit thats what they're getting them for

[Hortensis]

49. Don't forget that the revolution in production techniques

doesn't only mean fewer man hours are needed, but that production is incredibly less expensive leading to tremendous profits -- IF THERE IS DEMAND FOR PRODUCT, WHICH DEPENDS ON DISPOSABLE INCOME.

America is extravagantly awash in wealth at levels unimaginable for all of human history, and its businesses and its 300,000,000 people all need national prosperity, not a handful of billionaires holed up on guarded estates, a mostly ruined business sector, and a hundred million living in desperate, unsustainable poverty.

I really expect that "capitalism" will evolve substantially to meet the new realities -- because it is unsustainable as is and has to, and we'll be passing laws to make sure it does. But if it doesn't evolve fast enough we can always socialize enough of production to get the message across. And may well do it anyway to provide good jobs for plenty of people.

Since we need incomes, and business depends on our incomes as much as we do, but less work is required to produce this unprecedented prosperity, the standard workweek will become much shorter.

Sure, there are many problems and a great transition ahead, but we'll eventually get off our butts and meet them. WE are our government and WE are the people of America. Long before America was reduced to one big slum people like the Kochs would be flying out for their lives.

[7962]

69. Do they just snort and walk away?

Or do they tell you that you "just dont get it"?

[KamaAina]

33. Insist on $15 an hour? How dare they!

[7962]

34. It'll be fine for the few left that will be making it

You cannot double the cost of labor without consequences. I posted one of them

[JPnoodleman]

74. Should they commit suicide?

I mean they are obsolete humans after all. /s

[hatrack]

66. After that, trucking and transportation

Why else would Google et. al. be moving Heaven and Earth for driverless vehicles?

Simple - you can permanently fire millions and millions of pesky, wage-demanding drivers once you get the bugs worked out.

[7962]

68. I see that as a LOT riskier. ONE bad accident & you'll lose MILLIONS

And you KNOW it will happen. The test ones have already had a few accidents.
And they'll make the news too. I know you can already get sued even if you have a driver, but this will be different. Also, how long before someone shows up on youtube with how to "hack" a self driving vehicle?
Insurance companies may not even insure them for a long time.

[7962]

75. Looks like you were closer to the truth than I thought:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/81b31f2909c943b1a824a3ecb80fa40d/startup-wants-put-self-driving-big-rigs-us-highways

I still wonder when the 1st disaster will happen though

[Xipe Totec]

20. The end game is when robot workers start selling hamburgers to robot customers.

[cantbeserious]

2. The Establishment Agenda Is Always The Same - Enslave The 99% - Enrich The 1%

eom

[tralala]

5. That article is wrong - value comes from labor, not exchange

[rhett o rick]

6. I guess that might be dependent on the definition of "value". What is your source? nm

[beastie boy]

17. If I am not mistaken, the notion of value being produced by labor is present from Locke to Marx.

Locke called it "the fruits of one's labor", Adam Smith called it "human capital" and Marx called it "labor power"

[tralala]

37. Smith, Ricardo, Marx ... those guys

[ronnie624]

41. The definition of value in terms of economic activity is energy.

It comes from the stored energy of the earth's resources and the available energy of human labor, which are then converted into the usable energy of goods and services. The true value never changes because you end with the same amount of energy and matter that you started with. The mass and energy of a thermodynamic system never change in quantity. The Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy establishes the value of all matter and energy as constant and never-changing.

The increasing and decreasing 'value' that is associated with capitalist economics, is purely arbitrary and exists only in the context of the severely flawed 'theories' and illogical ideology that underpin it.

[rhett o rick]

45. Now that makes sense. What would you recommend I read to learn more about

this? And what do you believe wealth is?

[ronnie624]

51. There are tons of solid information

about applying thermodynamics to economic theory, online. There is a movement to do this. This is the essay that introduced me to the idea:

https://markbc.net/doomer-economic-commentary/thermodynamics-for-economists/

[rhett o rick]

53. Wow, that's some essay. I have skimmed it and intend to read more thoroughly.

Thanks. I saw where he defined money. I hope he defines wealth and economic growth.

[ronnie624]

55. A lot of people have difficulty understanding the nature and fluidity of energy

and how readily it is converted from one form into another through a thermodynamic process. Some forms of energy are very subtle.

A ball bearing, for example, sitting all alone on a table, doing absolutely nothing, still contains energy within its mass, which can be readily converted into inertia, which is essential to the conversion of electrical or combustible energy into kinetic energy. It helps to keep in mind, that matter and energy are one in the same, so the Laws of Thermodynamics apply universally.

I've heard people say that the Laws of Thermodynamics are a "quaint intellectual exercise", but they "don't really apply to economics". Economic activity however, by definition, is the act of converting and dispersing energy. A suspension of rational thought is very clearly essential to embracing so called 'mainstream economic theory'.

[rhett o rick]

56. I have studied thermodynamics and understand enery somewhat. I like the application

to economics which I don't understand very much. Skimming the essay I noted that he said that without economic growth wealth is zero-sum. I have been trying to say that here. So the capitalists' need to accumulate wealth when the economy isn't growing need to steal the wealth. That's what the so-called bank crisis was, theft. I hope he defines economic growth.

[ronnie624]

57. Growth can occur only if there is energy entering the system from an outside source.

The energy from the sun is the only such source, and we do not currently use it as a major source of usable energy for economic activity. That is why it is important to develop this technology as soon as possible. Growth, is a concept that exists only in the context of market economics, not in the physical world.

[rhett o rick]

58. I think economic growth comes from creating something that is of value to someone.

I think that using natural resources can cause economic growth. Just thinking out loud. Need to research more.

[ronnie624]

73. An interesting excerpt.

Money acts as a mutually agreed-upon intermediary between everyone in a society, representing the relative value of the claims of ownership of items that are offered for exchange. It is like a formalized, but anonymous, handshake as in the barter system. Because everyone accepts money as being a valuable thing to receive in return for giving up ownership of something real, you accept what is otherwise a worthless token, from some stranger you’ve never seen before, in exchange for something useful because you know that in the future you will be able to trade it in for some other real item of value that you want. You don’t know exactly what you will want or when you will want it, but you accept money as a representation of the wealth that you could own. So at its core, money is simply a symbolic representation of ownership, a non-specific claim over real world goods, services, or rights that hasn’t been exercised yet; the ownership is hypothetical.

[center]◇◇◇◇◇◇◇[/center]

So from the above it becomes clear that all of the claims of wealth that money serves as a proxy for basically just boil down to claims on human labour, and by extension all of the ecological production that went into supporting that labour, since that is where the vast majority of all this stuff and energy come from that enable these goods, services, and rights to be “produced”. So to state it once more: money is a claim on ecological production, and specifically on how that ecological production is turned into useful or enjoyable things or services for us, via our brains, bodies, and machinery.

https://markbc.net/doomer-economic-commentary/thermodynamics-for-economists/

The concept of wealth implies growth in value beyond that which exists in the physical universe in the form of usable energy or goods and services. Since value is directly related to a given quantity of resources and energy, and creating matter and energy is at odds with the Laws of Thermodynamics, it logically follows that creating wealth is impossible.

It's helpful to keep in mind, that we never create. All we are ever doing through our economic activity, is converting and dispersing energy, and in the process, we will always sustain a net loss.

[Beethoven1111]

7. Oh?

Oh? I thought that pain was the creep of communism slowly easing in.

[tom_kelly]

12. Why do you say that? n/t

[ronnie624]

44. Because defending capitalism is practically impossible.

It is illogical, wasteful and unjust, and it now threatens our very survival. The current ideology that attempts to rationalize it, simply cannot withstand real scrutiny, so its adherents have little choice but attack its critics ad hominem.

[redwitch]

15. Roll over Beethoven.

Trump much?

[rhett o rick]

46. I imagine it's difficult to continually come up with new names. nm

[ReRe]

23. "Communism Creep?"

That is a funny!

[tenderfoot]

39. Troll over beethoven

eom

[rhett o rick]

47. You win.

[Arugula Latte]

43. Ha ha ha! I guess it must be 1953!

[rhett o rick]

48. Sorry nothing personal

Automatic Bob-by

[Califonz]

8. History. The experience in Mexico and other countries with staggering inequality

vastly worse than in the USA, shows that these conditions can persist for decades, even centuries.

[litlbilly]

11. its a different world now. If we come down, and we will crash huge, the world will follow.

In this age of instant info, they wont be able to hide it.

[7962]

18. And the worst are hardly big time capitalists either.

Look at Venezuela. Cuba. N Korea. Failures all
While there are certainly people left behind, capitalism has raise the living standard of more people in the history of he world than any other form

[AlbertCat]

67. capitalism has raise the living standard of more people in the history of he world...

....than any other form

Form of what?

Capitalism isn't a form of government. The way capitalism is used by a Fascist, plutocratic, democratic, monarchy, yeah even a "socialist republic" can all be different....is different. No?

[7962]

70. Any other form of national economy.

Sure, you can tinker with the minutiae, but the bottom line is still the same. Without the incentive of success, a lot of people are just not going to do any more than they think they have to. We see it all the time.

[Nye Bevan]

10. Yep, the roaring success of non-capitalist countries such as Venezuela

certainly gives one pause for thought, especially compared to capitalist hell-holes like Denmark and Switzerland. Capitalism is indeed in its death throes.

[Nye Bevan]

35. What does race have to do with any of this? (nt)

[7962]

36. Nye was being sarcastic I'm sure

But you're right about Denmark. And people need to look into WHY thats the case. And the Danes also kicked their social democrats out of power last year. But they're still one of the happiest populations, so it must not be too bad

[zeemike]

13. What's next is Feudalism

Because when capital controls all the money the only thing left is the land itself...and once they control the land people are just surfs that live on it at the pleasure of the "King".

And we are closer to that than most people think. Most of the farmable land in the US is owned by a few corporations.
The wealth of a nation is in it's land.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. Capitalism calls never ending consumption "growth".

[whereisjustice]

19. Our economy depends on selling overpriced fraudulent financial products to each other in a game

of musical chairs. Everyone thinks they can outscam the other guy.

[beastie boy]

24. What Fuller called "lawyer capitalism" has outlived its purpose and is long dead.

When the capitalist elites discovered it was more efficient to have laws passed for their benefit rather than use existing laws for the same purpose, capitalism has morphed into what I would call fusion capitalism, where distinction between capital and government is being slowly eroded. Essentially, government has become, in the same way as labor or technology, a means of producing capital which, in turn, is invested into government to produce more of the same. Curiously, every single political system throughout the world has produced the same relationship between capital and government. In this sense, capitalism is more global than anyone gives it credit.

How long this phase of capitalism will continue is anyone's guess.

[Hydra]

25. You can call it fusion capitalism, but it's just capitalism. This is what it does.

It grows by itself by consuming every resource around it. When it encounters a barrier it goes over, around or through it the easiest way it can, and then later it absorbs it into its form. The Gov't is a powerful tool and source of money, eventually it has to consume it and turn it to its purpose.

All of this will keep going in a predictable fashion until the snake is forced to eat its tail.

[beastie boy]

32. of course it's just capitalism. The label just indicates a new twist to it.

there was always collusion between it and the government in the so called developed world. But now it's something new: governments all over the world are becoming the means of producing capital, just like heavy machinery, web domains or labor. You invest in them and get returns on your investment. This wasn't the case only a few decades ago.

[gregcrawford]

26. Capitalism...

... in simplest terms, is the manipulation of other people's money. It has precisely ZIP to do with "Free Enterprise," and anyone who says otherwise is a liar, fool, or both. What we are facing now is corporatism in its most malevolent form.

Astute readers already know that "corporatism" was what Mussolini preferred to call his form of government. 21st-century corporatists eschew cartoonish uniforms in favor of Armani. They learned from the PR mistakes of corporatism's 20th century proponents, and couch their rhetoric in simplistic terms acceptable to those who have been indoctrinated to worship capitalism without really knowing what it really is.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the culmination of everything these evil bastards have worked toward for lo, these many years. It doesn't spell the end of capitalism, it heralds the end of even the pretense of democracy.

It is my fear that the battle to head off the TPP will result in another civil war, but if that is what it takes to destroy these monsters once and for all, then so be it. There is no greater evil on this planet than corporatism. Kill it at all costs, or be its slave.

[Hydra]

27. "There Are No More Profits to Extract."

You can see this now- The large forces of capitalism are looking all over for easily exploitable wealth and coming up empty. Even digging into the treasury has a limit. During the forced collapse of 2006-2008, you saw them cannibalizing their own.

You could do some more creative things to keep the grinder going(like Syria), and I'm sure they will continue to do so..but how much longer can they keep up the insanity?

[jtuck004]

28. No. It is the capitalists trying to make -us- die. If it was them dying they would be feeling the

pain that they are not.

[pansypoo53219]

29. crapitalism. its not sustainable.

[stillwaiting]

30. Not until we get voting and election reforms.

They own us through the system Dubya pushed on us (and Democrats have allowed).

[Locrian]

31. it's the money system

Creation of money by creation of debt insures a transfer of wealth, which requires constant growth to prop up the ponzi scheme.
The recent acceleration is just the faster transactions (telegraph, then tele-com, then internet).


It's now an extractive economy - based on sucking out value and "creating" money without "doing" anything. Companies want to pull money out of actually creating real value (things, goods, services) and gamble on the market. There is less incentive to actually produce or improve or make anything because it's more profitable (and less risky w/ bail outs etc) to "gamble".

[ReRe]

40. Capitalism is dying

K&R

Marking to come back and finish reading!

I submit a book to read: Critical Path, by Buckminster Fuller

[KamaAina]

62. I do believe that was where I read about FINCAP and LAWCAP

I also liked how Fuller called out "non-wealth-producing occupations" like those in finance. He said we'd be better off if we paid such people to stay at home!

[moondust]

42. Maybe institutionalized supergreed

should have been punished rather than encouraged and rewarded.

[Protalker]

52. We are a service economy

Consumer spending moves our economy
When capitalism worked disparity in wages from lowest worker to CEO was reasonable. Highest tax bracket was 90%. The president warned about the military industrial complex. The proletariat won't vote on off year elections. To busy keeping up with the whoever.

[fasttense]

63. Capitalism Never Worked

If you mean capitalism rewarded hard work equally.

It has always required labor to suffer so capatalist could profit. In other words somone had to lose in order for someone to profit.

But it was a little better than slavery and feudalism. It allowed the person to decide who would profit off their under reward labors.

Now we need to evolve out of capitalism just like we evolved out of feudalism and slavery.

[LWolf]

54. Dear DOG, I hope so. nt

[whereisjustice]

59. So glad this made the greatest list.

[RoccoR5955]

60. Here's my take

No jobs, nobody buys goods/services. Nobody buys goods/services, no demand. No demand, no profits. No profits, no capitalism.
Plain and simple.

[Rex]

61. Plutocracies will last as long as most of the people are okay going without for years and years.

Watching their children and then grand children have a harder time succeeding with each passing decade. Watching the middle class vanish due to disaster capitalism.

[sendero]

64. There are endless theories as to the exact mechanism..

... and most of them involve a lot of hand waving IMHO but anyone who doesn't think "this sucker is going down" is not paying attention.

ZIRP in and of itself is evidence that the patient is on life support and when the Fed tried to literally INCH back to normality with a .25% increase in rates the ship shuddered and tossed like it hit an iceberg.

We are living in interesting times.

[Populist_Prole]

65. A hearty recommend. Bookmarked for later reading.

[Demsrule86]

71. Right

well, I think I will have a glass of wine...eat the salmon my kids grilled for me and enjoy my bourgeoisie pleasures while I can...hehe.