I lived in pure socialism (USSR never got to Communism), partial socialism of the EU and the capitalism (NA variety). What I see here, there is Communism here for the U.S. elites since Marx defines it as "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." The U.S. elites get all according to their needs, they just have no abilities to offer to the society. As for the rest of us in the US, who run own business we face draconian capitalism: paying out of pocket for health insurance monthly $1200, no paid vacation, holidays, mat , EI, sick & bereavement leaves, etc, and paying 35% in taxes. Now when I travel for business to CA, I'm taxed in my state, federal and CA on top. The US government has no concept that the paid taxes must return to the taxpayers in services. In the pure socialism (USSR) there were tons of positive things (not something Americans like to hear) but 18 months paid mat leave, kindergartens fees were adjusted to salary and working hours of the parents, free medicine & education (better/broader education than in US), 1 month paid vacation for all, free after-school classes sport activities for the kids, summer camp, etc.
Here, it's a very draconian capitalism for small business owners, who are dancing on the razor edge with the hands tied behind the back - remember who was closed first and lost business - small business, but the Leviathans survived and prospered on the lack of regulations.
Medicine must be regulated - but medical boards should be overhauled, they restrain amount of physicians to keep astronomical salaries of few - NOBODY wants to be treated by a resident who didn't sleep 18 hours - it's INSANE. The big business should be regulated but not strangled, the small businesses should not be choked by taxes as much as now.
IMO -the most productive capitalism was at the end of the 19th and begining of the 20th century without yet being strangled by taxes, but having normal work hours, weekends, workers health in mind. FED. most taxes should be abolished so the over-regulation. Marx himself was acknowledging at the end of his life that capitalism has more advantages to it than he'd seen in the begining,
"Draconian capitalism" for small business, yes, but not for the megalodons like MS, Apple, Google, etc., who enjoy protectionism like that of the USSR's "centralized economy." The Soviet Union had tons of very cardinal problems which were overshadowing its positive things, so no need to idealize it at all - truth is truth.
But our current state here with the constant push for speech suppression, the opposite party prosecution, lack of the free press, reminds of USSR, sans the perks.
The Nordic system works well in terms of overall happiness. High taxes, but a big safety net. Not forced to do social medicine you can choose to go private. A win-win. Just depending on a free market economy without government intervention for the unlucky and there are the unlucky doesn't work. People living in big cities are paying for raw capitalism without proper social support by sharing their public spaces with those without shelter resulting in a 'filthy' environment for the rest of us. It is not working. We need another model, some blend.
What we actually have right now is crony capitalism, in large part because everything is manipulated. All our "markets" are manipulated to some extent one way or another and free markets are, as correctly observed, an essential component of real capitalism. This applies in particular to our financial "markets" which are legally manipulated by the Treasury (the ESF in particular - authorized to intervene in ANY market) and The Fed (Why does the Fed need its own trading floor?)
Phony capitalism in a fake Republic is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind!
Good comment except for the last sentence. Check out the writings of the "anti-federalists" who warned us of the dangers being imposed on us by the "founding fathers."
"As a matter of fact, it was never a "people's Constitution", as has been so frequently claimed at Presidential elections, and on other similar occasions. They, the people, were never very much interested, either in the project itself or in the ratification of a form of national government. They did not particularly want anything of the sort and they did not like what came out of Philadelphia, but this distaste was not strong enough to overcome their natural lethargy, so only about five percent of the white male population voted as to whether the Constitution should be accepted or rejected. As it was, it only got by by the skin of its teeth and by some very clever management on the part of its proponents. The whole thing, in conception, formulation, and realization, was
the work of a small group of enthusiastic young men of property and position, with wiser heads on their shoulders than their years would argue as rationally possible, though they were not wise enough to foresee the unimaginable — but inevitable.
-Ralph Adams Cram, Nemesis of Democracy - PDF - , The American Review, December 1936, pp. 129-141
Enabled by centralization and special privileges for the big boys.
“I saw the machinery of business pass from the hands of individuals into the hands of corporations, artificial persons created in the imagination of lawyers, and given efficacy by the sanction of the courts and of the law. When I turned to the reading of American history, I discovered that these things had been going on from the beginnings of our government, that they had grown up with it, and were an essential part of its structure. From surprise and disgust I turned to analysis and reason…”
- R. F. Pettigrew, Triumphant Plutocracy, The Story of American Public Life from 1870 to 1920, p9
Well there is a stir in the world. A new set of authorities who have lost faith in US. BRICS.
Of course they've been at the receiving end of some pretty hard lessons. We on the other hand have had a long pretty smooth ride in the driver's seat, oblivious of the true source of our wealth. Colonialism.
I've seen the studies where the graph of status inversely follows a decline in ethics. The path to the top is basic, don't ask hard questions or God Forbid, disobey those above you.
Of course there are exceptions, thank God for them. The pendulum can't seem to move too much further in the direction of utter depravity. It's on full display with Christ's closest ancestors and also those under a new Fascist regime in Ukraine, after their, we drop like flies, offensive. Can anyone define a money laundering scheme better than Ukraine? There was no democracy to save, ever.
Man when Vicky, bless her sweet soul, Nuland said, "F the EU", little did we know that was the new US foreign policy doctrine. For all those out there still wondering who blew up Germany's gas pipelines, give yourself a slap and wake the hell up! One of the few times Biden is honest and no one believes him.
I recently defined what my idea of dumb is. Given all the advantages of the US since ww2, dumb is to wind up almost solely responsible for starting ww3.
Dumb is also given the evidence of 8? boosters, that any of them was effective. Well not at anything but making a few wealthy, a lot sick and the most skeptical generation ever.
"…we have invited clean young men to shoulder a discredited musket and do bandit's work under a flag which bandits have been accustomed to fear, not to follow; we have debauched America's honor and blackened her face before the world. . ."
-Mark Twain, "To the Person Sitting in Darkness," (1901)
And amazingly, the low knowledge citizens who openly yet ignorantly approve of destroying freedom and sovereignty because they're dumb enough to let their own ego's control their emotions and intellect. And 600k dead Ukrainians due to capitalistic greed. I favor putin this round
" I began to understand that the non-existence of scientific and legal evidentiary standards pre-dated Covid, and that the standards that don't exist for emergency and non-emergency products manufactured during and since Covid, also didn't exist for vaccines and other biological products manufactured before Covid."
Of course capitalism is not the problem; human nature is and it seems "we" can corrupt anything.
Besides, there's a reason JC is said to have driven the money changers out of hte temple and that we have warnings against worshipping the golden calf. The howlings about capitalism are a mere distractionsince it's just a tool albeit one with a very questionable and often abominable history.
End special privileges for corporations and the Fed...!
Capitalism leads to monopolies- concentrating to much economic in too few hands-a fine line between communism and "capitalism" as the control of the regulatory agencies become corrupted. In the great reset that is happening in'merica, the Federal Reserve has lost over 200 billion in less than 2 years rigging the incredible lie of the great stockmarket fraud. This is the private cartel that is waging war on the world to protect the reserve currency of debt of a fat dollar. The BRICS is going after the monopoly created by so called capitalism! The central bankers put the final nail in the coffin. of freedom of USSA
Capitalism lifts people out of poverty. Kleptocorporate multinationalism, ie the WEF monopolism of elites, empowers only the ruling class and forces the middle to lower middle class into servitude. Technocratic fascism. The global elite’s dream.
Aldous Huxley warned of this from the mid-fifties until his death. Very few listened. His prescience has played out exactly as he detailed. Pharma, technology, constant global war, corporate monopolism entwined with government, pandemics, 2 class caste system-the powerful / the weak, created divide and chaos, deliberate mass migration, psychological warfare, increasing government dependency, food shortages, behavioral/societal/genetic manipulation, depopulation , loss of national sovereignty, single digital currency, surveillance , constant distraction and soon thereafter, a central government and bank with a population of willful imbeciles who would love their servitude.
He described propaganda as convincing a majority that everybody else was less than human.
Hogwash! The corruption is baked in the cake; you use capital (printed and owned by few powerful) to control everything. WEF and the ilk are NOT an aberration but a natural evolution of the system; enjoy!
I don’t think “ enjoy” is the proper iteration. More like “ Fuck it”. We’re way beyond the point of gloating.We’ve been sleepwalking our way past the point of no return. Too complacent, distracted ,self absorbed and amnesiac. Hubristic in the assumption the gub’ment has our collective back and by placing a hand on the Bible, swearing to uphold the Constitution, “ So Help Me God” they will. We’ve always known there was a degree of corruption, The “vaunted” FBI“ White Hats” within our military, DHS, FBI, DOJ, CDC, HHS,NIH, etc would save us and the bad actors would be either convicted of Treason, court martialed, felony, conviction,murder, conspiracy , whatever the crime, they’d be sentenced to the maximum punishment allowable by law. … that our justice system was able to remain largely impartial, regardless of personal ideology. Wrong.The most heinous, treasonous Americans occupy the highest government offices and agencies. From FDR on, the corruption has continued and metastasized with only a handful of sacrificial lambs symbolically punished, framed , disappeared or assassinated before they can sing. The rest remain in power or move to the private sector and profit exponentially.Many are labeled “ Heroes”, “ Patriots”, “ Upstanding”, “ Legal Scholars”, “ Paragons of Virtue”.. Because we either didn’t care, believed it or they belonged to the right Party. Until Trump announced his Presidential bid. That’s when the whole of government- the duopoly, UniParty, unelected Deep State bureaucracy and the entire global elite turned against the first Independent, self funded, owned by nobody stepped onto the debate stage and exposed the rot . He became Public Enemy No 1 and when he really was the duly elected President elect, with all the obstacles set up to make him unelectable, his supporters became the target. And McCain, Obama,Biden,Mueller,Comey,Brennan,Hillary,Susan Rice, Bush, Cheney, Kerry, Biden,Clapper,Pelosi,Panetta,Blinken,Vindman,Soros,Malley,Milley,Esper,Schiff,McMaster,Haspel,Kerner,Pelosi,Flake and on …well.. they are living larger than ever. But for the “ Hero” McStain. I hope he’s burning in hell.
Not to mention people in power who represent the interests of a foreign nation - be that even a made up one - Israel. Just imagine that Blinky would have gone to Moscow and said "I come here as a Russian"...
For high offices, double citizenship should NOT be allowed, NO exceptions!
After watching "The Boardwalk Empire", once question came to my mind; the mafia, mob and gangsters had the police, politicians and FBI in their pockets - how did we EVER got rid of them?
We didn't - OF COURSE we didn't - they are in power now.
I’m hoping for more of a meteor strike. The variety of which chunks break off and hit the UN,DAVOS,Trilateral Commission,EU,Being,Taliban,Hezbollah,Hamas,Al-Qaeda,Qatar,Sinaloa Cartel,Sacramento,Caracas,DC,Langley, Portland,LA,SF,Minneapolis…strategically, of course.😇
Geoff, what I’d really, really , really like to say would bring the thought Gestapo to my door… with military grade weapons shields, a battering ram and leg irons. Because a 5’2” , 105 lb middle aged woman who winds up falling facedown on brick pavers trying to avoid startling a baby possum is a grave “ Threat to our Democracy”.
Regardless at the rate we’re speeding towards a stealth nuclear WWWIII, the bastards will be in their bunkers before being struck by a meteor.
"Capitalism lifts people out of poverty." Not always. Closer to accurate is this.:
Capitalism CAN lift people out of poverty.
Significant differences there.
Capitalism, like democracy, only works well for the rest of us if the society is moral, intelligent, educated (not brainwashed), adult, virtuous, and eternally vigilant and responsible.
Capitalism is simply free trade using a monetary system to facilitate exchange. The problem is when capital (money, goods) is acquired through fraudulent means or through the abuse of others.
Government ideally should only concern itself with protecting the life, liberty, and property of its subjects. But along with "property" we have to include our own bodies and their well-being, and we have to include contractual obligations that preserve agreements.
Beyond that, the invisible hand of exchange of goods and service for mutual benefit should prevail to organize commerce and society. This may sound trite but prior to Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" he wrote "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" which set forward the idea that we all want to be respected and trusted in our relations with others. So personal integrity has to ground any social system and without it there's only brutality-- and we see some of that today.
Government in its roles of preserving life, liberty, property, and contracts also has a duty to root out malfeasance in order to preserve trust among members of society. Unfortunately in these times government often serves to promote malfeasance.
In an ideal world individuals and organizations would be held to account for the harms they do to others, provided that such harms are clearly spelled out in law so there can be no doubt of the standards, and these apply to all equally.
One of our basic rights in the modern age should be that of forbidding surveillance of individuals except in rare and well-defined cases. Surveillance of things, individuals and groups is of course at the heart of AI, and if surveillance of individuals if forbidden this takes a good chunk out its commercial prospects. But such a restriction is absolutely necessary to preserve individual self-determination and the individual as an end in themselves, without becoming subject to the ends of a state (or conglomerate of multinational corporations) that might want to use the power of surveillance to monitor, manage, and control.
We ourselves can and should determine our own individual ends, and with a modicum of good will amongst people there will be an invisible hand that orchestrates all of our activities for an end that preserves freedom and dignity, and that unfolds novel horizons that have no need for an overarching state planning facility to ensure the common good. The common good will arise simply from each pursuing their own ends with a respect and courtesy for the ends of others and an affirmation of simple good will as the only sane path.
The first step will be to cut back government power and control over individuals, and the preservation of the right to criticize government policies and actions ("free speech") is central to holding government to account.
I think you've identified a serious problem with our system, one crying out for a solution. I'm not sure I have one, but it is clear that government regulation has been a failure. Is better regulation by government, as RFK Jr. proposes a solution. Probably only for a while, before the corruption begins to seep back in. Where there are corruptible officials, eventually there will be corruption. As Lord Acton once said, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Yet without regulation, the marketplace is fair game for all kinds of mischief makers who will aim to make a buck through deceiving people through dishonest practices. There needs to be accountability for the provision of bad services or bad products. Self -regulation by industry has been proposed as a possible alternative. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has created a system for industries to develop meaningful standards. The American Institute of Homeopathy has been trying to develop a self-regulatory process with the assistance of ANSI, and many other industries have created such processes with ANSI assistance. While I do not propose this as a solution, it is an alternative that may be superior, or provide a model for a superior system of regulation than our country presently has. Ask least the model should be investigated, as we are badly in need of a better alternative.
you're right, capitalism is not the problem. The problem is corporate capitalism, monopoly capitalism. US Founders had a deep distrust of corporations, having watched how the East India Company had corrupted Parliament, so they severely restricted corporations in the new republic. When US was founded, one corporation could NOT own another corporation! That right there would prevent most corporate monopolies. Also, there were no Limited Liability Corporations (a.k.a. no "corporate shield"). Today we let corporate exec's break laws over and over and over, and all that happens is the corporation is fined, nobody goes to jail. If there were no LLC's, the corporate officers would be responsible when the law is broken and THEY would go to jail. Founders did not foresee how the rich would eventually buy the politicians and get these restrictions on corporations removed. What they should have done was made corporations themselves illegal, that is, banned corporations altogether.
There is some confusion about what free markets mean. We think of it as the necessary free flow of supply and demand. But empires -- such as the British and American empires -- use the "free market" tag (mercantilist capitalism) to stifle competition in developing countries. Empires use the power of their economies, and their military, to force smaller countries to open their markets and accept goods from the Empire, preventing local economic development. The economic history of the US shows that we developed our economy -- which the British empire tried to use as colonial slave labor (especially in the South) and a captive market -- by using protectionist tariffs to prevent cheaper British goods from flooding our economy until we could establish ourselves. It was only after we successfully developed our economy that we too became an Empire and have tried to force the "free market" concept on developing countries. The successful US model of protectionist tariffs has been used very successfully by China in modern times to develop its economy, and was an example to other Western countries around the world during the 19th century and early 20th century.
This is a bit off topic, but I remember hearing an interview with a small business owner in a foreign country (it may have been somewhere in Africa) where they had just experienced a natural disaster. America swooped in with "aid" in the form of rice and other food stuffs. The person who was being interviewed (via a translator) said that all of that free stuff put him and hundreds of other small business owners out of business because they could no longer sell their rice, etc because the people were getting the free stuff from America. It was a very interesting interview and enlightened me to the fact that sometimes even charity *not asked for* can be detrimental to a society and culture. I don't believe there was any "hidden agenda" (or was there?) regarding this "aid" provided by America, but I also think that America's government swooping in to "fix things" without being asked is also something that needs to change. American government seems to have it's fingers in *everything* anymore. And many of us have not asked for this and don't want it. But the system is set up in a way where we are all forced to participate no matter what we think. Grrrr. Again, sorry if I didn't add to your comment's topic. This just came to me when I read your comment. :)
Foreign "aid" in general is a subsidy to both the bankers (because it is in the form of credits) and the producers with connections (because the "credits" can only be used to buy from them.
Additionally, it can be a form of dumping products such as grain full of insect and rodent detritus that could otherwise only be disposed of by destroying or burying it.
These (tax) exemptions are part of Trump’s larger vision to transition away from the income tax system and replace it with the revenue he says would be generated by his hardline tariff proposals.
“In the old days when we were smart, when we were a smart country, in the 1890s and all, this is when the country was relatively the richest it ever was. It had all tariffs. It didn’t have an income tax,” Trump said at a sit-down with voters in New York on Friday for “Fox & Friends.” “Now we have income taxes, and we have people that are dying.”
Trump has pledged to impose a 20% universal tariff on all imports from all countries with a specific 60% rate for Chinese imports. — CNBC"
“For when language is corrupted and thought twisted in sinister ways, all efforts to resist the colonizers of the mind are self-defeating. Double-binds are not reserved for personal relationships but pertain equally to politics and culture. There is a reason why public discourse about politics (and most everything) in the U.S.A. is so circular in nature, so self-defeating, always ending in a dead-end as the system of oligarchic rule rolls along and even strengthens.’
- By Edward Curtin, Caged in Oligarchic Contradictions
In addition to accurate information from sellers, knowing the root causes of one's cancer or dementia or any chronic disease will create and motivate savvy buyers who eventually change the marketplace through their awareness. Knowledge of why we are sick will help localized our most essential goods and services, especially food; even medicine eventually (herbs, food as medicine, etc).
Local economies put buyers and sellers in closer contact, helping with the accurate information problem. "Local wellness economies" driven by root cause medicine just might make capitalism healthy again. As well as the environment. And maybe even democracy?
There will always be that tension between a seller who wants to keep the ugly details of his product secret, and the buyer who needs the best information to make a wise choice. I suspect that was a problem in 20,000 BC. But in small economies like tribes the shysters soon become obvious and the market operates as it should. As soon as the economy becomes too large for the "market" to operate effectively to reveal the dishonest actor, then things start to go awry. The larger the economy, the more the buyer gets the shaft. Once it is large enough for individuals to control large numbers of workers, buyers, or warriors then all the worst failures of humanity begin to erupt. This is why Anarchism on the left and Libertarianism on the right are so appealing.
Global free markets have been an absolute disaster for New Zealand, Meryl. Like most of the world in the 50s, 60s and 70s, we used to be protectionist. This meant we made all our own cars, washing machines, etc. They were a bit expensive, but so well made that they lasted forever. Then in the 80s free trade was foisted upon us, by stealth and cheating, by a Labour (Democrat equivalent) govt. Within a few years, ALL our manufacturing industries had been offshored to countries where workers were paid $1 a day. The price of everything went down, but so did the quality of the goods. And our working class was screwed so badly that they couldn't afford even the cheap imports. Within a few years NZ was reduced to a country with only two industries -- the ones that COULDN'T be offshored -- tourism and primary production. And the free trade agreements meant we couldn't even ban toxic pesticides for the primary production, because the multinational corporations that made them could sue us if we did, in suits that were specified in the free trade agreements to be heard in an international court composed of three judges, two of whom were appointed by the corporations. So that's MY experience of free trade, Meryl. It was the first salvo in the war of the globalists.
Patrick Wood describes how global free trade is an underhanded way of stripping sovereignty from nations. Global power usurps national power in the name of free trade agreements that are ostensibly for the greater good.
Yes. GLOBAL free trade creates problems. But LOCAL free trade for essential goods that can be made locally is quite different. Especially in the presence of aware consumers. It may be the best way to take back sovereignty from corporate entities.
I lived in pure socialism (USSR never got to Communism), partial socialism of the EU and the capitalism (NA variety). What I see here, there is Communism here for the U.S. elites since Marx defines it as "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." The U.S. elites get all according to their needs, they just have no abilities to offer to the society. As for the rest of us in the US, who run own business we face draconian capitalism: paying out of pocket for health insurance monthly $1200, no paid vacation, holidays, mat , EI, sick & bereavement leaves, etc, and paying 35% in taxes. Now when I travel for business to CA, I'm taxed in my state, federal and CA on top. The US government has no concept that the paid taxes must return to the taxpayers in services. In the pure socialism (USSR) there were tons of positive things (not something Americans like to hear) but 18 months paid mat leave, kindergartens fees were adjusted to salary and working hours of the parents, free medicine & education (better/broader education than in US), 1 month paid vacation for all, free after-school classes sport activities for the kids, summer camp, etc.
Here, it's a very draconian capitalism for small business owners, who are dancing on the razor edge with the hands tied behind the back - remember who was closed first and lost business - small business, but the Leviathans survived and prospered on the lack of regulations.
Medicine must be regulated - but medical boards should be overhauled, they restrain amount of physicians to keep astronomical salaries of few - NOBODY wants to be treated by a resident who didn't sleep 18 hours - it's INSANE. The big business should be regulated but not strangled, the small businesses should not be choked by taxes as much as now.
IMO -the most productive capitalism was at the end of the 19th and begining of the 20th century without yet being strangled by taxes, but having normal work hours, weekends, workers health in mind. FED. most taxes should be abolished so the over-regulation. Marx himself was acknowledging at the end of his life that capitalism has more advantages to it than he'd seen in the begining,
"Here, it's a very draconian capitalism"
We call it "fascism"!
I lived in Ceausescu's Romania... I used to think it was so bad (and it was)... but then I came here and I realize that it can be worse - much worse!
It took me a long while to understand what the Soviet Union was up against; the "Vampires' Ball" has to end!
"Draconian capitalism" for small business, yes, but not for the megalodons like MS, Apple, Google, etc., who enjoy protectionism like that of the USSR's "centralized economy." The Soviet Union had tons of very cardinal problems which were overshadowing its positive things, so no need to idealize it at all - truth is truth.
But our current state here with the constant push for speech suppression, the opposite party prosecution, lack of the free press, reminds of USSR, sans the perks.
Sans perks? How'd you call eugenics then :P?
But - YES - it is deja vu for me too!
The Nordic system works well in terms of overall happiness. High taxes, but a big safety net. Not forced to do social medicine you can choose to go private. A win-win. Just depending on a free market economy without government intervention for the unlucky and there are the unlucky doesn't work. People living in big cities are paying for raw capitalism without proper social support by sharing their public spaces with those without shelter resulting in a 'filthy' environment for the rest of us. It is not working. We need another model, some blend.
What we actually have right now is crony capitalism, in large part because everything is manipulated. All our "markets" are manipulated to some extent one way or another and free markets are, as correctly observed, an essential component of real capitalism. This applies in particular to our financial "markets" which are legally manipulated by the Treasury (the ESF in particular - authorized to intervene in ANY market) and The Fed (Why does the Fed need its own trading floor?)
Phony capitalism in a fake Republic is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind!
Good comment except for the last sentence. Check out the writings of the "anti-federalists" who warned us of the dangers being imposed on us by the "founding fathers."
"As a matter of fact, it was never a "people's Constitution", as has been so frequently claimed at Presidential elections, and on other similar occasions. They, the people, were never very much interested, either in the project itself or in the ratification of a form of national government. They did not particularly want anything of the sort and they did not like what came out of Philadelphia, but this distaste was not strong enough to overcome their natural lethargy, so only about five percent of the white male population voted as to whether the Constitution should be accepted or rejected. As it was, it only got by by the skin of its teeth and by some very clever management on the part of its proponents. The whole thing, in conception, formulation, and realization, was
the work of a small group of enthusiastic young men of property and position, with wiser heads on their shoulders than their years would argue as rationally possible, though they were not wise enough to foresee the unimaginable — but inevitable.
-Ralph Adams Cram, Nemesis of Democracy - PDF - , The American Review, December 1936, pp. 129-141
www.unz.org/Pub/AmericanRev-1936dec-00129
You beat me to it. Crony capitalism is (and has been) the order of the day.
Enabled by centralization and special privileges for the big boys.
“I saw the machinery of business pass from the hands of individuals into the hands of corporations, artificial persons created in the imagination of lawyers, and given efficacy by the sanction of the courts and of the law. When I turned to the reading of American history, I discovered that these things had been going on from the beginnings of our government, that they had grown up with it, and were an essential part of its structure. From surprise and disgust I turned to analysis and reason…”
- R. F. Pettigrew, Triumphant Plutocracy, The Story of American Public Life from 1870 to 1920, p9
https://archive.org/stream/triumphantpluto00pettrich/triumphantpluto00pettrich_djvu.txt
Pettigrew was a United States Senator from South Dakota
Refer also to the writings of Charles Lindbergh Sr, and a host of others from about the same time.
Well there is a stir in the world. A new set of authorities who have lost faith in US. BRICS.
Of course they've been at the receiving end of some pretty hard lessons. We on the other hand have had a long pretty smooth ride in the driver's seat, oblivious of the true source of our wealth. Colonialism.
I've seen the studies where the graph of status inversely follows a decline in ethics. The path to the top is basic, don't ask hard questions or God Forbid, disobey those above you.
Of course there are exceptions, thank God for them. The pendulum can't seem to move too much further in the direction of utter depravity. It's on full display with Christ's closest ancestors and also those under a new Fascist regime in Ukraine, after their, we drop like flies, offensive. Can anyone define a money laundering scheme better than Ukraine? There was no democracy to save, ever.
Man when Vicky, bless her sweet soul, Nuland said, "F the EU", little did we know that was the new US foreign policy doctrine. For all those out there still wondering who blew up Germany's gas pipelines, give yourself a slap and wake the hell up! One of the few times Biden is honest and no one believes him.
I recently defined what my idea of dumb is. Given all the advantages of the US since ww2, dumb is to wind up almost solely responsible for starting ww3.
Dumb is also given the evidence of 8? boosters, that any of them was effective. Well not at anything but making a few wealthy, a lot sick and the most skeptical generation ever.
All modern wars are bankers wars. They're all as dumb as they are destructive except for the privileged classes.
“… I spent most of my [33 years in the Marine Corps] being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers.
In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for [crony] capitalism.”
Major General Butler USMC, War is a Racket, 1935
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
"…we have invited clean young men to shoulder a discredited musket and do bandit's work under a flag which bandits have been accustomed to fear, not to follow; we have debauched America's honor and blackened her face before the world. . ."
-Mark Twain, "To the Person Sitting in Darkness," (1901)
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/sitting.html
And amazingly, the low knowledge citizens who openly yet ignorantly approve of destroying freedom and sovereignty because they're dumb enough to let their own ego's control their emotions and intellect. And 600k dead Ukrainians due to capitalistic greed. I favor putin this round
Yet you get enough info from the same sources to condemn China. Will dig up a few references for you.
Red China is another glabalist banking project. Just like the USA and the USSR.
I can produce evidence if anyone cares.
crucial reading: katherine watt
" I began to understand that the non-existence of scientific and legal evidentiary standards pre-dated Covid, and that the standards that don't exist for emergency and non-emergency products manufactured during and since Covid, also didn't exist for vaccines and other biological products manufactured before Covid."
https://bailiwicknews.substack.com/p/learning-curve
Your government decides nothing. Forget them for a start. The bankers decide policy and the militaries/intelligence carry it out.
Well...the gov't pretends to be in charge, and gets paid very handsomely w/ our very regressive tax dollars to maintain that illusion.
The Great Reaction/Greater Reset/Great Reckoning is beginning.
"With rebellion, awareness is born"
-Albert Camus
Of course capitalism is not the problem; human nature is and it seems "we" can corrupt anything.
Besides, there's a reason JC is said to have driven the money changers out of hte temple and that we have warnings against worshipping the golden calf. The howlings about capitalism are a mere distractionsince it's just a tool albeit one with a very questionable and often abominable history.
End special privileges for corporations and the Fed...!
Not much of any system works without integrity/morality/ethics.
Capitalism leads to monopolies- concentrating to much economic in too few hands-a fine line between communism and "capitalism" as the control of the regulatory agencies become corrupted. In the great reset that is happening in'merica, the Federal Reserve has lost over 200 billion in less than 2 years rigging the incredible lie of the great stockmarket fraud. This is the private cartel that is waging war on the world to protect the reserve currency of debt of a fat dollar. The BRICS is going after the monopoly created by so called capitalism! The central bankers put the final nail in the coffin. of freedom of USSA
Capitalism lifts people out of poverty. Kleptocorporate multinationalism, ie the WEF monopolism of elites, empowers only the ruling class and forces the middle to lower middle class into servitude. Technocratic fascism. The global elite’s dream.
Aldous Huxley warned of this from the mid-fifties until his death. Very few listened. His prescience has played out exactly as he detailed. Pharma, technology, constant global war, corporate monopolism entwined with government, pandemics, 2 class caste system-the powerful / the weak, created divide and chaos, deliberate mass migration, psychological warfare, increasing government dependency, food shortages, behavioral/societal/genetic manipulation, depopulation , loss of national sovereignty, single digital currency, surveillance , constant distraction and soon thereafter, a central government and bank with a population of willful imbeciles who would love their servitude.
He described propaganda as convincing a majority that everybody else was less than human.
He was right. About everything.
"Capitalism lifts people out of poverty"
Hogwash! The corruption is baked in the cake; you use capital (printed and owned by few powerful) to control everything. WEF and the ilk are NOT an aberration but a natural evolution of the system; enjoy!
I don’t think “ enjoy” is the proper iteration. More like “ Fuck it”. We’re way beyond the point of gloating.We’ve been sleepwalking our way past the point of no return. Too complacent, distracted ,self absorbed and amnesiac. Hubristic in the assumption the gub’ment has our collective back and by placing a hand on the Bible, swearing to uphold the Constitution, “ So Help Me God” they will. We’ve always known there was a degree of corruption, The “vaunted” FBI“ White Hats” within our military, DHS, FBI, DOJ, CDC, HHS,NIH, etc would save us and the bad actors would be either convicted of Treason, court martialed, felony, conviction,murder, conspiracy , whatever the crime, they’d be sentenced to the maximum punishment allowable by law. … that our justice system was able to remain largely impartial, regardless of personal ideology. Wrong.The most heinous, treasonous Americans occupy the highest government offices and agencies. From FDR on, the corruption has continued and metastasized with only a handful of sacrificial lambs symbolically punished, framed , disappeared or assassinated before they can sing. The rest remain in power or move to the private sector and profit exponentially.Many are labeled “ Heroes”, “ Patriots”, “ Upstanding”, “ Legal Scholars”, “ Paragons of Virtue”.. Because we either didn’t care, believed it or they belonged to the right Party. Until Trump announced his Presidential bid. That’s when the whole of government- the duopoly, UniParty, unelected Deep State bureaucracy and the entire global elite turned against the first Independent, self funded, owned by nobody stepped onto the debate stage and exposed the rot . He became Public Enemy No 1 and when he really was the duly elected President elect, with all the obstacles set up to make him unelectable, his supporters became the target. And McCain, Obama,Biden,Mueller,Comey,Brennan,Hillary,Susan Rice, Bush, Cheney, Kerry, Biden,Clapper,Pelosi,Panetta,Blinken,Vindman,Soros,Malley,Milley,Esper,Schiff,McMaster,Haspel,Kerner,Pelosi,Flake and on …well.. they are living larger than ever. But for the “ Hero” McStain. I hope he’s burning in hell.
And we passively allowed it.
Not to mention people in power who represent the interests of a foreign nation - be that even a made up one - Israel. Just imagine that Blinky would have gone to Moscow and said "I come here as a Russian"...
For high offices, double citizenship should NOT be allowed, NO exceptions!
After watching "The Boardwalk Empire", once question came to my mind; the mafia, mob and gangsters had the police, politicians and FBI in their pockets - how did we EVER got rid of them?
We didn't - OF COURSE we didn't - they are in power now.
That about sums it all up perfectly. Also brings us back to the necessity of the hangman's noose
I’m hoping for more of a meteor strike. The variety of which chunks break off and hit the UN,DAVOS,Trilateral Commission,EU,Being,Taliban,Hezbollah,Hamas,Al-Qaeda,Qatar,Sinaloa Cartel,Sacramento,Caracas,DC,Langley, Portland,LA,SF,Minneapolis…strategically, of course.😇
That's a pretty good option, but I'm afraid it would only bring temporary relief!!!
Geoff, what I’d really, really , really like to say would bring the thought Gestapo to my door… with military grade weapons shields, a battering ram and leg irons. Because a 5’2” , 105 lb middle aged woman who winds up falling facedown on brick pavers trying to avoid startling a baby possum is a grave “ Threat to our Democracy”.
Regardless at the rate we’re speeding towards a stealth nuclear WWWIII, the bastards will be in their bunkers before being struck by a meteor.
"Capitalism lifts people out of poverty." Not always. Closer to accurate is this.:
Capitalism CAN lift people out of poverty.
Significant differences there.
Capitalism, like democracy, only works well for the rest of us if the society is moral, intelligent, educated (not brainwashed), adult, virtuous, and eternally vigilant and responsible.
Good luck!
Capitalism is simply free trade using a monetary system to facilitate exchange. The problem is when capital (money, goods) is acquired through fraudulent means or through the abuse of others.
Government ideally should only concern itself with protecting the life, liberty, and property of its subjects. But along with "property" we have to include our own bodies and their well-being, and we have to include contractual obligations that preserve agreements.
Beyond that, the invisible hand of exchange of goods and service for mutual benefit should prevail to organize commerce and society. This may sound trite but prior to Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" he wrote "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" which set forward the idea that we all want to be respected and trusted in our relations with others. So personal integrity has to ground any social system and without it there's only brutality-- and we see some of that today.
Government in its roles of preserving life, liberty, property, and contracts also has a duty to root out malfeasance in order to preserve trust among members of society. Unfortunately in these times government often serves to promote malfeasance.
In an ideal world individuals and organizations would be held to account for the harms they do to others, provided that such harms are clearly spelled out in law so there can be no doubt of the standards, and these apply to all equally.
One of our basic rights in the modern age should be that of forbidding surveillance of individuals except in rare and well-defined cases. Surveillance of things, individuals and groups is of course at the heart of AI, and if surveillance of individuals if forbidden this takes a good chunk out its commercial prospects. But such a restriction is absolutely necessary to preserve individual self-determination and the individual as an end in themselves, without becoming subject to the ends of a state (or conglomerate of multinational corporations) that might want to use the power of surveillance to monitor, manage, and control.
We ourselves can and should determine our own individual ends, and with a modicum of good will amongst people there will be an invisible hand that orchestrates all of our activities for an end that preserves freedom and dignity, and that unfolds novel horizons that have no need for an overarching state planning facility to ensure the common good. The common good will arise simply from each pursuing their own ends with a respect and courtesy for the ends of others and an affirmation of simple good will as the only sane path.
The first step will be to cut back government power and control over individuals, and the preservation of the right to criticize government policies and actions ("free speech") is central to holding government to account.
I think you've identified a serious problem with our system, one crying out for a solution. I'm not sure I have one, but it is clear that government regulation has been a failure. Is better regulation by government, as RFK Jr. proposes a solution. Probably only for a while, before the corruption begins to seep back in. Where there are corruptible officials, eventually there will be corruption. As Lord Acton once said, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Yet without regulation, the marketplace is fair game for all kinds of mischief makers who will aim to make a buck through deceiving people through dishonest practices. There needs to be accountability for the provision of bad services or bad products. Self -regulation by industry has been proposed as a possible alternative. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has created a system for industries to develop meaningful standards. The American Institute of Homeopathy has been trying to develop a self-regulatory process with the assistance of ANSI, and many other industries have created such processes with ANSI assistance. While I do not propose this as a solution, it is an alternative that may be superior, or provide a model for a superior system of regulation than our country presently has. Ask least the model should be investigated, as we are badly in need of a better alternative.
you're right, capitalism is not the problem. The problem is corporate capitalism, monopoly capitalism. US Founders had a deep distrust of corporations, having watched how the East India Company had corrupted Parliament, so they severely restricted corporations in the new republic. When US was founded, one corporation could NOT own another corporation! That right there would prevent most corporate monopolies. Also, there were no Limited Liability Corporations (a.k.a. no "corporate shield"). Today we let corporate exec's break laws over and over and over, and all that happens is the corporation is fined, nobody goes to jail. If there were no LLC's, the corporate officers would be responsible when the law is broken and THEY would go to jail. Founders did not foresee how the rich would eventually buy the politicians and get these restrictions on corporations removed. What they should have done was made corporations themselves illegal, that is, banned corporations altogether.
There is some confusion about what free markets mean. We think of it as the necessary free flow of supply and demand. But empires -- such as the British and American empires -- use the "free market" tag (mercantilist capitalism) to stifle competition in developing countries. Empires use the power of their economies, and their military, to force smaller countries to open their markets and accept goods from the Empire, preventing local economic development. The economic history of the US shows that we developed our economy -- which the British empire tried to use as colonial slave labor (especially in the South) and a captive market -- by using protectionist tariffs to prevent cheaper British goods from flooding our economy until we could establish ourselves. It was only after we successfully developed our economy that we too became an Empire and have tried to force the "free market" concept on developing countries. The successful US model of protectionist tariffs has been used very successfully by China in modern times to develop its economy, and was an example to other Western countries around the world during the 19th century and early 20th century.
This is a bit off topic, but I remember hearing an interview with a small business owner in a foreign country (it may have been somewhere in Africa) where they had just experienced a natural disaster. America swooped in with "aid" in the form of rice and other food stuffs. The person who was being interviewed (via a translator) said that all of that free stuff put him and hundreds of other small business owners out of business because they could no longer sell their rice, etc because the people were getting the free stuff from America. It was a very interesting interview and enlightened me to the fact that sometimes even charity *not asked for* can be detrimental to a society and culture. I don't believe there was any "hidden agenda" (or was there?) regarding this "aid" provided by America, but I also think that America's government swooping in to "fix things" without being asked is also something that needs to change. American government seems to have it's fingers in *everything* anymore. And many of us have not asked for this and don't want it. But the system is set up in a way where we are all forced to participate no matter what we think. Grrrr. Again, sorry if I didn't add to your comment's topic. This just came to me when I read your comment. :)
Foreign "aid" in general is a subsidy to both the bankers (because it is in the form of credits) and the producers with connections (because the "credits" can only be used to buy from them.
Additionally, it can be a form of dumping products such as grain full of insect and rodent detritus that could otherwise only be disposed of by destroying or burying it.
Good post.
Trump gets it. From CNBC:
These (tax) exemptions are part of Trump’s larger vision to transition away from the income tax system and replace it with the revenue he says would be generated by his hardline tariff proposals.
“In the old days when we were smart, when we were a smart country, in the 1890s and all, this is when the country was relatively the richest it ever was. It had all tariffs. It didn’t have an income tax,” Trump said at a sit-down with voters in New York on Friday for “Fox & Friends.” “Now we have income taxes, and we have people that are dying.”
Trump has pledged to impose a 20% universal tariff on all imports from all countries with a specific 60% rate for Chinese imports. — CNBC"
The phrase, "free marklet," like all other concepts, means whatever someone wants it to mean at the time.
Something like this,
“When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — “
-Alice in Wonderland
“Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.”
- John Adams, letter to J. H. Tiffany, Mar. 31, 1819.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-7104
“For when language is corrupted and thought twisted in sinister ways, all efforts to resist the colonizers of the mind are self-defeating. Double-binds are not reserved for personal relationships but pertain equally to politics and culture. There is a reason why public discourse about politics (and most everything) in the U.S.A. is so circular in nature, so self-defeating, always ending in a dead-end as the system of oligarchic rule rolls along and even strengthens.’
- By Edward Curtin, Caged in Oligarchic Contradictions
https://edwardcurtin.com/caged-in-oligarchic-contradictions/
In addition to accurate information from sellers, knowing the root causes of one's cancer or dementia or any chronic disease will create and motivate savvy buyers who eventually change the marketplace through their awareness. Knowledge of why we are sick will help localized our most essential goods and services, especially food; even medicine eventually (herbs, food as medicine, etc).
Local economies put buyers and sellers in closer contact, helping with the accurate information problem. "Local wellness economies" driven by root cause medicine just might make capitalism healthy again. As well as the environment. And maybe even democracy?
There will always be that tension between a seller who wants to keep the ugly details of his product secret, and the buyer who needs the best information to make a wise choice. I suspect that was a problem in 20,000 BC. But in small economies like tribes the shysters soon become obvious and the market operates as it should. As soon as the economy becomes too large for the "market" to operate effectively to reveal the dishonest actor, then things start to go awry. The larger the economy, the more the buyer gets the shaft. Once it is large enough for individuals to control large numbers of workers, buyers, or warriors then all the worst failures of humanity begin to erupt. This is why Anarchism on the left and Libertarianism on the right are so appealing.
Global free markets have been an absolute disaster for New Zealand, Meryl. Like most of the world in the 50s, 60s and 70s, we used to be protectionist. This meant we made all our own cars, washing machines, etc. They were a bit expensive, but so well made that they lasted forever. Then in the 80s free trade was foisted upon us, by stealth and cheating, by a Labour (Democrat equivalent) govt. Within a few years, ALL our manufacturing industries had been offshored to countries where workers were paid $1 a day. The price of everything went down, but so did the quality of the goods. And our working class was screwed so badly that they couldn't afford even the cheap imports. Within a few years NZ was reduced to a country with only two industries -- the ones that COULDN'T be offshored -- tourism and primary production. And the free trade agreements meant we couldn't even ban toxic pesticides for the primary production, because the multinational corporations that made them could sue us if we did, in suits that were specified in the free trade agreements to be heard in an international court composed of three judges, two of whom were appointed by the corporations. So that's MY experience of free trade, Meryl. It was the first salvo in the war of the globalists.
Patrick Wood describes how global free trade is an underhanded way of stripping sovereignty from nations. Global power usurps national power in the name of free trade agreements that are ostensibly for the greater good.
Yes. GLOBAL free trade creates problems. But LOCAL free trade for essential goods that can be made locally is quite different. Especially in the presence of aware consumers. It may be the best way to take back sovereignty from corporate entities.
There probably never was a free market. It's long been a mafia market and a FINO.
CEOs getting the death penalty when people die from their faulty vaccines? YEEEEEE-ESSSSS!!
They deserve an extended stay Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo first.