Daniel Taylor writing in Red Flag, addresses some of the systemic problems with the economic system we currently have.
“When the system is under strain, the “democratic deficit” of capitalism becomes obvious. No matter how many elections take place, the things we want don’t happen; the things we don’t want, do happen; and the people we despise are in charge.
But the roots of the problem are deeper than the political process: the lack of democracy is built into the fundamental structures of a capitalist economy.
Democracy means “the rule of the people”. Capitalism means the rule of the market. Between those two concepts lies a gulf that can’t be bridged by any number of patriotic songs and firework displays.
A capitalist economy, based on private property, divides society into those who own and those who don’t: those who decide and those who obey. The first, most fundamental decisions that can be made in society – what to do with the tremendous wealth and technology that exists in the world – are made with no democratic oversight at all.
Will factories be used to assemble medical equipment or machine guns? Will cranes be set to work building schools and hospitals or luxury apartments for the rich? Will the printing presses make textbooks or newspapers full of racist fear-mongering?
These key decisions, which determine the shape of the society we live in, are made every day in secret, with no democratic oversight, by the tiny minority of the population that owns society’s productive wealth. They are not made in parliaments, but boardrooms. And they are made in the interests of the capitalist class, to increase its profits and strengthen its rule over society.
In capitalist “democracy”, “the people” have no say whatsoever over the most important decisions in the world: the economy is the private concern of the bosses, and we have to live with their decisions. And the state – supposedly the democratic influence on society, in which all citizens, rich and poor alike, have an equal say – merely reflects and reinforces this tyranny.”
I think it is time we give democratic socialism a fair shake.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
3 comments
January 13, 2018 at 8:22 am
Bob Browning
The major players, the holders of capital, own the media so the only change we’ll get is the ebbs and flows that they determine will keep the status quo. The police state can control the angry mobs if twenty or thirty percent of denizens are comfortable and docile.
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January 13, 2018 at 8:34 am
The Arbourist
@ Bob Browning
Education and the ability to think critically are so important in today’s (?) society.
I look back on my own educational career and note that my intellectual development did not begin in earnest till I started reading and pursuing my curiosities on my own.
It is why I cannot recommend Manufacturing Consent by Chomsky highly enough. That book is dry AF, but dispelled much of my dogmatic slumber politically speaking.
I wish I could have read the Dialectic of Sex by Firestone earlier as well, it is such a powerful book.
I digress though. Honing the ability to get through to people despite their media indoctrination will be the next ‘teaching mode’ I hope that catches on so people can see for themselves the situation they exist in.
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January 13, 2018 at 10:45 am
Vesuvius R. Kaine
“what to do with the tremendous wealth and technology that exists in the world – are made with no democratic oversight at all.
Why do everyday Liberals keep pretending like they know anything significant about business or capitalism? They’re always so wrong, wrong, wrong.
Whether a factory produces bullets or baby formula is ultimately determined by market demand in a capitalist democracy, not some secret minority in some boardroom somewhere – clearly showing that Mr. Taylor has never stepped foot in even a business, let alone a boardroom before. (That’s assuming he’s even ever stepped out of his mother’s basement, too.) Is his seriously the kind of idiocy you all take seriously?
If Taylor was arguing that people in big business boardrooms are perpetuating status quo that would be one thing, but trying to say that big business boardrooms are where demand originates? Completely backwards, showing that Taylor is just as much a f#cking idiot as every other run of the mill SJW blogger is when they try to write or talk about capitalism as though they’re some kind of expert . Here’s an idea – have they ever tried actually LEARNING about Capitalism first? Or do they just think they know?
Imaginary boogeymen in boardrooms somewhere aren’t the main problem, nor are they where blame should truly lie if you want change. The main problem is that the market has become largely uneducated, immature, and ignorant to the point where its demands aren’t equating to it’s actual needs anymore. That gap gets wider and wider, and then big business not only caters to it, it works to make the gap wider. Why? Because the infrastructure to keep supplying Twinkies or Hoverboards or medical supplies or baby bottles is already in place, and it was expensive. The crime didn’t start with the person taking the financial risk, investing in the building, investing in equipment, and investing jobs. The crime – when it comes to choosing to produce bullets over baby bottles – came from the selfish, uneducated, and ignorant sack of shit whose own whims demanded the bullets in the first place.
Bullets are an extreme example, but look at what the market is producing movie-wise for the most part, or food-wise. It’s the general public, not Marvel Studios, who demand that The Rock be in the next movie. It’s the general public, not Tim Horton’s, that demand coffee and donuts over real, wholesome food. It’s the general public who demands $1,000 phones more than cheaper education – so much so they’ll camp out for days outside a store to show it.
We pay entertainers way, way, WAY more than we pay scientists and teachers because of that same general public and therefore mainstream market demand, and that’s horrendous, but be accurate on where the blame should go. I know you all hate to be actually accountable for anything, but if you’re drinking that latte and playing with that iPhone while NOT learning about relationships, money, culture, and politics, to stop making that gap between what you want and what you need even wider, then it’s you.
All parts of the capitalist system are culpable, but be honest, face fact, and look at where the largest embrace of it and with it the biggest mechanism for change lies – in everyday people becoming more mature, more educated, and less ignorant. When they do, they vote with their clicks, they vote with their ballots, and they vote with their dollars to make things change – and can change almost overnight when enough people do.
Three problems:
1) We have a largely uneducated and/or ignorant populace which is dishonest and unaccountable – AND LOVES IT.
2) We have a press that is dishonest and unaccountable – AND LOVES IT.
3) We have government way too in bed with big business, and is dishonest and unaccountable – AND LOVES IT.
A smart and honest government will eventually lose to ignorant and uneducated people. A smart and honest press will eventually lose to ignorant and uneducated people. A more educated and less ignorant populace, however, doesn’t lose to anybody.
The population always holds the power, yet “we” continue to keep feeding on the “crack” that’s found all over the news and the web that keeps us ignorant and uneducated about relationships, money, culture, and politics.
That crack keeps us high, keeps us feeling significant, and also keeps us useless as a populace when it comes to changing anything – and in my opinion the post by Mr. Taylor (and ignorant ones like it) continue to be part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
And with all due respect, Arb, fine if an individual wants to wish for a social democracy or any other system, but collectively with the populace that we have I think all the talk about it is just an excuse for most people just to continue to be lazy, uneducated, and ignorant, and not fix the system (and country) that they have.
How is a populace going to get to a social democracy?
“Central to social democracy, it can be argued, is the problem of mobilizing collective agencies in the interests of a more thoroughgoing equality – empowering people by bringing them together. It is by acting in concert that the disenfranchised in any age have been able to shift the balance of power in their own favour. In the modern period this has meant countering and displacing the corruption of political process that social and economic inequalities will lead to, and turning the legislative power of the state against concentrations of private power in the name of a more inclusive collective interest.”
http://renewal.org.uk/articles/the-problem-of-social-democracy
You/we can talk all we want about a social democracy, but fact is your side has been just as bad at misunderstanding, alienating, and dividing people along those four lines (relationships, money, culture, and politics) as the other side has which means your side is just as much the reason as to why it’s never going to happen in the West. You, as much as they, do the opposite of ‘bringing them together’ and until that changes and people get less ignorant and stupid ON BOTH SIDES along the way, nothing’s going to change for the general public.
Only thing to do which will get you out of the general public is what the truly smart people do on either side, and that’s get rich so that their gold allows them to create their own rules, and whatever system or society that they want in their own little words. It’s really great, Arb, and not only do both sides actually get along in our world up here, we get to enjoy life as well – really enjoy it! – and, we have cookies. You should try it! :) :) :)
Example: Mogo Financial (“TSE: MOGO”) – $2.20 to $6.45 in one year, and the only research anyone had to do on it was to read that they were a newly-approved bank looking to embrace technology to the fullest in order to keep rates low and scale quickly. A year later, almost 3x the return. Hate capitalism, though, or hate money, and you’ll never EVER see those kinds of returns on anything, People wonder why they can’t get ahead? Ignorant and uneducated (plus a lack of guts regarding the two, I suppose) – nothing else.
Btw, with those returns I’m actually going to go spend some time in a bunch of these social democracies and see for myself what all the fuss is about. https://www.meganstarr.com/30-things-you-should-know-before-moving-to-norway/ Gotta have a little fun, so Turks & Caicos, Amsterdam, Prague, London, and Switzerland this year, too. So many reasons why Capitalism is Great!
Where will Mr. Taylor be going this year? All indicators point to nowhere – AGAIN. What’s the piece of crap he writes for? The Red Flag – “The Voice of Resistance” HAHAHAHAHA! Seriously?! I’d say he’s more the voice of a guy shouting out for more meatloaf from his mother’s basement at age 35. What’s his biggest accomplishment in life – cleaning his room? Hardly a Noam Chomsky, Arb – you’re slipping! :)
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