Forum Post: Capitalism is a broken system.
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 19, 2011, 6:50 a.m. EST by jbrowning8
(1)
from Spokane, WA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The question is not who works harder between the 53% and the 99%. Most everyone is working hard. I don't dismiss the fact that some people do mooch off the social system, but that is not the discussion. The question is how can the 99% and 53% earn fair wages in a capitalistic society?
The answer is simply this — they cannot. In order for the top 1-2% of the country to earn 40% of the entire GDP, the 99% needs to take the burden. In other words, for capitalism to work in such great numbers there needs to be people who make absolutely nothing. Once again, it's notable that most of the 99% do work hard. It is simply a broken system.
It is just a matter of the boom/bust cycle that seems to be inherent in what is otherwise a "natural" organic system. Where this metaphysical "Market" determines supply/demand...sorta...anyways, we have been trying to control the "spirit in the machine" and it has not worked yet. From a much larger perspective, it seems that struggle, resistance, stress, and friction are a part of everything, whether cerebral or manifest.
/shrugs
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94223
Capitalism isn't a broken system but corrupt capitalism that only serve the 1% is.
Nice insight
We do not live in a true capitalist society. Our markets a skewed by Laws and regulation that favor certain people and restrict others.
There are many misguided efforts, and it seems that the OWS movement has become a platform for just about any concern. A movement needs to focus and be very clear on what it seeks to accomplish.
I have spent nearly 4 years researching and educating myself on the law and rules that make up the basis on how business is financed and how the rules affect business and the individuals who own them and work for them.
First let me say that this problem is not liberal or conservative, democrat or republican but it is a common problem we all share. One key point must be stressed we are all affected by the issue at hand.
Now, let’s look at the laws. If you look at the fall of the exchange in 1929, its cause and the reaction by the government you will find most of the problem. In 1929 only ~10% of all businesses were public and the remainder was private. ~2% of the population were involved in trading stocks and most of the individuals we very heavily leveraged (They bought on credit).
Next the market dropped, individuals lost their ability to pay off their margin accounts and wiped out the capital overnight in the banking system, Couple that with the hysteria of the people running on the banks to get there gold out and you have a recipe for disaster.
For most they were not initially affected by the falls of the exchange in 1929 but when banks failed they felt it. Businesses lost credit to operate, accounts were wiped out and small private business failed. No fault of their own but the fault of the overzealous banks. Individuals found there savings wiped out alongside the private businesses and the world plunged into the abyss.
The reaction to this was FDR and the 1933 securities act and the 1934 securities and exchange act. What these two pieces of legislation did was strip the ability of the small private business (who did not cause the market collapse) to raise capital in a traditional form, Bonds. Direct investment was for many years the mainstay of the entrepreneur. It put the restrictions on who could invest (Qualified institutional investor) and how the investments could be sold. It stripped the ability of the individual to invest and make the high returns they became accustomed to and placed all of it into the hands of the very few 1%.
Today if you are a business owner there is a glass ceiling of about $3 million dollars where a business could potentially get debt to expand, retool, or modernize. The Wall Street and Banks prefer an Equity offering. How often do small business owners sell the majority share of the company they own under a public offering or private sale (sale to high net worth’s) to raise the capital they need. The horror stories of this arrangement are very clear. They give up control, get voted out of the company and the new share holders shut them down move the product manufacture to China to maximize the return to the High Net Worth investor (new owner).
The laws perpetuate the problem. Now remove the Glass-Steagall Act and it becomes a high net worth orgy.
Focus, access the laws, and fix the system that perpetuates the behavior.
FIX THE LAWS
Agreed.
Marx provides the critical insight needed to understand our situation.
He predicted that this would happen - the unbridled condensation of wealth into the hands of a few.
Now here it is.
Marx was a nut job. Full of hatred. Capitalism is not what you have, its been corrupted by the politicians for almost 100 years
I think you have Marx confused with someone else:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
http://metapolitik.org/content/demands
Nope that's the nut job. Groucho Marx, now that was a stateman
You right-wingers love it when entertainers get into politics. (Reagan, Aahnold, etc...)
Guess they make for better puppets.
They are all a joke, they might as well be entertaining
I think capitalism reaching its 'carrying capacity' is also notable. What I mean by this is — the earth has not reached its carrying capacity, however, and needless to say, there are many starving and dying because of malnutrition. Why is this?
Because we employ capitalism. In North American and Europe alone; four times the Earth's food requirement is wasted every year.
As long as we are supporting capitalism, we are directly supporting death all around the world. We are supporting slave-labor in Asia.
Social reform is in fact the answer.
Stupid.
Capitalism is meant to work for the 1%. It worked for many years and now most of the wealth is at the top. Our legislators know this and they do the bidding of the 1%. What is happening on Wall St. and around the country will get there attention but the movement needs to grow to millions before they bend. The elite will use the police and national guard to put us down we can't let this stop us. Eventually the police and the guards will realize they also are part of the 99%
Карл Генрих Маркс родился 5 мая 1818 на 664 Brückergasse в Трире, городе, расположенном в Королевстве провинции Пруссии в Нижнем Рейне. [11] Его предки были евреи, со своей отцовской линии снабдив раввинов Трира с 1723 года, Роль, которая была подхвачена его собственным дедом, Merier Галеви Маркса, сын Merier и отца Карла будет первой в очереди на получение светского образования [12] Его дед по материнской линии был голландский раввином [13] отца Карла.. , Hirschel Маркса, был средний класс и относительно процветающим, владеющие числа виноградников Мозеля, он превращается из иудаизма в протестантской христианской деноминацией лютеранства до рождения сына, взяв на немецком имя Генриха над Hirschel [2] В. 1815 году он начал работать в качестве адвоката и в 1819 году переехал с семьей из пяти комнат съемной квартире в десять-комнатный собственности у Porta Nigra. [14] Человек эпохи Просвещения, Генрих Маркс был заинтересован в идеях философы Иммануил Кант и Вольтер, и принял участие в агитации за конституцию и реформы в Пруссии, которая была тогда регулируется абсолютной монархии. [15] мать Карла, родился Генриетты Пресбург, был голландский еврей, который, в отличие от ее мужа, было только полуграмотным. Она утверждала, что страдает от "чрезмерной любви матери", посвящая много времени со своей семьей, и настаивая на чистоту в своем доме. [16] Она была из процветающего семейного бизнеса. Ее семья позже основал компанию Philips Electronics. Она была двоюродной бабушки, чтобы Антон и Жерар Филипс, и пра-пра-тетей до Фриц Филипс [17]
Мало что известно о детстве Карла Маркса. [18] Он был образован в частном порядке до 1830 года, когда он вошел в Трире средней школы, которая была тогда в ведении директора Уго Wyttenbach, друг его отца. Wyttenbach были заняты многие либеральные гуманисты, как учителя, который что-то разозлило правительство, и поэтому полиция совершила налет на школу в 1832 году, обнаружив, что они помечены подрывной литературы поддерживающих политический либерализм распространяется среди студентов. [19] В 1835 году Карл, а затем в возрасте семнадцать лет, начал посещать университет Бонна, где он хотел изучать философию и литературу, но отец настоял на право как более практичный специальности. [20] Он был в состоянии избежать службы в армии, когда ему исполнилось восемнадцать лет, потому что он страдал от слабая грудь. [21] Быть любит алкогольные напитки, в Бонне он вступил в клуб Трир Таверна питьевой общества (землячества дер Treveraner) и в один момент был его сопредседателем. [22] Маркс был более заинтересован в питьевой и общение чем, изучающих право, и в связи с его плохими оценками, его отец заставил его перейти на гораздо более серьезные и академически ориентированных Берлинском университете, [23], где его правовых исследований стало менее значительным, чем экскурсии в философии и истории. [24]
I am not a Marxist and don't care for Karl Marx.
We Simply need to FIX THE LAWS!!
Capitalism has always been unsustainable.
Now it's caught up with us.