Forum Post: Replace State-Capitalism with DEMOCRACY!

The financial elite have gained more and more power in society, especially in the United States. Since the 70s big capital has gained an increasing power over politicians and the public. They control the institutions in society, they control the economy to a large extent, and they have a huge influence on politicians. Yet despite having all this wealth, power and influence over our lives they have never been democratically elected. This is unacceptable.

This state-capitalist system we have today is not sustainable. It leads to exploitation, injustice, the destruction of the environment, and last but not least, it undermines democracy.

We have a huge democratic deficit. It is undemocratic when the ones who have the overwhelming power in society are not elected by people. The financial elite have most of the wealth, they control the resources and the means of production - things that affect our lives - yet we´ve never voted for them. People don´t control their own lives, workplaces and communities; instead the super rich non-elected minority make big decitions and control huge part of the society with their enormous wealth which is very highly concentrated.

Not only are the rich and powerful in an undemocratic way controlling the economy as a whole in huge networks of transactions, investments and stock exhange, they also rule the institutions in society in a totalitarian way. The economic institutions in a capitalist society have a totalitarian model; a tyrannical non-democratic hierarchy in which the people at the top - the CEOs, owners etc - dictate how the institution is being run, what´s being produced, working conditions and so on, while people further down the hierarchy must follow their orders. Capitalist institutions are in other words private tyrannies. These structures are in no way not even recembling democratic organization.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqlTyAMVDUk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpd3grtjkK8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPUvQZ3rcQ

Democracy has also been reduced to just putting a piece of paper in a box once every second year.

This is not good enough. We can do much better than that!

So what is the alternative?

In my opinion the people must take the power back from the non-elected elites so they can take control over their own lives by creating a more democratic society. In other words, more direct democracy and direct participation. That means democratic control of communities, democratic control of workplaces and so on; a society where people participate in the decision-making and cooperate in building a society where we focus on people´s needs, not billionaire´s short term profit.

Replace capitalism with democracy!