DonaldFG
VIP Member
- Jan 4, 2015
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When they "start to exert real power" is that still free trade anymore. Is that still a market place where ideas compete? This type is stuff is no longer in the realm of free trade in my book, and is not what capitalism stands for. Capitalism is giving the greatest amount of power to the individual. Once it crosses over into certain individuals exerting extra powers infringing on other individual's powers, then it is no longer capitalism, free trade, constitutional republic, or whatever you want to label it as.The capitalist promise fails more often than not. And that is because us citizens are not in control.
The failings of capitalism are well understood. (See the attachment to this post.) Citizens being in control or not is not one of the reasons.
The content in the attachment is nothing more than the basic "stuff" that is part of any collegiate course on microeconomics or macroeconomics. Heck, it's the stuff my own kids (all three of them) covered in high school economics class.
The attachment seems to be a very good explanation of the problems of capitalism. And by the way, it does basically agree with my statement. You really cannot separate politics from the economic system. Therefore, who is in control of government is indeed key. Elite political leaders determine the rules, in other words the regulations. If the people do not have complete control over those leaders, the economic system (whatever kind) is almost guaranteed to fail.
Your reference has the following statements concerning capitalism:
The problem is that free markets tend to lead to concentrations of wealth in the form of personal fortunes and, even more significantly, the large mega-corporation. It is an inherent feature of market dynamics that winners in competition will tend to become larger and larger, and when they become very large they exert real power inside of the market (as well as in the political arena).
A crucial question for sociology and for politics is thus how our institutions either reinforce or undermine different kinds of values and traits. Or to say it even more simply: the kind of people we get in a society is not given by nature, but by the ways our institutions encourage some traits and discourage others. In our present context, the question thus becomes: what kinds of people and traits does a highly competitive, individualistic capitalist society foster?
The problem here is that both sides agree that power is bad. We seem to have disagreements on the forms of power that are bad. I agree that when big mega corps start throwing their political, financial, or whatever weight around unfairly shutting down the little guy, that is wrong. It is also not free trade. No one seems to be getting that point. But governmental power is also bad, in fact it's been proven through history that it's an even worse power. Our own goverment has shown that many times in the past. I can get into slavery, interment camps, Jim Crow, segregation, and all that...but let's look at something more recently, gay marriage. Yay it's legal now...but the question should never have been legal or illegal, it should have been why does government even have the power to tell two consenting adults who they can and can't love? Our government turned it into the binary legal or illegal, let us rip each other's throats out, and still retained the same power they had before. The only reason government gave themselves the power to "grant a marriage license" was to stop interracial marriage. Let's look at another issue, data mining. Now they govt can say all they want it's for our security and safety...that's just not the case. What it's for is the same reason Google does it, to see inside our minds, things we don't even know about ourselves. That is a tremendous power that even people well versed in the subject can't completely comprehend what can be accomplished wielding that power. The difference is Google does it for advertisement, and not on even close to the same scale out government can. Our government can use it in a way to sway us to where they want us, or enough of us where they want us. Believe me I can go on and on if you want, with things like why this administration doesn't really give a rats a** about global warming. But, If you're not familiar with Stephen milgram and his famous experiments, look into them now. If you don't feel like researching, then there's a good movie on netflix called the experimenter about him, that should suffice. What socialism does is it gives the reigns of our destiny to a select few. Even if those select few are beneficent, it doesn't last for long. What happens when the next guy comes in, does anybody here want Donald trump to be in charge of out department of education? The pendulum in politics, culture, etc. Is always swinging. A borderline fascist , la pen, almost and should have won in France, a pretty socialized country. This is why it is important to limit the power of the select few, and make certain we are all equally empowered. Socialism is just a transfer of power to a select few
First of all, unregulated capitalism and free trade are as incompatible as oil and water. Capitalism breeds corporate power and monopoly inherently. And corporate power kills free trade.
Corporate power also ultimately corrupts government in its favor. That is just the opposite of what government should be doing; government should be making and enforcing laws to protect and nurture its people and their needs rather than let corporations ignore the people's and their employee's needs. This is the primary conflict in the world today in my opinion - corporate power versus people power.
A well socialized government would be one that has only the power its citizens allow it to have. This is why democracy is so important. The people must be the primary source for making the laws that govern us all. If elite leaders do not do their jobs to the people's satisfaction, the means to immediately remove them must be contained in the Constitution for their government.
Elite governing minorities have perfected many means to retain their power over their citizens. These means must be removed and outlawed if we are to have a just civilization.