Reports of capitalism’s death have been greatly exaggerated

Waging Non-Violence ^ | 7/22/15 | Kate Aronoff

[P.O.E.]

Late last week, economic journalist Paul Mason, whose Channel 4 blog has been one of the best English-language sources for making sense of the ongoing Greek crisis, published an excerpt from his forthcoming book in The Guardian. It announces that the end of capitalism has begun and that (spoiler) it doesn’t look how we thought it might. The 20th century old/new leftist dream of some crisis-sparked proletarian revolt, he argues, has been battered by neoliberalism and, now, is being replaced by a steady trickle of viable, largely technology-fuelled alternatives to the current economy. “Capitalism, it turns out, will not be abolished by forced-march techniques,” Mason writes. “It will be abolished by creating something more dynamic that exists, at first, almost unseen within the old system, but which will break through, reshaping the economy around new values and behaviors.”

[P.O.E.]

Interesting piece on the intersection of emerging technology, economics, and government, IMHO.

[C. Edmund Wright]

..the intersection of gubbermint and bidness is too damned big and crowded, and is making road of true free enterprise damned near impossible....

[Fightin Whitey]

"creating something more dynamic that exists, at first, almost unseen within the old system, but which will break through, reshaping the economy around new values and behaviors.”

Translation: Taking someone else's money to make other people do all the work.

[C. Edmund Wright]

There are some interesting comments in the piece, but it’s written from the leftist point of view - which is by the way what this entire corrupt blog site is all about.....a social justice site. And we all know what that really means....

[RayChuang88]

I wonder did the author read Alvin Toffler's The Third Wave.

Toffler wrote that as modern technology advances, we may have to consider is both socialism and capitalism being rendered obsolete by technological change. Indeed, technological change could actually dramatically slow down the birth rate of humans in the long run.

[chrisser]

I think it depends on how you define Capitalism.

If you define it as mega-corporations intertwined with large central governments, then perhaps it’s days are numbered (although I doubt it in my lifetime) and in many ways I wouldn’t mind.

But if you define it as free interaction of individuals trading goods and services, then it will always exist and there are possibilities of it flourishing as never before thanks to technology (think ebay, craigslist, etc.).

My biggest problem with Leftists is they assume Capitalism is the former, but then have no problems building the gigantic governments that make huge corporations possible and even necessary, and they actually benefit in that it’s much easier to regulate industries with a handful of major players versus millions of mom&pop entities spread all over the country.

[stinkerpot65]

Leftist thug appetite for totalitarian oppression is infinite.

[P.O.E.]

the intersection of gubbermint and bidness is too damned big

Government has become a huge industry

[P.O.E.]

I’ve never read that - have to look into it. Thanks for the reference.

[P.O.E.]

but it’s written from the leftist point of view

I was a bit surprised, really, to read how glibly they describe their aims as trying to bring about a "worker's revolution" so they can take over. If you look at everything going on these days through that prism, it all makes perfect sense. Are they unaware of how old that notion is and how it has so miserably failed at the cost of millions of human lives? And these are supposed intellectuals.

[C. Edmund Wright]

. Are they unaware of how old that notion is and how it has so miserably failed at the cost of millions of human lives? And these are supposed intellectuals.

Yes, they are UNAWARE of the history of the statist notion and failure/genocide. They've been taught by a generation that is unaware...because that generation was taught by a generation that was aware, but lied......we're 3-4 generations into this astonishing ignorance.

[buffaloguy]

Classical economics is not a system but an accurate description of how individuals increase their security and the survivability of their families through normal interaction with others. Each decision to trade money for a good or service which is perceived to be worth more than the money in your pocket is economics. It is the total of economics.

If you remove the decision making process from the individual you have a system which is not an economic system but a political system.

Summary: The individual is economics. Any hoaky system which fails to recognize this fact is a system developed by an economic ignoramus and it is absolute BS from start to finish.

Socialism has nothing to do with economics. It is a political system designed to replace monarchy and functions much the same.

[P.O.E.]

It’s an excuse to pick your pocket.