What is Equal Money - Part I: The Folly of Capitalism

What is Equal Money?

PART 1 – The Folly of Capitalism

If I were to write in detail of the folly of capitalism a book of a thousand pages could be produced. So, in this section of this writing I will just summarize the folly of capitalism as best I can in short. Let's start with some terms as defined at Dictionary.com to help us define capitalism:

Capital: 1. the wealth, whether in money or property, owned or employed in business by an individual, firm, corporation, ect.
              2. an accumulation of such wealth.

-ism:      a distinctive doctrine, theory, system or practice.

Capitalism: an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production , distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

 

So, capitalism is a distinctive doctrine or system whereby those who participate in it practice the pursuit of personal wealth and private property ownership, in other words the pursuit of self-interest and definitely not the pursuit of what is best for all. In defense of self-interest as a system that results in what is best for all, Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, famously explained that it is possible to achieve the best economic benefit for all even when, and in fact because, individuals tend to act in their own self-interest. Adam Smith wrote: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.” But as enticing as this may sound, this clearly has not been demonstrated in the past 200 years, or so, that we have been practicing capitalism. For example, what if this butcher got a good deal on meat because it was loaded with hormones and antiboitics and there were no regulations to keep him from selling you this meat without informing you. And since it is in his own best interest to make money, because this is what capitalism is about, he sells you this meat. You eat the meat for a time and then later you get cancer. Is this really what is best for you? Now, I understand that their may be regulations in place to prohibit this, but whether there are in this case or not, you as a “consumer” have to watch your back with everything you buy because you are buying it from someone who is operating from a principle of what is best for him not you. Nevertheless, many will argue that capitilism is still a superior system because of the fact that more wealth has been created under the capitalist system then in all of human history, but the problem with this is that at the same time extensive suffering and abuse has been simultaneously manifested and upheld under this system. So, instead capitalism is really a system where one can pursue personal fortune/self-interest and whether this actually results as what is best for all is a side benefit that may or may not occure.

Now to expand on this, because there is nothing in these definitions of capital or capitalism that defines by what principle we obtain wealth one is free to create wealth in anyway possible so long as it is within the “law”. Any acquired wealth outside of the “law” is frowned upon, but if one creates wealth within the law – it is acceptable. So in essence, we may disagree morally or ethically with the way one creates wealth within this system, but so long as one's pursuit of wealth is “lawful” or “legal” we have mutually agreed that this acceptable so long as we support capitalism.

So within a system like this where the only thing that matters is that one pursue capital (wealth), many abuses arise. For instance, by supporting capitalism we have all accepted and allowed the outsourcing of labor to slave-labor states such as China which is made possible because this is within the “law”. The workers in these slave-labor states make less than liveable wages and work long hours in abusive conditions. If we had the same labor “laws” here in the western world, we would definitely be able to produce goods for considerably less. But of course, we wouldn't really consider ourselves free, if this were the case, would we? And even more-so, we westerners may actually oppose capitalism if we were at the butt-end of it in a sweat-shop.

Now, even if one believes that it is “wrong” to use slave-labor from foreign countries to make our goods, this is of no consequence because so long as this practice is “lawful” or rather “legal” it will persist. Moreover, those that are making money from this system of slave-labor will spend huge sums of money to ensure the continuance of this system through political means. So, those who may find fault with using slave-labor are over-run because they do not have the money/resources to match the political contributions of those who make the money from this slave-labor system; and therefore, change is virtually impossible. One can attempt to boycott these slave-labor made goods, but that usually means spending more money on the goods that are not made by slaves. In order to spend more money to buy these goods implies that we actually have to have more money (obviously), and in most cases we westerners don't actually have the money required to successfully boycott these goods because ironically we too are also suffering from the exploitation of slave-labor which is reflected in the stagnant and diminished wages that most in western countries have suffered recently.

Another reason this exploitation of slave-labor is often accepted and allowed is because of the hope that we too may one day be able to exploit the system and become the wealthy minority. This is promoted as the “American Dream”, which really is nothing more than a dream for the vast majority of the population. So, the huge irony in all this is that while only a small minority of the human population is prospering from this system and reaching their “dream”, the rest of the population both in the exploited regions and the industrialized countries are not benefiting from this system and reaching their so-called “dream”. Yet most in the industrialized countries still support this system because maybe one-day if they come up with a good idea and work really hard they too may be one of the elite. Piss on that, but this is what capitalism is about – becoming wealthy and reaching your dream so long as you play by the rules which often results in exploiting others for personal gain.

In fact, those who become wealthy by exploiting this slave-labor system are held-up in the system as symbols of success. Take Steve Jobs for instance. We all look at him as brilliant inventor and capitalist who we admire and hope that we ourselves may reach this type of success. But we turn a blind-eye to the fact that those who produced his products in slave-labor states were some of the most abused workers on this planet. Nevertheless people such as Steve Jobs are held up in the system as hero's who have reached their dream that we all look-up to and who give us hope that maybe one day we will have this good fortune as well, which just works to keep people supporting this system which in turn keeps it alive and the rich rich.

Now, because the capitalist system as its primary principle is the pursuit of capital (wealth) and self interest, you can trace all abuses within this system back to money and someone making money from it. This is a natural consequence of such a system with self-interest as a core principle. I may go into this in more detail in another paper, but if one does his homework in a self honest evaluation, one can see for himself that ALL wars, mass starvation, slave labor, pornography, the overuse of oil and over drilling, drilling in gulf waters, pharmaceutical drugs, the extensively abused animals in the farming system, street drugs, genetically engineered crops, highly toxic and life threatening vaccines, attorneys suing everyone for everything, poor education, the prison system, unneeded surgeries, the psychotic practice of radiating individuals to get rid of cancer (chemotherapy), nuclear energy, immense amounts of trash, fast-food, pesticides on our food, testing animals for experimental drugs and makeups, you name it – if there is a system of abuse whereby a being suffers - money is behind it ultimately, and capitalism is the system in place that makes this all possible.

So why on earth would anyone support such an abusive system that only a minority truly prosper in and the rest suffer? Because of the false hope and the fear imposed that this is the only system that we have any chance in hell of having success and happiness. What a fuck-job the elite have imposed on mankind to convince everyone that the best they can do is be a poor slave and/or exploit others. Now of course I am not blaming this soley on the elite, they have just taken advantage of a situation which is what capitalism is about. The real problem is that this system is one that we have all accepted and allowed and therefore we are all equally responsible to be the change required to bring about a system that truly is best for all. The good news is, is that as this capitalist system continues to self-destruct and more and more begin to suffer as a consequence, I am sure humanity will eventually have a change of heart.