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Thou shalt not kill capitalism--just castrate it |
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Two Cheers for CapitalismThis is not Irving Kristol's infamous Two Cheers for Capitalism, but I raise a similar point, the need to distinguish between the economic and the political.Jason Hickel's 2020 book, Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, is a clarion call for revolution to far-sighted citizens of a Marxist disposition alarmed by the impending climate crisis. I am sympathetic, and Hickel makes many strong arguments for economic policies that are urgently needed if the planet is to remain habitable, but his framing of the politics is naïve. From his Introduction: What makes capitalism different from most other economic systems in history is that it's organised around the imperatives of constant expansion or 'growth' ... And as far as capital is concerned, the purpose of increasing production is ... to extract an ever-rising quantity of profit.It is now 2023, and all of that latent anti-capitalist sentiment has borne fruit in ... a war against Eurasia and Eastasia that is insanely popular in Oceaniafor those of you who came in late, these are allusions to Orwell's 1984, not to mention profitable. Hickel is sadly imprecise when he argues that the purpose of capitalist production is to extract an ever-rising quantity of corporate profit. Jeff Bezos doesn't want Amazon to show a profit, because then he would have to pay taxes!! Dara Khosrowshahi doesn't want Uber to show a profit, because then he would have to pay taxes!! The problem we face isn't corporate profits; the problem is personal profit. Similarly, there is noting inherently wrong with capital. Even in Graeber and Wengrow's Dawn of Everything prehistoric and predynasitc cultures pooled their labor, for example forming the 'capital' for communal irrigation systems. And if such 'capital' turns a 'profit', it is a net good, so long as the 'profit' benefits the community. You might argue that I'm quibbling over semantics: that ever since Marx the terms capital and profit have been understood to mean the capital and profit of post-Renaissance corporations. But semantics is the stuff of politics. "Capitalism" is an abstraction. Arguing from abstract, ideological terms leaves capitalists, who always control the means of instruction, leeway to redefine. Capitalists simply instruct that they are the "job-creators" or the "best and the brightest". When all else fails, they paraphrase Göring, telling the people that they (or blonde, blue-eyed 'Christians' who look like them) are being attacked. On another front, arguing against 'corporate profits' makes it possible for shills like Joseph Biden to feign solidarity with the downtrodden by proposing to increase corporate taxes. Corporate taxes may be necessary for public health, as in cigarette taxes or a carbon tax. But in order for people on Main Street to have nice things, sovereign nations, whose debts are denominated in their own sovereign currencies, don't need any taxes for revenue. This is basic Modern Monetary Theory, such as was and has been used to build and fund the Pentagon. Besides, without complementary regulation, corporate taxes will simply be passed on to the consumer. Pace Marx and Hickel, the root problem civilization faces is not capital, profit, or their abstraction into the bogeyman of capitalism; the problem is greed, it is unfairness, it is unfair personal profit, it is the system of wage slavery, of debt, interest, and usury. These are moralistic terms; their meaning may not be understood until it is painfully obvious, but they are the concrete terms in which the pain will be felt and shared; these are political terms. Abstract economic terminology may have its place, but until humans become humane, economics will not save us. Giordano December 2023
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invis The Devils in the Details In the News Resources Local Archive Master Archive Editor Giordano Links Please consider supporting the following independent news and opinion sources. Predator Watch - Posts by the late Xiwiki blogger Thorstein. Now maintained by the Xiwiki community. Greed Limit 400 Posts advocating a Maximum Wage by Xiwiki author Giordano Thought and Language - Posts by fellow Xiwiki blogger GramSci. Naked Capitalism -- An indispensable daily news feed. Be sure to read the exceptionally well-informed comments on the 7AM Links and the 2PM Water Cooler pages. - - - Alphabetically - - - Caitlin Johnstone - "Rogue Journalist". Excellent, almost daily rants against The Man. Consortium News - Carrying on the legacy of Robert Parry. FAIR - Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting; longstanding beacon. Counterpunch - Jeffrey St. Clair, et al. St. Clair's Friday/weekend roundup of news stories is often revelatory. Craig Murray - Former UK Ambassador become leading UK Human Rights activist. Glenn Greenwald - Legendary reporter who curated the early Wikileaks releases. The Grayzone - Principals include Max Blumenthal, Ben Norton, Aaron Maté. Ian Welsh - Good sense musings. Inequality.org - Sam Pizzigati and friends. Information Clearing House - Particularly valuable for its daily coverage of U.S. military misadventures. A heroic, long-standing effort by Tom Feeley, who has lately been ill. Visit and donate if you can. The Lever - David Sirota (former Sanders staffer) and team. Sardonicky - Karen Garcia reads the NYT so you don't have to. Racket News - Knowledgeable about Russia and clear reporting on propaganda and financial shenanigans by Matt Taibbi and team. Wall Street on Parade - by Pam and Russ Martens. Wall Street's latest crimes against humanity. Heavily censored by Google/Bing and the MSM. War Industry Muster - Watches War Industry contracts |
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