Moody Monday: capitalism again

[mellowtigger]

I still want to write a think piece about capitalism. That word, capitalism, was never used by Adam Smith. It seems it was defined by Karl Marx (yes, that one) in Das Kapital, which I really need to read before launching into a proper investigation of the concept. Apparently he detailed its uses and pitfalls.

These days, though, the pitfalls abound. The idea is very much on my mind. Here for Moody Monday is just a short collection of the things that we are doing to ourselves (they don't passively happen to us) in the USA because of unregulated capitalism and profit-at-all-costs psychology.

• Why Americans Are Obsessed With Big Cars (hint: "heavy trucks" avoid regulation, even though bigger vehicles are more dangerous)
• Corporate Profits Surge to an All-Time High of $2 Trillion
• Most theft is wage theft. (and necessary citations 1 and 2, plus a related GQ article)
• ‘Pay or Die’ Review: A Scathing Doc About the Cruelty of Insulin Costs
• Munger: A little inequality is good for the economy
• 39% of Americans say they’ve skipped meals to make housing payments: report
• Assisted-living homes are rejecting Medicaid and evicting seniors
• Why are working people being blamed for inflation?
• Inflation and Price Gouging
• What if We Actually Taxed the Rich?
• Man 'eaten alive' by bed bugs in Atlanta jail - family (disturbing death image available here)
• Homeowners Associations (John Oliver explaining another abdication of government's role)
• Prisons for Profit: An Industry of Exploitation (yet another abdication, and with another good John Oliver video)

By far the best thinking material, though, is this 95-minute YouTube video on Chokepoint Capitalism. I already knew some of the bad stuff that was happening, but this discussion opened my eyes to a lot more. That video explains that we need to have alternatives ready to offer. The Real-World Economics Review is a good place to learn what actual economists think on this topic.

We can imagine better. We deserve better. Failure would be unbearable.

Comments

[ratcreature]

In the German system high school is supposed to provide the whole liberal arts base layer, since you don't have to take general knowledge courses in university but specialize into your major right away with 18.

So in high school we read a lot of excerpts from various philosophers but mostly they were short. Marx wasn't the worst to read (Kant really liked his sentences too long), but still hard going.

We actually covered Marx a lot in high school, because his framing permeated so widely. So we were explained Marxist theories several times over the years at increasing levels of difficulty before we read any original sources. BTW this wasn't in Eastern Germany, and we covered classical economist like Adam Smith too, as well as more modern ones like Keynes. So it wasn't dome socialist indoctrination thing.

[mellowtigger]

Actual philosophy and politics. If only USA high schools did that. I never encountered Kant until college coursework, and I agree that he's longwinded too. Something about earlier eras disliked concise, maybe they "stopped caring" after we no longer relied on Catholic monks to hand write new copies of books. LOL ;)

In my senior year politics class in high school, we created our own political party. I don't remember what I called mine, but I do remember when I created a chart describing where it was on the political spectrum left-to-right, I created a circle and put my party opposite the Democrat and Republican parties. Already in 1985, I was completely disillusioned by the USA's stupid 2-party system. :)

P.S. Wait! I remember now! I called it the "Apathetic" party, for people who found nothing desirable in the major political parties.