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

[wispywillow]

A fictional podcast I listen to (Alice Isn't Dead) put the problem pretty succinctly:
- there are more and more people in the world
- there are increases in technology in efficiency
- more people to fill fewer and fewer jobs

AI is just the latest thing that will threaten creative jobs. Musk is hellbent on trucks being self-driving someday, which threatens a lot of jobs. These are just two small examples.

Capitalism as it is now is not sustainable. It cannot exist alongside increases in population and decreases in jobs.

Something is going to give.

[ratcreature]

The term capitalism was coined before Marx. Actually Marx himself uses mostly "capital" and "capitalist" (as in people owning capital). The latter was used since the 17th century in somewhat the same way as we use it now, but definitely around the 1840s starting in France, like by the early anarchists and socialists and their criticism of property rights and the emerging industrial capitalism. The first proper definition of "capitalism" as term for an economic system is generally attributed to the French socialist Louis Blanc around 1850. So yeah, the term capitalism was coined as a critique of the system rather than by proponents, but not by Marx. He picked it up from the French. Though he certainly pushed the theory framework and analysis.

I recommend going with some kind of highlights version of Das Kapital though. We had to read excerpts in high school (it's part of the standard curriculum in Germany in both history and social studies classes and we read some in philosophy class as well) and it's very dense and tedious to read from what I recall, even if you are interested. I can't imagine it improves with translation and with reading the whole thing rather than just highlights.