Global failures:
Thomas Piketty, an eminent economist has shot to fame because of his theories of rising global inequality in wealth. Research shows that for every $1.00 owned by the world’s richest 1% in 2011, they now own $1.27. They own almost half the world’s wealth. Just 70 of them own as much as 3.5 billion people.
Capitalism has also led to the transfer of mid level jobs to low-wage countries. It has also failed to control global environmental degradation, with trillions in subsidies going to polluters that don’t even pay their taxes, and with corporations ignoring any semblance of social responsibility as they seek ways to profit from global warming.
Job creation failures:
In the name of technology, both middle class and high end jobs like financial analysis, medical diagnosis, etc. have been impacted negatively. Millions of Americans have had a role in the great American productivity behind this technological takeover, but capitalism allows only an elite few of us to reap the disproportional profits.
There is also an increasing trend of reduced R&D by corporates: from 40 cents per dollar in the 1970s to 10 cents now. CEOs are choosing instead to spend almost all of their profits on buybacks and dividends to enrich investors.
Health-care failures:
America has definitely failed on the frontiers of affordable health care. The capitalist profit motive allows the cost of a hepatitis pill that costs $10 in Egypt to sell for $1,000 in the United States, and the cost of a blood test to range from $10 to $10,000 in two California hospitals (a 100,000% markup at the second hospital).
Another health-related scam that affects most of us is bottled water. According to Food & Water Watch, about half of it is filtered tap water with fancy names, as evidenced in one case by an actual “tap water” label on a company’s product. Yet with the demise of community water fountains, and the barrage of advertising for “safe and pure” drinking water, unsuspecting Americans pay dearly: for the price we pay for a bottle of water we would be able to fill up that bottle a thousand times with tap water.
Failures in education:
Charters are riddled with fraud and identified with a lack of transparency that leads to even more fraud. Since 2001 nearly 2,500 charter schools have been forced to close their doors, leaving over a quarter-million schoolchildren between one bad business decision and the next. A report from PR Watch summarizes the billions of dollars spent on charters without accountability to the public.
100% Facts are in this article. But the question remains, What in the world do the majority of Americans plan to do? Will they sit back like the people are portrayed in the movie Wall-E or will we rise up together and demand justice be served to all those that have robbed, cheated and pillaged our lands and lives? We are all at the deciding time now that will allow us to fix this situation or will we continue to turn our backs and allow the mere 1% to own and destroy us all? I for one choose to stand and fight even if I have only a hand full of people working with me. Either way, I can always die knowing I tried instead of choosing to be lazy and ignorant and allow the rich to rule unjustly. As for the rest of you, well I guess you will never accomplish anything but self pity and greed, remember, this only leads to the status quo and you have no rights to complain since you had a hand in this too if you decide to do nothing but turn your backs.
What do you propose? What’s the first step etc?Many people don’t know the channels.. We most definitely as a whole need to stand/band together.. Everyone forgets in the free world that if the Masses rise and try to get issues accomplished especially for the greater good, it can and EVENTUALLY will happen..Our only major obstacle is ourselves.. America has unfortunately adjusted to and accepted our current circumstances as “the norm”.. Things have to change or our grandchildren are going to pay for what we sat around and let happen..
I say we educate those who have turned a blind eye. We should take to social media (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc.) and tell everyone about what they’re doing. We can’t stand by and let this happen.
We need to switch to a resource based economy. No money like the Venus project. Justice should be chosen by all people down to a vote our laws need to be changed again chosen by vote. The beginning of a total automated system needs to be planned and begun. Borders need to be removed and we need to speak as one mass about what to build and where we can go as a race. We could build a nirvana with no one in control.
Someone has to be in control, Anarchy, in that sense won’t work, we will always need moderators.
Voting doesn’t work due to tyranny of the majority, the second you start declaring things law that are nothing more than the whims of politicians or even the majority you destroy the freedom of the individual and create another state. Only one law needs exist and that is thats “you are born with freedom to do as you see fit so long as you do not use that freedom to take away the freedom of another”
aka
Treat others how you would wish to be treated
may i remind you one mans utopia is another mans dystopia so to strike the best balance we must all mind our own damn business when it involves the private non violent affairs of others.
except where fascism was confused with free market capitalism
This is off topic, but I need to pay tribute and can only hope anonymous showcases this tragedy.
Rest in Peace little angel, Aylan Kurdi.
I can only pray you didn’t die in vein and the world, including anonymous will finally open their eyes to the real tragedy that is happening, and all the real corruption and stop focusing on only one country (USA). This is one of the saddest things I have seen. Little Aylan, because of you, the world will wake up. You have no idea, how even in your death, how great you are serving the world. You were taken way to soon. May you, your brother and your mother finally rest in peace.
I have to say that this capitalism critique falls quite short. Why not write an article about Marx’ work: wage labour and capital? That is perfectly describing the contradiction in the capitalist system which makes it designed to fail. I should’ve opted in, when Anonymous was asking for writers. Any chance to join, maybe?
Oh what a surprise! I am talking about it already since 1983 and no-one to join my efforts in the creation of speculation free monetarian exchange systems. Where are all of you when it gets to working out something? We could have imploded the evil system already 30 years ago and how much more millions have to die until a anonymous rebel or hacker get to recon that talk is cheap? And why anonymous anyway? Most of intelligent activists do know already that all is coming from the same source behind the FED, BoE, EZB, Basel, IMF, WB, etc and that they are that much nationalists like the dirt under the finger nails of a Bush, surrounded by industrial, religious, politial lobbies all over the planet! I say my name and I say “I am coming after you from an angle you never expected in your effort to play monopoly with humanity” and the problem here is not really how to catch them but to catch the billions of idiots still believing in authorities and that money is growing on a tree.
When was capitalism ever tried in all of human history?
Crony “capitalism” is really a form of socialism called Fascism, real free market capitalism has never once been tried because it necessarily must be divorced from politics and the state much in the same way that religion and state are separate. If the government requires taxes and licenses to conduct business, it cant be called capitalist because it is not controlled by private owners for profits determined by the end consumers. In conclusion, capitalism has never failed, because it has never once existed in all human history.
cap·i·tal·ism
ˈkapədlˌizəm/
noun
noun: capitalism
an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state
The American Economy is more along the lines of this IMHO-
Fascism operated from a Social Darwinist view of human relations. The aim was to promote superior individuals and weed out the weak.[6] In terms of economic practice, this meant promoting the interests of successful businessmen while destroying trade unions and other organizations of the working class.[7] Fascist governments encouraged the pursuit of private profit and offered many benefits to large businesses, but they demanded in return that all economic activity should serve the national interest.[8] Historian Gaetano Salvemini argued in 1936 that fascism makes taxpayers responsible to private enterprise, because “the State pays for the blunders of private enterprise… Profit is private and individual. Loss is public and social.”[9]
You’re observing a corporatist oligarchical system designed to protect the wealthy and saying Capitalism doesn’t work. America doesn’t have a free market.