what currently passes for capitalism in the US is actually national socialism - only the current Fuhrer is not as charismatic or intelligent as the original
well, i agree that it is not capitalism, but despite the socialization of financial risks (regarding which i agree with you) it is not exactly Naziism either, if jackboots and concentration camps count for anything.
looking at a significant number of US public corporations, it seems to me they can no longer be considered capitalistic.
capitalist means capital rules. if you buy stocks, the managers and workers should try to improve the economic value of that capital. whereas in America, the elite rules. that is the CEOs and other immoral types behind closed doors, who steal the bulk of profits and national wealth (and coopt officials like Grasso with huge pay packages). they then post fake pro forma profits, while real profits decline.
worse, we are seeing the decay of the true base of wealth in this country--an industrial manufacturing base which provides for a positive or neutral trade balance through the export of value-addeds, providing the monetary fuel required for the service economy to thrive in the long term. thus we have lost more than 2 million, coming on 3 million, manufacturing jobs in the last 3 yrs.
instead, we have more mortgage brokers, lawyers, real estate agents, etc., whose jobs are the result of the RE bubble. this bubble is not real wealth, and it will not last. neither will all the high-paying jobs in this sector, i am afraid.
but that will not bother the CEOs and stock market bureaucrats who become centimillionaires or billionaires by scraping off the cream of what remains of our wealth base. they will be too busy having a good time in their guarded palaces.
i think the form of govt we have today could be called: soft kleptocratic pseudocaptialistic pluto-socialism. a country run by thieves who lie about profits while implementing socialistic benefits for the rich. soft because it is enforced by propaganda as opposed to gun barrels. |
