Capitalism vs. Democracy Thomas Piketty’s new book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” described by one French newspaper as a “a political and theoretical bulldozer,” defies left and right orthodoxy by arguing that worsening inequality is an inevitable outcome of free market capitalism. Piketty, a professor at the Paris School of Economics, does not stop there. He contends that capitalism’s inherent dynamic propels powerful forces that threaten democratic societies. Capitalism, according to Piketty, confronts both modern and modernizing countries with a dilemma: entrepreneurs become increasingly dominant over those who own only their own labor. Piketty’s book — published four months ago in France and due out in English this March — suggests that traditional liberal government policies on spending, taxation and regulation will fail to diminish inequality. Photo “I am hesitant to call Thomas Piketty’s new book Capital in the 21st Century one of the best books in economics written in the past several decades.
5 Things to Know About How Corporations Block Access to Everything from Miracle Drugs to Science Research Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com Should a company be able to patent a breast cancer gene? What about a species of soybean? How about a tool for basic scientific research? Or even a patent for acquiring patents (see: Halliburton)? Intellectual property rights are supposed to help inventors bring good things to life, but there’s increasing concern that they may be keeping us from getting the things we need. In this wild and contested jungle of the law, which concerns things like patents and copyrights, questions about the implications of allowing limited monopolies on ideas are making headlines. Surely, the producers of new ideas should be able to profit from their creations. 1. The notion of giving inventors exclusive rights for a limited time goes back to the medieval era. “The Congress shall have power ... The question of whether ideas themselves should be protected by patents troubled some of the Founders, who saw the potential for abuse. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Manifesto Of The Farmer Labor Association "American capitalism failed because it succeeded. As a productive force creating goods and services, it was no longer essential. New industries were being created in foreign countries, and even old industries were sending customer service calls abroad. Banner at the 2012 Republican National Convention depicts Martin Luther King, Jr., and the quotation: “Today Capitalism has outlived its usefulness,” in this August 28, 2012 photo. “Capitalism has failed and should be abolished!” That’s the Preamble to the 1934 Farmer Labor Party Platform, and the party that believed in those principles went on to elect Floyd B. They paid particular attention to the English Commonwealth revolution from 1640 to 1660. The three historic phases of capitalism Mercantile capitalism developed out of the growth of small shops and towns that grew up originally to supply the king with things like candles and new shoes. After World War I there was hardly a crowned head anywhere in Europe. Share this article!
Top 10 Reasons Why Capitalism Sucks Politics Now that it’s Christmas season again, it seems like a good opportunity to respond to the list 10 Greatest Benefits of Capitalism with which I believe there were a number of problems. Firstly, it was not clear which form of capitalism was being described, so I would like to begin this list by defining the free market, which is capitalism in its most simple form. I’ll highlight the many issues which arise with a pure free market, and which are undermining capitalism as we speak. A free-market economy is one where all markets are unregulated by the government. Thousands of Trans-National Corporations (TNCs) exist, and many have the financial size of a small country. But there is a problem with this strategy. Recently there has also been a worrying polarization of wealth around the world. Given the current state of affairs, there is no reason why the rich-poor divide will not increase even more, with those at the top of corporations exploiting unfortunates in poor countries.
The Price of Free Enterprise The Price of Free Enterprise Stephen H. Unger February 17, 2014 Our Modern Dilemma(image by andrewfhart) A fundamental claim about our economic system is that efforts by private enterprises to maximize their profits benefit the public as a whole. For example, in efforts to increase sales and profits, hat manufacturers frequently modify their designs and manufacturing methods to make their hats more attractive, or more effective at protection against cold or sunlight, and also less expensive. Unfortunately, as will be shown below, while this approach may work fairly well in the hat industry, it breaks down in many, perhaps most, important areas of our economy. Let's look at how profit maximization affects people and our environment in a few important areas of the economy. The health industry How does the private enterprise approach work in providing medical and health services? The profit motive does not usually inspire the companies involved to do conscientious jobs. Energy
Why Capitalism Is The #1 Cause Of Poverty – Collective Evolution We're creating a positive news network. We need your help. Modern Day Quasi-Feudal System? Any successful capitalist will tell you that capitalism is still the Holy Grail of modern economics. Bypassing formal qualitative analysis, one might assume the problem is transparent enough—greed. Though, we increasingly have the data to verify the ongoing degradation of working class wealth that’s been occurring over many generations within capitalism, we need not look any further than capitalism’s three main elements to discover where the in-built limitations lie. The three central elements of capitalism are capital accumulation, competition and a price system. Let’s take a look at the most flawed component first, competition. Even in the animal kingdom, what has mistakenly been called, “survival of the fittest,” is holistically, “the un-survival of the un-fittest.” Yet, man’s belief that Nature acts out of survival of the fittest has led man to act out likewise toward each other.
Debunking Free Market Materialism Murray Rothbard once noted that “One of the most common charges leveled against the free market is that it reflects and encourages unbridled ‘selfish materialism’…it distracts man from higher ideals. It leads man away from spiritual or intellectual values and atrophies any spirit of altruism.” Ludwig von Mises may have laid out the issue even more clearly in Liberalism. Liberalism is a doctrine directed entirely towards the conduct of men in this world. At first glance, Mises seems to be adding fuel to the fire of the selfish materialism allegation against freedom. [T]he critics who speak in this vein show only that they have a very imperfect and materialistic conception of these higher and nobler needs. In other words, the freedom at the heart of liberalism does not directly address people’s ultimate, higher ends, because they are internal to each individual. Rothbard here recognized something freedom’s critics get backward. Mises made a similar observation: In Ben O’Neill’s words,
Capitalism is the Problem, Economic Democracy the Solution (A speech given at the One World Week Forum at the University of Warwick on January 30, 2014 on the topic of Capitalism and Sustainability: Can We Have It All?) Can capitalism solve the problems of global warming and growing inequality? It seems to me this is like discussing the issue of inappropriate hypersexual imagery bombarding 11-year olds and then asking: Can Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga fix the problem? Real capitalism, not the theoretical version taught in school, is a system of minority rule in which a few people profit at the expense of others. Real capitalists are always trying to cut their costs and increase their profits, which leads to unemployment, falling wages, rising economic disparity and not paying for the environmental damage they cause. Private ownership of what are social means of livelihood produces incentives for capitalists to pass along the real costs of industry to communities, workers, future generations and other species. Capitalism is sociopathic.