Strangling North Dakota with no mercy
Free trade and globalization were never designed to make the world a better place, they were designed to enrich a few at the expense of the masses. Imagine a boardroom stuffed with suits, power point presentations, and $400 haircuts saying "Let them eat free markets!"
That business card is immaculate...
the food crisis
You can't increase the Earth's population by a billion every few years and expect nobody to starve. This is nature trying to re-establish an equilibrium.
State communism got blamed for starving people, and rightfully so, but why not capitalism?
Because "state communism" as you call it (a weird term, like "wet water" or "female woman") was entirely man-made, invented by an idiot called Marx and implemented by criminals named Lenin and Stalin. It was a system that actively discouraged people from working (by rewarding laziness and criminalizing success).
On the other hand, capitalism (at least in its pure, ideal form, rarely seen outside of East Asia today) isn't a man-made system, but a state of nature, the absence of an artificial economic system. It ain't pretty and people can starve horribly under it too, but only because they are too stupid or too lazy to work.
OMG, I've never seen American Psycho before, but now I must. That business card scene is hilarious.
The only thing funnier is Sonia's very clever spoof of capitalist apologetics. "[C]apitalism (at least in its pure, ideal form, rarely seen outside of East Asia today) isn't a man-made system, but a state of nature, the absence of an artificial economic system." My belly hurts from laughing so hard!
Sonia,
Wouldn't you say that humans have developed the intellectual theory of capitalism? Adam Smith certainly comes to mind.
You can't increase the Earth's population by a billion every few years and expect nobody to starve. This is nature trying to re-establish an equilibrium.
nonsense. You sound like a primitivist. There is enough food for the whole world, it just isn't getting distributed in an equitable fashion. While the population grows, so does the food production- at a much higher rate. The first article i link to addresses this.
capitalism (at least in its pure, ideal form, rarely seen outside of East Asia today) isn't a man-made system, but a state of nature, the absence of an artificial economic system.
Capitalism, that is the dictatorship of the means of production by the few, was invented by ideologues and implemented by state power. You can argue that markets are natural, which I would again disagree with you, but to argue capitalism is natural is as ridiculous as saying that kings have a divine right to rule.
Graeme, I think Sonia is referring to laissez-fairre capitalism, which is minimal, if any, regulation of the market. It's as natural as the wild, wild west, but even the west had a minimum number of US marshall to try to at least maintain some semblance of order. Most laissez fairre capitalists don't even want that.
I agree with her that the market system is a natural development, but even so, minimal regulatory action is also a natural development, because it is human nature to seek to achieve some kind of harmonious balance for the common good.
She was dead on about population increases. The world can only hold so many people comfortably. We might not have reached peak population capacity yet, and we might well have a long way to go before we get there, but we will get there eventually, and when we do, it won't be pretty.
Just like nature can only grow a limited amount of vegetation to feed a limited amount of rabbits before the wolves are required to even things out, the same natural law applies to human populations as well.
Graeme: It's incorrect to call the old Stalinist regimes state capitalist. If they were, the capitalist class class would do first thing, is kill off Stalin or Mao. They were Bonapardist in nature. The theory of them being state capitalist, was started by Max Schachtman, who headed the tree the neoconservatives came from.
Even today with this crisis, large numbers of hogs, are slaughtered for dog food, because the price isn't where the industry wants it to be.
The neo-Malthusian argument of too many people, doesn't wash, in this crisis of capitalist overproduction. The problem is distribution.
Ben,
humans have developed the intellectual theory of capitalism? Adam Smith certainly comes to mind.
No. Adam Smith didn't develop any "theory". He simply described reality.
Marx, on the other hand, actually invented a whole new system that didn't exist before him.
Graeme,
You can argue that markets are natural, which I would again disagree with you, but to argue capitalism is natural is as ridiculous as...
Capitalism = free market. Everything else is bullshit. Unless of course, what you mean by "capitalism" is actually artificially imposed and forced by the state (things like taxes, tariffs, borders, labor regulations, etc.). But pure capitalism is everybody doing his or her thing. Producing, selling and buying, without anybody interfering for any reason. It's a cruel system, I admit. It's darwinian, and the weak can starve in it. But it's generally less cruel than a state-imposed system.
Capitalism, that is the dictatorship of the means of production
A dictorship of the means of production is SOCIALISM, not capitalism. Under pure capitalism, anybody can do whatever he wants. No permits are necessary. You can grow pot or heroin and sell it.
I have an impression ours is a symantic argument. Your definition of capitalism seems to be "the economic system of United States". It's not. US has a mixed system, like most Western countries. It's largely capitalist as far as toilet paper production is concerned (despite the taxes). But it's purely communist as far as pot, cocaine and heroin are concerned.
You sound like a primitivist.
Thank you. But even a primitivist can be right.
There is enough food for the whole world, it just isn't getting distributed in an equitable fashion.
It's true of the consumption of many things, but less true of food. Kate Moss is 10,000 times richer than a Guatemalan peasant woman, but guess who eats more food....
The idea that fat rich people are eating the food of poor starving masses, is a leftist cliché. Even in United States, the poor are usually more obese than the rich. And some countries face famine not because of "unjust distribution", but because their economies have been wrecked by dictators who have read too much Karl Marx and not enough Adam Smith...
Ren,
crisis of capitalist overproduction...
WTF ?
I though we were talking about SHORTAGES of rice and other foods, not overproduction... If there was overproduction, prices would be falling...
Sonia is wrong again. Marx did not invent state socialism, but was against it, rather vehemently in fact. What he favored was "cooperative production." Or as Engels once sneered, and I paraphrase "If we were in favor of state socialism, then Bismarck must then be the reddest of socialists." Read Marx and Engels themselves, rather than the capitalist apologists who use typical straw man tactics to "refute" him.
"Marx, on the other hand, actually invented a whole new system that didn't exist before him."
Once again, not exactly true. Much of Marx's socialist ideas were taken from Proudhon. Saying Marx invented a new system is like saying Henry Ford invented the automobile, when all he did was perfect a pre-existing invention. (Of course, many anarchists would disagree with this metaphor.)
"Capitalism = free market. Everything else is bullshit.'
Once again, Sonia, will you please check out Kevin Carson's writings? http://mutualist.blogspot.com/ Capitalism is rooted in statism. A free market is another thing entirely and free exchange goes back at least 20,000 years. Are you going to tell me that Mesolithic peoples were capitalists? Capitalism dates from the 16th-17th Century and is the state privileging certain groups and individuals and perverting the market in their interests. Not just mutualist anarchists think that either. The free mkt libertarian Wilhelm Ropke, believed the very same.
"It's incorrect to call the old Stalinist regimes state capitalist."
For almost 40 years - since reading Tony Cliff and Castoriadis back in 1968, I defended the state capitalist thesis. To tell you the truth, today I do not know what that system is, nor do I think it all that important to name it. What is important is that we reject this as a model of socialism. This is something we can all agree on, regardless of our historical tendency.
I heard Robert Zoellick was at the UN Food Crisis Task Force Meeting in Bern. He urged countries not to use export bans to protect food stocks:
"These controls encourage hoarding, drive up prices and hurt the poorest people around the world who are struggling to feed themselves."
Do as we say, not as we do. The US still wants their 49 cent cheeseburgers.
Graeme: It's incorrect to call the old Stalinist regimes state capitalist.
Ren, I said state communist, which Stalin, Castro, Mao and others certainly were quite fond of. i haven't really got into the debate about whether the soviet union was "state capitalism" or a "degenerated workers' state" for much the same reason Larry lists. As long as we know that is not he way to go, and study why they went that way so it doesn't happen again, that is enough.
just in case not all clicked on the cargill link- their profits are up 86%, at over a billion $$$ for the last quarter.
If people were honest and fair by nature, any or no government system would work fine. We are given 50 choices of cereal, but only two political parties and anyone who thinks capitalism is wrong is automatically branded as a communist as though they were the only picks on the store shelves.
This is a great quote by Canadian politician, Tommy Douglas who was instrumental in their healthcare system. - "It's every man for himself" said the elephant as he danced among the chickens.
Graeme
Did you flunk basic Eco? Read the part about cyclical commodity prices and flush Marx in the toilet.
Green crypto commies just so happen to be reducing the amount of farmland available for human consumption by pushing biofuels. These types also block drilling and refineries.
commies are pushing biofuels!! Remind me to tell that to the farmers around here. Fuck Beak, that is retarded, even for you.
Graeme
Most Greens are really commies. Start with LSD type Kovel and move ahead.
Speaking of retarded, if you reduce the supply of food or land for food production what happens to the remaining
price? Food is still available albeit at higher prices.
If you want starvation look at North Korea, Zimbabwe and to Communist debacles. Starving people are easier for the Che "Sponge" Bob types to lead.
Your whole post is idiocy.
What is a cyclical commodity? What type of Mickey Marxist outfit awards a business degree to a student that is unfamiliar with basic Eco?
C'mon, Graeme, surely you know that Monsanto and ADM are run by a secret cabal of green crypto-commies!
Yes, Bush is also a crypto-commie. after all he is pushing bio fuels. The Canadian Green Party on the other hand must have been taken over by Beaks crowd since they are opposed to using food as fuel. Strange world the Beak inhabits - in his weak mind.
From The Independent on Sunday (British crypto commie rag): Multinationals make billions in profit out of growing global food crisis
"Green crypto commies." Someone is paranoid. Ooh, them commies under the bed! Where is Joe McCarthy when we need him?
Gambone
What is green about the world's foremost anti-semite former Maoist Norman Finkelstein? Is it the money from the communist anti-semitism industry via book sales and speaking fees. This is the same dolt that lectures Wiesel on his fees. I also do not buy the Kovel bit of Green who wries about anti communism and eeeeevillll zionists.
I keep wanting to post Dylan's talking John Birch Society Blues but I have it saved as an MP4 on itunes and am not computer savvy enough to convert it to mp3. Perhaps I'll figure it out, in the meantime here's the lyrics for anyone who is unfamiliar-
http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/birch.html
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