Robert Reich offers a ray of hope that some form of capitalism can actually remain in place, once enough people, especially those in the .001% realize that only when all humans count as of value can any of us truly thrive. To this end he distinguishes between stakeholder and shareholder capitalism, arguing that the first prevailed up until the 1980s when “greed is good” took over and ran amuck.
The World Needs this Saner Approach to Capitalism
Is Reich naive? I.e., is “reform” possible? Or is revolution the only “solution” to what has gone so wrong. I’d say it depends on whether or not the majority of people realize that the chaotic headwinds now pummeling the globe can only be dissipated if even the wealthy realize what’s truly at stake. On the other hand, Nafeez Ahmed in the Guardian argues that
Inclusive Capitalism Initiative is Trojan Horse to quell coming global revolt
Henry Jackson Society’s pre-emptive PR offensive seeks to popularise parasitic economic growth for the few
WPA Pool/Getty Images
An NPR story about the conference —
World’s Richest People Meet, Muse on How to Spread the Wealth
ends like this:
Conference organizer Rothschild says there will be follow-up with all of the delegates, but she made a conscious decision not to ask for any commitments up front.
“Even for me,” she says laughing, “I thought that would be a little pushy.”
Pushy? Ye gods. How much time do we have before the world blows up?
3 thoughts on “The future of capitalism: Reform or Revolution?”
Robert Reich presided as Secretary of Labor, during President Clinton administration’s repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a key deregulatory move that ended the separation of commercial and investment banking and is widely seen as having helped lead to the financial collapse. So he loses credibility for solutions to our financial crisis, as he helped perpetuate the lies of the Federal Reserve scam.
President Nixon took our nation off the gold standard in 1971, purportedly for a 6 month time, and we know what happened.
We need to return to Constitutional law which provided for the government’s printing of our own money, sans the illegal privatization of fiat currency from a private bank, for starters.
Then we need to establish strict term limits for all elected government officials. We need to
eliminate paid lobbyists and the revolving door between paid lobbyists and elected government officials. Our Republic was a sound working body of laws. It is only the manipulations of the greedy psychopaths who managed to damage our nation,into our sorry present state. We don’t need a revolution. We just need the truth to be known, and the restoration of our Republic.
In addition, I think there should be a limit to how much money one human being can own.
The accumulation of enormous wealth is an invitation for lust of control on any system in place.
That is just basic common sense and recognition of human temptations.
It is incorrect, to think our Constitution is a failure. Capitalism, if free from psychopaths who manipulate and destroy anything within their grasp, could flourish. It has been proven that communism stymies human creativity, and socialism does not reward creativity either and
seems to reward compliance.
Mega Corporations should be dismantled. It has lead to globalism mentality. Hasn’t this already occurred in our American history?
via Teddy Roosevelt? Alas, we have all been lulled asleep via programmed TV, prozac, and our human tendency to avoid the painful truth, for the pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure of agreement.
PS. I wish I had saved the article.But the article endorsed using the internet, citizens could vote online for bills and proposals of elected officials.
This would be true democracy, and encourage people to actually be engaged in civic affairs.
As it stands, most US citizens feel alienated from elected officials and their corrupt laws.
Of course, right away, one could see efforts to control the internet voting efforts, and onslaught of propaganda. But nevertheless, just imagine it, being able to shift power to the people via internet voting, not just for elections, but on actual bills set forth in our congress.
Thanks
Bumpercrop makes many really good points and I so agree…we do not need revolution. We need
evolution.