Dear Friends,
It seems to me that many if not most anti capitalists, are ambivalent what system of economy a government imposes, as long as it is not the market system. To the hardened anti capitalist, reverting to the feudal system would be preferable to market based economics.
The feudal system has it’s attractions for the anti capitalist. It strictly controls who can own land and people. Regulating land and labor in this way would ensure that a small faction of society decides what is to be made and farmed making profit a secondary consideration. The feudal system has a permanent upper class and lower classes. This would protect the elite from upstart entrepreneurs that threaten their elite status. So you see, to the anti capitalist even the feudal system is preferable to the market system.
Some people may say, “That would lower the standard of living for the people, do you really think they want that?” To them I say, “Yes they do!” Look at their rhetoric. A never ending drumbeat of everyone must sacrifice, meaning, we must sacrifice while they engorge themselves as rent seekers. Anti capitalists claim our cars are too big, our houses are too big and our taxes too low. The anti capitalist is opposed to an ever increasing standard of living, they want the standard of living, of the masses, to at least stagnate but better if it went down.
It is exactly that the market system leads people to a higher standard of living that makes the anti capitalist an anti capitalist. Lets examine some of their rhetoric in this regard. Anti capitalists are fond of claiming capitalism begets poverty. It was in the Communist Manifesto, and has been propounded ever since. Marx spoke largely of the inherent tensions between industrial demand for labor dropping due to the increase of efficiency in the productivity of each laborer. “As the forest of arms raised for work grows ever thicker, while those arms themselves grow ever thinner, will the revolution take place.”
But as with most if not all anti capitalists, it is not that someone has more than someone else that is intolerable, it is that someone has more then the anti capitalist… that is intolerable. Being an anti capitalist requires some level of self centeredness. For a person to believe that every other person should bow to his will requires a high level of hubris. So with self centered hubris in hand the anti capitalist seeks to change the world more to his or her liking. Using force to impose his will, for our own good, if necessary.
With the word “equality” always on his lips the anti capitalist seeks to impose absolute inequality on society. When a communist, socialist or progressive, all anti capitalists, claim it is wrong that 10% of society control 80% of the wealth what they really mean is that 1 person should control 100% of the wealth; like in Cuba, North Korea, the former USSR , etc… The “equality” they espouse is the equality of the powerless. Equality in tyranny, equality in misery, equality in helplessness and equality in hopelessness.
I have said many times in these blogs to watch the actions of people instead of their rhetoric. The anti capitalists always betrays himself this way. Decrying in others that which they themselves do. Appealing to your emotions. Because emotional arguments get in under the radar of logical examination. That is why everything an anti capitalist says makes perfect sense… until you think about it.
Like government creating economic demand from taxing it’s citizens then spending the money on $500.00 toilet seats. This absurd idea neglects to think that if the money were not taxed in the first place it would flow naturally to where it is needed in the economy due to market forces. Most probably far more efficiently than any government stimulus, imagined by some number cruncher in a cubicle, with limited faculties, facilities and fidelity.
Let me make this suggestion; if the wealth of a nation is shrinking it means government policies have warped the market such that money is being forced into inefficient use. If the wealth of a nation is growing it is an indicator that government policies are not warping the market more than it‘s ability to overcome them. It is also a means to tell if the anti capitalists have too much power…or not.
