Yves here. A terse and important take of where ever-more-extractive capitalism is heading.
Mind you, I am not sure it had to wind up this way. Michael Hudson has argued, such as in his paper From Marx to Goldman Sachs, that Marx recognized the competition between manufacturing and financial capitalism. But it was inconceivable to Marx that the forces that represented the productive side of the economy would not dominate, since even then it was obvious to him that financial capitalism would over time distort the economy and social/power relations. But here we are.
By Tom Neuburger. Originally published at God’s Spies
Whom the gods would destroy: A lesson in three acts.
1. Poverty exists because we cannot satisfy the rich.
Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
2. Crime is a social construct.
When we say “crime is a social construct,” what we mean is that you, as an individual, can go to jail for littering, but executives of a corporation can poison the air and water of an entire town, can profit from deaths they’re happy to cause themselves, and no one will lose so much as a year-end bonus.
3. Fascism is capitalism in decay.
Fascism is capitalism in decay, revealing its core function: maintaining the dominion of wealth through physical force. When consent can no longer be manufactured for capitalist crimes, repression takes over. Fascism is the system functioning as intended: forcing consent when consent is no longer given.
The Rich and the Rest
Ultimately, the rule of the rest of us depends on force. In gentler societies, the rich pacify the rest by surrendering enough so that no one comes for their heads. In these societies, there is still extraction and pain, but not so much that the victim is moved to rebel.
In societies like these, the rich are unhubristic; they possess what the Greeks call sophrosyne (σωφροσύνη) — soundness and prudence of mind, which hubris is not. Such a society was the U.S. in the 1950s. Yet while sometimes tamed, the rich don’t sit still for long; desire for great wealth is a poison that dissolves their humanity and produces hubristic monsters. Thus every state of extremes sees eventual collapse.
That’s where we are now, ruled by monstrous men using both political parties to work their will. From this there are only two outcomes, centrifugally opposed: the people rebel and the rich lock down control (think the Stasi and their DDR), or the people rebel and tumbrels start coming out (think Luigi Mangione).
Friedman on steroids; Ron with a howitzer. Unless the monsters stand down, we could well see a crash. If so, we won’t be the first. Whom the gods would destroy…
