The future of business: what are the alternatives to capitalism?
Posted 10 years ago on Sept. 15, 2013, 12:07 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt (1) from Plainfield, NJ
Evidence shows its very clear we have reached the safe limits to growth in terms of the most pressing threat to human civilisation – that of a stable atmosphere.
Therefore, until we can find a way to decouple growth from carbon emissions and reach that mythical "dematerialised" economy, restarting global economic growth seems a dangerous folly. But what might the implications of this be for capitalism? Limits to growth and their implications for capitalism
It's generally agreed that capitalism has three key principles; the majority of "the means of production" (land, resources, capital) are concentrated in private hands; the majority of us work for a wage (ie for other people); and markets are used to mediate between producer and consumer (set prices, etc).
I've blogged elsewhere about the problems of the first two, not least of which is an addiction to growth. Put simply, it seems that capitalism cannot be compatible with continued exponential growth on a finite planet. As Tim Jackson has said, "Simplistic assumptions about capitalism's propensity for efficiency are nothing short of delusional. A different kind of economics is needed."
In any case, its no longer heresy to point out that capitalism has serious flaws. Indeed, mainstream commentators are questioning growth-obsessed capitalist economics and calling up Karl Marx from his grave.
Both Marx on the left and Schumpeter on the right long ago predicted the end of capitalism. And recently fund manager Jeremy Grantham said: "Capitalism… is totally ill-equipped to deal with a small handful of issues. Unfortunately, they are the issues that are absolutely central to our long-term wellbeing and even survival."
Read More: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/future-business-alternatives-capitalism
Would be nice to have many little businesses, rather than one big business.
Greed Management
That being a straight-jacket a padded room and some sedatives?
Yes. We should not have to be the Victim, of someone else's Mental Disorder.
SEE - I think that this is what scares The Powers That Be most of all about a national health care system.
LOL. If we could get rid of DHS, NSA, etc, and replace with Department of Greed Management (DGM), that would help.
Greed - " The MAJOR Pandemic of our times " that was always feared - has arrived. Call the CDC the AMA - the Sturgeon General.......................ground all flights entering or leaving USA airspace............quarantine wallstreet and the Fed Reserve....................Haz-mat teams to set-up treatment centers at all governmental offices........................seal the borders.....shutdown the ports....This disease that has already killed uncounted millions before now......it is now spreading like wild fire through drought bleached fields and forests.......
Hey DKA, This is good.
Thx - it does kind of resonate - Hey? Like striking a proper key.
OH GOD - just imagine the fights to get it properly funded - to begin the necessary work.
I'm wondering who would sneak in the rider that all members of government and Business Execs get immediate screening and frequent check-ups?
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Likely - see their twisted little minds light up when presented with a picture of screwing the world - or of money going down the toilet - yeah very likely.
Thanks for playing.
There is only one feasible alternative and that is one of self-sufficiency. Micropolitan agrarian cities in which every family posseses a city block of an equal amount of land for sustaining themselves and to do with as they please in establishing various kinds of businesses. The blocks can neither be bought nor sold but can be traded with another family's. No inheritance or property taxes can be imposed upon the blocks nor income tax upon the people. Only indirect taxation will provide the source of public revenue and only publicly controlled fractional reserves will provide for zero interest borrowing.
Micropolitan agrarian cities would require a great restructuring of civil planning and is unlikely to happen in industrial societies too well entrenced in their way of life. It is more likely to happen in agrarian based societies but transnational big business is globally privatizing the lands in such societies cutting off the opportunity for them as well.
But like someone has already said,
"Look---if some whack-a-doodle white supremest can buy property in a town with the goal of Klan town used for evil, then it can sure as hell be done for the good." http://occupywallst.org/forum/future-business-what-are-alternatives-capitalism/#comment-1003230
It can be done whenever there's finally a group of people truly serious about doing it on a local scale. All such a group has to do is select a big (midwestern) state with a small population and they'll even be able to acquire political state backing for all of their endeavors.
Buy a town. Not kidding. Or start buying up homes in an area where you can pick them up dirt cheap-as many as possible. Sure it's a bad area, sure it needs a lot of work or it's possibly in a rural area.
Now you have a canvas. When you have that much property then you can either, simply by the number of individuals, become decision makers or begin to insert those things desired/needed. Then you can start to shift things to what you want. Look---if some whack-a-doodle white supremest can buy property in a town with the goal of Klan town used for evil, then it can sure as hell be done for the good.
There seems to be an attitude of point A immediately to point B. That isn't going to happen. But, say if it was done block by block or even a town then there are access to services. Put in a banking alternative, etc. and so on.
The time is going to pass anyway.
if the people had the dollar, the greedy would work to get that dollar