Donate Bitcoin

Donate Paypal


PeakOil is You

PeakOil is You

Crisis of capitalism

Discussions about the economic and financial ramifications of PEAK OIL

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby peeker01 » Sat 27 Aug 2011, 20:09:53

I've had enough of you Kub. Go cut and paste another long-winded diatribe with someone else.
I'm not interested.
peeker01
Permanently Banned
 
Posts: 725
Joined: Fri 24 Jun 2011, 18:19:54

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby americandream » Sat 27 Aug 2011, 20:19:21

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('peeker01', 'A')D......Do you really talk that way at home, or is it just something you do for our benefit?


Let me try and simplify it for you then. Those who profit from global networking outnumber those (in terms of power and influence) who profit from SME's and local mercantilism. Why?

Applying your simple logic. Survival of the fittest. They have risen up from the ranks of the SME's and merchants to now bestride a global business that WILL CONTINUE to grow. Libya stands testimony to the relentless expansion of the process of accumulation at the international level. Iraq, Libya, Sudan...all recently transformed and all at the heart of the black goo that powers the capitalist machine. So whilst you argue yourself blue in the face over your anxieties as conservative middle America, my point is.....WHY?

All you defend with such passionate conviction MUST come to pass. There's no going back. And were capitalism to suddenly collapse tomorrow for the peaking of resourcing (which I do not think it will despite all the hullabaloo), there will nevertheless be no going back. That is not humanity's record. History is littered with the bones of those who tried to reinvent the wheel but our programming is such that we adapt and create as we go along.

So my simple suggestion is this. Chill dude and take a leaf from my book. Make the most of your short life. I am. After all. How many Marxists do you know who have succeeded in the brute world of the markets....leaving aside the many conservative casualties. So calm down. These tax cuts and the minimalised state are on the cards...as are all the items pushed by the multinationals (free flowing capital) backed conservative parties all over the world.
americandream
Permanently Banned
 
Posts: 8650
Joined: Mon 18 Oct 2004, 03:00:00

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby americandream » Sat 27 Aug 2011, 20:33:58

In a nutshell, there are two sub-classes of those who profiteer from the investment of passive value (passively as well as actively )in the contemporary economy:

1 The capitalist. High net worth individuals (passive earning exceeds active earning by a measure of at least 4:1.........and with the capacity to maintain a high lifestyle with their passive earning in any socio-economic scenario including a deep depression).

2 The merchant class. Those who are almost entirely dependant on an actively earned income with little or no passively accumulated capacity, who share the values held by number 1, who aspire to be like number 1 in many cases, but who, UNLIKE number 1, have little or no capacity to weather any socio-economic scenario, ESPECIALLY a deep depression. Are almost always funded by debt based liquidity.
americandream
Permanently Banned
 
Posts: 8650
Joined: Mon 18 Oct 2004, 03:00:00

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby prajeshbhat » Sat 27 Aug 2011, 22:15:28

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '
')One question. Do such well educated people have ANY responsibility for themselves, if they had many years to accumulate wealth due to their good jobs, made possible by their good educations? ...
For the life of me, I can't see that as being reasonable -- especially when the businesses are the financial lifeblood of the economy (even after all the government distortion and extortion of their profits).

My response was to the someone calling the american system the most opportune system ever built. I was trying to make the point that it is not so opportune any more. The businesses no longer care about the people, who are the organs of the economy.
The point is this. People with masters degrees and 20+ yrs of experience could lose their jobs. Not because of their incompetence, they were competent enough to last 20 years. They lose their job because their business decides to get their work done by a chinese who will do it for a quarter of the cost.
So I will not pass judgements on whether the businesses should be held accountable for this. All I am saying is that unless the chinese decide to raise their wages to western levels(don't count on it), you can be sure of what the ultimate destination of american workers is. Sub-Chinese wages and underemployment....(for those who are lucky enough to be employed).
Last edited by prajeshbhat on Sat 27 Aug 2011, 22:40:13, edited 1 time in total.
prajeshbhat
Lignite
Lignite
 
Posts: 346
Joined: Tue 17 May 2011, 02:44:33

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby Pretorian » Sat 27 Aug 2011, 22:37:48

I haven't said anything about capitalism in that post , so what are you talking about. Another "liberal" tried to pass Kilwa as an example of a Negroid achievement, only to discover that the only Negroid involvement there was in killing and eating the entire population of the city, mostly women and children.
As for capitalism Africa is already more capitalistic than USA, considering their business practices and laws.

By the way, is that link to "das Kapital" has the best English translation available? I'd hate to read it in German.
Pretorian
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 4685
Joined: Sat 08 Apr 2006, 03:00:00
Location: Somewhere there

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby americandream » Sun 28 Aug 2011, 00:40:27

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', 'I') haven't said anything about capitalism in that post , so what are you talking about. ...As for capitalism Africa is already more capitalistic than USA, considering their business practices and laws.
By the way, is that link to "das Kapital" has the best English translation available? I'd hate to read it in German.

I shall try for the last time to clarify my explanations. Obviously if you still persist in your simplistic responses, we shall have to leave it there.

Systems have natural points of inflection which are subject to material forces playing out over long periods of time. They are all very different as well although many share a basic theme, personal gain by one form or another. However, contemporary capital has very distinctive characteristics which distinguishes it from feudalism and other systems as well as its own earlier sub-stages.

Capitalism's sub-stages are rudimentary and parochial forms of profit with a smaller emphasis on accumulation as their ethos was less on the magnification of labour surpluses by the use of elaborate mechanisms but rather the generating of surplus by exchange.

Therefore, those who express a preference for a throwback in contemporary globalising realities are invariably caught up in a paradox that suggests that they are unable to adapt to/understand the new realities. As Marx says in Manifesto:

The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.

They therefore sink into a mix of artifices to make sense of their impotent bewilderment, invariably a mix of nationalist rhetoric and barbaric parochialism which at once assuages that powerlessness yet comforts the alienation generated. In these times, we see a flourishing of these mechanisms.....all manner of irrational outlooks ranging from religion to bizarre forms of social tribalism.

Therefore, whether Africa is this or that is irrelevant in examining the realiteis that face us. Commodification will ensure that the most primitive of spear thrower ultimately falls before the citadel of consumerism so these issues, whilst academically or culturally of interest to some, is a reality that will challenge us all and ultimately bring about changes no one can visualise at present and at best, guess at.
americandream
Permanently Banned
 
Posts: 8650
Joined: Mon 18 Oct 2004, 03:00:00

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby Cid_Yama » Sun 28 Aug 2011, 01:55:08

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', 'B')y the way, is that link to "das Kapital" has the best English translation available? I'd hate to read it in German.


Obviously your first language is German, so what's the problem?

Heck, you've been going all Neo-Nazi on us since you've been here.

Wait, are you Geert Wilders? He's the reincarnation of Hitler. I remember you defending his position.

That would make Dutch your first language. Well, German your first language in your previous life. Excuse me.

If I were you I would be offended by being called 'Mussolini of the Low Countries'.

Clearly you deserve the title of Führer.
link
"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it." - Patrick Henry

The level of injustice and wrong you endure is directly determined by how much you quietly submit to. Even to the point of extinction.
User avatar
Cid_Yama
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 7169
Joined: Sun 27 May 2007, 03:00:00
Location: The Post Peak Oil Historian

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby ItalyRules » Sun 28 Aug 2011, 02:27:21

Geert Wilders is more connected to Italian Fascists and the Israeli far right than he is to Germans. German Neo-Nazis are all East German thugs.

Wilders was actually invited to Israel by Ariel Sharon to give an Anti-Islam speech.

I just want to make it clear, I do not support racism and whatever you would call an anti-religion person.

None of that has anything to do with Fascism. That's just hatred, or taking advantage of hatred to build a base. Having a base of people hooked on hatred makes a very effective assault force against political opponents.

True Fascism, as Mussolini saw it, was identical to Ayn Rand's Objectivism. Howard Roarke in Fountainhead was the epitome of the true Fascist.

See the Mussolini quote in my signature. It could have been written by Ayn Rand.

Fascism needs to reclaim it's true meaning.
The Fascist accepts life and loves it, knowing nothing of and despising suicide; he rather conceives of life as duty and struggle and conquest, life, which should be high and full, lived for oneself, but not, above all, for others.”
—Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism, 1933
User avatar
ItalyRules
Peat
Peat
 
Posts: 193
Joined: Sat 25 Sep 2010, 16:58:29

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby Pretorian » Sun 28 Aug 2011, 12:04:38

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cid_Yama', '
')
Wait, are you Geert Wilders? He's the reincarnation of Hitler. I remember you defending his position.


What have you got against Geert Wilders? Jews love the guy. How can you put him and Adolf Hitler in the same sentence? What have you got against the Jews?
Pretorian
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 4685
Joined: Sat 08 Apr 2006, 03:00:00
Location: Somewhere there
Top

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby Quinny » Sun 28 Aug 2011, 18:31:16

Apart from the fact that this thread has been diverted slightly off topic, a side benefit has been it has highlighted just how stupid some posters are :) LMAO at some of the idiotic posts.
Live, Love, Learn, Leave Legacy.....oh and have a Laugh while you're doing it!
User avatar
Quinny
Intermediate Crude
Intermediate Crude
 
Posts: 3337
Joined: Thu 03 Jul 2008, 03:00:00

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby Cid_Yama » Sun 28 Aug 2011, 22:52:33

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', 'W')hat have you got against Geert Wilders? How can you put him and Adolf Hitler in the same sentence?


Uh, racist, hate-mongering, fascist wanting to take over Europe. Highly charismatic among his followers. Advocating violence against scapegoats. (This time it's Muslims, for Hitler it was Jews.)

Advocating a European whites first policy that has already spurred violence throughout Europe, crowned by the incidents in Norway.

Those that forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

My question is, "How can you not."

He is not an Ayn Rand objectivist, he is an old style charismatic hate mongering white supremist. A fascist in the style of Hitler and those East German thugs.
"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it." - Patrick Henry

The level of injustice and wrong you endure is directly determined by how much you quietly submit to. Even to the point of extinction.
User avatar
Cid_Yama
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 7169
Joined: Sun 27 May 2007, 03:00:00
Location: The Post Peak Oil Historian
Top

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby americandream » Mon 29 Aug 2011, 00:16:10

Ayn Rand objectivism is possibly the biggest load of hogwash I have encountered. The woman was a self serving idiot.
americandream
Permanently Banned
 
Posts: 8650
Joined: Mon 18 Oct 2004, 03:00:00

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby Pretorian » Mon 29 Aug 2011, 03:23:30

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cid_Yama', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', 'W')hat have you got against Geert Wilders? How can you put him and Adolf Hitler in the same sentence?


Uh, racist, hate-mongering, fascist wanting to take over Europe. Highly charismatic among his followers. Advocating violence against scapegoats. (This time it's Muslims, for Hitler it was Jews.)

Advocating a European whites first policy that has already spurred violence throughout Europe, crowned by the incidents in Norway.

Those that forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

My question is, "How can you not."


Well as I said Jews love him. And like it or not as of now they are the ones who decide whether someone is a racist, xenophobe , "like Hitler" or not. Obviously, Muslims are a much bigger problem in Europe than Jews ever were, who wouldn't like to capitalize on something as big as this.
However I personally doubt he ever openly advocated a European whites first policy. There are many people in Europe who hate Muslims so much that they are ready to seek allies amongst old enemies of their own race. He reminds me of Breivik who by the way got banned on www.stormfront.org for being an anti-white.
Pretorian
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 4685
Joined: Sat 08 Apr 2006, 03:00:00
Location: Somewhere there
Top

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby americandream » Mon 29 Aug 2011, 03:59:10

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', 'W')ell as I said Jews love him. And like it or not as of now they are the ones who decide whether someone is a racist, xenophobe , "like Hitler" or not. Obviously, Muslims are a much bigger problem in Europe than Jews ever were, who wouldn't like to capitalize on something as big as this.
However I personally doubt he ever openly advocated a European whites first policy. There are many people in Europe who hate Muslims so much that they are ready to seek allies amongst old enemies of their own race. He reminds me of Breivik who by the way got banned on http://www.stormfront.org for being an anti-white.


I'm not so sure life is as simple as black and white (excuse the pun.) Islam (Wahhabism) played a pivotal proxy role in defeating communism in '80's Afghanistan. Much of the reorganisation of the oil wealth in the ME and N Africa is being attended to with Muslim collaboration. There are high stakes at play here not the least being the deep entrechment of regional elites, all working within the transfer zone of capital. Europe to a large extent is being pushed out to the far right (classic and new fascist models) as well as this tends to be the periphery at which swingeing cuts can be made, the state minimised and of course, privilege set in stone, as is the drift of the Arab world in that direction plus US (both curiously under the umbrella of religion.) To a large extent, China is already there having requisitioned Maoist authoritarianism to the service of its rising elites. The world is being carved up under a variety of banners....the net result will be a cowed and compliant consuming and working class.
americandream
Permanently Banned
 
Posts: 8650
Joined: Mon 18 Oct 2004, 03:00:00
Top

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby Pops » Mon 29 Aug 2011, 14:14:07

OK, lets stick to the topic.

Here from Bloombergis a story that stole the title of this thread - and whole gist in fact.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')onsider, for example, Marx’s prediction of how the inherent conflict between capital and labor would manifest itself. As he wrote in “Das Kapital,” companies’ pursuit of profits and productivity would naturally lead them to need fewer and fewer workers, creating an “industrial reserve army” of the poor and unemployed: “Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery.”
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)
User avatar
Pops
Elite
Elite
 
Posts: 19746
Joined: Sat 03 Apr 2004, 04:00:00
Location: QuikSac for a 6-Pac
Top

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby americandream » Mon 29 Aug 2011, 17:13:58

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'O')K, lets stick to the topic.

Here from Bloombergis a story that stole the title of this thread - and whole gist in fact.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')onsider, for example, Marx’s prediction of how the inherent conflict between capital and labor would manifest itself. As he wrote in “Das Kapital,” companies’ pursuit of profits and productivity would naturally lead them to need fewer and fewer workers, creating an “industrial reserve army” of the poor and unemployed: “Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery.”


I am hopeful pops that as the crisis of accumulation deepens, a new class of sharp and incisive thinker will come to the fore, as is our penchant as a species to be creative. Perhaps ways of living that are both social (Marxian) and yet, strongly protective of our personal (Randian objectivism). It need not be some authoritarian father state. It could encompass freemen with a stronger sense of shared responsibilities. This individualism and be damned thinking is poisonous.
americandream
Permanently Banned
 
Posts: 8650
Joined: Mon 18 Oct 2004, 03:00:00
Top

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby Pretorian » Mon 29 Aug 2011, 17:30:56

Yes, people will turn into selfless droids as soon as crisis/depletion deepens.
Pretorian
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 4685
Joined: Sat 08 Apr 2006, 03:00:00
Location: Somewhere there

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby americandream » Mon 29 Aug 2011, 17:41:57

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', 'Y')es, people will turn into selfless droids as soon as crisis/depletion deepens.


Not "will", "could". On the other hand, we could also descend into a bunch of half wit morons with a taste for the neighbouring village.

It all depends on who wins this battle for the minds of this species. Either petulant dwarves who will not face the prospect of a life without their massive pickups large enough to cart their gargantuan girths from mall to mall, or clear thinking individuals with the ability to think beyond their waistlines.

Time will tell although we don't have a lot of it.
americandream
Permanently Banned
 
Posts: 8650
Joined: Mon 18 Oct 2004, 03:00:00
Top

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby prajeshbhat » Mon 29 Aug 2011, 22:50:35

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'N')ot "will", "could".


You can look at the example of the water protests in cochabamba, Bolivia. Ordinary people from the third world kicked Bechtel out of their country and told the IMF to piss off. Access to water has greatly improved after the public took over.
The geniuses at IMF and World Bank think they have figured out everything about the poor nations. They think they can solve all problems. I don't think the people at IMF have any imperialist agenda. Just a bloated sense of intelligence and self-righteousness. For 50 years they have destroyed communities and countries in their quest to create a global privatized free-market utopia. Now they cannot figure out why the world won't yield to their managerial brilliance. And how come a bunch of third world nobodys gave them a middle finger salute.
prajeshbhat
Lignite
Lignite
 
Posts: 346
Joined: Tue 17 May 2011, 02:44:33
Top

Re: Crisis of capitalism

Postby americandream » Tue 30 Aug 2011, 02:10:39

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('prajeshbhat', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'N')ot "will", "could".


You can look at the example of the water protests in cochabamba, Bolivia. Ordinary people from the third world kicked Bechtel out of their country and told the IMF to piss off. Access to water has greatly improved after the public took over.
The geniuses at IMF and World Bank think they have figured out everything about the poor nations. They think they can solve all problems. I don't think the people at IMF have any imperialist agenda. Just a bloated sense of intelligence and self-righteousness. For 50 years they have destroyed communities and countries in their quest to create a global privatized free-market utopia. Now they cannot figure out why the world won't yield to their managerial brilliance. And how come a bunch of third world nobodys gave them a middle finger salute.


Imperialism, colonialism, fascism, capitalism, nazism, Islam, maoism.....all scams for ripping off the common man. Problem with capital however is that it promises to make your planet into a lifeless desert at the rate it's going. Hey!! Why worry! It's not our problem.
americandream
Permanently Banned
 
Posts: 8650
Joined: Mon 18 Oct 2004, 03:00:00
Top

PreviousNext

Return to Economics & Finance

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

cron