Corporate Communism

[Geriatrix]

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/ratigan-thanks-corporate-communism-24

Dylan Ratigan's guest column at the Daily Bail calls out "corporate communism" and makes some pretty powerful arguments:

If you allow weak, outdated players to take control of the government and change the rules so they are protected from the natural competition and reward systems that have created so many innovations in our country, you not only steal from the citizens on behalf of the least worthy but you also doom them by trapping the capital that would be used to generate new innovation and, most tangibly in our current situation, jobs.

We are losing the opportunity cost of all the great ideas that should be coming from the proper deployment of that 23.7 trillion in capital. Everything from innovation in medical delivery systems to accessible space travel, free energy to the driverless car; all of these things may never come to bear because those powerful individuals who have failed, been passed over by technological advancements, innovation and flat-out smarts, have commandeered our government to unfairly sustain their wealth and power.

Unfortunately, they use our wealth and laws not only to benefit their outdated, failed companies, but also spend a small pittance of their ill-gotten gains lobbying and favor-trading with politicians so the government will continue to protect them from competition and their well-deserved failure.

The massive spike in unemployment, the utter destruction of retirement wealth, the collapse in the value of our homes, the worst recession since the Great Depression have all resulted directly from the abdication of proper government.

Even with all that -- the only changes that have been made, have been made to prop up and hide the massive flaws on behalf of those who perpetuated them. Still utterly nothing has been done to disclose the flaws in this system, improve it or rebuild it. Only true rules-based capitalism ensures constant adaptation and implementation of the latest and best practices for a given business, as those businesses that don't adapt fail, and those who deploy the latest innovations to their customers benefit, prosper.

The concept of communism is rightly reviled in this country for the simple reason that it is blind to human nature, allowing a small group of individuals near-total control, while sticking everyone else with the same crappy systems -- and the bill. America spent countless lives and half a century fighting against this system of government. So why are we standing for it now?

Sounds like Ratigan's right in line with an essay George Soros wrote back in 1997, "The Capitalist Threat" in which he called "untrammeled capitalism" the biggest threat to an open society. I thought it was an interesting idea at the time, but now? Can't argue a bit.

 

[grok]

Hmm .. this could have been written for the ANC. How appropriate the link points to a site called crooks & liars.

 

[Tun@]

Great to see the topic is actually getting some airtime over there.

Came across another educate the people youtube vid here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWH5TlbloU

 

[Alan]

George Soros hedge fund billionaire and convicted insider trader. Being a dirty capitalist himself I suppose he knows how they work lol

 

[WilD_CaT]

Corporate communism has also been called crony capitalism.

Definately against this.

 

[smokey]

Affordable space travel...

/sigh

We're making iPods and i7s and al sorts of sparkly techno-gadgets and we are nowhere near low cost space travel. So disappointing.

 

[Alan]

Yeah been 40 years since man walked on the moon and we're no where close to Mars :erm:

 

[smokey]

Yeah been 40 years since man walked on the moon and we're no where close to Mars :erm:

COmpetition. The US shouldn't have done such a sterling job of fcking up the USSR. At least with some real competition they were forced to be innovative. I mean we went from riding horses to putting a man on the moon in 60 odd years, and in the next 50... nothing of note (as far as the travel part is concerned). Don't you find it disappointing?

 

[The_Assimilator]

The US shouldn't have done such a sterling job of fcking up the USSR.

The USSR were quite capable of ****ing up their own space program, TYVM. Not saying the US one was without incidents but the sheer number of Russian rockets that exploded on launch is frightening... not to mention the Buran, the Soviet copy of the Space Shuttle.