Has modern Capitalism mutated into totalitarianism?
Tyler’s Mate asked:
Capitalism is promoted on the premise that competing self-interests, regulated by the realities of “the market”, work for the general benefit of human society. However, if the modern pillars of Capitalism - the banks, the stock markets, global corporations - are so powerful that political institutions will take “any action necessary” to prevent these pillars from falling, then the market cannot perform its essential function. Such a dysfunctional market means we do not have capitalism, but possibly something akin to an oligopoly - a very unhealthy and dangerous state of affairs where immense power is concentrated in a relatively small, but completely unaccountable group interested only in perpetuating and extending its own power. Not unlike the totalitarian Eastern European states of recent history.
Capitalism is promoted on the premise that competing self-interests, regulated by the realities of “the market”, work for the general benefit of human society. However, if the modern pillars of Capitalism - the banks, the stock markets, global corporations - are so powerful that political institutions will take “any action necessary” to prevent these pillars from falling, then the market cannot perform its essential function. Such a dysfunctional market means we do not have capitalism, but possibly something akin to an oligopoly - a very unhealthy and dangerous state of affairs where immense power is concentrated in a relatively small, but completely unaccountable group interested only in perpetuating and extending its own power. Not unlike the totalitarian Eastern European states of recent history.
What is to be done?
Bernice
GovernmentHuman Society, Oligopoly, RealitiesJune 12, 2009
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