The Capitalist Chimes In

First, let’s start with the thanks. Anok has graciously opened her Blog to the Enemy. Whether she is crazy for doing it, or I am for taking the bait, remains to be seen… 

As Anok said, this isn’t about whether we are against the Bailout, we both are touchingly in agreement on that point. Maybe this simple fact should serve as a hint to Washington. If you know about Anok’s and my own normally diametrically opposed viewpoints this is a hint as subtle as a train wreck.
Anok, you raise many points here, in fact, too many to deal with in one reply, so I am going to break it down into a few answers. Effectively walking around the 800 limit 

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I am going to begin by addressing your final point, that of unregulated capitalism.

Let’s be clear that there are very few people left in this country that are proponents of a complete unregulated capitalist system. I don’t know anyone that believes companies should be allowed to do anything without any consequences. For instance, you’d be hard pressed to find an American “Capitalist” that believes companies should be allowed to hire 5 year olds because their small hands and arms are just the right size to reach past that spinning saw-blade. There is undoubtedly some regulation that is necessary, warranted, and good for everyone involved. So we end up with not as much capitalism, as we do fiscally conservative ideas. To call a fiscally conservative a “capitalist” is about as accurate as calling Obama a communist. I will however loosely use the term Capitalism to denote the fiscal conservative stance since it is undoubtedly closer related to that than to the far left view of Socialism.

The problem here isn’t “Unregulated Capitalism”, the problem here is too much regulation, the efforts of Government to regulate capitalism or to be more precise to control one side of the equation only. Which is the potential negatives that come with having the benefits of capitalism.

This meddling is what has allowed companies to become “too big to fail” to begin with. (Which I’ll discuss in the next post.)

That being said, capitalism (as defined above) is essentially fair – Take a deep breath and two aspirins- I know that one made you see stars. But I promise I have a point here.

Real Conservative fiscal policy, would indeed allow for failure, which can be perceived as bad. But it would also remove any rights that these companies have to come crying when they end up making too many bad decisions. If they made large loans to small income families, they would eventually end up eating that loss and the company would fail. THAT serves as the warning to others. It isn’t until government steps in and says that these corrections occurring in a free market are “not acceptable” and start to meddle to control it, that the problems really begin.

Any side of this issue, be it left or right has to deal with the good and the bad of their own position, it’s when you try to implement the good of both sides that you end up with a clash where the bad reaches a synergy. Quite frankly, we can’t have the cake and eat it too.

Yes, there are negatives to both systems. Capitalisms problem is that it places a responsibility on the all parties not to make bad decisions. It operates on the basic assumption that a majority of decisions made will be good decisions. And it gives little or no pardon to those that makes bad ones. In the words of my old secretary,” Stupid hurts.”

A perfect example of this is the difference between the Big Three, and the foreign brands that have placed factories in for instance Tennessee. The big three have enjoyed government protectionism in order to stem their failing position on the international market. Now these Big 3 that have had that benefit, are the very ones that need more help. The foreign companies that had to fight their way into this market IN SPITE of big 3 having the backing of the US government aren’t sitting in Washington asking for 25 billion, they are functioning as they should.

You blame greed, and that is naturally a major player in this. But just to irk you a little I have to quote Gordon Gecko,” Greed is Good, Greed Works”.
Greed is no different than any other motivating emotion. It serves as a creating and driving force. It is only when greed is accompanied with rewarding bad or even illegal decisions and actions that it becomes a problem.

You seem to forget that these people, making bad decisions as to their own finances, taking loans they can’t afford. Are doing so because they are greedy to have things that their financial status can’t support. You blame the corporate greed, but I put it to you that the real greed rests with the lenders who are taking these loans. If a company is greedy, and makes bad decisions because of it, they should not be rewarded with a bailout either. But without the greedy customer, this problem wouldn’t exist.

The truly fiscally conservatives see no difference between a greedy person, and a greedy company. They both made their beds and now they have to sleep in them. Neither situation is the problem of someone else.

Finally, you discuss how the market was doing well regulated, and how despite unregulated markets it crashed in the late 20’s. Aren’t you forgetting how it did before it crashed? If you care to examine how the US economy grew before the 20’s crash, you will see that it wasn’t exactly stagnant and dismal before that, in fact, 1870 to 1916 US production increased tenfold. That’s a slight 1000% dent in your “unregulated markets are bad” theory. The position of the US as the world leading industrial nation was created in this unregulated market.

Now I’m past the 800.. so I’ll be back to post on the “too big to fail” argument next.

Fight the Corporatacracy!

How Popular Movements Can Confront Corporate Power and Win.


This is a good article by By Michael Marx and Marjorie Kelly, YES! Magazine. Posted August 29, 2007.

To sum it up it talks about the pervasive nature of corporate power, why its bad, and what can be done about it, and how.

"Dig beneath the surface of any major problem we face and you'll find unchecked corporate power.

Corporate power lies behind nearly every major problem we face--from stagnant wages and unaffordable health care to overconsumption and global warming. In some cases, it is the cause of the problem; in other cases, corporate power is a barrier to system-wide solutions. This dominance of corporate power is so pervasive, it has come to seem inevitable. We take it so much for granted, we fail to see it. Yet it is preventing solutions to some of the most pressing problems of our time."

Another good article to look at:

Winning the Class War.

Fair prices are stupid

Well, OK thats not really how I feel about it. That is how I perceive how others feel about it though. For example, there are numerous grocery stores in my area. Having all of these stores around means competitive business, which should mean fair prices. Of course, thats not how it works. Most of the stores charge the same amount, save for a few items or offered discounts and raise their prices simultaneously when the market calls for it (or when the company decides they need a higher profit margin). Instead of one or more stores keeping prices low to keep all of them low and reasonable, they figure hey...if they can charge that much so can we.

Enter in the discount grocer. We had one open up a few months back. The prices aren't just a little bit less than the other stores, they're drastically less. I'm talking about a weekly grocery bill that has gone from $150-$250 to $50-$90. Thats massive. Of course, you don't get bags, unless you pay for them (3 cents a whack, oh my!) , and you might have to buy an off brand for certain items. Other than that though, they're pretty much the same as any grocer minus the meat and bakery departments.

So back to my point which is, if this store can make a profit selling items for sometimes less than half or more than it competitors, what does that say about the competitors? They're ripping you off, thats what. The line of bull that overhead is simply costing so much they must continuously increase their prices to magnanimous amounts is just that, a line of bull.

Here's the kicker though. Americans don't like saving a buck when it comes to corporately owned businesses. People who shop at said discount grocery stores are looked at like lepers. As if paying a reasonable amount of money for something we actually need (food) is indicative of an unhealthy lifestyle. Or that we're just too gosh darn poor to be able to shop at "real" grocery stores. Poor us, I just saved over $100 on items that will literally be gone before the end of the week. I must be an idiot! Why would I want to pay $14 for toilet paper when I can get the same thing for $1.99?

I'm literally flushing the product down the toilet.

But again, when it comes to products we need, and if its a corporation, Americans just look down on people who want fair, reasonable prices. They'll nickel and dime their neighbors at a yard sale for a $.25 mug...or haggle the local shop owner to get a discount on an already fairly priced item. A fair price is absolutely necessary when they are buying items they don't need (and can't afford anyway). But god forbid should they step foot into a discount grocery store. They would rather pay top dollar for items that will eventually be flushed down a toilet, shat out, or thrown away.

But thats just our country isn't it? Corporate is God, local business people and private citizens go to hell! We're shooting ourselves in the foot. We're creating corporate owned wage slaves. And for no reason at all.