Ted Rall for October 18, 2010

Meh. Capitalism is so yesterday. Plus, the Ponzi scheme we’re in now has yet to run its course.

This cartoon may seem absurd, but then since 1980 it seems any amount of profit for the big money corporations is not enough, and anything they pay in salaries, wages, & benefits is too much.

There used to a link between rising productivity and rising wages in this country which was broken around that time. Go to Wikipedia, type in “Endicott Johnson Corporation” and scroll down to “George F. and the Square Deal” to read about what corporations could do with just a slight reduction in shareholder profit. We still use some of the amenities provided for the people of my hometown area by a CEO who cared about more than short-term profits.

One of the main reasons US capitalism is failing so many of the American people is the monetary system. Everyone – corporations, the government and the chump with the mortgage and the car – are reliant on loans (lines of credit) from privately owned corporations called banks. These loans are charged at interest, and are backed only by the borrower’s promise to repay, not actual goods and services. (Usury)

However, in order to finance the interest payments, the economy has to grow. Growth cannot continue indefinitely in the real world, so ‘bulimic expansion’ is used to simulate growth.

What happens when the economy stops growing, as it eventually must? High unemployment, high default rates on loans, weakening of the US dollar against foreign currencies > USD reserves of non-US countries become worth less > price of middle east petroleum goes up > further downturn

This boom & bust cycle is no aberration of the system, but the result of the de-regulation of the finance sector.

It is telling that few of those that live in a capitalist society understand the nature of money. We have an intuitive understanding of money as representing value. This is exactly wrong: money represents debt. The more people are in debt, the more money there is. And everyone has to keep finding new ways to make interest repayment, lest the ever-growing, insatiable ‘debt monster’ catches up with them.

Government sucks, economy sucks. Greed is their secret and keeps them coming back for more. Whoever tells you diffently is lying and lying is what will destroy the united states. Those who get to leave the united states, rejoice.

in today’s GREATER depression, the workers make LESS than their grandfathers and grandmothers made in the great depression. Preparing my grandchildren to be houseboys and gardeners for the Chinese.

Or maybe spammers…