Anyone who thinks we don’t need a wealth tax, yet wants to continue living in a safe society, really needs to watch the documentary Capitalism in the 21st Century.
I went to the NZ Premiere of the film tonight and I have to tell you that Kiwi Director Justin Pemberton’s film adaptation of French economist Thomas Picketty’s best selling book, delivers an excellent overview of 400 years of Capitalism and reveals why, if we don’t close the widening gap between the rich and the poor,history tells us there will be violence and revolution.
I would really like to see a screening of this film in our parliament – or perhaps have it projected onto the walls of it this summer. Because, at the risk of repeating myself yet again , you can’t have the politics of kindness and wellbeing if you practice the economics of selfishness.
If each coming generation continues to become poorer than their parents, then eventually there will be a social breakdown across a number of Neoliberal driven economies which will, internationally, result in a level of violence the world has not witnessed since the French and Russian revolutions
Congulations to everyone who helped make Capitalism in the 21st Century I’d particularly like to give a shout out to my friend Catherine Madigan who was one of the co-producers .
Watch out for it when it comes up for general release.
Brilliant !
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
This guy, Aditya Chakrabortty, always has some good insights about capitalism and how it has gone wrong in topical examples.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/commentisfree/2016/apr/10/money-offshore-corrupt-democracy-political-influence
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/18/ruins-notre-dame-billionaires-french-philanthropy
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/08/britain-huawei-general-electric-company-thatcherism
What is important is how laws and democracy is being reduced in modern times. If all the left are going to do is tell ordinary people to pay more taxes it has become a joke under user pays 21c, when everybody knows that that the more corrupt members of society have so much money they are not only able to buy up politicians, break the law and get nothing or next to nothing in penalty, change the laws to suit themselves, and get knighthoods and free media coverage (because they own the media or contribute so much in advertising now) and yet more money to continue to expand the practise!
The RMA is an example in NZ where over 99 percent of resource consents are approved because the entire process it to approve anything is about lying and cheating and minimising, semantics of details and flawed lengthy reports that do the above.
Like in many areas, NZ officials have not realised there is a lot of money to be made in property consents and RMA, so gosh, people lie and cheat and manipulate to get it through, and through our legal system that is allowed and fake accounts are not bought to account, therefore it has become the norm. If anyone challenges the environmental a consent, they are up for tens of thousands of fines from the environment court and called a Nimby. Unsurprisingly most people have given up and community spirit is broken as is bothering to put in a public submission or go to a protest.
Most of our process for allocating resources in NZ from water to housing has zero quality control it is just an expensive process and the odds are over 99% that any shit is going to be approved from Pike River death traps to the shedding Victopia building…
Did anyone get prosecuted for the dangerous Pike River mine, nope, is anyone going to be prosecuted over the Victoria building, nope…
I’d also say the fundamentals of trusting economic theories is also fatally flawed, judging from increasing inequality, environmental destruction to the point our climate has now changed and possibly no going back and global financial crisis every decade that the economists fail to predict!
Look at the dickhead Gabriel Makhlouf, and Don Brash mentality, and their behaviours. Economics has become a dishonourable profession of dickheads who are completely unaccountable for their flawed and naive views, anti society and pathological behaviour.
They can’t even operate in the real world with real money or operate business or technology most of the time and so unsurprisingly not only fail to miss financial crises but also contribute to them constantly occurring with flawed thinking that the politicians eat up!
The emperors in the emperors new clothes are modern economists!
“If each coming generation continues to become poorer than their parents, then eventually there will be a social breakdown across a number of Neoliberal driven economies which will, internationally, result in a level of violence the world has not witnessed since the French and Russian revolutions”
But first will be preceeded by tge ekection of demagogues throughout the western world
Authoritarisnism was once the curse of developing countries and sicieties under stress
Now that curse will be visited upon us
The film is “Capital in the 21st Century” and the trailer is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reyy9ASpMSc
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