GUEST BLOG: Bryan Bruce – Capitalism needs to serve the State
I’m reading Nicholas Shaxson’s excellent new book The Finance Curse. Here’s part of a paragraph that jumped out at me yesterday:
“..corporate bosses …and the financial sector have moved away from creating wealth FOR the economy and towards extracting wealth FROM the economy”
It’s true. But is also just one (albeit very important) aspect of the continuing legacy of greed and entitlement that is the spawn of neoliberal economics and the politics of selfishness.
Yes neoliberalism has a softer face in the current Labour led Coalition Government ,but as I posted the other day the obsession with driving down an already low public debt while ignoring the pain of rising household debt means nothing’s really changed. – And it won’t until the policy of letting the market do -whatever- the- hell – it -likes is changed.
The takers are still getting rich at the expense of the poor .The pre-election Labour/Greens “fiscal responsibility” accord has made sure of it.
Nothing “responsible” about that policy in my view.
A Progressive government would look to turn such inequality around, but the interim report of current tax review chaired by Michael Cullen reveals that there will be no change to the company tax rate and GST – which proportionally affects the poor more than the rich is to remain.
Meanwhile the rampant consumerism that this form of capitalism has encouraged is taking from the planet rather than returning what we have borrowed from it .
What would be truly “fiscally responsible” would be for capitalism to be made to serve the State and the Planet … and not the other way around.
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.
Agree that the Tax Working Group is not addressing inequality and a complicated capital gains tax some time in the future wont turn things around.
The lawmakers are still woefully out of touch.
Wanda Sikes – “nothing good ever trickles”
Cory White – “oh, golden shower economics…”
Nature creates wealth -trees, foods, minerals etc.
Humans use energy to extract natural wealth and use energy to convert natural wealth into stuff that gives them an advantage over other humans…either a physical advantage (e.g. a weapon) or a psychological advantage (e.g. fancy clothes, a large car).
Since the invention of steam pumps, Industrial Civilisation has extracted natural wealth at an increasing pace, and has generated increasing amounts of waste.
The modern (capitalist) financial system facilitates the extraction of natural wealth and facilitates the concentration of digital wealth in the hands of a tiny minority.
It is worth noting that whereas in the distant past actual capital was required to set up a business, that has not been true for centuries, and in the modern world money created digitally out of thin air is now the basis of the financial system: hence burgeoning debts.
Several aspect which will demolish Industrial Civilisation in the not-too-distant future need to be considered:
1. Most of the easily extracted wealth has already been converted into stuff and waste, and we are rapidly moving down the quality slope.
2. Wastes that are generated by industrial activity are accumulating to the point of causing ill health and disruption of natural systems.
3. Extraction of humungous amounts of fossil fuels has resulted in massive, totally unsustainable, human population overshoot.
4. Biodiversity has plummeted, and ecological balance no longer exists.
5. So-called natural disaster are on the increase, both in frequency and intensity as a consequence of overpopulation and overconsumption.
6. We are trapped in the system and have no real opportunity to leave it or modify it.
7. Nature will either rein us in and may well eliminate us as a species
Sadly, governments continue to act as agents of banks and corporations (as they have for well over a century), and will not permit necessary change to the industrial-financial system, even though the industrial-financial system will eventually render much (or all) of the Earth uninhabitable for vertebrate (including human) life.
We are living in the Age of Consequences but most people still think we are living in the Age of Entitlement.
‘Rescuers begin the task of scouring the wreckage of the most destructive fire in state records, in search of remains of the dead’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/11/california-wildfire-toll-paradise-recovery-effort
Everything you say here is 100% correct. At best we are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, at worst we are strapping explosives to it. The notion of borrowing money to yourself (like what the US, Japan and Europe do), and then leveraging that interest that you’re paying to yourself as an asset that you can then use as collateral for even more borrowing, obviously can’t work long-term. None of this is going to end well.
Capitalism serves capital. It will never serve the state. Thats what Socialism is for. Shame there are few if any parties left that embrace that notion.
Capitalism serves capital. It will never serve the state. Thats what Socialism is for. Shame there are few if any parties left that embrace that notion.