Qui Reponendi Sunt Te Salutant - Part Four

[Part One]
[Part Two]
[Part Three]

Capitalism currently seems to be the dominant force in the world, shaping not just economics but cultural / political / ethical / moral / spiritual values as well.

They even got Red China
to jump in on the act!

However, all forces -- physical / financial / psychological -- need something to push back against them, something to act as a governor (in the mechanical sense) to keep them from flying apart at the seams.

Capitalism is mortally infected with the pernicious teachings of Milton Friedman, who decreed the only moral or ethical duty of a business was to make money for its owners.

Translation:  “I got mine so screw you, jack.”

Unregulated capitalism seeks constant growth, constant expansion of markets, constant increases in efficiency and profitability for the owners.

In the world brought about by the Industrial Revolution and the enforced peace of the Nuclear Age, the only way this can be done is by exploiting consumers, inducing them to constantly by new stuff at ever increasing prices.

The profits on the new stuff are driven up by demand but they reach a saturation point where the consumers can afford to pay no more.

At which point the owners drive costs down by whatever means necessary…short of slashing their own pay and bonuses.

As demonstrated in Part One, all costs are human costs…

…just as all value is human value.

To keep making more money the owners must drive up demand on goods and services while simultaneously driving down the human costs (i.e., wages / salaries / royalties / residuals)

To do this they offer onerous terms of credit, coercing their victims…er, consumers to go deeper and deeper into debt to pay for the things the capitalists tell them they must have.

And, yes, coercion is exactly the right term to use here:  When as much advertising and marketing goes into persuading consumers not to buy something we can talk about them being on an equal basis with the huckster overlords.

If humanity won’t provide a governing force against rampant capitalism, the universe will.  If the challenges of climate change aren’t met, that’s thoroughly capable at the very least of disrupting and possibly destroying not just capitalism but civilization as a whole.

The destruction of humanity
can’t be ruled out, either.

But within every solution comes the seeds of a new problem, and while AI and automation and remote work promise to do much to cut down on the demands that fuel climate change, in many cases they do so by eliminating the need of human workers and management.

Question:  What are we going to do with seven and a half billion unemployed and unemployable human beings?

© Buzz Dixon

[Part Five]