Note - This is a follow up article I have written based on my Article "Capitalism will not just Die" published on the 22nd October 2017. Due to the reviews and discussions raised.
Due to the industrial revolution, success came to be defined as an increase in a society’s material standard of living. With that definition, capitalism is, the only successful economic system in the world today. It has successfully defeated fascism, socialism and communism.
Despite its success, the current global economy is decelerating from an annual growth rate of over 5% in the 1960s, to under 4% growth per year in the 1970s, to under 3% in the 1980s, to just 2% in the 1990s, to under 2% globally in 2015.
In order to maintain psychological control over the masses the International Monetary fund (IMF) in the mid 90’s advised all member states and nations to adjust employment figures based on hours worked from Full-time employment of 35 hours per week in 1993 to just 5 hours per week in 2010. This was to create an illusion of employment and economic success whilst they negotiated with several global corporations, member states and entities to increase their taxation on the wealthy and to close tax havens.
The IMF had the right idea in reducing the chance of economic upheaval and global violence, but were and are still naïve to believe that companies and or their board members would make a social contribution to the global economy in any way that would adequately meet the expected requirements.
Instead new global administration tribunals funded by multinational corporations and in direct disregard to sovereignty have been set up with global trade agreements to ensure the continued redistribution of wealth to the top 1% and many of the worlds politicians on salaries of less than $200,000 per annum US are able to elevate their personal equity into the hundreds of millions of dollars in only 1 to 2 political terms.
Unregulated Capitalism raises serious questions about the long-term stability of the social and economic structure. Historically, all dominant social systems without competitors, from ancient Egypt to China’s Kingdoms, lost their ability to adapt. They could not keep pace with the changes in technology in the marketplace of ideas.
What many today expected would be the fall of capitalism in 2008, due to the technology and unregulated mathematical theory of derivatives. Was to be the most blatant form of Corporate/government corruption in the history of the planet. With the Government blatantly taking massive lobbyist contributions (bribes) and socialising the loses of the banks by covering the loses with public (tax payers) Money and privatising the benefits and contributions.
To this day no bank or multinational employee has been jailed in the US for their blatant corrupt and fraudulent use of their customers money.
To give some context to time in this commentary, I would historically describe the 1950’s and 1960’s as economically stable, but in 1973 due to massive tax cuts by western nations globally to those in the tops 10% of income brackets there was a massive rise in income inequality.
In 1993 the inequalities were rising globally in every category, health, occupation, education and gender. Many of these were due to the reduction of funding to social services, health, and education.
In 1990 in Australia the top 3% absorbed 9% of all income gains.
In the 1920’s the top CEO’s earned about 6:1 the income of their average employee, now the average CEO earns 300:1 the income of their average employee. Globally the top 10% of wage earners have experienced almost 98% of all wage gains. Globally the average worker over the last 30 years in inflation corrected real wages has dropped over 23%.
Society has embraced the “Winner take all” belief system.
So how dose Capitalism sustain its own ideology.
In order for an ideology to succeed it must unite those around them. Generally it requires a powerful story. Without the story, leaders and preachers have no agenda and the citizens no belief. All religions have a story. Communism and socialism both had roots in religious stories and doctrines and have created fundamentalists through such powerful ideologies.
But the ideology of Capitalism is that an individual interest can prevail over the interests of others, the David VS Goliath, the Spartans etc. But, can personal greed be the ideology that holds society together over time?
What we are witnessing today is the growing division between democracy’s belief in equality and the markets increasing creation of unequal economic power.
So, what come next?
What society is craving is a vision, or a story, that can motivate society, to transcend narrow self-interest and reconstruct an economy that produces greater equality. The economic question for this century will be, what is that story?
Remember the story doesn’t have to be believable, humanity has evolved self-awareness but it has also evolved imagination, creativity and mental abnormalities.
