Essay: capitalism the beast must be trapped part 1

When we look at capitalism today, we fail to recognise its’ history; either where it has come from or what it has evolved into. We don’t fully see how coin is connected to it and those that want more coin for the sake of maintaining their stake, will stop at nothing to maintain it. Well perhaps we do see it, but feel unable to do anything about it.  Perhaps this is because we tend to see capitalism as a part of our society and, in part, a force for good as much as it is a force for ill. In considering the capitalist system today, we tend to think about stocks and shares and the notion of a free market system where free trade, in this plastic form of money and debt making is something we have to tolerate to survive.  If we have an educated perspective, we can consider how some entrepreneur’s considered their workforce as having a value and, though that educated and housed them.  Some of these continue to this day. The co-operative, a model that began in Rochdale 165 years ago as the “Rochdale_Society_of_Equitable_Pioneers”  is a good example of how some capitalist ideas with a socialist background  can work together in mutual aid.   
There are other stories of equally well known individuals whom served their workforce, instead of expecting their workforce to serve them and their profits. These people however, were one off
and  it has to be recognised that theproblems associated with capitalism far outweigh the solutions. Sadly these problems rest within our nature.  Some of this, I think, rests in issues so deep that we refuse to recognise them. The trouble is, even if I do recognise them, I also question what I recognise; because I think that even what I have seen, I cannot fully comprehend. For I consider the human as a weak, and flawed species; prone to temptation, violence and self-justification to warrant our actions. Sadly, this is something that carries over within my conscious and sub-conscious tradition, from my ebbing Christian faith. So the flaw might equally not be there. I have vainly tried to argue otherwise. Sadly, I find myself mute, when observing the larger world around me; as I note   the increased acts of violence and war. The Human flaw is simply an argument that warrants itself. I simply cannot find another argument against it, despite trying.
        Therefore, Capitalism, as a philosophy isn’t “wrong” or “greedy”. It is people who are flawed and whom hold onto these negative notions of wealth’s equation to happiness, need to consider the problems such thoughts have, yet at the same time remove from their own psyche years and years of advertising mantra that associate the bigger house, the sleeker car, the more advanced kitchen appliance, the computer system and now the smartphone, are needed to make our lives happier and more fulfilled. This is the reality of the baby-boomer generation; for they bought the advert, without reading the small print; such as battery life, broken parts and crumbing prices on the stock market.  It is interesting how a thing can dominate so fully without us being aware of its presence, until, of course, it is too late.
​        One thing is certain and beyond all doubt; capitalism in its various forms, from the factory owner of the 18th and 19th century to the corporate controller, to the stock and shares of today, have monopolised our society; and though there were many factory owners that made a difference for their employees, many more equally didn't. Many look back to the 1970’s upheaval of our society and blame the unions and the factory workers for the social unrest in our society then.  I grew up in the 1970s. I witnessed with my eyes what Thatcher created.  I experienced the changes, such as the closure of the factories, the removal of the apprenticeship, the cutting apart of national treasures such as the coal industry and its connection to the steel industry and the beginning of the end of the National Health Service. All of this occurred, because the capitalist model needed to succeed over the national interest and the interest of the individual, whom worked in these fields.  Sadly, by 1987 it was too late to go back to that society. It is now far too late to even consider it. The damage is irreversible. Now ironically enough, we have Orwell’s “ministry of truth” in the guise of the BBC, feeding the masses, while the machine of the state, a Tory elite, run the nation separate from the proles; as  camera's observe our every move. It is amusing that Orwell considered his vision of dystopia from a socialist perspective and not a capitalist one. Today, “Ing Soc” is merely the conservative party under another name.
         However, the other model that has been tried: socialism, also comes with flaws. The problem is that socialism works better with a democracy than it does opposed to it. All models that have been used as a benchmark for the word “socialism” were far from such. Though they started with the greatest of intentions, the end result has always been the same thing: a totalitarian and militaristic dictatorship. The reason being that there is always someone who will eventually want to rule. True socialism, in its purest form, denies the rule of one select human. Something, that is against human nature, which is inclined to dominate all that it comes across.  Therefore, the idyll of the soviet, was broken by Stalin. The Chinese revolution, though had a good start, also fell into military control. Even the attempts at a form of socialist
society in the south Americas, either ended in collapse, or a military takeover by Right wing military leaders.  I need not site these, after all it is common knowledge.  So if a total socialist society is impossible, what next?
      I believe we need both in a democracy. If we accept that capitalism is needed as part of a democratic
society, then so is socialism. For socialism and socialist ideas, such as local councils, waste reclamation, and a free education and in the United Kingdom the NHS all supported by National insurance contributions and other forms of taxation started by an earlier Liberal government were and are vital in keeping a society balanced.
          Moreover, regulation of the capitalist is needed; in fact, essential simply to keep the problems inherent with too much capitalism in check.  To see what rampant capitalism is capable of, we simply have to look at the western nations prior the second world war and what is termed as “the great depression.”  However, economic depressions are nothing new to the capitalist model.  Many who are very versed in the knowledge of this curve of boom, bust n, and bubble note the signs and pull out of “risky investments” in favour of something more solid, such as gold, well before the collapse occurs. In looking at the Great Depression, the first thing to note is the stock market crash of 1929 is how many
individuals bought gold up to that collapse, the same can be said of the credit crunch of 2008.  A brief and I would say unscholarly research into the subject of economic collapses led to finding ten economic collapses, the earliest being in Rome in the fourth Century CE. So collapse isn’t new with either proto capitalist, or capitalist economic theory. The problem is, we tend to forget this, or ignore the facts that slap us around the face, in favour of keeping coin and the whole bloody mess going.  The following years from 1929 to 36 were the most difficult for that generation. The poorest became homeless, those who were moderately wealthy became poor, while the very wealthy lived separate lives, as the society dwindled and collapsed. It took FDR’s establishment of fiscal control to prevent complete collapse and the post-world war 2, Attlee government took on these ideas and established the base of our left wing
democratic and I wold say pro socialist society.
         Time however moves on The capitalist returns and with that, consumerism.  A consumerism that was fully realised as the outcome of an embrace of capitalism by the philosopher Max Weber, who in this text “the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism” (1909) points towards the world we have now with
astounding clarity. Moreover, he points out that it’s the very nature of our western religious belief system and the language it has within it, that leads us towards a moral and religious acceptation of capitalism as the language of God.  However, the with this new rise has come yet again a question over what an asset is.  An asset is a human being. It is not a thing. However big that thing happens to be. The reasoning behind this is simple.  As a human being you can own something or not own something, that choice is yours.  You as an individual shape your identity around that understanding and establish within you the means to control your life. An asset is not a car, or a house or anything that can break. Because once it is no longer yours it is no longer an asset. You will not here, that I am deliberately ignoring the legislative
meaning behind asset, I do so not without thought. For a person needs to exist, before the property can be owned. The asset is the human above the building.  I would go further to say that It is a tragedy that so many people who consider themselves working class and those less well-off vote conservative and opt for their economic system, simply because they think that voting for it makes them think they are more middle class than they really are. They are sadly deluded. For history has shown that the wealthy and the very wealthy look after their own at the behest of the rest of us. Furthermore, the ownership asset is an illusion. The reality is a debt; and in recent history, that debt, directly connected to the house (or asset) market led to the credit crunch of 2008. This debt crunch has had a ripple effect upon governments who
need economic support to pay for the socialist systems (such as the NHS. Education for our children, roadworks and rubbish waste collection...yes these are socialist as they involve community action and serving) furthermore We all cannot own a company. Someone has to work in that company and get a wage. If not, what is the point of it all? Why have a company at all? Privatisation taken to its final form have never existed and can never exist.
          Then lets look at the 21^st century success story that  owes itself to capitalism: Apple.  Apple with its host of vanity products, geared into the baby-boomer advertising market was the global success story. Its owner Steve Jobs, made billions every day; but he made this coin out of suffering.  The suffering begins, with the consumer, who buy’s into the language of the apple product. The bright new day and the evangelical zeal behind this corporation, rests in the same language that Weber wans us against, yet the reality of this is far removed from the language on the web page. The reality is this Apple mac that have, 
via  legal loop holes, managed to avoid paying tax to national governments and have also used the communist system of enslaved workers in hen house conditions  to make the Iphone we, according to their advertising, we  desperately want to own. In reality, this is slavery pure and simple. It is a form of slavery established via indirect rule created during the British Empire.  Meanwhile thousands of Americans are not in work in factories Apple could establish and will not and are borderline destitute, due to government cuts caused by a lack of taxes.  All because the corporation’s and Apple is  included, refuse to accept any responsibility and pay government its due. And Apple is not the only one. More than half of
the corporations today, don’t pay taxes, yet expect their workforce to suffer under poor wages and a greed obsessed ideology lost in the language of the Baptist.  And we, as a society have let this happen.  As a species we have opted for the capitalist model and the easy option of letting people govern us, and our economy  instead of getting involved and governing ourselves. We accept belief systems that give us an ability to change, but only if it agrees with the person who runs it. Only to face guilt trips when we
cannot fit into that ideal.  I think we need a new philosophy. Because that is what capitalism is. An economic philosophy that has been embedded into our economic system.  However, if we do this, we also need to be prepared for decades of civil disturbance and unrest.
         In many ways we are seeing the start of this already. Nation states such as Greece are being torn apart as the flaws in the economic system rise to the surface.  The governments established in these nation states, collapse and are, because of fear establishing right wing militaristic governments to maintain control.  This isn't a science fiction dystopia.  This is happening right here and now and all over the western world.
        Yet the bigger question is, can we change?
        We have, I believe reached a crux or a fulcrum in our present expanding society. We cannot keep creating more humans, and at the same time expect our outdated system to protect us.  Furthermore, we cannot exploit our natural resources to breaking point in order to keep the rich, rich, while the rest  of us scrape the bottom of the barrel simply to survive. Furthermore, if we do continue on this rode the conglomerate is and has to be responsible to maintain both the individual that it employs and the
nation state that the employee lives in.  Companies like Apple Mac and to a lesser or greater extent Microsoft, the subsidiaries connected to them, as well as other corporate entities, cannot claim the legal position of not paying taxes because of legally designed loopholes;  without understanding the ethics of
their actions, come at a terrible cost.
           As any scientist knows a cause does not come without an effect; and or a backlash. I would go further to state that we all have a role and responsibility in resolving this issue too.  After all, we buy the smartphone or the pc, we log on in or use a platform  or communicate with each other using a machine that has a connection to this style of economic philosophy. I am working on a Hewlett Packard PC a company that according to Wikipedia WAS an American multinational technology company. A brief research into it has led me to HP inc and HP manufacturing, which is still an American based
company, however, finding where the factories are, well that is hard to find.  That is one side of it. I haven't dared look into the factory farming or the crops that maintain our bloated superhypermarkets, let alone the workers exploited there.