Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Fraud Caused the 1930s Depression and the Current Financial Crisis

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Fraud Caused the 1930s Depression and the Current Financial Crisis

from Washington's Blog.

Learn some history of the Great Depression and how capitalist frauds created it. You see, the system fosters fraud. It has caused the lurching from one economic crisis to another from its beginning. The current economic crisis is only the latest in a long history of such crises.

Industrial capitalism had its origins in the UK with the increasing mechanization of production and use of water power, then accelerated by the invention of steam powered engines which could process large quantities of wool. The owners of the land discovered they could make a lot more money by raising sheep than collecting rents and other income from small farmers. Hence they drove the small farmers off the land and forced them to emigrate to their colonies (The Enclosure Movement, read also The Great Transformation by Polanyi).

Capitalist ruling classes continued to expand their enterprises by the invasions of other lands to establish their colonies. In the 20th century the system has resulted in the horrific wars fought by the capitalist ruling classes for the control of resources and markets. Now in the 21ist century the same ruling classes are targeting their own populations to extract more wealth.

If we don't change it, we will continue to go from one economic crisis to another--and worst of all, it will finally destroy the environment that sustains human life. We have no choice except to fight for our survival as a human race.