Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Balance this!

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

Friday, October 27, 2017

Balance this!

Click here to access article by economist David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

Both Donald Trump and Eduardo Porter would have us believe the U.S. trade deficit is a serious problem—and that, if it can brought back into balance, jobs for American workers will be restored.

Nonsense!

Ruccio offers evidence to indicate the falsity of the above argument. Instead it is clear that that the operations of capitalism have inevitably accumulated wealth and power to the ruling class of capitalists. The latter have by "hook or by crook" forced workers around the world to create the technology that, in turn, makes possible all kinds of computerized machinery, robots, and artificial intelligence to take over control of production from workers.

So, is it any wonder that the vast majority of workers are experiencing, and look forward to, more unemployment, underemployment, and inequality? Hence workers have created an advanced technology, which under the rules of capitalism, is owned and thus controlled by a ruling class of capitalists for their exclusive benefit and to the impoverishment of workers. What is so sad--actually tragic--about this is that such labor saving technology could be used to free workers for more time to engage in educating themselves, assuming governing posts, and otherwise enriching their lives and the lives of everyone in societies that can coexist within a healthy ecosystem.