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As Michael Moore’s new film, “Capitalism, A Love Story” is coming out its seems an appropriate time to reflect on the character of American capitalism and how it has usurped social responsibility and democracy in this country.

In the remarkable documentary, “The Corporation”, a segment of the film is dedicated to applying human psychologically to the actions and behavior of a corporation and analyzing it’s character as if it was a person…which legally, it is recognized to be. Not surprisingly, the personality of an American person known as a corporation amounts to that of a sociopath.

So, using that and the title of Moore’s film as inspiration, why don’t we look at capitalism as someone with whom we have a relationship…because we do.

How does capitalism treat us in a personal relationship and will it leave after it gets what it wants claiming it has an important business meeting in the morning?

HOW CAPITALISM TREATS US IN OUR RELATIONSHIP:

1. Puts itself and getting what it wants first over our health, safety and lives.

2. Is very controlling, won’t let us have the remote control to our democracy.

3. Leaves the seat up on health care so many of us fall in due to no coverage.

4. Is selfish in not paying its share of the bill, making us pay its way by not paying taxes itself through loopholes, setting up offshore, etc.

5. Stuffs its mouth with what’s on our plate by using campaign contributions to receive subsidies, being war profiteers, colluding on price fixing.

6. Has its way with us to get profits, begs us for money when it’s broke then once we give it our money, it runs off and spends it only on itself.

7. Lies to us about being faithful and always being good to us while cheating on us with Wall Street insiders.

8. Gets drunk on “boom”s, getting loud and obnoxious about how everyone can make free money on dot coms, home equity, tulips, etc. then hits us in the gut and
steals our retirement money.

9. Always thinks its right, whatever it does. It can never be wrong, it’s always our fault.

10. Has become obese and gluttonous, enough is never enough. And its obesity has led to its impotence, it can no longer satisfy the public’s needs, including jobs, decent wages, health care and a stable economy.

It’s not healthy to stay in abusive relationships and considering that capitalism refuses to go in for counseling with us, we need to change our relationship so it works better for us. My suggestion is that we need an alternative lifestyle, we should have an open relationship with capitalism, free to spend time with socialism too when we want to since capitalism can’t satisfy us all the time.

We need to set strict ground rules with capitalism too, there need to be boundaries that can’t be crossed and the abuse has to stop. And as much as socialism may want to spend all of it’s time with us, we have to make clear that we need our space and don’t want to be smothered by it or capitalism.

Others may talk about us behind our backs but if it makes us happy, that’s all that matters.

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nelliewhatsthatsoundAdLibQuestiniaKQµårk 死神 Recent comment authors
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Questinia
Member

“Off topic comments may be moved to an open thread called ‘Speaker’s Corner'”.

Speaker’s Corner?
Does it come with a dunce cap and a dais?

Never mind. I’ll willingly go to “Speaker’s Corner”. Is it near the ladies room?

nellie
Member

I have no problems with capitalism. My problems are with oligopoly, collusion, price fixing, monopoly, vertical integration, and horizontal integration. I like a good antitrust paradigm that makes the words “free market” close to a reality.

Right now our corporations are thieves and fiefdoms. They are not businesses. They shut out competition, gobble up rivals, underprice, gouge, and refuse to provide the products and services they get paid to produce. Our business world has run amok.

Worst of all, it has purchased the very people responsible for keeping it in line.

And make no mistake, these corporations are run by human beings. It isn’t the corporation that is the sociopath, it is the CEO, the Chairman of the Board, the CFO, the COO — any person in the configuration that devises and approves a policy that puts money above the health and welfare of the human community. Calling the corporation a sociopath, IMHO, is going soft on the real culprits.

KQµårk 死神
Member

Wait tomorrow we may see the people that are bought and paid for if the Senate Finance Committee votes on the public option.

whatsthatsound
Member

This is a very astute analogy, AdLib. Movies like “The Corporation”, the new Michael Moore film, “Food, Inc.” etc., are all pointing to, to borrow another movie’s title, an inconvenient truth. Greedy people have an appalling amount of control over our lives, and they no longer value or even validate our humanity. We are, to them, no longer people. We are consumers. In their boardrooms, they are trained to think of us that way. They need us to need them. From the moment we wake up, we are switching on the machines that they built for us, running on the energy that they supply us with, fueling ourselves with the food that they stuff into cardboard boxes and sell to us, and chill out with the entertainment that they create for us. John Lennon said it as succintly and stridently as anyone
Keep you doped with religion, sex and TV
and you think you’re so clever and classless and free
but you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.

But we aren’t even peasants. At least peasants knew how to work the land. They had sunshine, encounters with dirt, with other animals. They had fresh air. They were human. Are we?

Questinia
Member

Why, don’t you love being a widget buying widgets until you need to be on a budget?

And don’t forget, peasants worked with a limited color palette 🙂

I think corporations are the REAL peasants.
Can someone tell me how I think that? I’m going into the whole blow-blame kaleidoscope again.

whatsthatsound
Member

Not widgets, Peeples. I’m thinking of doing a “visual essay” that has us coming out of tubes like Pringles “potato” chips, suggesting that modern people are as highly processed and far away from nature as the potato mash that gets zapped into Pringles thingies.

Questinia
Member

I just saw Pringles today! I had forgotten about them. But there they were. They’ve endured and now they will be the metaphor for the modern plight of humanity, grace to wts.

Pringle Peeple!!

Are people too.

KQµårk 死神
Member

You should not confuse Capitalism to Corporatism. We don’t have Capitalism in this country which means a free market economy for some industrial segments with trust laws enforced. We have a series of oligarchies controlled by very large global corporations.

I prefer multiple systems for different segments of the economy. For some segments which are less capital intensive like retailers full free market competition works well. That’s why retailers profit margins are relatively low. For capital intensive industries like huge manufactures and the financial sector many regulations need to be enforced including anti-trust laws to keep them from usurping the markets. For some industries like healthcare you even need government competition to keep them honest.

The problem with any Utopian ideal as a system is that one size does not fit all. The world is far too complex and human behaviors are too insidious to trust one system.

Questinia
Member

All great points, KQ. Corporatism seems to have made Capitalism its battered spouse.

The film “The Corporation” was so eye-openingly scary, that I decided I would close my eyes and hold my ears so I could remain in LaLa Land. What I did hear is what Adlib says. Corporations are sanctioned sociopaths that are beyond the law because they are legally unable to be held accountable.

But,paraphrasing Gore Vidal, America was built on the mutual agreement of people that said “I won’t blow your scam, if you don’t blame mine”. It’s all about and has always been about the scam, the hood-wink, getting the suckers money. So is it in the genetic makeup of this country to remain as it has been since its inception? Do we want to take things back to what we imagine was a less corporate minded America? For if we truly did that, then that may be the most revolutionary thing this country will have done ever.

Questinia
Member

How on earth did I come up with “blame”? I meant “blow”.
Although what I actually wrote could be interesting.

Can someone tell me why it could be interesting? Cause I really don’t know why. I think I made that up.

Darn! I always blame myself. That’s how I blow it. I should learn how to blame others like everybody else does. That’s how you remain blameless, like the psychopath, like the abuser.

(The inner psyqosis of Q, please donate)

KQµårk 死神
Member

You have to deal with them like sociopaths realizing most sociopaths function in society at some level. You may need to police them, restrain them or even ban them depending on their offenses and the industries propensity to induce re-offenders. Just like you don’t let a sociopaths pedophile around children you don’t let sociopaths around essential societal functions like healthcare without a hell of a lot supervision at least.

Questinia
Member

One out of ten people is estimated to be a sociopath.

nellie
Member

I agree with your outlook. Multiple systems for multiple purposes. There are some functions that require a monopoly to have any efficiencies at all. There are some functions that rightly belong to all of us, the commons, and should be overseen by all of us — the government. And there is room for business and enterprise, research and innovation. We need a mixed system. And we need regulation to keep it efficient and high functioning. What we have now is very inefficient and very low functioning. It confers disproportionate benefits on a very small segment of society — benefits that have nothing to do with effort or merit. We need regulation to keep corruption from displacing honest actors with bad ones. And we need a complex mix of systems to fit the complexities of society.

Well said, KQuark.