Europe is in turnmoil with every city across the continent having protests, strikes and angry people on the streets, America has the Occupy Movement growing on a daily basis, even sleepy old Canada where a pedestrian crossing the street without using the pedestrian crossing is considered news, is having its problems. Montreal say running battles with the Police at the proposed North Plan. A plan to allow the corporate mining gangsters to plunder the Northern Territories of Quebec.
It seems that capitalism is having a hard time at the moment. I suppose it would the kindest thing to keep up the pressure and put it out of its misery.
This from Contra info:
A demonstration against the neo-colonial project “Plan Nord” (North Plan), which seeks to exploit to a maximum extent the minerals in Québec’s northernmost territories for the profit of mining companies, has turned into a street battle between insurgents and riot police, with an intensity and length rarely seen in Montréal.Gathering about 2,000 people including indigenous militants, ecologists, striking students, anarchists and trade-union militants, two demonstrations converged and heavily disrupted the Plan Nord’s Employment Fair taking place inside Montréal’s Palais des congrès (convention center) last Friday 20th of April.At around 12h30, a group of demonstrators (mainly striking students) has succeeded in entering the huge building, even if it was heavily guarded by riot police.
Capitalism isn't working because it is not allowed to exist. What we have is government backed corporatism that gives control to large corporates.
ReplyDeleteCapitalism starts at an individual level when someone has a skill and can provide a service.
Mom and Pop stores are capitalist, a skilled builder is a capitalist. Paying people for their skill and work is capitalism. It works extrememly well - the bad ones and the cheats can't survive. It all went wrong when government stepped in to control it, don't blame capitalism, blame government.
Your vision of capitalism as the "Mom and Pop" stores is an illusion that never existed. Capitalism has always been about the massing of capital through exploiting others. Capitalism needs money, we can trade skills without money, we can't have capitalism without money. What we have today is the ultimate development of capitalism, ever amassing more capital in the hands of the fewer people.
ReplyDeleteEven your "Mom and Pop" stores would eventually want a bigger store and perhaps another branch in another town until it was a Marks and Spencers. In your illusion of nice friendly capitalism how do you tell people not to earn too much money in case the become big stores and then corporate stores? Capitalism is all about capital, trading skills is something entirely different.