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I recently receive an email with the following article, “Resist or Become Serfs,” attached.
The email sender said, “I know you will like this article. This man does not give his definition of Capitalism. By the way what is yours????? … this seems to be a point where we disagree. There has never been pure capitalism in this country. That is the problem.“
It is important to note that the mailer is a free market capitalist and an alumni of the Free Enterprise Institute, founded by Andrew J. Galambos.
MY RESPONSE:
It may seem to some to be over-the-top, particularly the first paragraph, but if we don't make significance progress in solving the mess we are in, if this administration is not successful, I believe “We can resist, which means street protests, disruptions of the system and demonstrations, or become serfs” probably will bear fruit. We should have somewhat of a handle on Obama’s progress in about 6 to 8 weeks. I think it is not unthinkable to think revolution. We will have to resist because, in the end, we will not have any other choice.
I have read Chris Hedges, I particularly found his book, "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" very insightful. He, in that book, presented a perspective of war that should be mandatory reading (if that would be possible, of course) for every High School and university/college Humanities curriculum.
MY DEFINITION OF CAPITALISM:
Capitalism is a system of economics that is laissez faire; a nonpolitical system based on an absolute free market, one of complete 100% freedom (used in the spirit of your/Galambos’s expression of freedom, and it’s a good one). It provides for anyone the inalienable right to the possession and control of property (and, I do know Galambos’s definition of property: “property being individual man's life and all non-procreative derivatives of his life,” not that I disagree): the absolute nongovernmental, nonpolitical, noninterference economic social system that gives all an absolute legal right to manage, buy or sell, derive profit from, or to hire and fire anyone he/she wishes in the use of labor to produce or provide for goods/services for a profit, or for nonprofit, if she/he wishes, for that is their prerogative.
That being said and I do agree, “there has never been pure capitalism in this country,” however, Democrat-Republican-Independent and even Libertarian (in the sense they wish to minimize government whereas the Capitalism of my definition means total [100%] nongovernmental interference) Capitalism, in its contemporary form, has failed America and the World. I don’t see this to be an arguable point.
I also don’t see it to be arguable, in view of this contemporary form of Capitalism, to insist on legal binding restrictions, regulation, or creation of boundaries within which capitalist must act within that system.
The Conservative, Republican, Independent/unenrolled, and Federal Reserve under Greenspan, notion that Capitalist are willing and capable of policing themselves has proved to be a fallacy.
Capitalism, under my definition, will always fail as long as it is believed that it is a political system instead of a way of life.
There is a lot to change if we are ever going to achieve, as you and Galambos put it: 100% freedom; 100% of the time. It can be done: man created it and man can change it. It is simply a matter of educating Americans and the world community to new ways of thinking.
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