Capitalism has failed, let's consider other options

I guess I should expect doom and gloom here, it is a conspiracy site after all.

The truth, however, is that it has never been easier or less costly to step out of the rat race than right here, right now.

For very little money, and with training/tutorials you can find on the internet for free, you can start a website, webstore, forum. You can write books, articles, blog posts, screenplays, stage plays, musical scores, technical manuals...

For a little more (but for way less than 50 years ago) you can buy decent sound and video recording equipment and produce projects that other people will gladly pay money for.

As that brings in cash (capital), you take some as salary and invest the rest into growing the business or growing your own knowledge in an area that interests you. No one can take knowledge away from you once you have it. And if you make more cash than it takes you to live, you can give all that excess away however you like.

If a middle schooler can do it (and they do it by the hoards!!), you can too!!! You are smart enough to have gotten yourself into this intelligent group of folks, you are certainly smart enough to run your own small business.

If you choose not to, thats on you, not on the bankers, lawyers or politicians.

a reply to: Puppylove

Sounds like a mix of pure communism doctrine, mixed with totalitarianism.

Super strict controls and "incentive" (reward) and "disincentive" (punishment) for everyone?

No one exempt from working? Really? What about my 82 year old mother? You want to drag her out and make her stand as a Walmart greeter for 8 hours a day? Really?

Strict control over reproduction through disincentive? That is what China is doing now.

Not a world I'd want to live in.

a reply to: grandmakdw

Love when people read nearly none of what's said and focus only on the first post

originally posted by: Puppylove
Capitalism is a failed system, it's the main problem as it has no limits on the gap in wealth distribution, capitalism is the biggest problem in our world today.

...

This is a rough draft ideology, tell me what you all think? Is such a system feasible? Is there potential to remove cash as incentive and replace it with standard of living instead? Ideas, suggestions? Criticisms?

It's hardly a "rough draft ideology", it's the same basic concepts of hard-line communism they've tried in various countries for the last century with some odd token gestures towards capitalism to make it sound more palatable.

Your system sounds like absolute hell on earth and would not only stifle one of humanity's greatest strengths (innovation stemming from a sense of intellectual curiosity and adventure) but would effectively retard society in a way that could take generations to fix.

originally posted by: EvillerBob

originally posted by: Puppylove
Capitalism is a failed system, it's the main problem as it has no limits on the gap in wealth distribution, capitalism is the biggest problem in our world today.

...

This is a rough draft ideology, tell me what you all think? Is such a system feasible? Is there potential to remove cash as incentive and replace it with standard of living instead? Ideas, suggestions? Criticisms?

It's hardly a "rough draft ideology", it's the same basic concepts of hard-line communism they've tried in various countries for the last century with some odd token gestures towards capitalism to make it sound more palatable.

Your system sounds like absolute hell on earth and would not only stifle one of humanity's greatest strengths (innovation stemming from a sense of intellectual curiosity and adventure) but would effectively retard society in a way that could take generations to fix.

Authoritarian centralized command economies are not the only form of "socialism".

Most of the retardation has been waged in the name of capital (or from Bolsheviks). They, large capitalists, absolutely refuse to let viable alternative economic systems manifest and would destroy the world before they let it happen. People
Like Henry Kissinger have shown us how far they will go in order to stop alternatives from manifesting.

They have bombed countless people. Overthrown democratically elected governments. Created torture and death squads. Propped up fascist and right wing military dictatorships. Funded union busting military/political personnel all across the globe. Even (needlessly) nuked civilians, twice, in order to "show off" their power.

From Spain to Chile. From Nicaragua to Egypt. The west/US has done everything in its power to sabotage alternative modes of production and or resource nationalization. Even Hitler's rise to power was funded by capitalists in order to keep Germany from going socialist and to fight the Bolsheviks in Russia.

It has been a well guarded secret that's just now comming to light. That many American/British industrialists/bankers funded Hitler's rise to power. They shared his views on eugenics and his antisemitism in some cases (Henry Ford).

Germany, after WW1, was on the brink of a socialist revolution. The Bolsheviks even attempted one in 1918-19. The Social Democratic Party helped put that faction down but Germany was still on the brink of turning socialist even with the SDP's roadmap moving forward. If Germany went socialist it could have started a domino effect in Western Europe. This had to be stopped by any means necessary.

The same thing happened in Spain, when socialists took power the fascist General Franco was funded by industrialists in order to take the country back, Hitler aslo backed him. It also happened in Chilie when a socialist was democratically elected and began advocating a decentralized democratic form of production. The fascist Pinochet was funded/supported by the west in order to "set things straight". From the CIA to Hayek and the Chicago Boys.

This sort of thing has happened all across the globe. In the Middle East they used Islamic fundamentalists in order to fight alternative economic systems. They used them in Iran to stop oil nationalization. They used them to fight Nasserism in Egypt. They used them in Afghanistan.

Most of the conflict in the late 19th and 20th century took place either from competition or to maintain capitalism. Violence on an industrial scale.

Even the creation of capitalism was born via violence. The American and French revolutions weren't tea parties. Funny how Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" was published in 1776. The American and French revolutions were led by the merchant/land owning class in order to throw off the feudal yoke. The kings, queens and feudal lords were holding back progress.

Today, the old merchant/finacial/land owning class is holding back progress. They think their system is the "end of history". That capitalism is the best mankind can do. "Liberal democracy" (a euphemism for corporate rule) is expanding into every corner of the globe. Western banks, western corporations represented by western politicians seek to cement this "end of history".

The problem is, all the promises have yet to manifest. We've seen severe economic crisis, expanding inequality, global hunger/poverty remains at very high levels. Americans are on average $15k in debt? $20k? War and conflict has not ended. China has expanded leaps and bounds without "liberal democracy". Competition between nation states is heating up. A new Cold War is in the horizon. Ecological crisis is looming because capitalism requires perpetual growth. The world remains broken. Capitalism is running up against its limitations. Too many people remain in denial.

originally posted by: JeanPaul
Even the creation of capitalism was born via violence. The American and French revolutions weren't tea parties. Funny how Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" was published in 1776. The American and French revolutions were led by the merchant/land owning class in order to throw off the feudal yoke. The kings, queens and feudal lords were holding back progress.

Today, the old merchant/finacial/land owning class is holding back progress. They think their system is the "end of history". That capitalism is the best mankind can do. "Liberal democracy" (a euphemism for corporate rule) is expanding into every corner of the globe. Western banks, western corporations represented by western politicians seek to cement this "end of history".

The problem is, all the promises have yet to manifest. We've seen severe economic crisis, expanding inequality, global hunger/poverty remains at very high levels. Americans are on average $15k in debt? $20k? War and conflict has not ended. China has expanded leaps and bounds without "liberal democracy". Competition between nation states is heating up. A new Cold War is in the horizon. Ecological crisis is looming because capitalism requires perpetual growth. The world remains broken. Capitalism is running up against its limitations. Too many people remain in denial.

I mentioned the same examples, earlier in this thread and in a few similarly themed posts here on ATS, very few Americans understood the overall message. Sadly, some of those folks even believed that events like the French revolution and the Peasants Revolt have had NO impact on the few freedoms that regular people do have today. MANY people today truly, especially Americans, believe its all unrelated stuff that has no bearing on their current circumstances.

There is no hope for Americans at this stage, they have FULLY bought into the illusion and there is no going back. Those that know different must escape the nation before its too late, its populace cannot and is unwilling to be swayed at this juncture.