Capitalism, the transition phase.

First and foremost, a bit of a preface.

I have been thinking about this since the rather convenient timing of the Coronavirus pandemic plaguing the entire world, all the while every aspect of western society falling into near chaos and division not seen since probably WWII. But what struck me the most was of course the world economy seemingly going into turmoil around every corner, from ports being shut down, large container ships clogging up vital shipping lanes, the world economic forum calling for a 'reset'. There's so much to unpack I cannot, and most people cannot realistically sit down and have a full discussion about it all. It's all happening faster than we can comprehend, and respond too.
A bit of a trigger warning, I will be using rather 'left' leaning sources as they best suit the brutal and realistic critique of capitalism.

This is more of a rant to get my ideas out.

Capitalism:

The word itself is probably the most debated economic topic in modern history. But what if I made a bold statement as to say, it's time in it's current form is coming to an end. The beginnings of capitalism are rather up in the air, most people think it started somewhere in the 18th century, around the time of the industrial revolution in Britain, where the crown allowed private counties and townships to build factories, and roads, and connect them all to safely transport goods, mostly pottery.
But the ideas behind capitalism started much earlier, around a time period known as the axial age, a near 'global' awakening that stretched from Europe to China, where figures such as the Buddha, Pythagoras, and Confucius all seemingly sprung up out of the wake of social and economic unrest and downturns based on a credit system. And from it rose an age where it was not all about the collective and massive gangs or armies following great leaders, but rather people were given a choice, people were raised to learn, and become their own person, it was when literacy rates sky rocketed, it was in a nut shell 'a good time' to be alive.
From this age, rose the infant stages of early capitalism. Debtor and creditor transactions, and not just top down credit allowances.
Throughout human history we have seen systems of credit based economies from Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian priests hoarding wealth in temples, to distribute to the common people. To the rise of single person debt to a single person creditor which we all live and deal with to this day.

Capitalism itself is a very interesting idea and philosophy, it can take literally anything and turn it into some sort of profit making 'machine'. As long as someone out there wants it, there will be someone to provide it. But what happens when capitalistic ideas turn into the profit making machines themselves? Or what happens if capitalism starts to profit off basic human 'needs'? And what comes as a form of 'waste' in the pursuit of these profits?
All big questions that can lead us down all sorts of rabbit holes. But there is one undeniable fact about capitalism, it's un-sustainable at it's current growth. In fact, I am going to wager we are currently living in an age where the profits from global capitalism are falling, not rising.
The era of old world wealth and colonialism are coming to an end, a new era is emerging from it's wake. And there's new frontiers to capitalize on.

What is left to capitalize on this planet in a classical sense? All resources, shipping lanes, land, air space, macro economic goods and services, etc, etc. have all been nearly sucked dry and capitalized and streamlined, and what has it caused? It's caused more of a headache for most even for the elite. As Micheal Parenti put it best:

The essence of capitalism is to turn nature into commodities and commodities into capital. The live green earth is transformed into dead gold bricks, with luxury items for the few and toxic slag heaps for the many. The glittering mansion overlooks a vast sprawl of shanty towns, wherein a desperate, demoralized humanity is kept in line with drugs, television, and armed force.

He outlines perfectly what Karl Marx pointed out as he put it in his theory of alienation under a capitalist society, we pretend to not see what has become of us and our environment, all in the name of profits and self interests. We have gotten so involved under capitalism as to what we grew with, we don't see the damage it has caused, even to ourselves. Until now.
The internet has brought us an enormous amount of wealth, in the name of knowledge. We are in an axial age of sorts, an enlightenment, but this time around, the elite don't want us to build a better capitalist society, they want us to be squeezed for profits and control even more.
It's not longer about controlling the resources and land, and your labor. It's now about controlling you, and every aspect of you.
Your health, your mind, the food you eat, we are on the verge of not a debtor creditor economy, we are on the verge of a credit based system only. Capitalism in it's classical sense isn't evolving, it's being suffocated, it's dying, and only a few are going to profit on it's way out.

You will own nothing, and you will be happy.

Just as the serfs and peasants who had no choice after the fall of the Roman empire to seek refuge under lords, barons, and kings; feudalism. That's the trajectory we are headed towards, and it won't stop there, the entire planet itself is next.

I don't know about " you won't own nothing " thing. That might happen in countries where I've mentioned , " convenience will kill mankind ", so that might actually mean " you won't own nothing ". Time will tell , but its simply not going to happen like lets say in the Amazon area of South America.

a reply to: musicismagic

Facebook is already on that. They have been caught more than once in rural areas of India and Africa forcing their platforms on the locals even as going as far as giving them free cellphones and attempting to find out more about their legacy farming techniques and seeds they use.

In some African nations money, cash, fiat transactions aren't even a thing anymore, it's all credit based on your cellphone.

originally posted by: strongfp
a reply to: musicismagic

Facebook is already on that. They have been caught more than once in rural areas of India and Africa forcing their platforms on the locals even as going as far as giving them free cellphones and attempting to find out more about their legacy farming techniques and seeds they use.

In some African nations money, cash, fiat transactions aren't even a thing anymore, it's all credit based on your cellphone.

I didn't know that. The world is changing too fast for our own good these days.

a reply to: strongfp

Capitalism is immoral and predatorial in nature.
Skimming the collective for individual profit of insane proportions.
But thats we want, we're already done with what we need.

a reply to: strongfp

We're sitting on an economic time bomb right now. The actions of the last few years had all the signs of a financial collapse yet the market is being kept alive artificially. The whole western world is trying to stave off hyperinflation as hard as they can but the signs have been showing for the last few years if you look to the right markets like the housing market (some european countries have had close to 100% inflation on the sale of property over the last 5-10 years) Add to that the insane amount of money that has been printed by these same countries (the amount of USD doubled in the last year alone.) And then on top of that the need even more trillions to finance the energy transition and restructuring of society. They need a way to get off money, or at least get US off money so that it has worth again

We will own nothing, just be able to exchange your social credits for whatever you wish to have, if you've been a good citizen

a reply to: strongfp

It's now about controlling you, and every aspect of you.

Yes this has a name. It's called surveillance capitalism. And it is already well underway. This vaccine may be part of it. The reason they track everything about you, isn't just so they know what kind of stuff you buy. Information is fed to people on facebook and all kinds of other apps, based on what they learned about you. In this way they don't have to force you to do anything. You do it willingly because they slowly change your view, and people are completely unaware of it.

a reply to: Uknownparadox

Surveillance over your patrons and what they want or advertised as such has been the a goal for a while now, it's nothing new.

What is new is essentially not suggesting what you want or need, it's telling you what you want or need. And it's all coming to a peak now. Manufacturing consent is a good read on the subject.

The west has become an oligarchy literally because of the weakness of democracy

The rise of China and its failure to democratise and become more liberal and opening to the world, only close of more and continue its totalitarianism has caused today?

The western elites don’t feel they can win another cold war with a communist superpower with an open democracy which a closed autocracy can exploit and meddle in

a reply to: musicismagic

Yes it does seem to depend on where your personal position is situated. I remember reading about a family in Siberia, that didn't realize the second world war was on until it was all over. All the control systems will try to cause a closed system because the economy of the closed system requires compliance. If your up in the mountains or in some other area out the way not a lot will change, simply because they can only operate in the closed system.I often wonder what the Basque people think of what's going down. They seem to just cruise on.

a reply to: TritonTaranis

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. China was not built by itself especially in today's globalized world. It was built with the efforts of the elite and those in power of western nations. China is the peak of expropriated and exploited labor. Before china was America, and before that... well you get the picture.

originally posted by: Jubei42
a reply to: strongfp
Capitalism is immoral and predatorial in nature.

Of which form of capitalism are you speaking?

You do know there is more than one, right?

Also, you do know that what is currently being practiced in the USA is not capitalism, it is fascism... right?

Skimming the collective for individual profit of insane proportions.

That is fascism.

But thats we want, we're already done with what we need.

Speak for yourself.

I'm a free market capitalist - and yes, that does include a lot of government controls to prevent just the kind of predatory fascism we are currently experiencing.

originally posted by: Uknownparadox
a reply to: strongfp
"It's now about controlling you, and every aspect of you."

Yes this has a name. It's called surveillance capitalism.

Ummm... no, it isn't. It is called fascism.

a reply to: tanstaafl

Im just talking about capitalism in general, the persuit of profit.

Selling a bunch of stuff people dont need : profit
Stuff is made to break so they have to buy again : profit
Use the cheapest materials : profit
Dump your garbage : profit
Buy cheap sell high : profit
Make the people think you care but you only answer to the shareholders : profit

Exploiting the economic system by taking advantage of someone or something. Let others create value and take it.
It's the completely wrong incentive. There is no moral or higher goal, it can work very well with the right variables and room for exploitation. There is nothing inherently evil about it. It's fair trade, some are just better of then others. It's
a natural thing.