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Capitalism is an economic system that
stresses the private ownership of goods and property. Under
capitalism anyone can start a business and reap the rewards of his
or her hard work if the business is successful. Today, because of
increased competition, it is becoming harder to succeed unless the
owner is highly innovative.
In an economic or political sense
socialism is a doctrine that believes the ownership of property is
better relegated to the government or some other collective entity.
In the social sense socialism can be considered a doctrine that
stresses manipulation of the individual by the interests of the
majority. The former USSR is an extreme example of a radical form
of socialism called communism. There the government owned all
business, and people were forced to work for a living in the manner
dictated by their government.
The way wealth is distributed in the
United States shows actually how much capitalism groups of people
actually enjoy. It's easier to understand if you think of trying
to share a total of $100 dollars among 100 people. The table below
shows how the $100 would be distributed proportional to the way
wealth is actually distributed in the U.S. according to 2001
statistics.
$38.100 to 1 person
$ 5.325 to 4 people
$ 2.300 to 5 people ------ $70.90 to 10
people
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$ 1.250 to 10 people
$ 0.595 to 20 people
$ 0.225 to 20 people ------ $28.90 to 50
people
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$ 0.005 to 40 people ------ $ 0.20 to 40
people
We could arbitrarily set up definitions
for the upper class, middle class, and lower class. The upper class
is the 10 people who get $2.30 and above. The middle class could be
considered the 50 people who get from $0.225 to $1.25. And the
lower class is the 40 people that almost get nothing.
If you look at the above distribution you
can see that most people living in the United States really don't
have that much capital to control. As time goes on the upper class
is using socialist concepts to try to remove as much wealth as they
can from the middle class and get it under their control. The banks
whose corporate heads occupy the upper class, use techniques like
mortgages, car loans, and credit cards to gain more and more
control over the rest of the population.
Big corporations need a workforce to keep
accumulating wealth. They need a workforce that does not cause
problems or rebel. People would eventually revolt if they believed
they had nothing. So the system creates an illusion of ownership
with loans and credit cards. The main thing is to keep the workers
from thinking too hard, so they wouldn't cause trouble. The
conventional media is used to numb rational thinking by
entertaining the public with mind dulling activities.
Corporations are only capitalistic at the
highest level. Moving down the management ladder, the employees
experience a greater and greater amount of socialism. They get
their orders from the collective they call "corporate". At lower
levels, individuality is discouraged and conformity is applauded.
Corporations tell their employees that they are part of their
family and use the word teamwork to stress conformity in an upbeat
way.
The use of technology has greatly
increased the bureaucracy associated with the corporate culture.
Computers introduced much easier means to track such things as
inventory, efficiency, and the workforce. The amount of paperwork
associated with previously simple operations skyrocketed. The
internet became a home for databases referencing work history,
medical records, shopping habits, and many other categories.
Public schools and many "technical"
colleges are training people be procedural rather than creative.
Someone who learns to do things step by step following some rule
and never questions the reason for this rule is procedural. When
one is creative, one tries to understand why he or she is
performing a task. Creativity allows the individual to be able to
perform the same task in a variety of ways, not just by following
some pre-established rule set down by someone of a higher rank in
the collective hive. There is nothing wrong in rules if they are
useful. By using our creativity, we can investigate how useful
these rules really are rather just taking someone else's word for
it.
When people are conditioned to be
procedural, they find it hard to make decisions in unusual
situations. The Kentucky based Courier-Journal reports about an
unusual hoax that occurred recently throughout the US. Someone
called fast food restaurant managers and pretended to be a
policeman investigating a theft. He asked that the managers to
strip-search, usually, one of their employees. Many of the fast
food managers complied. This is not surprising, simply because
people are socialized by schools and the media to blindly obey
authority figures.
Phishing schemes, where thieves get people
to surrender their personal information are other examples of
obedience to authority. The thieves send an email, supposedly from
the victim's bank, asking the victim to verify his or her personal
information. In this case, the bank is the symbol of authority that
must be obeyed, even when it's not really the bank. With a little
reasoning these phishing schemes can easily be spotted. Yet, there
are so many people falling victim to this type of scam that the
latest versions of both the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers
include antiphishing protection.
Many other similar scams succeed only
because we lack the analytical skills to see them for what they
really are. Because of the emphasis on procedural training rather
than analytical training, more and more people are becoming robots
easily controlled by their collective masters.
The media preaches to us through radio,
television, newspapers, and some forms of internet how we must
behave. This is called political correctness. When a public
personality violates any of the rules of political correctness, the
media makes a point to ostracize the individual, so that everyone
would be warned not to say or do anything that is not in line with
"proper" conduct. John Carey, Mel Gibbson, and Michael Richards
were personalities that recently made statements that were not
politically correct. Their stories were covered for weeks in the
media while none of the three incidents was really newsworthy. This
form of media coverage is really an attack on individual
expression. Freedom of expression according to the corporate alien
media can be defined in the following way: Everyone has the right
to say or do anything lawful, but if what you say or do is not
politically correct, we'll discredit you, make you look like a
fool, and do our best to ruin your reputation.
The statements of Carey, Gibson, and
Richards may have been inappropriate, but they were made to
specific audiences. If apologies were required, they could have
been quietly made to the people they offended. To turn their
remarks into global issues is a way of warning the world to conform
to what is considered "proper" by the collective standard.
While most workers and middle managers
hear a lot about the importance of socialist concepts such as
teamwork and political correctness, upper management is busy
reaping the rewards of true capitalism. More and more CEOs are
demanding outlandish salaries. Government officials get much lower
salaries but they make up for it with assorted perks and shady
deals. Greed is the God of capitalism, and the faithful rich
religiously keep his commandments. Where is the teamwork there?
Even during the time of the Soviet Union, while most of the Soviet
people were busy being good communists, the leaders acted pretty
much like the capitalists they condemned.
What is truly needed is more socialism at
the top, and less at the bottom. Instead of raking in huge
salaries, upper management should distribute some of their wealth
toward wages and other benefits of the workforce and lower cost of
goods and services. Middle class schools should be emphasizing
teaching people to think instead of how to memorize. The media
should not attack people for saying what they mean, even if the
majority doesn't agree. Radio and television should broadcast
meaningful discussions by even the most controversial groups.
Current bureaucracy should be condensed by reducing unnecessary
paperwork and useless busywork.
About the Author
George Lunt is someone who feels the world
is getting too corporate. His writings relate the individual's
struggle with big government and big corporations. His website is
http://www.corporate-aliens.com.
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written by Stancel Spencer on March 12, 2007
"Under capitalism anyone can start a business and reap the rewards of his or her hard work if the business is successful."
No, anyone can start a business and reap the rewards of the work of others if the business is successful.
"In an economic or political sense socialism is a doctrine that believes the ownership of property is better relegated to the government or some other collective entity."
No, socialism is a political doctrine that believes in the public ownership of the means of production. That the working class should control their own destiny instead of some group of rich corporate executives.
"In the social sense socialism can be considered a doctrine that stresses manipulation of the individual by the interests of the majority. The former USSR is an extreme example of a radical form of socialism called communism. There the government owned all business, and people were forced to work for a living in the manner dictated by their government."
The USSR was state capitalist i.e. the government owned all industries, yet it was not socialist because the means of production was not controlled and owned by the populace, nor were they politically able to voice their concerns and views in a democratic framework that socialism represents.
"The way wealth is distributed in the United States shows actually how much capitalism groups of people actually enjoy. It's easier to understand if you think of trying to share a total of $100 dollars among 100 people. The table below shows how the $100 would be distributed proportional to the way wealth is actually distributed in the U.S. according to 2001 statistics."
I would rather each person in the group of 100 people make 1 dollar each than a small group of people make an enormously larger amount than the rest. That is inequality.
"As time goes on the upper class is using socialist concepts to try to remove as much wealth as they can from the middle class and get it under their control."
Socialism has nothing to do with manipulation or control. Socialism is democracy. All this is clichéd propaganda.
"Public schools and many "technical" colleges are training people be procedural rather than creative. Someone who learns to do things step by step following some rule and never questions the reason for this rule is procedural. When one is creative, one tries to understand why he or she is performing a task. Creativity allows the individual to be able to perform the same task in a variety of ways, not just by following some pre-established rule set down by someone of a higher rank in the collective hive. There is nothing wrong in rules if they are useful. By using our creativity, we can investigate how useful these rules really are rather just taking someone else's word for it."
Socialism does not discourage creativity.
"This is not surprising, simply because people are socialized by schools and the media to blindly obey authority figures."
And socialism does that? You gotta be kiddin' me.
"The media preaches to us through radio, television, newspapers, and some forms of internet how we must behave. This is called political correctness. When a public personality violates any of the rules of political correctness, the media makes a point to ostracize the individual, so that everyone would be warned not to say or do anything that is not in line with "proper" conduct. John Carey, Mel Gibbson, and Michael Richards were personalities that recently made statements that were not politically correct. Their stories were covered for weeks in the media while none of the three incidents was really newsworthy. This form of media coverage is really an attack on individual expression."
They were bigoted bastards, and you defend them? "Political correctness" is just a word thrown around by the right to describe legitimate anti-bigotry attitudes. It's thrown around to justify bigotry, but it doesn't.
"What is truly needed is more socialism at the top, and less at the bottom."
You exhibit a big misunderstanding of what socialism is. There is no socialism in this capitalist society.
written by Austin Krzciok on March 12, 2007
George Lunt, It would be wise you do some research on communism, socialism and the like. Read some
writings by authors like Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Marx, and Fredrick Engels.