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Old 12-12-2008, 01:33 PM   #1
unclesammy
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Default The Mechanics of Democratic Capitalism

The Mechanics of Democratic Capitalism
Dimitri Marshall, November 25th, 2008

Democracy

Democracy is an inherently good system. The foundation of the theory and its principals formulate a system that benefits the majority of a population, while taking into consideration the needs of the less fortunate through open discussion and debate.

“Democracy is a form of government in which power is held by people under a free electoral system.”

“…there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes. The first principle is that all members of the society have equal access to power and the second that all members enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties.”

Under a democratic system, every man and woman is not only created equally, but they are treated as equals throughout their existence within the system.

“However, if any democracy is not carefully legislated to avoid an uneven distribution of political power with balances such as the separation of powers, then a branch of the system of rule is able to accumulate power in a way that is harmful to democracy itself.“

Democracy is a political system, and is different from the law system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems. The mechanics of our political system (Democracy) and our economic system (Capitalism) are the most influential forces in our society today. Currently, the structure of our economic system is creating the uneven power distribution described above. Our economic system is becoming the decision making system as opposed to our political system.

“The "majority rule" is often described as a characteristic feature of democracy, but without responsible government it is possible for the rights of a minority to be abused by the "tyranny of the majority".”

The social and intellectual evolution of our species is at low risk for such a possibility. On every corner of this Earth, we have been oppressed at some point in our lives. Our experience, for the majority, has enabled us to realise the importance of ensuring universal equality. In the western hemisphere we have exemplified this through many forms of minority rights and enforcement of these rights. In addition, the foundation of Democracy is in opposition of minority oppression.

“Furthermore, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential so that citizens are informed and able to vote in their personal interests.”

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system, but due to the nature of capitalism, it is also considered a political system.

“A capitalist political system protects the exchange and distribution of capital between legal or private persons, which is driven by competition and profit-maximization…”

The driving force behind the capitalist structure is “competition” and “profit-maximization.” Although many entities which participate within this system uphold different forms of ethics, the forces which drive this system ultimately lead to ethical decay, due to the survivalist need of the entities within the system. For example, a business might produce a product which possesses a risk if introduced to the public. If the business, after investing many resources into the development and production of this product, cannot return some, or any, of its investment, the business is at risk of financial damage and could potentially lose market share to its competitors. Historically, this has led some businesses to practice unethical sale and distribution of products and/or services.

“In capitalist systems, goods and services, including those regarding the most basic necessities of life, are produced for profitable exchange.”

Capitalism is a system which uses “profit maximization” and “competition” on even the basic necessities of life. In other words, only those who can be more competitive in a market are those that will be able to attain the basic necessities of life when they wish to monopolize the resources, or if there is a limited supply.

“Human labor power is for sale in the market as one of the many commodities.”

“According to Marxist analysis, a core requirement of a capitalist society is that a large portion of the population must not possess sources of self-sustainment that would allow them to be independent, and must instead be compelled, in order to survive, to sell their labor for a living wage.”

We are forced to participate in the capitalist system. We must be competitive by selling our labor in order to attain the basic necessities of life which are being sold for “profit maximization.”

“For Marx, the use of labor power had itself become a commodity under capitalism; the exchange value of labor power, as reflected in the wage, is less than the value it produces for the capitalist. This difference in values, he argues, constitutes surplus value, which the capitalists extract and accumulate.”

The mechanics of the capitalist system create a constant transfer of wealth from the laborers (Marx: proletariat) to the capitalists (Marx: bourgeoisie) by the extraction of a wealth surplus value represented by the following equation:

Public COGs (cost of goods) – (commodity costs + labor costs) = surplus value

The surplus value representing profit. Profit maximization translates to increased public COGs and decreased commodity & labor costs to achieve a higher surplus value. In other words, the retail cost (or Public COGs) is inflated as much as possible to achieve more wealth for every operation of the formula.

“In modern ‘capitalist states’, legislative action is confined to defining and enforcing the basic rules of the market though the state may provide some public goods and infrastructure.”

In a capitalist system, wealth translates to power. The more wealth is accumulated, the more power you have in the free market. When the basic necessities of life are commodities in the capitalist market system, they are controlled by the wealthy.

When the mass has to compete for the basic necessities of life, their behavior will become survivalist. A survivalist will reduce to any means necessary in order to sustain existence. Thus, capitalism, by nature, reduces business and social behavior to our most primal and instinctual level. It is fair to say, then, that within the capitalist system, we are hindering our social and intellectual evolution by incubating greed, deceit and forced labor and promoting primal and instinctual behavior.

Because there is constant power transference from the lower class to the higher class through Capitalism, it is in direct opposition of Democracy; therefore, Democratic Capitalism is an oxymoronic ideal. True Democracy and true Capitalism cannot co-exist.


Quotes from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy

Additional references cited on-site.


Things to consider within our current capitalist system:
• Resources allocated to dealing with the results of a competitive and survivalist environment (greed, poverty, illiteracy, crime, corruption, etc.)
• Resources allocated to the promotion of capitalism (advertising, marketing, etc)
• Resources allocated to compete in an international free (capitalist) market (tariffs, duties)
• Resources allocated to securing raw materials for capitalist system (war)
• Wasted resources due to excessive consumerism
• Environment damage, and costs associated with rehabilitation and reconstruction
• The majority of the wealth (well over 50%) in the world is controlled by less than 10% of the world’s population (Canada is no exception)

Imagine if all those resources were distributed around the world and allocated to people, research, development, education, infrastructure, etc.
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Old 12-21-2008, 08:12 PM   #2
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Default Re: The Mechanics of Democratic Capitalism

Obvious bot is obvious.

Democracy=bad. Not all people will give their opinion. A minority of supporters can overrule a majority of opposers.

Capitalism=bad. Disparity of wealth, corruption, dishonesty, and the like.
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Old 01-8-2009, 05:28 PM   #3
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Default Re: The Mechanics of Democratic Capitalism

I learned today that the US has a Manifest Destiny.

Basically defined as;
the notion that the US should control land from the Atlantic to the Pacific in order to spread equality, inaugrial freedom & democracy.

I believe that even after 2 centuries, we haven't acheived that yet.
Will we ever ?
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