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Is it the market for capital that's to blame?
Are you familiar with 'historical materialism'?
It is a description of human history that places economic development as the main determinant of society.
So before agriculture we had a hunter-gather society.
With agriculture, societies (at least in Europe) had landowners as the ruling class.
With industrialisation the owners of capital came to dominant.
The State just about everywhere reflects the interests of capital owners.
But the capital owners either through the State or corporations are not collectively guiding what is happening.
Individual capital owners seek to maximise their return through the market, even if the consequent behaviour is not what they want, i.e. ecological crisis.
In this sense, the market is driving human behaviour, even if the collective result is not what we want.
We have created something that controls us.
Submitted on Fri, 2007-02-09 13:30
Re: Is it the market for capital that's to blame?
What about the market for consumer goods?
In the 60's it was not uncommon to run across the term planned obsolescence in the media but it has virtually disappeared since then.
Do you ever hear climatologists talk about planned obsolescence? Do you ever hear economists talk about how much consumers lose on depreciation of automobiles? Are these related issues if planned obsolescence produces unnecessary manufacturing and pollution which can affect the climate?
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http://discussions.pbs.org/viewtopic.pbs?t=28529
Re: Is it the market for capital that's to blame?
In America, the majority of the population owns the capital.
Capitalism allows the free interchange of ideas and goods.
All other systems involved an elite few making decisions for the rest of us.
I choose freedom and capitalism.
Re: Is it the market for capital that's to blame?
In America, the majority of the population owns the capital.
In fact, a tiny minority in the US owns the vast majority of all the capital. Kwatt, please stop driveling all over the place. It's like watching a staggering drunk right before he blacks out. Horrifying.
Re: Is it the market for capital that's to blame?
That is more true in Europe. In America, however, more people own stocks than ever before. As more Americans become shareholders, the class warfare promoted by the left will fade away.
Sorry, your team of pessimistic control freaks is losing.
Re: Is it the market for capital that's to blame?
You are talking nonsense about the distribution of wealth kwatt. Link us to your data on how many OWN HOW MUCH.
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
KS
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