A clip of Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story was released today and it got me thinking about how the economy and politics really work.
I have always been and continue to believe that the only economy that drives initiative, research, and creativity is a capitalist one but, that does not mean it needs to be dominated by big business and corporations. America's early economy was set up under Adam Smith's laissez faire economic principles and big business thrived but, without regulation they began to monopolize markets and work as trusts to drive up costs.
The difference between capitalists and corporatists is that capitalists believe in choice, free markets and competition while corporatists believe in the opposite. They don't want any competition at all. They want to eliminate the competition using their power, their entrenched position and usually the politicians they've purchased. They want to capture the system and use it only for their benefit.
I don't blame them. They're trying to make a buck. And it's a hell of a lot easier making money when you don't have competition or truly free markets or consumer choice.
What we have to do is stop pretending that most politicians are out for our best interests. As shown in Michael Moore's clip when a leader of a huge corporation can tell the PRESIDENT "You're gonna have to speed it" we never have control or power.
Normally I shy away from Michael Moore but in this case he appears to hit the nail right on the head.
To read more about this issue see political analysis and host of The Young Turks (the first Internet politics show) blog here
No comments:
Post a Comment