Signal Wave

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It looks like things are resolving and returning me to a more calm existence.

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Phew!

So I do have a few thoughts today, but only a few.

As you all know, I'm not a capitalist. I was, once. I used to be the New Deal/Great Society kind of capitalist. I thought it was great that FDR talked the country out of having a revolution. I talked about things like a peace dividend. I believed we could do things like end world hunger. Maybe even wage a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Later, I believed in something called green capitalism. Basically, the idea was that you could be a capitalist without bringing down human civilization. (I did care about the non-human living creatures that share this rotating rock-mother with us, but, since almost nobody else did, it wasn't pertinent to the discussion.) I no longer know whether green capitalism was ever theoretically a possibility. I guess it doesn't matter, because it never was an actual one. But I digress.

Over the years, as I heard politicians say things like "Climate change is a dead issue," (Copr: Pelosi 2012), I ceased to be a capitalist, for the same reason I've stopped voting for the two major parties. I'm not interested in becoming a signatory to my own death.

But there are drawbacks to no longer being a capitalist. As a socialist, there are critiques I never make. I'm not sure anybody left of center is making them. In fact, I'm not sure anybody at all is making them.

For instance--

Is this shit capitalism?

I mean, don't get me wrong. Although I'm on the fence, I do lean more to the Marxist way of thinking: this is capitalism, because this is how capitalism must always end. This is what end-stage capitalism looks like. While I don't consider that statement proven, any honest actor has to admit that, at this point in history, there's a damned good case to be made for it. Until further notice, the Marxist hypothesis is my hypothesis.

But I can't help noticing that a great many of the cornerstone concepts of capitalism are nowhere to be found these days. Competition, for one. The only competition around these days either looks as fake as the effects in a 1960s B-movie

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or else is waged for prizes that most of us don't give a shit about. For example, I'm sure there was a real competition between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the position of the CEO of the United States (and the Democratic Party) back in 2008. But thirteen years later, that competition seems like less than a footnote to history. There's only one possibility that could make that competition matter: the idea that Clinton was always crazy enough to nuke the hell out of all of us (one of the few unsung virtues of Barack Obama is that he doesn't relish the thought of mushroom clouds on the horizon). Admittedly, if Clinton was that crazy in 2008, that's a pretty big difference. But it's also significant that it's the only one. Come up with another policy position on which they substantively differed: not in words, but in deeds.

Then there's diversity of opinion and method. Capitalism is supposed to be against homogenous unitary ideologies imposed from the top. Right? Under capitalism, policies aren't supposed to always go one direction, decade after decade. Right? Under capitalism, businesses are supposed to be different enough, in the products they produce, the services they provide, and the way they behave toward their workers and the community, that consumer choice is supposed to mean something. No, I take that back. It's not supposed to mean something. It's supposed to mean everything. It's supposed to be the most meaningful thing in the entire system, the moral brake that keeps companies from devolving to a less ethical level than that inhabited by Genghis Khan.

Anybody care to make an argument for America's public and private sectors being diverse in ideology or method? I'd love to hear it.

There's so little diversity in big business that it's noticeable every time a large business diverges from the norm. In fact, we are getting to the point that a billionaire practicing traditional capitalism looks like a revolutionary dissident, simply because he's neither a cartel capitalist nor a fascist.

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This is Tony Khan. He's the son of a billionaire, Shahid Khan. He started the wrestling company All Elite Wrestling, challenging the near-monopoly that the abusive Vince McMahon had on wrestling in the English-speaking world. McMahon's foibles include subjecting his workers to more than 300 days per year on the road engaging in activities which endanger their health. These activities result in a great many of them eventually dying either of long-term effects of the injuries, or of long-term effects of the medications they take to deal with the injuries. Or, back in the day, of long-term effects of taking anabolic steroids (now people use human growth hormone, which apparently is not as hard on the body). His foibles also include not providing these workers insurance, but treating them as private contractors. And they include mental and emotional abuse. Oh, and they include demanding that his leukemia-survivor champion work an event at which nobody was tested for COVID, and nobody was required to be masked. (The guy refused. Later, it was proven that one of the staff came away from the event COVID-positive.)

So Tony Khan, a few years ago, decided to slay the dragon.

He's NOT a revolutionary. He just runs his business differently than the large almost-monopoly that has dominated the field for decades. He sees his workers as so valuable to his product that he gives them good working conditions. Nobody has to be on the road 300 days a year, or even 200. Instead, he assembled a big enough roster that nobody has to come to work every day. He doesn't emotionally abuse people. He cares enough about the product he produces that he doesn't sabotage it en route to his audience. He wants to please people so they will buy his product and develop brand loyalty.

Khan is not a saint. This is traditional capitalism. Yet it stands in stark contrast to most of the rest of the businesses--at least the large ones--in my current experience. Unless you're talking about a genuine local mom-and-pop affair, business usually makes its money through being the company store, or worse. It treats its workers like shit, and often seems to take a sadistic pleasure in denying customers what they want, sometimes actively sabotaging the quality of the products they sell, sometimes merely driving the bottom line so low and so hard that quality, like good working conditions, become impossible.

Is this shit capitalism?

I'd like to talk about this more.

Wish me luck. I'm getting labs done today!

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Comments

A recent post on Common Dreams highlights your critique of the evils of vulture capitalism.

Employees at Nabisco's flagship plant in Chicago walked off the job Thursday, joining workers at three of the leading snack maker's other U.S. plants who are demanding better working conditions, an end to foreign outsourcing, and the withdrawal of a company plan that would scrap the company's current guaranteed overtime pay system.

The strike began August 10 when around 200 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers' (BCTGM) International Union Local 364 walked out of a Nabisco factory in Portland, Oregon that makes Oreo and Chips Ahoy! cookies, as well as Ritz, Premium saltines, and other crackers.

Workers at Nabisco plants in Aurora, Colorado and Richmond, Virginia followed suit, saying they planned to strike until Nabisco's parent company, multinational confectionery corporation Mondelez International, agrees to negotiate a new contract. The most recent agreement expired in May.

A too familiar playbook by now. National Company sells out to an International Corporation. Plants closed, workers laid off, move operations to Mexico, pensions cancelled, benefits reduced, and there is no negotiation in contracts. The corporate monsters hand down ultimatums. The workers suffer. This is what free market capitalism looks like. Good for the wealthy few. Hell on all else.

Time to strike. And boycott their products. It worked in 1970 for the Lettuce Bowl.

Thanks for the OT!

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/20/no-contracts-no-snacks-nabi...

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@QMS

What do you think? Is the older form of capitalism capitalism? Do we just have a particularly shitty version, or was capitalism always going to turn out like this?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Raggedy Ann's picture

My country is making me sick, literally. The shit show will last a few more years. People gotta take a stand. QMS comment above warms the heart - allows healing from the sickness that is America.

Enjoy the day! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Raggedy Ann

I was relieved to hear you were feeling better from the horrid stomach bug.

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7 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Raggedy Ann's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
Stomach bug is subsiding, but American makes me physically ill. Sigh.

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11 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Lookout's picture

I like Max Keiser's line that the US economy is a casino gulag. My favorite economic concept is Schumacher's "Small is Beautiful" creating local cooperative based self supporting communities.

The final section, “Organization and Ownership,” discusses why socialist theory doesn’t go far enough, and how we urgently must find alternatives to capitalism. The problem comes down to our own natures—we are greedy and envious and stop at nothing to ensure our materialistic growth. Our desires are at odds with our finite natural environment. It’s on us, then, to find a new system that supports our environment before we destroy it. Capitalism will, eventually, ruin us.

What we should be focusing on, according to Schumacher, is small-scale private enterprise and local sufficiency. If enterprise takes place on a far more manageable scale, then we can improve employment, sustain the economy, and place far fewer demands on the environment. This structure will not generate a lot of wealth, but that’s precisely the point.

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11 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

ggersh's picture

The country was given to corporations (markets) and turned into monopolies. Hence competition doesn't exist under neoliberalism.

https://scheerpost.com/2021/08/15/dennis-kucinich-and-chris-hedges-on-th...

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13 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Well, we did in part, but mostly it was our allies.

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10 users have voted.

@gjohnsit

Something smells fishy when the oligarchs encourage
destroying nations to make more money. Wall Street loves
dem bombs. Congress is all in on funding more war.
They are supposed to check policies that have run amuck.

This seems the consequence of profits without moral balance.
No wonder most of the world shies away from capitalists.
If given a choice, people would rather their nations work with
others' for the benefit of all.

thanks giohnsit

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Azazello's picture

There are no systems.
There is no such thing as a Capitalist System.
There is no such thing as End-Stage Capitalism.
Marxism is a religion and attracts followers for the same reasons that other religions do.
It offers certainty and the illusion of order in a chaotic world.

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3 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

lotlizard's picture

@Azazello  
Perhaps some of the top echelon there get it, your premise that ultimately, there are no systems.

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enhydra lutris's picture

generate an organized and methodical comment here.

First: If you continue to bang on that board with your hand held in that position you will surely damage your thumb, so stop it.

Second (though last): Deepest good wishes for most excellent labs in all respects.

Third (digressive): I believe that I owe you the following recipe --

***********
Quick one-pot linguine with shrimp, kale and canelli beans --- serves 4

Pre soak the pasta, about 2 hrs, in cold water. I have a cheap plastic "taper's tray" from ye local hardware store, paint stores probably have them too. When you cook pasta you hydrate it and the heat "sets" the starches. Heat is only needed to set the starches, and not for long. If you hydrate in cold water, it doesn't get sticky and doesn't need much water or much heat; you can finish it off right in your sauce. For the one-pot recipes I make, I use all of the the water called for in the recipe in the pre-soak, then transfer the pasta to the pan by hand and pour in the non-absorbed water, and almost never add any more water.

Use a large diameter flat pan like a frying pan, the one I use is about 10 or 11 inches. (Another reason to soak the pasta is to get it into the pan unbroken.)

12 oz linguine (or other long pasta), pre-soaked in
4 & 1/2 cups water
I bunch of kale ("Portuguese kale" is preferable) shredded and chopped or torn
1 - 15.5 ounce can of canelli beans, drained and rinsed
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Table fine sea salt or kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground preferred
1 pound raw, peeled and de-veined shrimp or prawns cut to bite size.
optional red pepper flakes to taste, squeeze of lemon juice ditto

I de-vein the kale, roll it up length wise, slice the roll into thin strips and chop the resultant rolls to get short thin strips, some just tear it)

I put the olive oil in the bottom of the cold pan, then the kale followed by the salt and pepper.
Next I arrange the pasta in the pan to get as flat a layer as I can and add the water it was soaking in.
Spread the beans evenly over the top (immersively) and fire up the stove.
bring to a boil over high heat
boil/simmer, stirring and maybe even turning a bit with tongs for about 5 minutes, letting water evaporate, it will thicken into a sauce as it does so.
Add pepper flakes if using them while this is cooking.
Add the shrimp and submerge/bury in the water and pasta
still turning, cook for about 3 more minutes until shrimp is opaque and pasta is al dente, water should be almost gone.

remove from heat and serve, some will hit it with a squeeze of lemon juice at this point.

**************
Fourth: Capitalism is a fraud and a shuck, it has no universally accepted definition, hence this ain't it.

It was not a thing somebody invented and then implemented, but some retroactive and reflexive analytic explanation and justification of some of the features of one or more models of economic activity combined, in many cases, with an attempt to argue for certain further additional features or changes to existing ones. This process involved a lot of illogic, false assumptions and presumptions, wishful thinking, delusions, myths and myth making. Most of the alleged characteristics or properties were allegedly deduced from its purported basic principals and nature and have no necessary connection to anything whatsoever, including reality. These "derivations" primarily argued from "first principles" or "state of nature", though, sometimes "god/ethics/morality", which is no less fictive than the other putative "wellsprings".

At its lowest, most basic level, capitalism is the notion that all surplus is attributable to, allocable to and should be distributed to Capital. Capital is undefined and of unknown source or provenance - it fell from the sky, selectively, in some ancient era. Surplus too is undefined, but must be defined so as to provide for the survival of any source of labor that is necessary to assist capital in the creation of goods and services. The simple reality is that the above is utter bullshit, which I will briefly address in a bit.

The other characteristics, as I noted above, are derived through some magik of overly fertile imaginations. Thus competition: in the beginning, all had capital some used it to set up shop buying (or growing) and selling produce, others legumes and still others timber. If, for example, timber provided a greater return, then one or more purveyor of legumes, for example, would abandon legumes and take up timber, and compete exclusively on a cost basis, or perhaps a cost + quality basis thereby leveling costs to consumers and returns to producers. The simplistic switch from legumes to logs requires that said capital be fungible (cowrie perhaps) and that there be no barriers to entry into any enterprise. Also unicorns, I suspect. Way back in the details of creating this type of fiction we find that capital is either an axe or a hoe, and they aren't remotely fungible, for starts; but way back we find 1) there must be or must have been a "commons", 2) said capital is created by expropriation from said "commons", ie theft. In essence, expropriation in excess of ones needs, preferably of something that can be monopolized, usually through force and violence or threats thereof, but do not look behind that curtain, look at the shiny efficiency of creation and distribution putatively created by putative consumer choice (or advertising, but don't peek behind that curtain either).

Sadly I don't have the time or energy to look at capitalism in any depth right now, but, at a fundamental level, it is conceptually very closely akin to rentierism.

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

CB's picture

@enhydra lutris
I'm going to try it. I've got a mess of shrimp to make my linguine with. But I'm going to hold the kale and cannellini beans and add garlic, cream and Parmesan cheese.

BTW, do cannellini beans taste similar to kidney beans?

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3 users have voted.

@CB

mild like white beans
kidneys are closer to the red bean and pinto varieties

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enhydra lutris's picture

@CB

Here's a straight alfredo w/out shrimp, I think I did the pre-soak in the stock plus just enough milk to do the job.

2 cups milk (I used 3/4 c Cream and 1&1/4 cup milk)
▢1 cup chicken stock
▢8 oz dried Fettuccine
▢3 tbsp unsalted butter
▢2 garlic cloves minced
▢1 tsp salt
▢¼ tsp cracked black pepper
Nutmeg
▢⅓ cup grated parmesan cheese plus more for garnish

Presoak Fettucine so it will fit into pan. Add everything but parmesan to pot and bring to a boil then simmer for about 25 minutes, stirring frequently. When liquid is almost all absorbed, stir in parmesan and serve.

Sort of just merge the two Wink

hope it works, enjoy

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4 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

usefewersyllables's picture

I was never really a capitalist. But there were extenuating circumstances.

I remember all-too-well when Nixon ditched the gold standard. It caused great consternation for my hardcore-Objectivist parents, who were completely convinced that The End Was Nigh, and were just waiting for him to announce that 1970 was heretofore be known as the Yardstick Year (Directive 10-289, from the fertile mind of good old A. Rand). If anything would have made them become preppers, that was it... They wouldn't have minded too much if we all got vaporized by an errant Sunshine Bomb, but by Gawd make the price of cigarettes go up and there'd be hell to pay.

My dear departed mother thought that Nathaniel Branden was the greatest thing ever, right up until ol' Ayn shoved him out the airlock (my mom was still wearing her dollar-sign necklace when we buried her). I first read Atlas Shrugged when I was 10, and eventually read everything Rand ever wrote.

Looking back from that perspective well over 50 years later, I think that the following John Rogers quote is absolutely dead-nuts accurate, as well as being utterly hilarious:

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

Having said all that: I doubt that either of my parents would ever have imagined, even in their most depressed and alcohol-fogged worst days, what things actually look like now. Is this capitalism? If it is, it is really end-stage, as we are progressing nicely into the next feudal cycle (unless we become plasma first). Time for another Damaging Adult Beverage.

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13 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

lotlizard's picture

@usefewersyllables  
a devotee of Ms. Rand in every sense of the word, from ascending to that golden throne, that fiat-paper papacy, that highest office to which those in his profession can aspire: that of (fanfare) chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world

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lotlizard's picture

On the Unz Review website:
https://www.unz.com/tsaker/interview-with-roger-waters/

The original on the website The Saker:
https://thesaker.is/interview-with-roger-waters/

And:
Hamburg police raided a copy shop run by leftist activists because of this photo of a deceased Left Party politician:

https://taz.de/Razzia-in-Hamburger-Kopierladen/%215791139/

Germany doesn’t really have free expression or a free press as traditionally understood in English common-law countries. There are many things you’re not allowed to say or display in public, among them symbols of the sort-of-IRA-like Kurdistan Workers Party PKK, seen in the photo’s background.

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CB's picture

@lotlizard

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lotlizard's picture

R-rated action fantasy webcomic in 15 episodes.

https://www.arkhaven.com/comics/action/the-awakener

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5 users have voted.

of your health problems in your home. Sleep easy, chica.
Not sure what flavor capitalism is called today, just know it took a hard turn with Reagan, and has stayed the course.
Economic "systems" are head scratchers for me.
They are theories. That is how it was taught to me in college. They become systems when in place.
What we have today is the theory of capitalism swamping the theory of socialism.
And, the results were predicted.
The wet dream of the 1%.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981