Today’s Capitalism Is a Far Cry From What It Was Intended to Be

[truthout.org]

“[H]e whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations … generally becomes as … ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. The torpor of his mind renders him not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part in any rational conversation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender sentiment, and consequently of forming any just judgment … But in every … society this is the state into which … the great body of the people must necessarily fall, unless government takes some pains to prevent it.”

(In other words, “free-trade agreements” protect corporations from capitalism.)

If you need a moment, let that sink in for a moment. While you read the following.

(NAFTA includes an array of new corporate investment rights and protections that are unprecedented in scope and power. NAFTA allows corporations to sue the national government of a NAFTA country in secret arbitration tribunals if they feel that a regulation or government decision affects their investment in conflict with these new NAFTA rights. If a corporation wins, the taxpayers of the “losing” NAFTA nation must foot the bill.)

While it's harder to sue a corporation for harm against a population/ the commons, they in secret can sue the commons of their tax dollars. Free!?! For whom? A question the Mexican farmers who took the brunt of a beating from this agreement want to know! This agreement never reached the equality measures for which it was suppose to for them!

(So, via NAFTA, American automakers manufacture their auto parts in one foreign country, send them to Mexico for assembly, then deliver finished cars to the US to be sold — all while maintaining financial transactions within their own corporation. This is neither “free” nor “trade” at all, yet it retains the label to sustain the illusion of capitalism.)

I find it hard to believe that all the shipping of parts from place to place of the various aspects of a product must now go through to reach it's final stage and destination can be cheaper than having a product made in the vicinity of its use. Someone feel free to explain that shit to me. Especially with automobiles. Do you realized how many parts in you vehicle come from a number of different countries now to end up being partially manufactured to actually being finally manufactured?

(Instead, we have welfare for corporations, in which government uses billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out private industries, as exhibited in massive automaker bailouts and the infamous Wall Street bailouts, which the American public is unknowingly still bailing out.)

I've heard Thom Hartmann talk about this many times. In short. To run a company in America you had a responsibility to produce a product that benefited society. Pay a worker a fair wage. Produce a profit. Every 7 years you liquidated the company to pay off all cost and employees, then started over. If you weren't able to produce a profit your company was liquidated ended and paid any remaining cost.