Imperialism is political slavery which turned out not to be profitable over the long run.
Capitalism is economic slavery that plays its games within existing political structures (usually, unless a Bush goes to war). It's cleverer than imperialism in that you can more easily truss it up in the trappings of "freedom" and make a convincing show of it. But it, too, will turn out not to be profitable over the long run. Actually it's not really profitable now for most people in the world. Why does it keep on sailing? Because the captains of industry that Capitalism celebrates are not actually the ones moving the ship forward. The economically poor and politically disenfranchised are the ones making things go, and they have very little to show for their efforts.
It's occurred to me that technological advancement will never permit the worker class a life of leisure as envisioned by futurists in the Fifties and Sixties. The Market will always price commodities just beyond what the lower 80% of the socioeconomic ladder can reasonably afford.
Consider cars. Despite all the progress that's been made to produce cars more quickly and cheaply using the latest technology and computer processing, they're still terribly expensive. They're better and more reliable, yes, but not easy to acquire and maintain. The market focuses on cupholders, power windows and the like, not affordability. If ever there came a time when cars were regarded as cheap by normal people, the market would "correct" for it and make them more expensive. Of course, cars will never be cheap because these "corrections" carry on continuously at the extreme threshold of what the market can bear.
This phenomenon happens invisibly for all goods and services, and this is why robots, computers, jumbo jets, and DVD players have not brought about a revolution in quality of life. Ironically people have less leisure time now than ever before.
It's what the market can bear.
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Fresh torments served daily at the Dark Tower Forum.
Posted on Oct 13, 2003, 6:48 PM from IP address 207.103.210.203
