politics

So the “Occupy” movement is currently the darling of the media and internet. Criticism, support and comparisons abound. Some compare it to the Arab Spring, but until they are walking into bullets or disappearing in a large government building somewhere there’s really no comparison. There are also many who have billed it as a progressive tea party, which of course makes the tea partiers mad.

But from my perspective, I don’t see any more coherency in the Tea Party message than in the Occupy message. The were just as many contradictions there (“Government out of our lives, and hands off Social Security!”) as there are in the various Occupy displays. But the Tea Party was able to affect elections and congressional votes, and that’s what counts. I doubt the Occupiers will have that success, but if they do it will be just as pointless in the long run.

Both groups miss the point of what’s wrong with our country. The problem isn’t less or more capitalism or government. The problem is we have eliminated great gobs of free market capitalism. There is a huge difference.

Capitalism is about ownership and profit. Free market capitalism (FMC) is about competitive ownership and profit by free players in an framework ruled by supply and demand. Economic freedom comes from free market capitalism. Plain ol’ Capitalism oppresses just as well as any government (because ultimately they becomes one and the same.)

In the two governing groups, we know where Democrats stand when it comes to FMC. Generally they will do whatever they can to try and engineer reality for the greater good or to solidify their own control. But when you look close, Republicans have done just as much to destroy FMC for the smaller good or to solidify their own control.

Whereas Democrats are always pushing policies that benefit large, established government; Republicans are always pushing policies that benefit large, established businesses. Republicans love increasing the power of monopolies via Intellectual Property, Patent, and copyright laws. They love big banks and telecom companies and tweaking the rules under the direction of the big players. They love big agribusiness and subsidies. They pass laws that benefit those businesses, talking about how these capitalist measures will increase jobs and benefit everyone. The problem is, they won’t. When you institutionalize big business, it’s no better than institutionalizing big government.

Laws that benefit big business (capitalism) are just as destructive to equality, employment, and Democracy as laws that benefit big government. What we need is more free market capitalism.

The first response to this will usually be from progressives and how free markets (lacking in regulation) actually caused our current crisis’. Up next I’ll discuss why the opposite is actually true. Regulation created this mess.

Not that Obama has violently overthrown the bourgeoisie with his rag-tag band of suicidal Democrat proletariat workers, it’s not uncommon to hear that we are now in a “socialist country”. I would submit that this is not the case.

First of all, a socialism and/or communism generally have a policy of seizure and redistribution that applies to people who have already been born. In our case, most of of the money we’ll be spending (over the long haul due to interest) will be paid by future generations (either directly or via inflation). This is not socialism. It’s a pretty brilliant new conflict theory, but not socialism.

Second, socialism generally has a plan. Our government is clearly making this stuff up as it goes along…although like soc/communism there are people getting mega-rich in the process.

So while I don’t think we’re anything close to a socialist nation, I do think we are definitely entering an era of a “Command/Control” style economy.

All cats are animals, but not all animals are cats. Similarly, socialist economies are generally command/control economies, but not all command/control economies are socialist. So it’s a fallacy to to think that just because our government is increasingly legislating the minutiae of our economy, that this style must be socialism.

But they are legislating the minutiae of our economy. And it won’t be long before everything is defined in the lawbooks.

Want an example? Check out the laws on credit/debit cards. That’s right, the same political entity that told King George to go jump, who wrote the Bill of Rights, expanded our country and enshrined our freedom in Constitution and Law…is now writing a law that will make it possible for merchants to require minimums for credit card purchases.

This is a law. Think about that….not a regulation. A law. And it’s digging down into the nitty gritty details of how even the most basic transaction can occur.

Everywhere you look, energy, healthcare, telecom, the automotive industry, banking….everything, is slowly being installed into an economic framework wholly defined by laws. Very soon (if not already) we will be working in an economy that is set up and functionally defined by politically designed laws that are very difficult to change, much less eliminate.

If this had happened earlier, by law we’d still be riding horses.

Back in middle school (during the cold war) we actually learned about how these command/control style governments were bad and how free market capitalism was going to kick their tail. Apparently not all middle schools were teaching this.

When you combine the looming energy crisis, the eventual debt disaster of the Federal Gubmint, and the collapsing market efficiency of our command/control economy, it’s pretty clear we’re headed for a really dark period of American history. Hey, it happens. Let’s just hope there is some sort of eventual rational response that doesn’t end up in a huge, terrible war.