Collective Capitalism Re-Visited...I Was Wrong!!

 

Fire in the Sky (photo by V.A.McMillan)

 

Title: Collective Capitalism Re-Visited…I Was Wrong!!

In the original article https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/collective-capitalism-concept.html I fell into the trap of manipulated lexicon or vocabulary. I assert I am not an economist, political scientist, or investment manager. I am just a person who has questions about the world we live in. So, this blog post I would like to re-visit my previous blog post and make corrections.

Let’s us start with that vocabulary or lexicon issue. I used the word capitalism to describe an economy. This was a conditioned response…I was not paying full attention to the words I was using. My bad. The word I should have used to describe what I was envisioning was FREE MARKET ECONOMY. I, like many from GEN X, have been subtly manipulated through the education process to believe that capitalism and free market economy are the same thing. A simple exchange of words that on the surface do not seem to be much different. Much like what we see going on around us, today. Subtle substitutions of language to manipulate future outcomes. That Karl Marx guy was very cleaver…a subtle, malevolent ideology to undermine and collapse the Industrial Revolution. Seems Marx’s infiltrate, subvert, manipulate, and overthrow strategy still works today. Capitalism and Communism, Marxists constructs to undermine, are the same outcome, only at different ends of the same continuum. Capitalism on the right and Communism on the left.

As I have mentioned repeatedly, I am not an economist. In my limited understanding on this topic Capitalism has the end goal of corporate rule – of the economy. Remember that childhood board game – Monopoly?? A simple game, roll the dice, move your marker around the board, buy properties, utilities, and avoid landing on spaces owned by others or going to jail. Pass Go! And collect $200. Add houses and eventually hotels to your property and in no time, you are a tycoon! The end goal is to be the one holding the “monopoly” (sole ownership of the whole board) and have everyone else indebted to you or bankrupted off the board. Indoctrination works by subtly switching good for bad – in simple moralistic terms. A child’s board game as a weapon of subversion???

At the polar opposite end of this continuum is Communism…a system of governance where some self-appointed ruler believes they have a better understanding of life and they should centrally control all aspects of life, starting with the collective production of goods for the economy. The central control decides what needs to be grown in the field, harvested from the forest, produced in the mills, build on the assembly line, AND what the common worker should be allowed to purchase and when. However, Communism is not marketed and sold for the oppressive central control…no, no, it is sold as working together to achieve common goals to the betterment of the society or community… under the yoke of tyranny cooperation. [Too subjective??]

Now let’s get back to Free Market Economy a system of economy where the market (as in community marketplace) determines what is produced, in what volume, at what price, and for how long. This is the system advocated by Adam Smith in his lengthy book The Wealth of Nations (1776), yah, yah, yah…I know that is not the proper full title – An Inquiry into the Natures and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) Volumes I, II, II, IV, & V. You can get your PDF copy online, free for the downloading from many websites. I have made it a few hundred pages into the 1204 pages, it is written in an older writing style and vocabulary, which does not make this a light or easy reading tome. However, the ideas suggested are more in line with what most folks think when they use the word capitalism in place of free market economy.

In my understanding, free market economy is the actualization of the demand and supply model of innovation, production, and profit. One person needs a “widget”, another person is capable of making and motivated to make the “widget”. Now you have a market – supply someone’s need. A little while later a new person says, “Not only can I make the “widget”, but I can also make it from superior materials, faster, and more affordably.” Now you have competition. If both parties are allowed to sell their goods at the market uninterrupted by trade guilds or governments, and the buyer exercises their “free-will” to purchase the “widget” or support the “widget” company they chose; then, you have a free market economy. Unlike, a purely Capitalistic economy model motivated towards monopoly; the free market economy is motivated by producers meeting the needs of end-users. There is no need to produce goods no one needs and then have marketing companies brainwash you into thinking you “NEED” that useless product.

So, if I was to return to my original idea…I guess what I wanted to convey, was an ethical, moral marketplace where goods are produced of superior quality, in the local economy, would pay back dividends to the community by being a strong partner with the community. Innovators and entrepreneurs would be free to design and develop what the community needed and would be motivated to generate a reasonable return or profit. Communities, and I guess by extension, economies that are either oppressed or suppressed by government or corporations that are immoral and unethical will stifle and eventually kill the market, economy, and the community. Too bad humans are most inventive during times of conflict, it seems some folks are genuinely motivated to keep a climate of chaos and crisis perpetuating. Maybe one day we will see the silver lining of all this conflict.  

 

In my humble opinion, we, Earthlings’, would be better off working together to achieve mutually beneficial goals.

Until next time…solve the problems you can.

 

Mountainman.