Private Police

Private police are on the increase.  These are police who work for corporations, and their objectives are not necessarily to enforce any law but to carry out the wishes of the corporation they work for.  Yet, according to this article, they are increasingly arresting citizens for "violations" of laws.

2015.0301Su.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/private-police-carry-guns-and-make-arrests-and-their-ranks-are-swelling/2015/02/28/29f6e02e-8f79-11e4-a900-9960214d4cd7_story.html?tid=sm_tw

Page 21.  “Private security guards have outnumbered government police officers since the 1980s.  Coordination between private and official agencies often ovelap and the private agencies now perform work previously assigned to official agencies.(2.4)  Wackenhut for example has contracts to guard the Internal Revenue Service, the General Accounting Office, the Federal Reserve, Oak Ridge National Security Complex, Savannah River nuclear plant, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,  even Fort Bragg, and this is not a complete list.  They also have various resources devoted to airports, ports, and specialized Global Response Teams and Executive Protection Services, etc. Wackenhut, DynCorp, Blackwater, Triple Canopy  are four of about forty-five “Private MIlitary Firms” that can be found on a “partial list”. (2.5)  There are recurring reports that some members of local police forces leave their jobs to begin work with the private police forces which pay more money and have fewer regulations.”

Feeding Our Children Silent Screams

Gestation crates are necessary for only one thing:  PROFIT.  Gestation Crates make the extremely rich people even richer, one poor pig at a time.

The crates simply aren’t even necessary to raise pigs. For generations, family farms have been raising these intelligent and social animals without crates.  It is not just that a sow spends a pregnancy or two in one of these torture devices, but the animal is bred again and again and actually can spend up to 80% of her entire life being pregnant, tortured and becoming actually insane.  When she is too old to be bred again she is killed. 

The hog producers on these industrial farms say these crates are efficient, effective and productive, and claim they reduce the cost of the meat produced for the public, keeping prices down.  This seems to put the blame for gestation crates on us, the public, the consumer.  It becomes our fault.  Do we really want to feed our children silent screams?

The primatologist Jane Goodall writes that “farm animals feel pleasure and sadness, excitement and resentment, depression, fear and pain. They are far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined ... they are individuals in their own right.”

Are we proclaiming to history that the ONLY thing America values is money?  Have we sunk THAT far below the surface of Capitalism?  Do we want that to be our  enduring record?  Will that become our own memorial gestation crate?

http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/john-womack/capitalism-servant-or-master/ebook/product-20251807.html

Cigarette Ads on Parade Magazine

 

Your advertisement for Pall Mall cigarettes in last Sunday's edition indicates a major change in Parade Magazine’s attitude towards tobacco advertisement.  While it states that the Surgeon General has detected "Carbon Monoxide" in the smoke, the advertisement does not mention that cigarettes are also extremely addictive (partly because of ADDED addictive substances), and that both smoking and "second-hand" smoking causes cancer and shortens life-spans.  Your insertion of tobacco advertisements into your magazine demonstrates a contempt for your intended readers not seen perviously.   It appears you value advertising revenue greater than you do the health of your readers or that of your reader’s children.   I will contact the newspapers who carry your magazine and ask them to find another magazine to insert into their Sunday editions.  John Womack.

Contact Message to Parade Magazine today.  You can reach Parade at http://parade.com/contact-us/ (Also just read that Parade has fired 85 long time workers as Parade was recently bought by another company)

http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/john-womack/capitalism-servant-or-master/ebook/product-20251807.html

Capitalism Has Transformed the American Prison Industry.

Here are three comments about what Capitalism has done to the American prison industry.   They were taken from the book by John Womack, "Capitalism:  Servant or Master?"  
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1  As state owned prisons are converted to private prisons their lobbyists petition legislatures for stricter laws and longer sentences.  The more prisoners who are admitted into and kept in the prisons, the greater will be the profits the private prison industry will realize.  Page 20

2  The number of prisoners increased dramatically beginning in 1980, just as the deregulation of capitalism began, from under 500,000 in 1980 to 2,000,000 in the year 2000.  Page 36   FootNote:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

3  We pretend our criminal justice system is modern and leads the world in that skill.   Yet we are one of the very few nations left on earth who still execute some of its prisoners, and most of those we kill are black, poor, undereducated, mentally retarded or mentally ill.  America has more citizens in jail and prisons than any other nation on earth in both percentage and total number.  More and more, our prisons in America are built by and run by private industries who NEED more and more prisoners to continue to increase their profits. They lobby legislators and congress for minimum sentencing requirements, longer sentences, and now are beginning to use prison labor to produce products for the private prison’s profit while working for far less than minimum wage. Page 90 

FootNote:  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289

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Who can REALLY vote? And how many times? And where?

There is a pressure developing among Republicans to "control" the right to vote.   Presumedly that is  to insure that citizens only vote once in each election.  Allegedly, they say, "some people" vote twice, particularly college students vote in the state in which they "live" and again in the state where they attend school.  So therefore, much more stringent controls need to be established over all voters in the nation.

But notice how the large corporations – none of whom can really cast ballots – still manage to "vote" – not with ballots, but with money.  And also, they can "vote" MANY times in all elections, day after day, in the long primary seasons which precede the balloting.  AND they can vote in two states if they want to.  In fact, they can vote in ALL FIFTY states if they "need" to.

If I had a large (as in really big) amount of money, I could bring pressure to legislators not just in North Carolina, but also in California, New York and Texas, and other states too.  I could speak to members of their senate and house of representatives as well as to their representatives and senators in Washington, DC.  And I could "talk money" to them.  Better yet, I could call up some "friends" of mine and talk to them.  Then my "friends" could call the representatives and convey my message in a way they would all be familiar with.  My new "friends" would be really good because they would be former representatives themselves and they would know how to phrase my wishes better than I ever could.  My "friends" would lobby the representatives very well, and even provide my wishes written in "bill-submission" form.  

And EVEN – and I won't really mention this – if I were a member of a corporation based in another country, and I was a legal resident of another country myself, I could STILL speak (with money) to our new "friends" back in the states.  All they would want to verify is that my money was in American dollars.  Here is a quote from my book "Capitalism:  Servant or Master?" p. 81:


         "At least thirty major U. S. corporations pay more money for lobbying than they pay in taxes.  Many of these same companies also receive subsidies from the American taxpayers so they are actually shown as paying a NEGATIVE income tax.  Here is that list:  <http://publicampaign.org/sites/default/files/ReportTaxDodgerLobbyingDec6.pdf  >
Many of these corporations are national in scale.  A large and an increasing number are international, some may have directors from foreign nations, yet they can still – according to the United States Supreme Court in “Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission” – provide instructional information, items of personal interest, and large sums of money to American senators and representatives to try to influence their votes on bills that are important to them and also to provide money for election campaigns.  This creates an opportunity for some foreign nationals to have greater influence in the United States Congress than many American citizens have who don’t feel they have the money to send any to their elected representatives." 

http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/john-womack/capitalism-servant-or-master/ebook/product-20251807.html

        

Private Prisons Produce Profits.

China is the most populated nation on the planet with some 1.4 billion people; India is closing quickly at 1.3 billion.  Together they comprise more than 2.7 billion.  The population of the United States of America is 313 million, only 1/8 the size of the two most populated  nations in the world.

When we look at the prison population of those nations however, we find that the United States has almost 25% MORE of its people in jails or prisons than do the COMBINED prison population of BOTH China and India.

The graph shows an enormous increase in American prison population beginning in 1980.  This is when private, for-profit prisons began taking over an increasingly rising  prison population.  It was asserted by the private prisons that they could do a better and cheaper job.  The same time, state legislatures began writing laws that were seen to be more restrictive, and punishment times were increased. 

“The criminal justice system is urged by capitalist owners to convert to  privately-owned prisons.  They claim private enterprises would be more cost-effective than government-run prisons and would save money.  As state owned prisons are converted to private prisons their lobbyists petition legislatures for stricter laws and longer sentences.  The more prisoners who are admitted into and kept in the prisons, the greater will be the profits the private prison industry will realize.”  Pg. 20  of “Capitalism:  Servant of Master?”

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Who Pays For Duke's Problem - Us or the Rich Guys?

Duke Energy suffered a major pollution problem on February 9, 2014, when approximately 35,000,000 gallons of toxic coal slurry leaked into the Dan River near Eden, NC.  Three weeks later, a second leak began pouring arsenic-laced wastewater into the same river.  Now some 70 miles of that river is caked with toxic coal ash.  

Duke has 33 more lagoons storing coal ash in 14 sites it North Carolina.  Duke estimates the cost to clean up all this pollution will exceed one billion dollars. 

Profit:  The money remaining from the sale of goods or services after all the expenses, debts and taxes associated with the operation have been paid.

“Capitalism:  Servant or Master?” P. 71.  When corporations say they could reduce pollution but that would mean higher prices for us, that seems to imply these problems are really our fault – we would rather have the pollution and be poisoned, and get sick and suffer medically, and pay medical bills than pay higher prices for the products they want to sell us.  Does it actually make no difference to them?  Not really.  If they paid the full costs of their production a truer picture of what people are buying would be available to everyone.  While prices would rise for consumers of the item, the profits might also shrink for the shareholders and corporate officers.  That would reduce capital available to the company.  Some shareholders might move their investments to other companies. Some mutual funds would automatically switch to other companies through computer programming procedures.

http://myfox8.com/2014/02/26/duke-energy-not-required-to-pay-federal-income-taxes-for-past-5-years/

Citizens for Tax Justice in Washington D.C. says big-profit companies are using “loopholes and tax breaks” to avoid paying a single penny in federal income taxes.

The report includes Duke Energy on a list of 26 Fortune 500 companies that have not paid any federal income taxes in five years.

“Duke Energy had a tax rate of a negative 3.5 percent which means they actually got refunds back from the IRS,” pointed out Rebecca Wilkins with Citizens for Tax Justice.

Duke Energy has made more than $9 billion in profits since 2008, according to the report.

http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/john-womack/capitalism-servant-or-master/ebook/product-20251807.html

Run Government Like a Business?

This is a quote from "Capitalism:  Servant or Master?" p.55

"My candidate for the Nine Most Terrifying Words would be these:  “I will make the government run like a business.”    

"This call of perennial foolishness echoes through the pages of political campaigning history. “I am a businessman – I know how to meet deadlines and payrolls, turn a profit, and I will make this government run like a business! Just elect me!” What’s wrong with this? Well, it is like plowing a field with an airplane instead of a tractor, kicking a mirror like a football, or frying your orange juice for breakfast."

And now, this just in to the Pretty Penny headquarters from "Governing", a magazine located at 1100 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Suite 1300, Washington, DC 20036 about Rick Scott, Governor of Florida:  

State Senator Aaron Bean recalls that during Rick Scott’s first few months in office, the governor of Florida held several events in Bean’s district without asking the local legislator to attend and stand alongside him.

“He’s getting better,” says Bean, also a Republican. “He’s not a politician. He was a CEO. He’s used to walking into a meeting and dictating what’s going to happen, then leaving and expecting everything to be done.”

Carol Weissert, a political scientist professor at Florida State University, also ascribes Scott’s apparent inability to win over Floridians to his lack of political experience. “The bottom line,” she says, “is that business is just so different from politics. The skill set is so different. Just because somebody’s a good businessman doesn’t mean they’ll be a good governor, and I think we’ve seen that with Scott.”

Capitalism:  Servant or Master?"
http://www.johnhwomack.com/John_Womack/Capitalism.html

Special Police?

What is a "United Special Police"?  They are part of a rapidly growing number of private, corporate "police forces" springing up across America designed to protect property of the people who hire them.  Here is one I photographed in Hickory a couple of days ago.   The car is marked "United Special Police", and it sports a private license plate that is carried on a specially modified "Police Interceptor" body.    This one is probably out of Morgantown, NC.  These private police forcers are prime candidates for the New American Problem of guns in our public schools.   One of the special projects that these private police forces can do is to provide protection for our schools.  Are they affiliated in any way with the NRA?  Or the Koch brothers, or the other corporations that stand to profit from American kids being shot down and killed in their classrooms?   These Special Police can also "patrol" shopping malls, theaters, restaurants, and so on almost without end.

Quoting from p.21 in my book "Capitalism:  Servant or Master?",  
"Private security guards have outnumbered government police officers since the 1980s.  Coordination between private and official agencies often ovelap and the private agencies now perform work previously assigned to official agencies.(2.4)  Wackenhut for example has contracts to guard the Internal Revenue Service, the General Accounting Office, the Federal Reserve, Oak Ridge National Security Complex, Savannah River nuclear plant, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,  even Fort Bragg, and this is not a complete list.  They also have various resouces devoted to airports, ports, and specialized Global Response Teams and Executive Protection Services, etc. 

         Wackenhut, DynCorp, Blackwater, Triple Canopy  are four of about forty-five “Private MIlitary Firms” that can be found on a “partial list”. (2.5)  There are recurring reports that some members of local police forces leave their jobs to begin work with the private police forces which pay more money and have fewer regulations."

The reference quoted as FN 2.5 is here:  http://www.privatemilitary.org/private_military_companies.html

Invitation to Talk

Here is an invitation to anyone who might wish to enter their comments about the purpose of government, the role of capitalism and its corporations.  Other comments about Adam Smith and his book "Wealth of Nations" or Ayn Rand and her book "Atlas Shrugged" are welcomed.  I am looking forward to meeting people who have real concerns and are willing to ask questions and carry a discussion. Personally, I feel that the root of democracy is discussion and interaction.

American Corporations NEED War

From "Capitalism:  Servant or Master"  by John Womack.  page 93:  We pretend our nation strives for peace and will not attack other nations unprovoked, yet we will fight to protect capitalism and we have fought, in our brief existence, the countries of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Mexico, China, Iraq, Iran, Korea, Japan, Italy, Panama, Philippines, Cuba, China again, Korea again, China yet again, Guatemala, Indonesia, Cuba again, Guatemala again, Congo, Lebanon, Peru, Cambodia, Chile, Laos, Guatemala yet again, Grenada, Libya, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama again, Iraq again, Sudan, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Columbia, Vietnam, Cambodia again, Laos again, Iraq yet again, Afghanistan again, Libya, Pakistan, our own Native  Americans, the African slaves and Asian coolies we imported to our own country, and we’ve fought each other too.  And this is only a partial list.  Yes, we pretend we are a peaceful nation while more and more of our businesses and corporations are increasingly involved in the machinery of war and these corporations NEED more wars and combat operations to continue to increase their profits. (FN 10.3)  http://washingtontechnology.com/toplists/top-100-lists/2009.aspx

www.johnhwomack.com/John_Womack/Capitalism.html‎


There are always other issues involved too.  If we are genuinaly attacked by another nation, immediate response is required.  That response can be pre-authorized, particularly if the attack was in or around Washington, D.C.  When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor our congress declared war the following day and then we fought the two most powerful nations on earth and defeated them both in less than 5 years.   Since then we have been fighting small nations in long wars that keep dragging out. These "small, long" wars cost us fortune after fortune and ruin life after life but make incredible amounts of Profits for some of our richest corporations.  

We are left with no money to educate our children,  no money for our own health care, no money for improving our highways and bridges.  We are told that money for Social Security will have to be cut, unemployment compensation will be cut and shortened in duration.  We have even  instituted the dreaded sequester!  Cruz, Paul and others want to shut our government down and default because we have no money to pay our debts.  But War?  Did someone say War?  We might have a War?  Oh good! Its about time!

There may be something else involved here.  And I am asking a question I don't have the answer to:  How much of this attack on Syria is related to Israel's needs?

The real question is who is making this decision?  It CLEARLY does not seem to be Obama.  This issue is dividing the Democratic Party and did not need to happen.  The issue should not be whether or not America will strike Syria, but whether the civilized nations of the world will enforce their collective will.  America has been absent from trying to shape the "will of civilized nations" for too long.

Profit or Pollution?

When corporations say they could reduce pollution but that that would mean higher prices for us, they are really saying that their pollution is OUR fault.  They are saying that we would rather have their pollution, get poisoned from it, get sick, and pay higher medical bills than to pay higher prices for the items they sell us.  Also, corporations are not expected to “discover” that their products are harmful to their customers, and other people who breathe and drink that pollution.  In fact, we expect the corporations to hide what they DO know and then deny their knowledge of it when caught. This translates into another cost of government.

And there is another cost that we all bear when corporate entities declare profit by refusing to pay the real costs of production.  This refers to the “problem” of  “illegal immigrants”.   Almost all of these people who came north into the American southwest seeking jobs got jobs.  They were hired mostly by rich farmers and commercial corporations involved in factory farming, canning, meat processing and so on.  

These corporations said that Americans wouldn’t work for “those wages”, implying that “those wages” had been set by supply and demand (you know, Free Enterprise?), so they HAD to hire these illegals.  By not paying wages that would attract American workers, these corporations were not only able to reduce the costs of their products AND increase their profits but also to shift their labor force “overseas” without actually GOING anywhere.  Also,  it has been pointed out that illegals were more inclined to work under dangerous conditions than American workers would, and if they were injured or became sick they either kept on working or took care of each other, or they just went back across the border and disappeared.  Less worry for the corporations, less “complications”, less cost of production, more profit.

And now suddenly,  we have discovered an "illegal immigrant" problem, and a "serious problem on our southern border" requiring a vast military expenditure.  

Capitalism: Servant or Master?

By John Womack

eBook (ePub): $3.99

Download immediately.

For more information see page 72.

New York Times today had an article today about the unequal representation of the United States population in its Senate and how that affects the ability of the people to govern themselves.  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03/11/us/politics/democracy-tested.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

This article echoes a concern raised last year in my book "Capitalism:  Servant or Master?"  p.83


 "Corporations also have an easy way to penetrate their power into the United States Senate.  Consider that the 2 and a half million people who live in the states of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota and Alaska have the same voting power in the senate as the 100 million people who live in California, Texas, New York and Florida. To put it another way, each person in Wyoming has the same clout in our Senate as 70 Californians.  Or put another way, the top nine states in population contain slightly more than half of the total population of America. But they are represented by only 18 of the 100 senators. Or to put it still another way, the twenty-five lowest-population states contain less than one-sixth of the total population. But they have half the senators - the other half of the senate represents 5/6 of the US population. " http://www.johnhwomack.com/John_Womack/Capitalism.html

Capitalism: Servant or Master?

By John Womack

eBook (ePub): $3.99

Download immediately.

Governor McCrory Wins Rare Award

A rare tribute to Governor McCrory, newly arrived in Raliegh to steer the ship of the state of North Carolina through the rough seas of Democracy as it navigates the Straits of Capitalism.  He wins the presentation of the rare award of the "FlySwatter and Bat" trophy which is only received upon the achievement of a statement that significantly reveals the level of his understanding of the problems that infest the world.

Congratulations Governor McCrory.  This "honor" is presented to you for your comments on TV two days ago that you were drafting legislation to shift higher education funding toward career-oriented fields and away from academic pursuits that have, in your words "no chance of getting people jobs".  One of the first objectives of Capitalism, when it begins to take charge of any government, is to make its economy the most important aspect of life in that community.  As far as education is concerned, what Capitalism wants for Education is for its students to be trained to know facts and answers and be able to carry out the wishes of its corporate components.  Governor McCrory, you have been trained very well.   Congratulations!  And, oh yes, Swat! Bam!

http://www.johnhwomack.com/John_Womack/Capitalism.html

Obama's REAL Birth Certificate Problem

Obama wasn't born in Kenya.  That much is certain.  But he wasn't born of the Democratic Party either!  Not the RIGHT way, anyway.  Sure, he worked as a community organizer, slogging through those muddy democratic trenches in Chicago, and he even ran for office as a state guy and was elected.  BUT.  He did not work his way up through the political and economic power groups.  He did not take those secret vows and make those binding commitments that are required by the American system.  He did not agree with the Powers That Be that he would hold a Great Truth to be his (ostensible) goal, and then work to achieve Something Else, something more privately acceptable to those secret power groups.  

Those great power groups did not worry.  No need.  They knew a secret.  They knew Obama was black.  They knew he couldn’t really win, but it would make them look good to have a black man run a good race.   So they met with him, smiled and grinned with him, patted him on his back and extolled his virtues.  And he accepted them as equals.  And they pretended that was OK.  After all, he might come in handy from time to time, even in the future.  

But then came Big Tuesday and everyone gathered around to see the great Egg of Promise open and Hillary emerge to take the mantle of the party.  Instead, Obama stepped out !  (God!)  “We are so happy.”  (What do we do now?) “Congratulations!”  (We can’t run a black man!). . . and so on.  And so on.  

The Democratic Party is prone to this type of malfunction.  Look at their last three presidents.  First came Carter.  He couldn’t win because he didn’t have the experience, but he was good press for the party they wanted to “help” him run.  Then he accidentally got elected president!  Second came Clinton.  He couldn’t win because he was such a Good Ole Boy, but he was a lot of fun, and they wanted to get him out of the way.  “Let him have his turn, now that we all know George HW Bush is going to be elected in a landslide!” Then came Oops.  Now enter Obama.  He can’t win either because he is black, but it will make us look good to show support for him.  

So.   Carter insisted on doing things the Right Way.  He didn’t buckle down to the power groups.  His first two years were miserable and no great forces came to his aid in the following two.  Clinton also had two miserable years to begin, but then things mysteriously began to improve, got shiny and even brilliant.  If his zipper had stayed up instead of his penis he might still be president.  And now, Obama.  Obama has played the middle.  Normally, this is a safe pathway.  But you can wind up making EVERYbody disappointed IN you and mad AT you.  That’s about where obama is now.  The choice for America was between a guy who had never pleased the Powers That Be, AND who hadn't tried to please the people who will be voting either, and then there was Romney,  who had promised to please them all!

Remember, this election was the end of the line for Obama.  His popularity rating after almost four years in power was about 40%.   ANY republican could beat him.  Any Generic republican would be a walk-in victor, all the republicans had to do was just fill in the blank!  

Well, that turned out to be more than just a problem.  Back then, the republicans were pretty smug.  They knew they had an easy win coming and they could choose ANYbody.  But.  Well I won’t go through the sad list.  I couldn’t do justice to what actually happened.  Shakespeare, oh Shakespeare, where are you when we really need you?  Look at what you did with druggy old King Lear, now just think what you could have done with the Republican Party in 2012!  So it was just like last time when McCain was a shoo-in for president, until he put lipstick on a pit-bull-pig and chained himself to her.

So now Obama still isn’t a bone-fide member of the Democratic Party – or – has he actually become IT?  Don’t ask the republicans, they’re out combing through their own ruins and shooting at each other.  Meanwhile the bosses of the power groups are looking like a YouTube clip of those early flying machines trying to take-off.  Stay tuned.

For a look at the book, "Capitalism: Servant or Master?"  click here http://www.johnhwomack.com/John_Womack/Capitalism.html

Subjecting Nations to Their Economy

Nations are composed of many elements.   They are created out of their own education systems, their religions and art, their sports, and architecture, their economy, military, transportation systems, sciences, literature, natural resources, government, and perhaps many others.

A great nation blends these elements into an interrelated pattern of contrasts and beauty with each supporting, enhancing and helping to define the others.  One component may lead for a period of time with others providing strong support, then another may come forward with the support and help of the people.

But in a capitalistic nation, ALL of the its components must become secondary to its one lead item which is The Economy.  In the words of James Carville, “It’s the economy, Stupid!”  ALL other components of a capitalistic nation have to give way to the Economy.  

And the value of all other factors are judged only in economic terms.  The value of the nation’s education system is determined by how well it prepares its students to get a job and make money, the value of a work of art is determined by how much money it is worth, the value of a sports team by how much money it made and the players by how much money they are paid, scientific explorations are judged by how much money they might make.   In every case the value of any endeavors is rated by how much money it might return.  

The defining characteristic of capitalism is its constant and accelerating accumulation of capital.  The wealth of an organization or a city or a state or a nation, if it is capitalistic, will continue to be gathered together into fewer and fewer hands.  The workers will still be paid, but their pay will be determined only by their employers.  They will receive less and less a percentage of the money their project earns, will be required to worker longer hours for less pay, and will have less and less input in that matter, and begin to assume many of the characteristics of servants.

How then can capitalism be made to work for us?  First, capitalism has many points of value.  It is necessary to fund large operations, like maintaining ports, building airliners, automobiles and in many other important aspects of modern society.  But it must be contained by at least two other forces.  First, there must be room for a vibrant, strong and powerful Free Enterprise System.  This provides an outlet for people who may be dissatisfied with the corporate culture, or who have an “idea”, or just want to create a product or service to sell.  Second, government must control capitalism – not by controlling the corporations, or the industries, or the workers, but by controlling the capitalist market and prevent it from becoming a cannibalistic market.  And governments must also protect the free enterprise market from capitalism.  Finally, there must be room for Common Areas.  This is not a page from communism, but from our founding fathers who provided for common areas in all towns.  Central Park in New York, National Parks in many nations, early villages in America had the court house in the center of town with a large square of land for the people.

http://www.johnhwomack.com/John_Womack/Capitalism.html

This won’t be easy, it will never be a “finished” and “completed” project.  It will always be a continuing procedure requiring input and communication between the factors involved.  New technologies and new problems will constantly appear and need to be integrated and built upon.   

For more information on the book, click here:  http://www.johnhwomack.com/John_Womack/Capitalism.html

Cut Government Spending?

This in response to a comment by a Facebook buddy about just cutting government spending by 2%  across the board.

Just cutting spending by government 2%, or any other amount, would put us back in recession.  This happened in 1938, when we were finally coming out of the Great Depression and Roosevelt agreed to spending cuts and we fell back in deeply until the greatest stimulus program in the history of the world (aka WWII) put us into the greatest economic expansion of any nation any time.  This lasted for almost 30 years until Reagan began removing some of the government regulations of the capitalistic markets.  From that time (late 1970s) the  wages of American working people have actually SHRUNK while the income of the rich people have gone through the sonic marker.  What trickled down was not prosperity - let’s just say that Trickle Down has Petered Out. What we really need right now is a massive governmental spending spree – let’s begin with our infrastructure.  Rebuild some of our crumbling bridges, repair some of our highways and run light rail through major cities and between them.  Then watch our nation really prosper.

Promotion of Economy under Capitalism

Nations are composed of many elements.   They are created out of their own education systems, their military, religions, art, sports, architecture, economy, transportation systems, sciences, literature, natural resources, government, and perhaps many others.  Most nations blend these elements into an interrelated pattern of contrasts and beauty with each supporting, enhancing and helping to define the others.  One component may lead for a while, with others providing strong support, then another may come forward with the support and help of its people.

However, one of the determinant characteristics of capitalism is that ALL of the components of that nation must become secondary to its one lead item:  The Economy.  In the words of James Carville, “It’s the economy, Stupid!”  ALL other components of a capitalistic nation have to give way to the Economy.  

Furthermore, the value of all other factors are judged only in economic terms.  The value of the nation’s education system is determined by how well it prepares its students to get a job and make money, the value of a work of art is determined by how much money it is worth, the value of a sports team by how much money it made and the players by how much money they are paid, scientific explorations are judged by how much money they could make.   In every case the value of any endeavor is rated by how much money it might return.  

In a capitalistic nation the money always rises to the top.  The purpose of capitalism is the accumulation of capital.  The wealth of an organization or a city or a state or a nation, if it is capitalistic, will always continue to be gathered together into fewer and fewer hands.  The workers will still be paid, but their pay will be determined by their employers.  They will have less and less input in that matter and begin to assume more and more the status of servants.

How then can we use capitalism?  First, it has many points of value.  Capitalism is necessary to fund large operations, like maintaining ports, building airliners, automobiles and many other important aspects of modern society.  But it must be contained by at least two other forces.  

One, there must be room for a vibrant, strong and powerful free enterprise system.  This provides an outlet for people who may be dissatisfied with the corporate culture, or who have a brilliant idea, or just want to prepare and sell products or services they can produce themselves.  

Second, government must control capitalism – not by controlling the corporations, or the industries, or the workers, but by controlling the market.  Government must protect the operation of free enterprise people, the real entrepreneurs, and keep the corporations from constantly devouring each other in a "Cannibalistic Market".    

This won’t be easy, it won’t ever be “finished” or “completed”.  This will always be a continuing procedure requiring constant input and endless communication between the factors involved.  New technologies and new problems will constantly appear and need to be integrated and built upon.  But this is the only way to develop a vibrant and growing economy into the future. 

Health-care Marketeers.

A sad but instructive story about how poorly the current American health-care system uses the "Market" to "regulate" the costs of providing care to "consumers".  This was recently shown on PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/uninsured.html

More Problems With Electronic Trading

Was this a result of High Speed Trading issues?  Probably not, but it sure is suspicious.  One can't really find the fingerprints of market manipulation there yet, but still the feeling persists that "adjustments" are being performed by someone.


http://www.nasdaq.com/article/4th-update-exchanges-route-away-from-nyse-as-issue-affects-trading-in-216-stocks-20121112-01280#.UKGN7aX9J5g