02-08-2022, 10:06 PM
Mike --
It will take me time to read your article. My suspicion is that capitalism is doing best for Humanity when GDPpc/R is high. In such times, investment is creating opportunities and well-paying jobs. Profits are high on the whole because the level of economic activity is high enough to make up for lower margins of profit. People prosper and they are buying stuff. This can also reflect high-value technologies such as televisions in the 1950's. For the last 110 years, roughly, as GDPpc/R is high, inequality is low. Capitalism then works well for most people.
So what does it mean when GFPpc/R is low? There might be a technological drought. Big Business may be using its skills mostly to ensure that customers pay more for what they get, as seems to be the pattern for highway tolls. The idea is to charge what people will pay before rejecting the service or good. Capitalism is then a particularly raw deal, and the system basically rewards people for already being rich.
If there is capital it is then drawn into a speculative bubble, and we know how those go. Speculative booms are good for generating paper profits, but once the system runs out of potential buyers, paper profits turn into real losses.
It will take me time to read your article. My suspicion is that capitalism is doing best for Humanity when GDPpc/R is high. In such times, investment is creating opportunities and well-paying jobs. Profits are high on the whole because the level of economic activity is high enough to make up for lower margins of profit. People prosper and they are buying stuff. This can also reflect high-value technologies such as televisions in the 1950's. For the last 110 years, roughly, as GDPpc/R is high, inequality is low. Capitalism then works well for most people.
So what does it mean when GFPpc/R is low? There might be a technological drought. Big Business may be using its skills mostly to ensure that customers pay more for what they get, as seems to be the pattern for highway tolls. The idea is to charge what people will pay before rejecting the service or good. Capitalism is then a particularly raw deal, and the system basically rewards people for already being rich.
If there is capital it is then drawn into a speculative bubble, and we know how those go. Speculative booms are good for generating paper profits, but once the system runs out of potential buyers, paper profits turn into real losses.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.