PREOCCUPIED? A prelude to the Occupy movement?
If you've been following my Twitter Stream of late you will know that I'm a big supporter of the OccupyWallStreet movement and its offshoots around the world.It kind of resonates with what I've been thinking for a while. Here's a blog post I wrote over 5 year ago which, in the light of #Occupy, is worth republishing:
Thursday, March 16, 2006
THE SYSTEM SUCKS
Has anyone actually sat down and worked out how much money an individual will need to live adequately on planet earth from birth to death? Millions! Taxes, food, mortgage, transport, education, kid's education, health... In other words we are born into HUGE debt.
WHY? Are the birds and squirrels and fish born into debt?? Nah. Only the clever species - homo sapiens.
Think we've made huge progress since Feudalism? Bullshit. We're just as tethered to our desks as the serfs were ever tethered to their fields. Just as subject to our CEO's whims as they were to their feudal lord's. At least our great-great-granddaddys got to see the sunshine. Feudalism's just got a new name: Capitalism. (And, NO, just because I can see the F-up of capitalism, doesn't make me a communist)
Did you ever read about the poor souls who used to slave for 11 hours a day in the cotton mills in England? I bet you thought to yourself: "Silly Fckers, why did they put up with it?" Well, I've got news for you - When did you last work 11 hours at your desk? If international statisitcs are anything to go by - probably 3 days ago.
That's what really gets me. Is that everybody just seems to go along with it. We've given in. "This is just how things are." "Make the most of it". And in the background the cotton mills just hum along, drowning out the protest from the odd dissident.
Is this just the rant of a guy whose on the verge of accepting that his latest business venture is a failiure? Or is it a glimpse of the naked emperor?
Likely a bit of both...
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And I can now safely update my conclusion back then:
No, my business venture didn't fail. It succeeds to this day.
Yes, the system still sucks. Probably even more than it did 5 years ago. Only now, a few more peeps seem to be glimpsing the Emperor's nakedness.
It is easy to criticise. Lets hear some alternatives to this all consuming capitalism!
ReplyDeleteWiki on Economics and Adam Smith.
In his (Adam Smith) famous invisible-hand analogy, Smith argued for the seemingly paradoxical notion that competitive markets tended to advance broader social interests, although driven by narrower self-interest.
WBF - Thanks for the comment (as always :)
ReplyDeleteI've been reading lots on the topic. here's prolly the best answer to your "lets hear some alternatives to capitalism":
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/opinion/sunday/worldly-philosophers-wanted.html?_r=2&ref=opinion
BPG, so at the moment there is no answer! We are waiting for a future Nobel Prize winning economist to come up with some root canal treatment!
ReplyDelete@WillBeFine - I started a response to your comment but it became quite long so will be posting it as a full post in the next week or 2
ReplyDelete