(This will make more sense if you read the first two parts first...)
Slavery, then, is the producers Utopian State.Western culture has a fascination with these dystopias. Everyone knows George Orwells vision of one in his novel, 1984. Most of us picture this dark world as having been created by a runaway state, but in fact the world of 1984 is the same one an unrestrained free market would create for itself if given the opportunity: humans and nature reduced to numbered resources.
We haven't arrived at that yet because we've built in laws that restrict the commoditization of labor and land--but we are closer to losing those protections now than we have been in a long time. The dystopia of 1984 comes into being when the unrestrained needs of the pure free market become co-operatively linked with the police power of the state. And unfortunatly, this is exactly what we have allowed to happen for much of the last decade: corporations joined with government to weaken protective laws and plow the way for an unrestrained market.
Here is the proof: the ver branches of governemtnt we created to protect ourselves and nature from the unrestrained "hand" have now been turned over to those same producers. The EPA, created to protect the natural world, is now run largely by producers for their own benefit. The FDA, with its responsibilty to keep our medicines safe, is now largely managed by pharmecuetical companies for their benefit. Regulations to protect us and our air from mercury and carbon monoxide, rolled back. Regulations to clean up our waterways from chemical pollution, rolled back.Laws designed to make our automobiles safer, rolled back. The right of all individuals to quality health care, resisted. Your families need for a livable wage, fought by an increasingly unrestrained corporatism working hard to reduce your wages to those of a Chinese peasant.
But when the police power of the state enters into collusion with the corporate hand, who can resist it?
You can! You must fight back and help establish a healthier balance between the rights of individuals and the destructive power of an unrestrained market.You can't just sit there and watch your job go overseas. You can't just sit there and watch Wall Street steal your Social Security under the guise of "privatization." You can't just sit there and watch your childrens future co-opted by an increasingly aggressive corporate marketplace intent on reducing them to numered laborers. During the last decade, the beam has tilted too far in favor of unrepentant free traders like John McCain. It's time to restore the balance.
Don't kid yourself. The invisible hand is out there, and it's giving you the finger.
Give it the finger right back.
Vote for Barrack Obama November 4th.
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read more blogs!
Blogs by Martin666:
| The Invisible Hand - Part 3 |
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jentoblues101
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Nov 3 @ 12:30PM
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Another kudo.
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ceecee1952
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Nov 3 @ 12:35PM
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Need another example?
Housing, credit, economic policy that was not accountable or transparent.
....
with insurance that was not based on fair value.
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john49887
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Nov 3 @ 12:48PM
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The right of all individuals to quality health care, resisted.
The absence of health insurance creates a range of consequences, including lower quality of life, increased morbidity and mortality, and higher financial burdens. This paper focuses on just one aspect of this harm—namely, greater risk of death—and seeks to illustrate its general order of magnitude.
In 2002, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated that 18,000 Americans died in 2000 because they were uninsured. Since then, the number of uninsured has grown. Based on the IOM's methodology and subsequent Census Bureau estimates of insurance coverage, 137,000 people died from 2000 through 2006 because they lacked health insurance, including 22,000 people in 2006.
Source:The nonpartisan Urban Institute http://www.urban.org/publications/411588.html
Grim.
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vinnytmd
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Nov 3 @ 1:23PM
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Martin, I was born in Italy. I saw first hand the results of what you call fair market. Heavily unionized labor, extreme taxes, union strikes evrywhere and a demotivated work force. Marxism and Socialism sound good in theory, but there is no example of it actually working.
In Italy 15-30% unemployment is the norm. Lines are everywhere. Medical services suck. Most of Europe is like this. The problem is that when most that travel overseas only go to the lovely little tourist areas. Look it up Martin.
Here we piss and moan when unemployment hits 6% and cry that a DEPRESSION is coming. In Europe that would be a great economy.
The same is true for Eastern Europe. Why don't you email on the the Russians on this site and ask them how they live? I have seen their lifestyle first hand too. Their Middle Class live worse than our poor.
This Country is the best, even in the worst of times. Throwing the baby out with the bath water is ignorant. In hard times as we all want to believe that there is a perfect way to govern it is always the OTHER way.
Here we are pissing and moaning while there are lines to buy the latest cell phone and hand held. People are paying hundreds to fill up Football Stadiums. Unemployment is still below 7% and there are jobs to be had.
I suppose that you have never seen what a bad time is like in Italy, or France, or Russia.
Martin, while I respect your views I find them to be extremely idealistic and dangerous.
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redtigr
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Nov 3 @ 9:47PM
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...absolutely brilliant...
This is the clearest explanation of why unrestrained capitalism is harmful to society that I've ever read. It's articulate, well reasoned and persuasive. I will be paraphrasing and quoting you until everyone I know understands this.
I'm sending this to all the sadly misled McCain supporters I can think of...
This series is exactly why I need you to blog, blog, blog... when words fail me, when my temper rises with the frustration of my own poor explanations, I need a Martin blog to fall back on to make me look smart and savvy instead of just an altruistic do-gooder.
~*~
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Loinlee_Sole
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Nov 3 @ 9:54PM
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capitalism bad......socialism good...........all hail Obama 
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unionman154
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Nov 4 @ 7:10AM
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observed50
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Nov 4 @ 8:25AM
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Having taught on this stuff for decades, I can appreciate the challenge of trying to lift the systemic contradictions within capitalism that lead to social chaos in different forms. Nice job!
The challenge in taking systemic analysis into the public sphere is that people have a hard time not simply jumping up and comparing such analysis to failed systems of a different nature. "Yeah I know I might be dying from Cancer, but they died from heart attack!"
Yeaaaahhhhh...so in other words...our system doesn't work well, and they're system doesn't work well. So what does that tell ya!
"I"D RATHER DIE FROM CANCER!"
Oookaaaaay...Hmmm...what if instead, we worked on curing the issues of our own system? Capitalism is a fairly young historical system that has undergone major alterations all along its path. It birthed socialism and communism as problems in capitalism were evident right from the start. Charles Dickens was an early chronicler of capitalisms deep issues, and his fellow chronicler, Karl Marx studied and theorized to find solution.
Problem is, human beings are so filled with their own contradictions, that a system cannot be designed that does not reflect those internal contradictions. To solve problem A, we most often create problem B. To solve capitalisms ravaging power over the dispossessed, we create government power that seeks to not stop the ravaging power, but simply deflect its damages.
We are a species in search of solutions. All along the way, people want to stop and say we've gone far enough. Usually, it's the group at the front of the search, who have the best views. It is a deep deep challenge to design human interactions that work over sustained periods of time that don't become their own set of social problems.
i.e., it's always time for a change. 
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lacyvsq
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Nov 5 @ 12:08PM
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Great series!
I actually think Obama is bought and paid for by the same cartel as Bush, McCain and the majority of Congress, but you have done a fine job of pointing out that too great a freedom given to one segment becomes tyranny and loss of freedom for another segment.
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