The Dirty Secret Of Capitalism — And a New Way Out

American capitalism has failed

Image from Canva

I completely understand why people in America say things like, “Things are always good in this country, even for poorer communities.”

After all, we’re not starving in Africa. We’re not subjected to a North Korea-style dictator. I get why people say all of this.

They say this because they’re insane.

Capitalism has not worked. Can we start from there and work back?

You shouldn’t be one paycheck away from living on the street. You shouldn’t be comfortable passing by homeless living in tent cities. School shootings shouldn’t happen 200+ times per year. Mental illness shouldn’t be common in one-in-five adults and 50% of kids.

Is this what a first-world country is supposed to look like? 

No. No it’s not, and in my belief, capitalism is the reason why things are so bad right now.

Here are all the reasons why American capitalism has failed.

Capitalism is the enemy of the common man

American Capitalism, and politics in general, are very aesthetic, optic-based in which nothing gets done by design, and little people get little breadcrumbs.

When I told someone this recently they responded, “Well, what about the vote?”

HA-ha-ha! The vote doesn’t do anything, not even a little.

If your capitalistic country is based around lobbying, bribery (legalized and unlegalized), corrupt news media, and ideological tech-based oligarchies — all of that pretty much cancels out the vote.

And I’m not against lobbying in all instances. Lobbying ensures that environmental and other social groups can push back against companies like Exxon or Goldman Sachs; however, lobbying is entirely impossible for the average person to do it. 

Therefore, either every lobbying initiative needs to be put to a public vote or the costs need to be lowered substantially for the system to be fair.

American capitalism has failed because lobbying is broken. 

“Carried interest” loophole and other Wall St. tricks

Capitalism would work really well if the elites followed the same rules we did and the government actually went after corruption and tax evasion; instead, they do everything except that. 

For instance, ever heard of the “carried interest” loophole?

It means that investors on Wall St. such as private equity and hedge fund managers can misclassify their salaries as investment income, and pay the much lower capital gains tax rate — instead of paying income tax like the rest of us.

Do you ever ask yourself why no one ever explained this to you in public school? It’s not your teacher’s fault. They were set up for failure just like you.

We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” — CIA Director William Casey, 1981

The carried interest loophole is why American capitalism has failed.

Permanent war economy

“The United States needs a permanent war economy.” — Charles Wilson, General Motors CEO, 1945 “

Have you ever wondered why we’re always at war?

It’s because we are maintained to believe that a permanent capitalist war-economy is desirable and is necessary for a prosperous America.

In his farewell address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us against the influence that would be sought after by the military-industrial complex. He specifically stated, “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power [in the military-industrial complex] exists and will persist.”

War isn’t good for an economy. It’s only good for certain sectors of the economy. But don’t tell the military-industrial complex that. They don’t care.

The corrupt military-industrial complex is why American capitalism has failed.

Capitalism is meritocracy (Not)

But what about meritocracy?

We tried it. The problem with meritocracy is that it requires more and more specialized training by the second.

Take Ivy League schools for example. 

Grades are increasingly meaningless since every candidate has top grades; so people have to pay consultants to coach them into writing a better-looking resumé or choose the extracurricular activities most conducive to being accepted.

This also applies to grade inflation and it also applies to people teaching to the tests so that they get the best grades without really learning the content. Meritocracy is becoming just how well you can game the system. That’s it.

Source

I understand what a person like Jordan Peterson means by meritocracy: That we should appreciate merit because then the top-level people can create all the cool stuff that we enjoy.

But after a while, you create gaps in technical ability on the job market that lead to huge swaths of people feeling like their lives are meaningless — the same people who flock to Peterson’s lectures, ironically. 

Sure, you can get a highly skilled job and not worry about someone undercutting you. But what if you don’t want to be a computer nerd, what if you don’t want to learn to code or how to game the system? 

Then you’re out of luck! American capitalism fails because meritocracy requires specialized training, that, in a sense, is completely out of touch with the real world.

Free markets = Greatest scam ever

America does not practice capitalism —  there is not a country on earth that does. We practice crony capitalism, which is not governed by the free market but by a few powerful international corporations (very similar to fascism). 

They include:

• BlackRock (who are considered the fourth branch of the government)

• Vanguard (who along with BlackRock, and asset firm StateStreet controls a collective of $15 trillion dollars. That’s roughly 70% of the United State’s GDP.)

• Big Tech (who’s owned by BlackRock and Vanguard)

• Big Pharma (who’s also owned by BlackRock, Vanguard and StateStreet)

There’s also a private banking cartel called “the Federal Reserve” that creates US currency digitally out of thin air in the form of debt and then charges US citizens compounding interest to do so. Greatest. Scam. Ever.

American capitalism has failed because our economy is a Ponzi Scheme.

Final thought

American capitalism is dogshit.

And before some person hounds me in the comments, yes, Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are examples of capitalism working. 

But capitalism, like a sled, requires Huskies to pull it. 

It doesn’t work for long if the Huskies are being mistreated, scammed, abused, or if the person sitting on the sled is a fat capitalistic pig who may or may not go to a private island to have sex with underage kids.

I do believe that capitalism is a better system, on paper, than socialism or Marxism. After all, capitalism began as an emergent order that manifested in a group of people who intrinsically understood certain rules and internalized them, reflecting them in their behaviors.

But I’m concerned, just as with Marxism, that Capitalism doesn’t work in the long term. It just works longer —  until it’s completely corrupted. 

So how do we get out? We don’t. This train ain’t stopping. I implore you to use this knowledge to better help you, your friends, and your family. 

After that, I’m not sure what else can be done.

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