thoughteconomics.blogspot.com/2011/09/capitalism-what-comes-next.html
This is from one of the newsletters I subscribe to.
This is from one of the newsletters I subscribe to.
Posted: 05 Sep 2011 10:00 AM PDT Pretty interesting piece below coming on Labor Day: Nouriel Roubini has the most read story over at Project Syndicate titled 'Is Capitalism Doomed?' This is the second major voice (Bill Gross being the other) in the past week, who I've seen take a lot of direct strikes at 'capitalism'. Unfortunately they use the U.S. as a basis for capitalism ... aside from EBAY and perhaps the restaurant business and a few other niche sectors, there is not a lot of capitalism going on in this country anymore. Perhaps 1965 USA would have been a better example. Rather than 'capitalism', we're in what I call corporate socialism - and you really only can partake if your one of the bog boys (small business does not make enough donations to political coffers). [Oct 7, 2009: Dylan Ratigan - America Being Subjected to "Corporate Communism"] It's a country dominated by the oligarchy of the highest end business class in cahoots with the politicos whose campaigns they have paid for. Anti trust has gotten to be such a joke that this recent move by the government to block AT&T and T-Mobile from joining forces is a shock. After all, having a handful of dominant giants in every major industry is great for 'competition'. Anyhow the bigger point is the power between capital and labor has swung dramatically to capital. I don't have the link in front of me but the % of corp profits going to shareholders/capital vs wages is at historic lows in the U.S. While this has been a trend for many years, as 'pleasing Wall Street' has become the end all, and be all for corporations we've now reached the point where many in the labor force cannot support a level of purchases to support those same corporations without yearly annual stimulu/tax cuts. (While still of course demanding a high level of benefits - which the country needs to borrow to pay for). Ironically this is the exact opposite of the Henry Ford plan from early in the century; he purposely drove UP wages so his workers could afford the product they produced. (and attract a higher class of worker) Ironically here we are a century late, in a hyper competitive global market, where many in the middle and lower class are being driven in the exact opposite direction. in 1914, Henry Ford added to his long list of industrial accomplishments when he announced that all worthy Ford Motor Company employees would receive a minimum wage of $5 a day. This was more than double the standard base pay of $2.34. Here are some snippets from Roubini's piece:
So that is the issue - here are Roubini's solutions
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