jim luke 7:48 pm on April 24, 2017

Last Topic Readings

If you didn’t see it already, here’s the last set of readings to comment on.

Topic 12 (last) – Capitalism & Politics; Critical Perspectives

The Econocracy review – how three students caused a global crisis in economics https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/09/the-econocracy-review-joe-earle-cahal-moran-zach-ward-perkins

Capitalism Killed Capitalism http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/02/grantham-twas-capitalism-killed-capitalism.html
A real conspiracy: How Ruthless Network of Super-Rich Ideologues Killed Choice and Destroyed People’s Faith in Politics by Goerge Monbiot in Guardian http://evonomics.com/ruthless-network-super-rich-ideologues-killed-choice-destroyed-peoples-faith-politics/

Please comment. Again, you can use either your blog or comment/reply here.

There’s one more post coming from me with assignments. That will be directions for the “Final Exam”, which is actually a blog post assignment.

jim

Brittney Baley 1:53 pm on April 25, 2017

These were some interesting ideas. I agree with the articles though. The elite 1% are a large part of what is wrong with the economy. They have a lot of power and easily influence many politicians. It’s a vicious cycle that lowers the amount of people in the middle class and increases the amount in the lower class. It also makes it increasingly difficult to move up classes. Eventually the freedoms that helped people reach their dreams are the exact thing that keeps these people down.
As more people reach the top and pass down their fortunes to their children it makes it more difficult for others to move up. The rich that didn’t have to work a day in their life for what they had made sure of that. They paid for politicians campaign getting them elected and therefore had an influence over bills and laws. This allowed for the middle class to be taxed more where the rich got tax breaks or got away with tax evasion. Capitalism is slowly collapsing because of it. The “American Dream” and the idea of capitalism is what use to help people go from bottom to top with hard work. This is no longer true. Hard work doesn’t get people very far anymore. Many people work all their lives to end up poor and with no retirement.
Zachary Dowling 11:30 pm on April 27, 2017

Like anything else, the goods and bads can be weighed out when thinking about capitalism and the effects it has on America and the rest of the world. When thinking about The United States, capitalism is one of the first words that comes to mind. It’s what created our country, we’ve fought wars over it, and many people have even mossed their lives because of it. When someone is talking about the negative affects that capitalism has on our world, it’s really easy to dismiss it, and say “Well name a better system”, or “What other option do we have?” For many people it’s either socialism or capitalism, and if that’s their train of thought, I can’t blame them. I would much rather have the problems associated with capitalism then those associated socialism. Although I do agree that capitalism is the best and should be the only system here in the United States, I’m also smart enough to know that there are many problems that we are just now beginning to see associated with Capitalism, problems that need to be looked at very carefully.

For one, as we’ve continued to read throughout the semester, there is a large and growing gap between the rich and the poor. Should we put a 90% tax rate on the rich? No, we definitely should not, but we also should not be cutting tax for the most rich down to 15%. There needs to be a middle ground.

We also should not be letting corporations donate money into politics. As stated in “Capitalism Killed Capitalism”, the only goal a corporation has is making profits. Sure, they will adjust to whatever makes them profits, i.e. “going green”, but corporations are only looking at what can benefit them. And what benefits a corporation, definitely does not benefit your average American. Those are two completely different agendas.

Capitalism is the best system for a successful country, but just because it is the best system, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t need fixing. Like anything else, capitalism needs to be fixed and adjusted as time progresses. We need to look into ways that can improve upon the system we have now. We don’t need to do a 180, and become Greece or The Soviet Union, we just need some tweaking to our current system.

Another negative aspect of capitalism that wasn’t stated in “The Econocracy Review”, but heavily implied, is that capitalism is leaking its way into every aspect of American life. Non-profit, public colleges are now doing everything they can to save money and stream line the education system, because it saves them money and makes things easier. No longer are professors required to even make students think, all class is now, is “Here is some useless facts you’ll never see again, now be sure to remember those for the next test”. Even worse, all college is about nowadays, is getting good grades so you can get a good job. Students should have to think critically and apply themselves to their school work. If they did, they would be much more ready for the real world, and like the “Econocracy Review” stated, would be able to fix the Economic problems our country seems to be plagued with. Instead we’re all taught the basic definition of capitalism and are told it can’t change, this is what has worked all along.

The suggestions I gave above on fixing capitalism, are just suggestions. They come from someone who has taken a total of four economics classes, someone who doesn’t necessarily understand how all of the world works. With that being said, I’m smart enough to realize something needs to be done, and whatever that something is, it needs to be done soon.
Daoud Esa 3:36 am on April 28, 2017

Very good articles for this week. Probably one of the best. In the second article, “‘Twas Capitalism that Killed Capitalism”, I like to elaborate on the point that the writer says, “The lowerincome workers had paid the cost of outsourcing and labor-saving technology but had received no material help, while corporations and corporate officers and owners were the beneficiaries.” I believe that corporations who outsource jobs such as GM and Apple will try to defend their actions is complete bullshit. Given that we the taxpayers helped bailout GM and yet they still turn around and continue manufacturing jobs in China is absolute bullshit. There is no other reason except that Chinese workers are willing to be paid a lot less for their work than Americans do. Car manufactures are even going as far as conveying American pride in the commercials when the very own car is built overseas. I do believe that the government should have more regulation in corporations but at the same time these corporations donate millions of dollars for things like this not to happen. Like it says in the same article, “The “rich and powerful” not only increased their share of income and capital at an unprecedented rate in recent decades, but they also increased their grip on politics through a rising tide of political spending, including lobbying and the new Super PACs”. I don’t know what you call this but I have a simple word for it, corruption. There is no way this can be looked at differently. The people we elect was being paid by these corporations to continue benefiting the rich while the poor get jobs taken away and end up jobless.
Julia 9:40 am on May 5, 2017

The articles were very insightful, but the last article about the next evolution of economics: how a network of super rich ideologues killed choice and destroyed peoples faith in politics is the most accurate thing I have read.
It’s terrifying this idea that the ultra rich are “scouts” experimenting with new styles of living who blaze trails the rest of the society will follow. The problem with the ultra rich blazing the path is that not everyone is ultra rich so we can not afford to follow their path. The article clearly states ” the idle rich can devote themselves to influencing because they don’t have to work for their money….When they seem to be spending money on nothing but aimless display in fact act as a society’s vanguard.” everyone I know has to work for their money. This is not an ideal system for ourselves to aspire to because majority of society has to work for their money we can’t just inherit it, and spending money on ‘aimless display’ is not really practical.

Econproph [Comp. Systems 2017]

Jim Luke's Comparative Economic Systems Course

Last Topic Readings