March 1, 2020
Michelle Goldberg’s column in support of Elizabeth Warren had the by-line ” She wants to purify capitalism so that it works as it should.”
What is it that people find so hard about this to grasp? Capitalism is an economic system; government is a socialist enterprise. They do not stand in opposition to each other. In fact they have worked well together.
Yet since the Reagan era, we have been assaulted with the slogan-myth that “government isn’t the solution, government is the problem.” Want to get laughs in the right wing troll-o-sphere? Repeat their favorite stock mockism: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Har har! Oddly, you don’t hear this so often after natural disasters affect them directly. But I digress.
Capitalism is a fine economic system. It has served this and other countries well. But neither it, nor any Social Darwinist underpinnings, provides a pathway to good governance. Part of the problem is that money tends to turn into power. That’s not all bad, as long as its tendency to corrode and corrupt is held in check. Money turning into power beats birthright turning into power at birth, something the Founding Fathers fought against. But it’s not all good either.
For a long time there have been corporate entities, and now there are individuals, with enough money/power to overwhelm the governments of many municipalities, counties and even some states – but not the Federal government; it’s just too big. They can rent parts of it when needed but, in the end, and at least until recently, the Federal government has retained the ultimate power. So they hate it, and decry its size as an evil. This is why the likes of Grover Norquist speak of getting government small enough it could be “killed with a shovel” (like a snake) or “drowned in a bathtub” (like a what? Like a child?).
But government is how the people make an end run on power. Capitalists get this. Why doesn’t everybody?
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity