The people in the West couldn’t see this because they had been led into a dreamworld that used mass consumerism and sexualised imagery to entrance and distract everywhere. In reality it was an iron cage designed to look like an open and free welfare state, a false state of peace that was built really on horror and war. ibid.
The geopolitics of money, a force that had already enslaved the American people and now wanted to bend the Russia people to its will. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head IV: But What if the People are Stupid? BBC 2021
We view growth as something positive … Economic growth is somehow supposed to continue indefinitely … If that growth fails to materialise we panic. But why? System Error: How Will Capitalism End? Amazon 2018
Growth is the fundamental principle of our economic system. Capitalism only works when the economy grows. And Karl Marx recognised something else as well: it is this growth that will eventually destroy the system itself. ibid.
‘The idea that as human beings all we want ever is more and more stuff doesn’t really stack up … How much is enough?’ ibid. Professor Tim Jackson
‘The development of capitalist production makes it constantly necessary to keep increasing the amount of capital laid out. It compels the capitalist to keep constantly expanding his capital, in order to preserve it.’ ibid. Karl Marx
The genie was out of the bottle. The brave new world of financial capitalism could no longer be constrained. And great efforts were made to sell it as a controllable and secure system. ibid.
‘The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere.’ ibid. Karl Marx
For decades growth was kept on life support with debt. ibid.
‘In every stock-jobbing swindle everyone knows that some time or other the crash must come, but everyone hopes that it may fall on the head of his neighbour. ‘Après moi le déluge!’ is the watchword of every capitalist.’ ibid. Karl Marx
More and more people are apparently willing to sacrifice democracy, peace and the environment. ibid.
Its end is closer than we think. ibid.
Mother to child: Under fundamentalist neoliberal free market capitalism, corporations are encouraged to maximize profits because the economy is considered the most important aspect of society. It doesn’t really matter that profit comes at a very significant cost to humans, animals and the planet, because rich people say so. Mematic online tweet March 2023
‘Concerns are growing about the health system’s ability to handle the peak of the crisis with beds filling up and critical supplies dwindling.’ Capitalism and the American Pandemic Response, Youtube 26.50, news, Second Thought 2020
‘It is incomprehensible and unspeakable that corporations now are taking advantage of this crisis in order to get tax breaks and subsidies that have nothing to do with coronavirus.’ ibid. Bernie Saunders
‘The cheapest commodity on earth today is human flesh and blood. To make a profit at the expense of human life is the central controlling motive of the capitalist system.’ Iibid. Eugene V Debs
With the world’s largest and wealthiest superpower on the brink of collapse, it’s unsurprising that people are beginning to ask why this is happening. ibid.
Amazon paid $0 in federal taxes. ibid.
Condemn millions to die because some billionaire arsehole can’t stand to lose a few dollars. ibid.
But there’s one more feature of American life that most people until recently would tell you is just as American as apple pie: capitalism. Why Are So Many People Losing Faith in Capitalism? Youtube 15.44, Second Thought 2021
Recent polling that shows a decline in favourability of capitalism and a surge towards socialism. ibid.
I suspect that the decades of anti-communist propaganda that has been hammered into the American psyche since the Cold War is the main road block. ibid.
But there’s one more feature of American life that most people until recently would tell you is just as American as apple pie: capitalism. Why Are So Many People Losing Faith in Capitalism? Youtube 15.44, Second Thought 2021
Recent polling that shows a decline in favourability of capitalism and a surge towards socialism. ibid.
I suspect that the decades of anti-communist propaganda that has been hammered into the American psyche since the Cold War is the main road block. ibid.
Work is getting worse … Sadly, that steady march of progress narrative doesn’t really hold up … New jobs are declining in quality. Why Work is Getting Worse, Youtube 16.35, Second Thought 2023
Jobs don’t pay as much any more … Most of the profit generated from that increase in productivity hasn’t gone to workers. It’s been captured by the 1%. ibid.
For the bottom 50% of the population, in other words the average American, pre-tax pre-benefits income has actually gone down by over 6% since 1980. And that’s before you factor in the cost of living. ibid.
Debt as a percentage of income has only gone up since the 1950s. ibid.
Security: More and more people are being brought into more precarious work. ibid.
Neo-liberal politicians actively promote this wage restraint behaviour by lying to people about the relationship between wages and inflation. ibid.
Child labor laws are starting to come down. ibid.
Capitalists in the neoliberal era have helped to elect politicians that weaken workers in every imaginable way. ibid.
Your job will never truly improve under capitalism. ibid.
Economic planning: the kind that’s concerned with how we organise our entire economy … In capitalism the singular goal of profit animates economic decisions. How Companies Plan the Economy, Youtube 30.49, Second Thought 2023
We need a plan for how to continue living on this planet, meeting our needs, organising ourself collectively to manage our material requirements and our well-being. ibid.
Market capitalism is stuck in a constant boom and bust cycle that throws millions of people into sudden poverty. ibid.
Insider: ‘Starvation wages’: Walmart and McDonald’s among firms with the most workers on food stamps and Medicaid, according to a Bernie-Sanders-commissioned report. ibid. Grace Dean 19th November 2020
Walmart is the epitome of capitalist business practices. ibid.
Walmart looks a lot like a country with a planned economy. ibid.
It’s capitalists escaping the markets’ negative consequences as much as possible, and giving themselves more predictable outcomes than markets provide. ibid.
Walmart: Collaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment. ibid.
It’s been at least a year since people started talking about a possible recession. What Causes a Recession? Youtube 19.31, Second Thought 2023
These crises where profits go down are, counter-intuitively, a good thing for capitalists. ibid.
We could stop recessions almost entirely if we wanted to. ibid.
There’s a recession every four-to-seven years on average. ibid.
It’s cyclical and that’s we know recessions are always on their way. ibid.
Today, capitalism is the only thing that exists. For the last thirty-plus years nothing but capitalism has ever been allowed space in the public consciousness. Why It’s So Hard to Imagine Life After Capitalism, Youtube 18.34, Second Thought 2023
‘Widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it.’ ibid. Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism 2009
Competition and greed aren’t uniquely natural or the defining feature of human nature. ibid.
Socialism would never work because … These really simple statements that sound true. Is Capitalism Really Human Nature? Youtube 18.57, Second Thought 2023
Much of the public debate about socialism doesn’t really focus on the merits of socialism. ibid.
We have millions of examples of people being selfless. ibid.
Girl-boss feminism is dead … at least none that embrace that word any more … How Capitalism Destroys Feminism, Youtube 17.33, Second Thought 2023
Once it was revealed that these workplaces were toxic breeding grounds for sexism and racism. ibid.
What I’m hoping to do is clear up what’s actually wrong with girl-boss or neoliberal feminism. ibid.
Neoliberal feminism completely ignores the importance of structural power; it diminishes the importance of class and race; tries to depict feminism as this stand-alone and individualistic idea, and incorrectly equates individual successes with collective emancipation. As a result, neoliberal feminism actually reinforces gender depression, and promotes a vision of feminism that’s really only available to the 1%. ibid.
I have an a priori objection to capitalism … I think it’s a messed up system at its core. Do We Really Live Under Capitalism? Youtube 14.23, Second Thought 2023