Death by a Thousand Cuts

Capitalism is a shell game: by its very nature it leads to winners and losers. In a bounded economy (one with a finite number of people who are variously the workers, the investors, the merchants, and the consumers), some gain wealth only because others lose their wealth to them. When the economic pool has no external source of additional value, then profit on the part of some inevitably results in loss on the part of others.

More than merely a shell game, capitalism is a pyramid scheme, a "Ponzi" scheme: the first to do well in the game continue to well, and everyone else basically hands their money over to these first-ins.

How so? Once some gain wealth, they inevitably gain power, and can ever more easily manipulate the system in order to gain yet more wealth and power. The only possible corrective against this is through government regulation, setting barriers such that the rich cannot run away with the game. Yet the rich seek to break through those barriers - and often succeed. Those who profit gain ever-increasing control over the economic system, and therefore can manipulate the governmental system such that it serves mainly to protect their quest for more wealth, and thus they can change the rules to maximize their own further profit and control.

The only reason the Western economies have succeeded as long as they have is that they have for centuries exploited the Third World. They have enjoyed a seemingly unbounded economic system. These relatively wealthy Western economies took advantage of cheap labor (imported slaves and indentured servants, desperate immigrants into the capitalist country, and the citizens of poor countries overseas) and a seemingly infinite supply of raw materials and abundant consumer bases both within their own country and abroad.

Today, to some degree, they continue to secure an inflow of value into their economic system – they have lately relied increasingly on off-shore employment (cheap labor in Third World countries), and factory production where environmental standards are lax to nonexistent, or simply less stringently enforced after a few well-placed bribes. And some countries, desperate for foreign cash, allow this to happen, blinding themselves to the reality that, in the long run, that these wealthy foreign companies provide jobs and some local investment, but what little value they put into the Third World country is considerably offset by the value, the wealth, they take out of the country. These are, after all, profit-making companies, and they’re not going to invest in a foreign country unless they plan to get more value than they put in.

However, it is an illusion to believe that this system, in which developed economies take value from relatively undeveloped economies, is unbounded. It is only unbounded from the point of view of a single developed economy that is exploiting other, undeveloped, economies in the world. It is in fact bounded, because at any given time the potential value to be derived from the world economy is itself bounded, simply on a larger scale, and needing more time to be exhausted. A certain developed economy may conceive of itself as unbounded, but it is not; sooner or later, even if other less developed economies don’t take action to prevent this draining away of what resources they have, the value in the world that is yet to be absorbed by developed economies will eventually begin to run out.

Put another way, developed and undeveloped economies are part of a single world economy; just as wealthy individuals in a developed economy gain increasing control of the system such that they can accrue even more wealth, so too wealthy countries in the world economy gain increasing control of the system such that they likewise can accrue even more wealth.

Through international governmental and trade organizations, the wealthy developed countries in the world have long set the rules for international trade to their own advantage, just as the wealthy individuals do within their own countries.

To name one example, the wealthy countries do little of significance to counter the scourges of war, disease, and steeply rising populations that the poorer countries struggle with. It is to the advantage of the wealthy to allow – indeed, to subtly encourage, these scourges. Greater populations of unemployed, hungry people means, in the future, greater possibility of cheap labor. And greater instability in poorer countries caused by disease and war, and the like, goes a long way from preventing them from ever developing strong smart governments that could effectively counter this draining away of wealth through their economically porous borders.

To name one other example, countries like Monsanto aggressively market genetically altered crops to poor farmers in poor countries. Since the seeds, on an introductory basis, cost less than the “regular”seeds, many farmers buy and use them in their fields. But, unlike “regular” crops, which can be used to replant in future years, these genetically altered seeds must be bought every year you want to plant the crops – and here’s the catch – once a farmer has used these altered seeds, the regular seeds will no longer germinate in that field.

It’s getting harder for these ultra-wealthy and their companies. Cheap labor is ever harder to come by as poorer countries try to raise their minimum wage standards. Meanwhile, raw materials are getting increasingly scarce, competitors in other up-and-coming economies are cutting into what once were sure consumer bases, and pollution and regulation imposed by the “left”, even in poorer countries, is seen as further destroying the ability of the rich to get richer.

And more and more of these Third World countries are in fact “wising up”, taking bold steps to slow down the drain of wealth from their economies.

These countries already face considerable pressures because of their inability to compete with the developed economies. They are typically saddled with colossal foreign debts that they will never be able to repay, and on which the interest is forever multiplying like maggots. They don’t have the efficient factories, the investment pool, the know-how, the transportation systems, or the control of the world economic system to ever get on their economic feet: they are largely “on the outside looking in”.

Added on top of this, these countries struggle to feed and put to work their huge and steeply rising, and increasingly restive populations. And many of them are also caught in the web of endless wars, petty in nature but bloody in results, either in their geographical regions, fighting over crumbs with their similarly struggling neighbor countries, or trying to put down independence-minded resistance groups within. As a result, much of what wealth they have is wasted on huge military machines, and much of their potential work force is wasted on military training that will not later convert to peaceful employment, should the wars miraculously cease.

Still, some poorer countries are bravely trying to take steps against this drain of wealth – for instance by nationalizing foreign industries, by setting up economic impediments (such as import and export duties) to slow down this drain of wealth, and the like. Some are even taking the wise step of enacting strong environmental laws to prevent that form of exploitation that (Bhopal, for example) only further destroys what little they have.

These countries have no choice but to do this, beset as they are by exponentially growing national debts and rising costs for the goods and services their citizens are demanding (thanks to the way Western commercialism has so successfully marketed itself worldwide).

In response to these countering efforts on the part of weak economies, the major capitalist countries are increasingly turning to exploiting their own populations – to dumping tax burdens on all but those in control, the ultra-wealthy, to demanding more and more work (product, which converts into value for the ultra-wealthy), and to selling the finished product back to the powerless at high markups. Rather than relying entirely on exploitation overseas, these ultra-wealthy are seeking to create a Third World from their own poorer and middle classes, which they can then exploit.

The tea party lunatics in the U.S. Republican Party, and their equivalents in other capitalist countries, are therefore not the cause of this new trend, but merely a symptom. They are not the core of the problem. They have been duped by the ultra-wealthy, who control the system (and thus the media, education, and government), into believing that this exploitation of one’s own citizens will eventually benefit them, foolishly believing themselves to be the friends (not the exploited tools) of the ultra-wealthy.

The capitalist system, in short, is in its death throes, and the ultra-wealthy realize this, and they are trying (through their proxies, their puppets in government and media), to stave off its eventual utter collapse long enough to drag home a few more fortunes.

I believe that the ultra-wealthy have determined that somebody – if not they, then somebody else – is going to make a move for world dominance, and rape it of whatever value can be squeezed out of it now, and the future be damned. The ultra-wealthy may or may not literally believe the various conservative pseudo-Christian dogmas that say the εσχατον (the end of the world at the hands of G-d) is coming soon, but they DO believe that at least in some secular sense it is coming soon. Therefore, it might as well be they who takes advantage, rather than somebody else. Hence, they don't give a flying forkful of flapjack for “The Future”; they’re going to take what they can now, and then hole themselves up in their bombproof bunkers and ride out the conflagration that’s about to engulf the world because of their actions.

The ultra-wealthy have decided that public education is to serve not to enlighten, not to inspire, not to instill the beauties of culture, but merely to train. It is to serve only to prepare fodder for the mills of servitude to the extremely wealthy, and the military required to control the rest of the world. It is against the best interests of the ultra-wealthy to have the unwealthy educated sufficiently to question the moronic and inconsistent platitudes of their media marionettes and legislative lapdogs; it is more in their interest to keep the public blandly stupid so they vote as they are told.

They create a miasma of fear – most unwealthy Americans live in fear of losing their jobs (most states now allow employers to fire at will), fear of increasing costs, fear of terrorists, fear of, well, just about everything. Minorities – especially Muslims, gays and lesbians, and their supporters – are especially to be feared. Fear debilitates: it keeps people from thinking rationally through these issues, and from organizing to protest what the ultra-wealthy are doing to them.

The ultra-wealthy have set up an efficient organization – efficiency is what they’re all about. It is impressive to me how all of the political right talks and acts the same. They say the sound bytes, they behave in the same manner. It’s more, far more, than this or that individual politician. It’s the sum-is-greater-than-the-parts pervasive force of all of them. Clearly, there is a directive coming from above – from, no doubt, the super-rich whose financial abundance puts these inexperienced morons into power by buying elections (through gerrymandering, fake polling, TV ads, etc.). And these nouveau politicians, knowing that’s what put them into office, do as they are told, and speak hate rhetoric against gays and lesbians, Muslims, and left-handed liberal pinkos like me.

And, over time, the very plentitude of such hate talk, from radio and television commentators to lawmakers on the state and federal level, makes it acceptable. The first time you step over a body in the streets of New York City, you're shocked. But, after the twentieth time, you hardly think about whether this body is alive but drunk or on drugs, or dead; you just step over it and hurry on your way. It is becoming acceptable, centrist, to talk hate.

All of this is exactly the effective technique described by Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf.

In this way “typical Middle Americans” are trained to believe that we “have to be tough on crime”, and that we have to “send a message” to the “criminal element” that crime will not be tolerated. They believe (wrongly, of course, as history and sociological studies repeatedly demonstrate) that prison and capital punishment are effective deterrents against crime; even though the United States has the highest percentage of its population in prison and has the highest rate of execution of any developed country in the world, with minorities, especially African Americans, at percentages far higher than in the general population, crime has not abated. In prison, young people simply learn from older, experienced prisoners how to be better criminals. When they get out, because of their criminal record they can’t get a job, so inevitably they go back into crime.

“Typical Middle Americans” are taught to believe that politicians who are “soft on crime”, probably “bleeding heart liberals”. just want to hand their hard-earned money to criminals, to “molly coddle” them in the form of government “handouts”. They are taught to believe that people who survive on public assistance are on drugs – despite the irrationality of this, since the demographics clearly show most drug-users are financially comfortable suburbanites.

Recently a live audience cheered and clapped when Texas Governor Rick Perry bragged about seeing some two hundred people executed in his state. When Congressman Ron Paul talked about someone in hospital without medical insurance, the audience shouted out that “they should let him die”.

As the Bible puts it, “All we like sheep” have been led astray by false shepherds. It’s a Pavlovian technique: the media have trained these people to applaud what these politicians say: when the plants in the audience (and you know media-savvy types like Perry have plenty of plants in the crowd) start the applause, everyone around them applauds too, even if they missed what was said, or didn’t fully comprehend it - like a wave rippling out from stones tossed in the water.

The ultra-wealthy, through their puppets, are determined to eliminate Medicare and Social Security and “privatize” them, so a profit can go into their pockets. Once Medicare is gone, a private system will cherry-pick the profitable clients, and the rest will be rejected.

Now the ultra-wealthy want to eliminate FEMA, the federal agency that responds to natural disasters, by refusing to fund it. In its place they intend to establish a profit-making private disaster-response company, headed up by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, son and brother of former presidents. This, along with profit-making privatization, in prisons, education, and hospitals, will enable the ultra-wealthy to collect a few more fortunes out of the system before it collapses.

“Death from a thousand cuts” - cut the cost of government, cut it until it is profitable for the ultra-wealthy who manipulate it in order to increase their wealth. Dump the burden of taxes onto the shoulders of the poor and middle classes. Set up casinos, which are really a form of regressive taxation, appealing as they do to the poor, the minority, the elderly on fixed incomes. Fund education through property taxes, so the suburbs where the wealthy live have good schools, and the poor inner cities and outlying rural districts, suffer with shabby education.

Economies are going to die. And there will be revolutions.

But don’t worry about the ultra-wealthy; they will be safe in their bomb-proof underground mansions while the rest of us up here fry in World War III.

As the Bible said: “The love of money is the root of all evil.”