whitehatincoon
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Let me begin simply by saying that nothing you read here will, or in any case should, come as a surprise to you. Modern capitalism has been the defining political movement of the 20th century. Through several attempts to isolate myself from the all encompassing thrall of this cantankerous system I have come to the realisation that it is NOT as all-powerful a system as many believe.
You see the fundamental problem with capitalism is that is essentially like a self-replicating organism. We begin with a set amount of money within any economy and a set number of goods. Now, within the confines of this system there is only so much money that can be made by any one individual (the absolute maximum amount to be accrued being equal to the total money supply), but by adding additional elements to the system we can change it irrevocably sending both the money supply and consumption on an exponential upward spiral (the former being caused by the latter).
This element is marketing
Now you could argue that concepts such as status and jealousy existed long before the advent of marketing, but you would be wrong. Marketing is not some isolated concept created in the 1980s along with MTV and **** electronic music. Just to make things extra pretentious why dont we throw in a lofty quotation to reinforce the point of this, the crux of my argument
Man does not create he discovers Antoni Gaudi
In other words marketing is simply an attempt to understand and manipulate the underlying urges that govern mass human behavioural traits. The herd mentality exists in all sentient life-forms to some extent, the reason it works so effectively and unknowingly upon humans? We are arrogant enough to believe we are somehow above it.
The easiest way to control someone is to make them think they have made a decision themselves. To gently nudge your victim in the direction you wish them to take while taking the long way round to ensure that the bait is taken freely and without any real coercion. This is why appealing to peoples aspirations has proved so effective in recent history. It is no longer necessary to explain the benefits of a product, you simply have to show someone using the product who has a superior level of happiness to the mark and their own envy will take over.
And why is this such a bad thing?
Because its killing us, or at least killing me.
It is eating away at your soul and locking you away with all your precious things. Pulling you towards a life of insular contemplation of mass accumulation. It is creating the impression of need which in turn is making us work far longer hours than we need to, the concept of lots of things = happy life may work for some people, but at some point you have to step back and realise that you have all the most wonderful toys and little or no time to play with them.
But how does this relate to the money supply?
Simple really, people want more and goods but sellers still want to make a profit. Prices remain the same but demand increases resulting in most people working more hours or demanding higher wages. What people forget however is that the people who pay their wages are also people who supply their goods. If your boss is going to give you a raise its got to come from somewhere and it will usually be passed straight on to the consumer in the form of a price hike. Now if both prices and wages are increased were no better off, that much is a given, but it also results in a far greater rich poor divide (most price/wage increases will be on a percentage basis).
Given that everyone has the same basic needs we will see an increase in luxury expenditure from the rich (whose basket of basics will cost the same as those consumed by someone on welfare) as an increasingly smaller proportion of their wages are required for basic necessities. As a result of this massive disparity we see rich people with all the accoutrements of success (the big screen tv, the flash car, etc) and what does this create? Jealousy!
And this brings us full circle
Is there a point to all this? I honestly dont know, but Ill try to find one later
You see the fundamental problem with capitalism is that is essentially like a self-replicating organism. We begin with a set amount of money within any economy and a set number of goods. Now, within the confines of this system there is only so much money that can be made by any one individual (the absolute maximum amount to be accrued being equal to the total money supply), but by adding additional elements to the system we can change it irrevocably sending both the money supply and consumption on an exponential upward spiral (the former being caused by the latter).
This element is marketing
Now you could argue that concepts such as status and jealousy existed long before the advent of marketing, but you would be wrong. Marketing is not some isolated concept created in the 1980s along with MTV and **** electronic music. Just to make things extra pretentious why dont we throw in a lofty quotation to reinforce the point of this, the crux of my argument
Man does not create he discovers Antoni Gaudi
In other words marketing is simply an attempt to understand and manipulate the underlying urges that govern mass human behavioural traits. The herd mentality exists in all sentient life-forms to some extent, the reason it works so effectively and unknowingly upon humans? We are arrogant enough to believe we are somehow above it.
The easiest way to control someone is to make them think they have made a decision themselves. To gently nudge your victim in the direction you wish them to take while taking the long way round to ensure that the bait is taken freely and without any real coercion. This is why appealing to peoples aspirations has proved so effective in recent history. It is no longer necessary to explain the benefits of a product, you simply have to show someone using the product who has a superior level of happiness to the mark and their own envy will take over.
And why is this such a bad thing?
Because its killing us, or at least killing me.
It is eating away at your soul and locking you away with all your precious things. Pulling you towards a life of insular contemplation of mass accumulation. It is creating the impression of need which in turn is making us work far longer hours than we need to, the concept of lots of things = happy life may work for some people, but at some point you have to step back and realise that you have all the most wonderful toys and little or no time to play with them.
But how does this relate to the money supply?
Simple really, people want more and goods but sellers still want to make a profit. Prices remain the same but demand increases resulting in most people working more hours or demanding higher wages. What people forget however is that the people who pay their wages are also people who supply their goods. If your boss is going to give you a raise its got to come from somewhere and it will usually be passed straight on to the consumer in the form of a price hike. Now if both prices and wages are increased were no better off, that much is a given, but it also results in a far greater rich poor divide (most price/wage increases will be on a percentage basis).
Given that everyone has the same basic needs we will see an increase in luxury expenditure from the rich (whose basket of basics will cost the same as those consumed by someone on welfare) as an increasingly smaller proportion of their wages are required for basic necessities. As a result of this massive disparity we see rich people with all the accoutrements of success (the big screen tv, the flash car, etc) and what does this create? Jealousy!
And this brings us full circle
Is there a point to all this? I honestly dont know, but Ill try to find one later
