You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker

Stencil graffiti in Lübeck

“You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker”
― Malcolm X

Capitalism is defined as a mode by which trade, industries, and the means of production are largely or entirely privately owned. This is across the board regardless of the industry or the need for the particular good or service that is offered, so in essence everything has a price even a life. The organisations on the other side of this transaction are modern day vampires that are only there to suck consumer dry. If we think of the rights of the citizens of a country, even citizens of the world there are some necessities that every individual should have the right to. They include all of the essentials that we need to live a healthy life such as health care, clean drinking water, education ect. By privatising the essentials we are seeing the natural divide that Capitalism creates in society with the haves and the have nots.

We see countless advertisements for a variety of charity organisations asking us to dig deep into our hip pockets to donate to those less fortunate than us in developing nations when there are those going without the simple necessities in life that we all deserve in our own backyards. Not to say that we are experiencing the same rate of poverty that other countries are, but maybe we should workout what we are doing here before we go play the hero and fix other countries. The people of a nation should not have to intervene to aid others when the government can do so on there behalf, they are more concerned with having the image of supporting our neighbouring countries than actually having a real impact. 

By giving the people of a nation tax incentives to donate to charity they may appear that they care but in a way there really just giving themselves a way out, the government has been elected to make decisions on our behalf rather than to put the onus back on to their people. A recent survey of how much Australia allocates in the budget to foreign aid found than Australians grossly underestimate the the amount of money that is allocated. We do not think of the long term benefit of our actions rather just focusing on the here and now, altruism is definitely not a by product of capitalism but the failure to recognise that the lack of government intervention is capitalism's biggest weakness is were the issue lies.

We are led to believe that the less we are taxed the better off we are and that a progressive tax system is enough, but we see the loop holes that exist within the system to see the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. When we see all the excises that the mining industry is given and we wonder why they are constantly growing despite the constant drops in commodity prices we assume that their other assets and capital must explain there constant cash flows and are oblivious to all of the government support. Yes I agree with government intervention and there may be a significant impact if these big organisations fall but that is not to say that they should build a organisation with subsidies and excises. This goes against the cornerstone of a free market system, where the argument is that we do not help so only the best survive, yet if we look hard enough we see that this ideology changes when it suits them.

Capitalism is meant to give no one an edge and is said to let only the best of the best prosper in an environment driven by competition were the government's main role is to reduce if not removing all barriers to entry to encourage this environment of competition. This leads to the best product and services at the best price which all individuals within a market place seek out to find. So how are we meant to do all this when our Government is protecting the big players in the market and giving them the upper hand. To distract us from this they release new policies that are said to stimulate small businesses and allow new competitors to enter the market not because they have a chance but so they look like there on our side. Well to be on our side they need to create a more even playing field rather than aid large scale organisations and individuals to stay there and bully the new players out of the market. The established players already have natural benefits that exist within the market such as economies of scale, these already make it hard enough to break into without the added aid of the government.

BsB.

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much...

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt

On the 12th of April 1945 not only did the US lose there president but the world lost a man who actually wanted to make a difference in the world. FDR was one of the first and unfortunately one of the last who understood the importance of economic reform in relation to the running of a country. We have seen countless governments come and go without having as significant impact on the world as he did, and yet he had so much more to offer the world. Despite all that he achieved he still strived to improve the world for everybody in it, not just the people at the top or just those within the borders of his country he did what was right for the world as a whole. Yet he was never satisfied with all the work that he did because he knew that he had only made a small dent in peoples lives. This notion that we must test our progress, after all how do we know that what we have done in working or if it has achieved our goal if we never test it. Implementing a solution is only half the job it needs to be maintained and most of the time modified to make sure that it is achieving the intended goals, this is quite often due to variables that we not foreseen or were not even predicted when the idea first came about.

We see politician in this day and age come and go without having any impact on their nation let alone the whole world. Not all countries an economy comparable to the US, yet there is no excuse not to make a difference in your own backyard. The US is a unique case in that California alone is the 8th largest economy in the world but we can all make a difference by the decisions we make no matter where we live or how big our buying power is. By definition we are all an economy no matter how large or small we can be measured by our production and consumption of goods and services and our supply and access to money. We quite often hear about making purchases in order to help the environment and using our purchasing power to vote for a green planet yet this often have a negative impact on the environment despite the best of intentions. Rather that choosing the green thumb and failing, why not use that to vote for progress and the redistribution of income and wealth via our daily buying habits. If we steer away from the big multimillion dollar organisation that exploit workers in developing countries we will be sending a message to the governments of our countries that we want to so progression and reduce the gap. If FDR was alive today I highly doubt that he would be proud of the current state of the US economy and the inequality that has worsened since his passing. This is one of the few areas that are highlighted countless times throughout history as needing to be changed but has steadily deteriorated in the face of capitalist economic ideology shown by the government and their reforms that favour the rich and widen the gap with the poor. With public education and healthcare taking a back-foot in the western world to privatised health care and education system we are seeing a trend that sees the underprivileged turning to a life of crime and drugs due to the lack of infrastructure. The blame is put on the minorities and ethnic backgrounds due to racial prejudice rather than the real core of the problem being the government and its economic reforms. As a society we are too quick to use race as a scapegoat, you would think that in the 21st century the prejudices that we faced in the years gone by would be left in the past and we would learn from the mistakes of history. That we can no longer generalise based on the colour of someone's skin or their racial background. The government is happy to turn a blind eye to all of this why because it allows them to shift the blame and to continue to run the country with capitalist economic reforms without anyone asking questions. In the mean time the gap continues to grow and we are none the wiser thinking that this is not a problem that can be solve with government reforms, we are lead to believe that it is a cultural issue that is simply impossible to change, when this is far from the truth.

We see this happening throughout the western world yet we sit back and watch it take place. It is a shame when we think about FDR and the words that he spoke so many years ago and how he pasted without fulfilling his lifetime goals. For him to come so close and to see that all his hard work has been reversed would have been twice as hard. How as a society do we continue when we see capitalism rear it's ugly head in the form of the GFC, how do we let the government continue to allow these banking CEOs to continue to extend the gap. When we look at who was worst hit by this crisis we are not met with the stories of the rich and wealthy meeting their fate as the crash and tumble back to earth, we see them move on to bigger and better things without even breaking stride. While the rest of society suffer the consequences of their actions, we need to identify that sitting here and cursing the names of these individuals will achieve nothing nor will it protect us from others doing the same in the future. The government are the only ones who can protect us therefore we must do everything in their power to protect us but why would they unless we speak up and show that we will not longer stand for this. Their will always be people that take advantage in all forms of society, the government's key role is to protect society from these few. Majority of us if put in that position would not exploit our community but just because we will not does not mean that we do not need to protect ourselves from the few that will. This can only be done with the help of the government the people can only do so much without reform, that is why we must put the pressure on to continue what FDR started and get society back into a position he would be proud of.

BsB.

Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success.

"Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success." - Tom Petty

In this day and age you would think that as a society we have come to the realisation that it is more important to us in life that we do what we enjoy rather than that which makes us the most money. In a time when the inequality in the distribution of income and wealth is it at an all time high we need not look very far to the see the magnitude of people who have made the to decision to choose income over passion. I encourage everyone to look at people around them, be it at work, at home, friends or even family and I have no doubt that you will know of at least one person if not more that has pick the path of money over passion. The investment banker with an engineering degree, the business analyst with a masters degree in science, these just being the obvious examples of this modern day dilemma. Not to mention the examples that are much harder to identify on the surface, the individuals that are pressured into tertiary education by family and friends or the individuals afraid of the stigma that is associated with the particular career or even not being aware that this is a career in the first place or finally the most commonly seen reason the fear that this will not be a viable source of income. This notion of viability has always been a hurdle but the more it is feared the stronger it becomes, without pioneers to lead the way we will not evolve as a society and no new occupations will be created. I am sure that a lot of the occupations that are common in the modern day where once thought of to be hobbies and passion projects and that by the individuals doing them could never be a viable source of income let alone a source of any income what so ever. 

The fixation of home rental being a dirty word and the notion that why would anyone waste their money paying off someone else's mortgage when they could pay off their own, this has been the core issue that has created a variety of by products in the current market place. Whenever we compare rent and ownership in today's society we must add investment to make this logical to our readers, this notion that the money that is saved must be spent on another asset or source of income is exactly why we as a society have become so obsessed with finding the career that will get the house that we make us happy rather than making a career from that which we are passionate about giving us infinite happiness. Why must we spend all of the income that is at our disposal when as soon as it is in our back account, why do we insist on living pay check to pay check, why, because this is how the banks want it, and who is encouraging this behaviour our government, why because this will strength the economy in the current capitalist system. Without debt the banks have little to earn and the capitalist system would fall apart, if we accumulate less wealth which always starts with more debt than we intern pay less interest, the government is not concerned with what impact this is having on the real majority the main concern is keeping the banks happy. What is wrong with renting, and not investing the money that we save from renting, of course the notion that we rent one hundred per cent of all property is not viable as without anyone to own the extra homes that they do not live in this will remove supple of rental properties. But rather those who can afford to purchase property and can afford to so without too much assistance from the bank do so but those who are not able to do so as they are yet to discovered away to make a lucrative amount of income from their passion projects can rent and still use their income to boost the economy by spending money on other means to support local businesses of invest in their passion project directly to become pioneers in the field.

We have come to a point where we are thinking of work less as an outlet of passion and expression and more of a clasp of restriction and control, why is it that we spend so much time in careers and jobs that do not harness our talents and strengths. We spend so much of our lives working, do we not deserve to be doing something that we love rather than just going to work every day to pay our oversized mortgage that we never needed in the first place. We look around and see that everyone else is as miserable as we are and the only ones that are happy at work are sportsmen and women and actors and actresses. We never stop to think there was a point when that was not a high earning career yet it is still around today, why, because of the passion, the drive, the desire to break to mould and do what they love. We wish that we were given the talents that they posses so we could forge such a meaningful existence, ignoring that fact that we all capable of doing so in our own right, majority of these movie and sporting stars would have face some setbacks in there time, rejection is not confined to only the small people. This drive for greatness is what has lead them to this and majority if not all did not follow this path seeking the ability to buy that house or to live in that street they did so because they hold passion and they want to achieve goals. Regardless of the field of interest we all need to following what we think we are meant to do and start following what we were born to do, because hope is what drive us and fear is all that can stop us, once your mind is made up it can do very powerful things.

BsB.

“He who dies with the most toys...dies a child.”

“He who dies with the most toys...dies a child.” - James Rozoff

Today's society has lead us down the path of wealth accumulation. We as a society expect our patrons to come into the world go to school get an education, find a job start working, buy a house buy a car and keep on doing so until we die. Why I ask do we all have to follow this path working to we retire and buying till our immanent death, how did we end up here and why do we all choose to accept this fate. Is it a generation issue or has this been going on for so long that no one can remember when and how it started, did our parent just follow this path as their parents did or was it pushed on them by the government and large scale organisations with the power to do so. 

Capital Accumulation is what Capitalism is based upon, the belief that we have all been put onto this planet to consume as much as possible and grow our assets and capital as much as we can. Regardless of if we understand why we are doing so, is it for our pleasure or is it so we can benefit as a society so our children and their children will benefit from the paths that we have laid for them. This is far from the case we only have a limited time on this earth and if we spend all our time trying to accumulate as much wealth as we can without enjoying the time that we have it will be over before we have to chance to experience it. All we need to do is look at the countless scientific experiments that prove that buying experiences not possessions give us real happiness. Yet we are all guilty of purchasing every new gadget that is released onto the market, from every new smart phone to smart TV everything that we own has to be the latest and greatest regardless of whether it bring us the joy that we seek from life we buy out of the fear of being left behind. We are hell bent on "Keeping up with Jones'' failing to realise who they actually are and that no matter how much we accrue there will always be someone who appears to be in front us at first glance but in fact we do not see the truth so we are left chasing shadows.

This may seem strange when we look back on society and see that the Ancient Egyptians believed the same basic premise, regardless of the reasoning that lay behind it, they still had the same fundamental belief that he who dies with the most possessions we have the most enjoyable afterlife. That is somewhat more logical than that exist today, we do not believe that these possessions are carried with us after we pass yet we gather as much as possible. Some may argue that we are passing this on to our family and friends via a will but we are then passing on the notion that is what they must do with their lives. It may be different if we were there to see them enjoy it but we're not, and often when our loved ones make the decision to give this to us before we they pass we are forced into giving them the fake emotions that they crave. I say do not die a child live like buy experiences rather than toys, these toys may make you happy for a moment but the memories of an experience are with us for a lifetime.

BsB.