tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11635675.post102448563389567739..comments2023-10-29T05:11:37.677-07:00Comments on Porcupine blog: Understanding the Crisis of CapitalismLarry Gambonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04965037776214596919noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11635675.post-57172082762225007572017-09-12T17:45:33.977-07:002017-09-12T17:45:33.977-07:00You have expounded on so many points here...I'...You have expounded on so many points here...I'll just touch on one.<br /><br />"Capitalism" is not so much an economic system as it is a natural outcome in a system which allows private and unharrassed transactions between individuals, transactions freely arrived at.<br /><br />Producers naturally want to maximize capital. But this is not an end in itself, and "money" is not an end in itself: accumulation of capital is a means to GREATER consumption.<br /><br />If a third party (some 'government') restricts the rights of individuals to transact freely that would at a stroke do away with both "peasants and artisans exchanging goods" AND with "capitalism".<br /><br />Baby out with bath-water. I'm not sure I'd want to live under such an authoritarian system, which must eliminate individual actions to accomplish its goals.<br /><br />While I do agree with you that "capitalism" encourages resource depletion and underpricing, I'll submit that the nub of the problem is really the nature of capital" itself - the MONEY.<br /><br />"Money" was historically a "most widely-accepted commodity" (Mises) and that very scarcity ensured that leverage, printing, artificially- and ridiculously-low interest rates, deficit spending and the likes could only occur as a result of DILIGENT, lengthy and disciplined productivity and saving.<br /><br />We now live in a world in which the debauched "money" is largely digital, created artificially by governments and banks and which bears no relationship whatsoever to scarcity or to any generally socially-agreed value.<br /><br />Naturally, this has given immense power to governments, those favoured with early access to the new credit and has reduced the value of honest labour.<br /><br />Re-establish government-ensured gold backed "money", abolish central banking and interest rate manipulation and watch what happens! <br /><br /> Kreditanstaltnoreply@blogger.com