Capitalism

WaPo Defends Its Owner Against Charges That He’s Very Wealthy

January 25, 2018 By Jim Naureckas, Fair.org Educate! Capitalism, Ruling Class, wealth inequality

Awkwardly enough, one of the world’s six wealthiest people is the owner of the paper doing the factchecking. Or as the Postcoyly put it, “(Among the names on the list: Jeffrey P. Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post.)” The Post’s Nicole Lewis didn’t say that Sanders was wrong, exactly. Instead, she said that “he has made a habit of relying on simplified statistics that are provocative but do little to illuminate the complexities of the US economic system.” Or as she said of a similar statement Sanders made about US (not global) wealth, “While technically correct, the condensed soundbite lacked nuance about wealth accumulation and debt in the United States.” The factcheck started out by acknowledging that, yes, the six richest people, according to Forbes, have net wealth of $462.6 billion.

How Can We Bridge The Widening Global Inequality Gap?

January 25, 2018 Winnie Byanyima, Aljazeera.com Strategize! Capitalism, Inequality, World Economic Forum

For the past five years, I have carried Oxfam's call to tackle global inequality to the rich and powerful people attending the World Economic Forum in Davos. I don't sing alone there any more. I'm worried my message is almost mainstream, that I sound like I'm part of the choir. I bet nearly every politician and industry leader I meet in Davos this week will talk the talk about the evils of inequality and be very eloquent and believable, too. I mean, how could they not? The evidence is overwhelming. Surely, no stable genius attending Davos could possibly try to deny, minimise or justify 2018 levels of global inequality? Now that would be a controversial sideshow! Oxfam's report this year is as much about people's stories as it is about inequality's staggering statistics. These are the people around the world losing their lands and livelihoods as fast as ever.

Dangers Of Focusing All Our Attention On Donald Trump

January 24, 2018 Jerome Roos, Roarmag.org Strategize! Capitalism, Crisis, Electoral Politics, Trump Administration

It’s been a year since Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America — and we’re already exhausted. Exhausted by the endless stream of sexist and racist bigotry pouring out of his hideous face and Twitter feed. Exhausted by the rapid succession of 24-hour scandals, one outrage sweeping another from the headlines before the immensity of the previous one has even begun to properly sink in. Exhausted by the immature personal grudges and individual fallings-out that are constantly played out in public amidst the gratuitous threats of nuclear annihilation. Exhausted by the gas-lighting narcissism, the power-hungry egotism and the self-aggrandizing vanity of a multi-billionaire businessman who has never known anything but public adulation for his inherited wealth.

The Invention of Capitalism

January 22, 2018 Yasha Levine, Sustainable Human Minds. Educate! Capitalism, Democracy, Poverty, Workers Rights and Jobs

Our popular economic wisdom says that capitalism equals freedom and free societies, right? Well, if you ever suspected that the logic is full of shit, then I’d recommend checking a book called The Invention of Capitalism, written by an economic historian named Michael Perelmen, who’s been exiled to Chico State, a redneck college in rural California, for his lack of freemarket friendliness. And Perelman has been putting his time in exile to damn good use, digging deep into the works and correspondence of Adam Smith and his contemporaries to write a history of the creation of capitalism that goes beyond superficial The Wealth of Nations fairy tale

A Public Bank Could Relieve Seattle’s Housing Crisis

January 20, 2018 Paul Alexander, Medium.com Create! Capitalism, Development, New Economy

Like hundreds of cities in America, Seattle is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. During a one-year period in 2015–16, Seattle rents increased by 9.7 percent — four times the national average. In 2017, the cost of an average two-bedroom topped $2,000. The results have been predictable: nearly half of Seattle renters are currently “housing-cost burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. They may be the lucky ones. A recent Zillow study cited the connection between even modest rent increases and resulting homelessness; meanwhile, King County’s 2017 One Night Count tallied 11,643 homeless people. The Seattle region’s unhoused population now trails only that of Los Angeles County and New York City — and the survey’s flawed methodology means the true count is almost certainly higher.

Only 4 Out Of 20 #AmazonHQ2 Finalists Have Released Bids

January 20, 2018 By Beryl Lipton, Muckrock.com Educate! Amazon, Capitalism, Cities, Gentrification

The retail company has knocked out 90% of the competing cities - here’s the finalists that released their bids, and the ones that are still holding out. The growing global retailer Amazon has announced the 20 finalists for its challenge to secure homefield rights to its second headquarters. Los Angeles is the only contender left from the West Coast, where Amazon’s current Seattle operations are based; the other cities from that side of the Mississippi to make the cut are Denver, Dallas, and Austin. The other three-quarters of final round qualifiers are Eastern U.S. areas well-known to corporate establishments, places like Boston, Columbus, Raleigh, and Atlanta. Toronto makes the list as the sole non-U.S. locale under consideration.

Freedom Rider: Oligarch Jeff Bezos

January 20, 2018 By Margaret Kimberley, Blackagendareport.com Educate! Amazon, Capitalism, Class Struggle, Inequality, Ruling Class

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $105 billion and is the richest man in the world. But he is not just the richest man at this moment in history. He is the richest person who has ever lived. As of 2017 he and seven other billionaires had a collective net worth equal to that of the poorest 3.6 billion people on earth. These figures have been in the news of late but without much useful analysis. The corporate media refuse to state what is obvious. Namely that inequality is worse around the world precisely because these super rich people demand it. While pundits and politicians go on breathlessly about oligarchs in Russia, they seldom take a look at the wealthiest in their own back yard and the control they exert over the lives of millions of people.

Locally-Owned Businesses Fight Back Against Subsidies To National Chains

January 20, 2018 By Fran Korten, Yesmagazine.org Create! Capitalism, New Economy, Small Business, Subsidies

Lanning is widely recognized for her work. Even though she finds traditional economic development planners to be frequent adversaries, in 2014 the International Economic Development Council awarded her a Citizen Leader of the Year Award. She considers that a turning point in planners’ recognition of the value of local businesses. Arizona Business Magazine named her one of the 50 most influential women in Arizona, and the American Planning Association named her Distinguished Citizen Planner for her work on the reuse of old buildings. In November, at a conference of the nonprofit Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, for which Lanning is an incoming co-chair, Lanning told me of the sources of her passion for local business.

Climate Denial Will Kill Us

January 12, 2018 By Paul Street, Truthdig.com Educate! Capitalism, Climate Change, Environment

The Trump administration’s recent move to permit oil and gas drilling in 90 percent of the federal government’s offshore land presents an opportunity. With vast protected areas of the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic under threat, now is a good time to challenge some of the myths working against Americans’ willingness and ability to stem the ruinous warming of the planet that is resulting from humanity’s excessive burning of fossil fuels. Let’s start with the wild winter weather that has struck the eastern United States. Led by Trump, climate-change deniers clucked as a hurricane-strength blizzard pulverized the Northeast, followed by subzero wind chills. This came after the great winter “bomb cyclone” hit the Southeast, bringing coastal Georgia its first “mix of snow and palm trees” since the late 1980s.

Humans Only Have Few Decades Left. But We Can Change That.

January 10, 2018 By Eleanor Goldfield, Artkillingapathy.com Create! Capitalism, Class Struggle, Crisis

By severing effect from cause, we are not only dangerously cut off from understanding the gravity of these events, but we are also blind to climate change events that (so far) haven’t resulted in world-wide disasters. For example, the fact that we are literally drowning due to sea level rise is perhaps something you’ve heard peripherally on some depressing Facebook post over your morning cup of coffee. The reality, however, is that sea level rise is not only an issue that carries with it catastrophic consequences greater than what we’ve already seen, but it’s happening faster than previously predicted. In November of last year, NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) mission warned that due to temperatures as high as 54º above normal, the Greenland ice sheet is “far more unstable than we realized.”

Amazon Is Hurting Independent Retailers And Chains

January 10, 2018 By Olivia LaVecchia, Ilsr.org Create! Amazon, Capitalism, Commodification, New Economy

The retail industry is experiencing significant upheaval. Online shopping is expanding rapidly, many national chains have closed locations and even declared bankruptcy, and malls are going dark in record numbers. Headlines have started calling this wave of closures a “historic tipping point” for American retail. However, almost all of the media reporting about these trends has focused on national retail chains. In order to find out how changes in the retail landscape are affecting independent businesses, we decided to ask them. Working with a coalition of national small business trade associations, we conducted a survey that gathered data from over 850 independent retailers across the country in a variety of retail categories.

Time To Confront Scourge Of Capitalism In Food System

January 9, 2018 By Justin Theodra, Truthout.org Educate! Capitalism, Food and Agriculture

In December, the Kraft Heinz Company launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign in response to "prolonged negative perceptions" about the health risk associated with its products. Between 2014 and 2016, Kraft Heinz's net income fell by an astounding 24 percent, due in no small part to concerns about the corporation's nutritional record. Kraft's new "Family Greatly" campaign attempts to dissuade parents from substituting Kraft classics for more nutritious alternatives. Ostensibly, it enjoins parents to cut themselves some well-deserved slack, by reminding them "nobody's perfect." The predatory character of this advertising campaign should come as no surprise given that it has been administered by the Leo Burnett Co. advertising house of the creator of both Marlboro Man and Ronald McDonald, the originator behind both "lifestyle advertising" and "lifestyle diseases."

The Free Market Made Us Do It!

January 8, 2018 By Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org Educate! Capitalism, Economics, Market, New Economy

Apologists for the many millions in compensation that America’s largest corporations regularly dole out to their top executives have essentially one basic, all-purpose go-to defense. America’s corporate giants, this defense contends, are just paying the going “market rate” for top-notch executive talent. So chill out, America. Average Americans who complain about excessive executive pay, says Stanford Business School’s Nick Donatiello, simply do not realize “how much compensation is required, given the market for talent, to attract and motivate the right people.” Any company that tries to go cheap and get by without that “right talent,” America’s corporate wisdom continues, would never be able to successfully compete in our globalized marketplace. Does this defense hold any water? Not any more.

The Unemployment Conspiracy

January 4, 2018 Bruce Lesnick, Counterpunch.org Educate! Capitalism, Class Struggle, New Economy, Unemployment

Real unemployment in the U.S. today hovers around 8.3%, afflicting more than 17 million people. This is roughly equivalent to the combined populations of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. Over one third of the working age population has given up looking for work. On top of this, pundits project that many more jobs will be lost to automation in the near future, with computers and robots replacing as many as 49% of the jobs now done by humans. The mechanization of dirty, dangerous, repetitive, mind-numbing tasks should be a blessing. Instead, the future is described in apocalyptic terms. Why? The problem is rooted in the disingenuous narrative we are fed. Jobs, so the story goes, are mysterious, ephemeral things, whose comings and goings are largely beyond our control.

100-Year Capitalist Experiment Keeps Appalachia Poor & Stuck On Coal

January 3, 2018 Gwynn Guilford, Qz.com Educate! Appalachia, Capitalism, Coal, Mining, Poverty

The first time Nick Mullins entered Deep Mine 26, a coal mine in southwestern Virginia, the irony hit him hard. Once, his ancestors had owned the coal-seamed cavern that he was now descending into, his trainee miner hard-hat secure. His people had settled the Clintwood and George’s Fork area, along the Appalachian edge of southern Virginia, in the early 17th century. Around the turn of the 1900s, smooth-talking land agents from back east swept through the area, coaxing mountain people into selling the rights to the ground beneath them for cheap. One of Mullins’ ancestors received 12 rifles and 13 hogs—one apiece for each of his children, plus a hog for himself—in exchange for the rights to land that has since produced billions of dollars worth of coal.

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