From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Date: Wed Jan 08 1997 - 21:55:29 MST
Excerpted from an article in today's HotWired:
Wednesday, 8 January 1997
Post No. 7 of 8
by David Korten
Steve, trying to hide the
fact you're an economist
won't work. As soon as a
woman realizes you believe
rejecting reality will make
it go away, she'll know
immediately.
The importance of
information does not make
corporate power and our
ultimate dependence on the
planet's life-support
systems go away. And just
because the ideologues of
global capitalism avoid
mentioning class and power
doesn't mean that they
don't exist in a capitalist
system.
My Webster's dictionary
defines capitalism as "an
economic system
characterized by private or
corporate ownership of
capital goods." A
capitalist is a "person who
has capital," "a person of
wealth." Simply put,
capitalism is an economic
system ruled by people with
lots of money.
The world's 358 capitalist
billionaires have a
combined net worth of
US$760 billion - equal to
the total annual incomes of
the world's poorest 2.5
billion people. Prepare for
a shocker, Steve. Global
capitalism is not
classless! And the power of
global megacorporations is
used by capitalists to
exert control over
ever-expanding portions of
the global economy. They
monopolize information,
limit the availability of
competing products, dictate
cultural tastes through
media control, and buy
politicians to rewrite laws
in their favor.
You don't think
corporations plan their
global expansion? Attend a
board meeting of the
Campbell Soup company.
Corporations aren't
rewriting the rules to
create a global economy?
Check out a meeting of the
World Trade Organization.
Or just read the business
press.
Steve, let's get to the
heart of the matter. The
Bionomics Institute falls
into the classic trap of
libertarian think tanks
funded with corporate
money. You don't
distinguish between freedom
for people and freedom for
megacorporations. You even
reject the idea that a
corporation is an
authoritarian system of
organized economic power -
a reality as obvious to
most people as the need to
have land, water, and
sunlight to grow oranges.
Steve, you'll be startled
to learn that I am also a
libertarian and an advocate
of market economies.
However, as did Adam Smith,
I recognize the difference
between a healthy market
economy comprised largely
of small, local enterprises
serving local markets and a
diseased market economy in
which a handful of
megacorporations grow like
a spreading cancer sucking
the life from people and
nature. Is the disease
running out of control? You
bet it is. And the patient
is dying.
It is within our means to
create healthy market
economies that work for all
the world's people without
destroying the planet's
life-support system. For
concrete ideas on how, see
the final chapter of When
Corporations Rule the
World. Though it won't be
easy, we can and must
eliminate the cancer and
reorder our economic
priorities. The first step?
Stop rejecting reality.
Comments?
I found one fat error: comparing the ASSETS of the 300+ richest people
to the ANNUAL INCOMES of the worlds poorest 2.8 billion people. Apples
and oranges. THose people live in nations where personal property is not
recognized as a human right, so they consequently have ZERO assets with
which to build lives with.
He correctly identified the mercantilist/government collusion that goes
on daily. However his prescription of "STOP REJECTING REALITY" is about
as vague as Schroedingers Cat.
Anyone else?
--
TANSTAAFL!!!
Michael Lorrey
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- Mike Lorrey
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