Capitalism Canibalizing Itself-Part 4

Capitalism Cannibalizing Itself-Part 4

Our ruling class has figured out how to subjugate all of us in so many ways that it is baffling to try to wrap your mind around it. I alluded before to having figured out who our real enemy is, not the right or the left-wing voters, but ultimately it is the corporate ruling class. Not all of the elite rich who are born into wealth, and never need to work a day of their lives are against the working class, but definitely the majority are. Perhaps not actively, but for sure passively, since it maintains their way of life. Definitely, any of them that pull the strings of the lawmakers that pass policies that go against the interests of the majority of the populace are against us. One example that has gotten a bit of coverage in recent years is the hedge fund Blackrock, which owns and is able to manipulate so many aspects of U.S. policy and the economy that they basically own the U.S. as our oligarchs.

Some see this as something to aspire towards, “temporarily embarrassed billionaires “ as I’ve heard them called, and maybe through some fluke of the system, some can rise the ranks. However, most often the ones who are “self-made” really were born into families that supplied them with the capital and connections to help their ideas or startups succeed.

“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops”. — Stephen Jay Gould

Have you ever asked yourself who invented the self landing rockets we see from Space-X? It wasn’t Elon, it was his engineers who got zero credit. What about the iPhone? The answer again is a team of engineers that mostly remain nameless.

Not only is this fueled by narcissism on the part of the CEOs, who want all the credit for the inventions, but it fits directly in with the “self-made man” myth, and by relation “U.S. exceptionalism”. Also, keep in mind that many of the engineers in these companies are immigrants who received their education outside of the country, likely in countries that provide either free or extremely affordable education. “But isn’t that the American dream to immigrate and become successful in the U.S.?” Then ask yourself why they needed to come to the U.S.? Why does the U.S. have the chance of people becoming so rich? The answer is that the U.S. values profit above all else, the laws help mega corporations to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, and also allow them to exploit developing nations for their resources, many of these companies having more GDP than those entire nations.

These inconvenient facts don’t fit the narrative of U.S. exceptionalism. We aren’t taught to have a collective sense of accomplishment, to praise the group for doing things, or to come together to take care of those who can’t do it themselves or fall on hard times. Maybe these concepts are pushed in the home for some, but not on a national level. That sort of thinking is considered “socialism”, which we are taught to fear. The work to take care of people who fall on hard times falls to charities, many of which are religious organizations that have their own agendas and issues with exploiting people, and being less than transparent, but I digress. Those who fall on hard times must be drug addicts, or just not working hard enough, right? After all, if they work hard enough, they can be a billionaire too!

For some reason, much of the populace trusts corporations more than they do elected officials, when in reality it’s the corporations that are corrupting the elected officials. The U.S. at this point is essentially an oligarchy, a country run by the extremely wealthy, and perhaps it always has been, but the wealth disparity is worse than it ever? Basically, every person who makes it to Washington D.C. sooner than later ends up on the take, and the laws are set up to make it legal!

They send the jobs overseas by passing “free trade agreements”, they did this with NAFTA and tried to do it with the TPP as well to offshore even more jobs. This, of course, cuts labor costs extremely for any corporation that is able to either have their factories or call centers over in these countries. In the case of the Philippines, the jobs may only pay 1–3 USD/hr, which makes it obvious why the jobs would be offshored to save money, although in that country that wage can actually afford you an apartment, etc., but in the U.S. we don’t have the luxuries of cheap rent, thanks to Blackrock.

Then again, a lot of Americans wouldn’t be happy with having to pay more for products to be made in the U.S. that are currently being made in factories overseas because most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. They keep everyone desperate enough to not even give these topics more than a cursory glance, you’re too busy trying to keep food on the table and a roof over your head to worry about the bigger picture of why things are the way they are.