Faentoller [none/use name]
I would not use this graph to defend socialism. Do you know how many capitalists would kill for a 7% return in this economy? Interest rates are actually trending negative in many parts of the world and the amount of money sloshing through the economy is not slowing down.
Also, look at companies like Uber that have never (and never will) make a profit, and yet is valued at around $47B right now (although down from its peak at $60B). Profit ceased to be a motivating factor for investors a long time ago. Instead market share (i.e. the hope for more monopolies), and an increasing customer base is now what attracts capital.
There are plenty of excellent reasons to defend socialism on a purely empirical basis, rate of profit ain’t it.
I know it’s too late for this, and you’re angry about the situation… please don’t do this. Speaking as the person who’s been on the other side of that table, please do not tell them to go fuck themselves. I had a candidate once who was very smart and accomplished, but exhibited signs that he was not a good fit for the team. We told him that we would not be inviting him back for the second round of interviews, and the next day my boss got an anonymous email telling him he was an old, fat prick and a douchebag who didn’t appreciate the candidate’s brilliance. The whole team breathed a sigh of relief that we dodged that bullet, and it reinforced our view that our instincts were right, the guy was not a good fit for our team. I still have the guy’s resume in my desk, and I know if he applied for the position again (we are lucky to have been hiring a lot in the last three years) I would think twice about that candidate, despite his impressive qualifications. “This guy has threatened us in the past” is a perfectly good reason not to hire somebody.
I’m not so sure it would shake out that way. The government has consistently signaled that it will abandon local regions to their fate when times get rough. On the other hand, the Fed has said pretty much explicitly that they will be printing unlimited money for banks, hedge funds, major institutions and large corporations for the foreseeable future, inflation be damned. Instead of “collapsing in on itself” I see regions competing for attention and resources. So political fights turn into fights for survival. Not everywhere in the United States will feel the pain equally.
What’s really odd to me though, is that people seem intent on moving into and staying in areas that anybody with a brain can see are going to be experiencing huge challenges in the future (Phoenix , AZ and about 90% of Florida being the obvious examples). Arizona has been locked into battle with Colorado and most of the rest of the southwest for several decades over the water issue. There’s no shortage of blame to go around, so the natural tendency of Americans to find an enemy has been well-exercised.
“hand yourself in”? So their protest slogan is a pun? A PUN? A pun about submitting to authority, dick-in-hand, instead of challenging it meaningfully. Great.
This is a good thread to post The Revolutionary Catechism: https://www.marxists.org/subject/anarchism/nechayev/catechism.htm
It’s pretty aggressive; the revolutionary has to give up a lot of comforts and attachments to continue the fight.
This is the only place on the internet (and in real life for that matter) that I feel comfortable and confident addressing others as “comrade”.
Bain capital is also the one that purposefully ruined Toys R Us to enrich their executives. They just hate kids I guess! https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/09/debt-strike-employee-owned-businesses-and-other-surprisingly-simple-tech-fixes
Contrary to the popular narrative, the company did not go under because of online retail or more savvy competitors. It went under because Bain Capital, the private equity firm started by Mitt Romney, ran it into the ground, using its credit to pay Bain executives huge bonuses while not investing in competing with other retailers. (It’s a slightly more sophisticated version of the way organized crime “busts out” businesses.) Bain did the same thing with KB Toys;
It’s called Consuming Capital, also known as stripping the wires for copper, or eating your seed corn. Once the capitalist runs out of “conventional” means to make a profit, they crank up the exploitation dial until they are exploiting themselves. The last two people on earth will be a pair of capitalists trading a lump of coal between themselves.
“Torching the forest to use the ash as currency is a funny thing to base your entire economic system on…”
