Posted on 03/28/2016 7:57:15 AM PDT by Lorianne
Those in power have accomplished such feats of incompetence that they have made Donald Trump look like a superman ___
It seems that democratic capitalism – this odd institutional creature that has tried to marry a capitalist economic system (the implicit rule by the few) to a democratic political one (the explicit rule by the many) – has run into yet another legitimation crisis.
This term, made popular by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas in the early 1970s, aptly captures the dissonance between the stated objectives of our political institutions – the need to promote equality, justice, fairness – and today’s harsh political reality, where the very same institutions often stand in the way of upholding those values.
Habermas’s initial conception of legitimation crisis emphasised its cultural dimension, for, as he assumed at the time, the smoothly running welfare state, despite all the naysaying by the radicals, was reducing social disparities, empowering the workers and ensuring that they got a growing share of the still-expanding economic pie.
That argument did not age well.
First it was inflation; then it was unemployment; then public debt; eventually it was financial deregulation in order to facilitate private debt, so that citizens could at least borrow money to buy things that they could no longer afford and that the government, now subject to neoliberal dogmas about the virtues of austerity, could subsidise no more.
Today, however, there’s a major change. While the financial industry has historically been key to “buying time” and staving off the populist rebellion, in the future that role will be assigned to the technology industry, with a minor role played by the global advertising markets – the very magic wand that allows so many digital services to be offered for free, in exchange for our data.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
GOvernment is out of control
As compared to socialism, which is explicit rule by the few.
The conflict between the People and economic power is as old as human civilization. Most people get it. When it becomes a problem is when those who are charged with organizing economic production seek to further their welfare through resort to political advantage rather than efficient management of the means of production. When these get too far out of kilter revolution occurs.
Exactly ... they always overlook that minor point.
Free markets are ruled by the masses - that’s the whole point.
In a capitalist system, if you don’t like your king, you walk across the street and give your money to a different king.
In a socialist system, if you don’t like your king, shut up.
smoothly running welfare stat Sure; why not? The welfare state in the 70’s was still in its first or second generation of welfare recipients.
was reducing social disparities Actually the opposite is true. However the impact of the increasing load of the welfare system on the middle class was small enough to be ignored while economic growth was still strong.
was reducing social disparities Perhaps true in a few cases where welfare helps out a widowed mother but largely the opposite is true. Welfare traps people in the lower class by making it economically very risky to enter the job market. Fathers are encouraged to be irresponsible and to abandon their children. The children of welfare recipients never see a parent in a full time job and learn to accept joblessness as a fact of life. Where the United States was once a classless society because anyone could escape their class and move up the social ladder through work and success, now the US has a permanent underclass trapped by welfare.
empowering the workers and ensuring that they got a growing share of the still-expanding economic pie How can the social welfare system empower the worker? How can a worker (productive member of the economy) be empowered by having part of his income confiscated by the state to be given to an unproductive member of society?
Are those companies off-shoring that as well? ;/
I would rather be ruled by the first 100 Linux Developers sitting in cubes at Google than....
These are not the stated objectives of the Constitutions of the United States, nor those of the several States. This is it:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution...
There is no possible way for a government to institute "equality" or "fairness" without taking everything away from everyone and redistributing it. And even then, there will objects of envy, such as personal beauty.
Similarly, governments cannot "promote justice", in the way that the social justice types want, without taking from some by force.
So, no, their little socialist vision does not work.
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