Not my term, but that of Sequoia Capital, a premier venture capitalist company with perspicacious and prescient management, free of illusions.
Inside Details of Sequoia Capital’s Doomsday Meeting With its Companies
They are predicting a fifteen year recession... In other words a depression, one that will rival the Great Depression and the economic turmoil of the 19th century.
One of the key components of this depression? Significant excess productive capacity. We are too wealthy, therefore the capitalist class must impoverish us all until they can make it profitable for them to put ordinary people to work.
There are no physical factors that are causing us to be impoverished. We haven't lost people. We haven't lost productive capabilities; indeed according to the capitalists themselves we have "too much" productive capability, thus driving prices down below profitability.
This depression is a failure only of imagination and will; there is no physical reason we cannot simply think our way out of it.
Sunday, November 02, 2008
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By Jiminy Cricket, you're right! All we gotta do is wish on a star, by gum, and all our dreams will come true.
ReplyDeleteA depression would be the least of it. What we are probably headed for is a hyperinflation scenario. But as the optimists note, that would allow us to pay our debt to China at pennies on the dollar!
By Jiminy Cricket, you're right! All we gotta do is wish on a star, by gum, and all our dreams will come true.
ReplyDeleteThis might be a difficult distinction for you to grasp, but as the Christians and scientists have show us, there's quite a large gap between wishing and thinking.
And if you're going to be a snarky dumbass, you should at least have the courtesy to use a consistent pseudonym.
Q: Lots of people in this world have almost nothing. How can there be overproduction?
ReplyDeleteA: Those people have no ability to purchase these items.
Q: Why don't they have the ability to purchase these items?
A: Energy.
Q: What do you mean, energy?
A: There is not enough oil on the planet to build the transportation, educational, and communications infrastructure needed for these people to participate in the world economy. Thus: Energy.
Q: So what industries should I focus upon?
A: Energy. Solar, geothermal, nuclear, wind. That's going to be the only growth industry of the next few decades, because we're running out of oil and they're not making more of it.
The problem, in other words, is not too much production, any more than that was the problem in 1930. The problem is lack of capital, compounded by lack of energy. By concentrating wealth in the hands of the elite via various strategies that make sure that the wealth produced by the slave classes ends up in the hands of the owner classes, the Busheviks have reduced the capital available to the lower classes that could be used to consume the items produced by the factories of the elite. The end result is the failure of capitalism as a viable system of organizing the economy, something which we already knew was the case due to the time period 1930-1932 -- pure capitalism simply is not capable of maintaining a modern economy. There has to at least be a significant redistributive force somewhere in the economy or the wealth ends up concentrated in a few hands and the economy collapses due to lack of capital.
- Badtux the Economic Heretic Penguin
It has nothing to do with energy, though. The energy required for the physical distribution of goods is, while not negligible, definitely not a significant bottleneck. An enormous portion of the world's productivity is shipped to the United States. Just not shipping a ton of shit here (not to mention commuting in SUVs) would effect a substantial savings in necessary transportation costs while raising the overall standard of living.
ReplyDeleteThe "overproduction" mentioned in my analysis is overproduction relative to what the elite can consume, either directly or to support the lesser privilege of those in the middle class that serves the elite.
The problem is purely political.
Keep in mind that concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite and the collapse of the distributed consumer economy is a good thing, at least to the elite.
i think what ure telling sounds outrageous, but that's only cos the system never encourages analysis. in fact, what ure telling is perfectly reasonable. See, capitalism must aim to keep us poor, why? Cos if we have everything we need, therefore what would we need to buy? Capitalism must also use many techniques to stimulate materialism- which we see even aimed at little kids. Capitalism does not want to reduce us to famine levels of course, but nor can it ever value universal wealth, or at least equality, cos some people got to be more equal that others- to stimulate greed in every one else. Primary means of control- this is turning personages into wage slaves, just to give them enough to survive, and to buy products, but never enough to set them free, either materialy- or spiritually.
ReplyDeleteCapitalism does not want to reduce us to famine levels of course
ReplyDeleteCapitalists do not want to reduce everyone to famine; they don't mind a fair fraction of us literally dying of starvation. At least not so long as we don't rebel or die in numbers or proximity too inconvenient to clean up.
anyone ever wonder why most of us just get paid enough so that we can eat, not die of cold or elements like rain and sun, and carry on just so we can work uninterrupted? Purpose of capitalism isn't to make us wealthy and mobile, it's to keep us alive so we can labour for plutocrats to get rich.
ReplyDeleteNo matter where u live, if it's Pakistan and ure on 150 rupees daily, or Californiyah and ure earning $100,000 a year, end result is always the same- u got always just enough to keep on working, but never enough to break free. The more we labour also, we seek out the twin dope of hedonism and religion, most of us tradeing a real spiritual life for this neurotic ping ponging between faith and debauchery. The Capitalists, like the first high priests in Mohenjo Daro, look on at the masses, as they passtheir time with art, politics and how to keep themselves in power.