Greedism #OWS

Generally, I'm a fan of capitalism. I like knowing I have the freedom to innovate anything I want and try to sell it, should I ever think of a fantastic idea that will help society and, in turn, my wallet. But rampant greed and government corruption have perverted our financial system into something that's called "capitalism" but really isn't -- I'm not sure what to call our system, actually. Feudalism? Greedism?

For example, in our financial system it would be incredibly difficult for someone as poor as me to raise the capital needed to found a business. Personally, I can't even get a credit card right now -- nevermind a business loan. But suppose I did have an idea, a business plan, and a loan and got off the ground. What happens then?

Further growth requires that other investors believe in my ideas, which is why capitalism works well in conjunction with democracy because investors are able to vote with their dollars. If investors believe my ideas are profitable, they are supposed to be able to invest in my company by purchasing stock in hopes that my ideas will cause the stock price to grow, increasing the return on their investment. And with stock dollars giving me a fresh infusion of capital, I am supposed to invest that capital in growing my business: hiring more people, producing more products, and selling more stuff.

As long as a business grows, everyone's happy. Right? Investors are richer, the company is growing, and more jobs are created. In a capitalist system, everyone should be happy with this.

You would think.

What if I told you a month ago that you could invest in a business whose quarterly performance would increase by 39% compared to last year, ending at $29.28 billion in revenue. Additionally, that company just released a new product which sold 4 million units in three days, breaking sales records. If you had the clairvoyance to see that all of this would happen, would you believe in the company? Would you jump at a chance to buy that stock?

Well, if you bought Apple stock last month, you would have lost money yesterday because the stock price lost 6.5% of its value. Why? Because investors didn't think Apple grew fast enough.

Yes. Really.

Ponder that notion for a minute or two, then ask yourself exactly just how greedy are the one percent? Then ask how democratic this system is, since people like you and I -- who would invest in such a company based on how they are growing right now -- are too busy cobbling together enough money to eat, so we don't have the money needed to voice our opinions on an open market.

That's not capitalism, that's an extreme addiction to money that needs to be recognized as a mental illness. After society recognizes this as an illness, it must be treated with medication, therapy, and in some cases temporary institutionalization of the sick.

Instead, our politicians and media embrace this sickness. They claim it's normal capitalism -- and that's the problem.

The Investors Strike Back

One of the paradoxes of the Great Recession (I do not recognize this "double dip" phrase because I never saw the first recession end) was that corporations were swimming in profits -- and stock prices were sky high. We almost grew used to seeing the Dow Jones index above 12,000 points. All of that changed in the past few days, since the debt ceiling was raised -- the Wall Street ceiling has fallen. Nobody knows when it will land.

Despite investors placing money in corporations by purchasing their stock, American employment has been stagnant -- companies didn't want to hire, despite having the cash to expand. Companies argued that markets for new goods didn't exist since, well, none of them were hiring new people.

That negative feedback loop perpetuated itself until Obama was elected, passed a historic stimulus bill that spent a few hundred billion on needed infrastructure repairs around the country, put people back to work, created markets of employed workers who would purchase more goods, and prompted private companies to start hiring again to cash in on the new prosperity.

Hah! Just kidding. Obama's "stimulus" bill spent $26 billion on highway infrastructure projects, while allotting $116 billion for a tax credit. Fat lot of fucking good that did -- Obama added that to get Republicans to vote for the stimulus deal, which none of them did. Corporations awash in investors money still didn't hire, and now investors finally realized that corporations tied to their stock portfolios weren't going to expand, so they fled.

Lesson to corporations: If you don't spend the money when you have it, then you lose it.

Lesson to Obama: Stop fucking around with Republicans on useless bullshit like deficit cutting when, right now, we need deficit spending like crazy -- and that doesn't mean spending on tax cuts. Raise those. And if you can't sell this policy to the American people, sit aside and let a candidate who will do the right thing run for president.