The Real Problem

The problem we are all pretending really doesn’t exist is the question of whether or not capitalism can be permitted to continue the way it is now operating.  Perhaps even more to the point the real question may be, can it now be changed, or is it already too late for that?  

Capitalism is not free enterprise, even though it often claims to be.   It is a consumer of free enterprises.  It’s  purpose is to consolidate more and more capital into fewer and fewer hands, and it is very good at that.  With proper governmental regulation and control, capitalism can accomplish wonderful things for a nation - but if left to “regulate itself” it can challenge and even control the governments of the nations in which it operates.

Since deregulation of American markets began during the Reagan administration, real wages of working class Americans have remained level or slightly decreased.  The national wealth of our country has continued to increase but is consolidated in the possession of fewer and fewer people.  The gap between “rich” and “poor” is greater now in America than in any developed country in the world.  The Great American Middle Class is disappearing,  a  great extinction of small businesses has swept across our land, and our manufacturing investments have been farmed out to other countries where costs of production are cheaper thus increasing profit for large corporations - who pay little or no American taxes.  

Now we have engaged in a tiny scratch of spit between the American president and the leaders of the Republican Party who, negotiating from a posture of electoral rejection in 2008, have engineered a fascist type of action simply by uniting and refusing to work with the new president in any area.  President Obama may think he is negotiating with the leaders of the Republican Party in a democratic engagement, but in reality he is meeting the new face of a new form of government which is ready to replace constitutional governments in the way they replaced that of the old City States.  

Obama seems to think he is fighting a beautiful fight - and he may well be - but he is really meeting  a new revolution of which he is not even aware.